MANIFESTO OF CULTURE AND VIBRATION

Use culture to make culture.
Cultures are inherently self-replicating. They are all-powerful because we as humans love nothing more than the things we have created. Our job as designers is to harness the raw potentiality of existing cultures for use in the creation of new ones. Collecting, curating, mashing-up, outright stealing; these are activities that drive the creation of any new culture.

Digital is not a replacement for analog.  
Between a zero and a one are an almost infinite number of values that the digital world does not possess and can only hope to re-create. Forms that can be presented as mathematics or computer code are an expression of human-made beauty, and their importance should not be downplayed. But they must exist alongside a more physical kind of expression that only bodies in space can express to one another; through inflection, subtlety, movement, and gesture.

Be romantic.
Our desires are shaped by our memories. Identify this power, harness it; it is romance. Without it, people will move towards your ideas grudgingly at best.

A person is never finished.
We are increasingly homogenized by globalization and the size of our addressable audience via technology. There is a need to re-enforce individuality of identity experience and emphasize that personal and cultural identity is not fixed but ever-changing. The opportunity exists to write and rewrite your own lineages and cultural influences as they bring meaning, value, and beauty to your life.

Context is almost everything.
As the Machine Project’s Mark Allen once said, “lots of context is better than no context.” Play with the noisiness of the world. Harness it or cut through it with a clear signal. Ignore it at your own peril.

Expectations are the rest.
People love to hear the same old story told in a new way. In which direction is the momentum of your audience’s expectations?

mp
9 October 2014