Tue Jun 6 2023
Today’s discussion formed around the idea of Protocol Fiction brought up by Shan, which defines the rituals, attitudes, and culture that emerges from the use of the protocol. This can be likened to Policy Proposals or etiquette in friend groups. Our design frameworks can be thought to follow similarly, in that the behaviours we design for are encoded as preference in the ritual system.
Design can be thought of as a way to make what’s in our minds, legible to the world (Rebecca Mqamelo). We discussed Pattern Languages, how we might codify friendship rituals to form a toolkit for new interaction patterns. Chris Tan added how Tribal Knowledge made use of best practices from the people around you.
From there we spoke about how designing encodes a preference by making some behaviours easier to do over others. In this way the medium comes to define behaviour.
Rebecca talked about Designing Legible Rituals, the role of placemaking + architecture in designing psychological containers, and how a 6 month sabbatical provided the space to think deeply about process. Notion docs, logging visions, and drafting shared space helped to solidify rituals for future reference. “Design is to figure out what my mind looks like”
“We have protocols to be alone, and protocols to come together” (Vivek)
Aliya shares research on Stigmergic Markers, an area of study that covers collective sensemaking, open source attention, digital artifacts of human attention, and reducing epistemic pollution.
Lastly, Shan brings up designing tools for sacred space, as opposed to the invasive and addictive tools used in biohacking or toxic self-help. Tools that help us empower agency to understand ourselves in the moment. Tools that use peer to peer engagement.
For the next session, we will come together for a 5min intro, a 20min exercise, and a 35min discussion.
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