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CREATING MENTAL AGILITY

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Susannah Dickinson
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CREATING MENTAL AGILITY

Susannah Dickinson

Today there seems to be a general consensus about

the need to think and act dynamically regarding the
design of the built environment. Thinking dynamical-
ly is not a new concept. Karl Mannheim in his 1936
Ideology and Utopia stated that:

It has become extremely questionable

whether, in the flux of life, it is a genuinely
worthwhile intellectual problem to seek to
discover fixed and immutable ideas and ab-
solutes. It is a more worthy intellectual task
perhaps to learn to think dynamically and re-
lationally rather than statically.2

So why in most academic institutions have our ped-

agogical models remained so static for the last cen-
tury? Is it that most academics are dinosaurs that
have not kept up with changing times? Do we fear
change, seeing this as antithetical to the safety net
1 Above of tenure? (This is terribly ironic when change is the
Big Data (Defense Advanced Research Projects only constant in life). Or is it that many of our public
Agency, DARPA, 2013).
institutions—including our professional accredita-
tion boards—have become bureaucratic, adminis-
2 Mannheim, Karl. 1936. Ideology and Utopia:
An Introduction to the Sociology of Knowledge.
trative nightmares with so many rules and regula-
London: Routledge. 77. tions that change is often a painful, time-consuming
uphill battle? Obviously to remain dynamic and agile
we as individuals, networks and institutions need to
remain flexible and capable of change.

So how dynamic do we need to be in order to de-

sign and think more creatively? Is it about becom-
ing a wandering, peripatetic scholar like those in
Ancient Greece or today would the equivalent just
mean a huge ecological footprint from flying around
the globe too much? With increased technologies
one has the ability to educate and network with-
out actually physically going anywhere and in ways
that would have seemed unthinkable decades ago.
The current rise of massive open online courses

192
(MOOCs) is a phenomenon that will surely increase each year. There is always going
to be the argument of the real versus the virtual, but advances in various disruptive
technologies like cloud computing and mobile internet are forcing this trajectory daily.

While physical agility/adaptability will become even more indispensable with global
climate change, staying mentally agile or creating mental agility is an imperative: not
letting the baggage of life weigh one down. In pressing economic times like the pres-
ent, there is often the tendency to think in a more short-term, survivalist mode rather
than having the luxury to make more intelligent, sustainable choices. Virginia Woolf, in
her classic book of 1929, A Room of One’s Own, comments on why there were such
few creative female role models in the past. She surmises that this relates in large part
to their inability to inherit money, which led to a lack of independence, focus, time and
power. So how do we make the time and have the financial freedom to stay mentally
agile and creative? Can we have more economic equality without removing the incen-
tive to succeed? It is important to re-evaluate culturally and on a personal level what
we are valuing economically.

One of the more optimistic consequences of the digital age is the ability of individuals
to connect, network and share information in a more grass-roots, bottom-up fash-
ion than has been previously possible—a new common, global language. Universality
hopefully went out with the Modern Movement, but having the ability to communicate
and network with others on the same planet has the potential for increasing informa-
tion (and power) to those who are oppressed. On the flip side the alternative scenario
is a totalitarian regime which controls the big data and information of individuals.1 Most
of our designed environments, institutions and pedagogical models have, in the past,
emphasized the traditional hierarchical top-down approach too much. The philosopher
Jean Baudrillard has written that today we live in the ultimate era of domination and
hegemony, where we are all networked and the duality of the dominant/dominated is 3 Baudrillard, Jean. 2010. The Agony of Power. Los
gone in the conventional sense3 (that is, just because nowadays we are more connect- Angeles: Semiotext(e). 33.
ed, this does not guarantee moral progress as a civilized society). Baudrillard states
that:

Power itself must be abolished—and not solely in the refusal to be dominated,

which is at the heart of all traditional struggles—but also, just as violently, in the
refusal to dominate (if the refusal to dominate had the same violence and the
same energy as the refusal to be dominated, the dream of revolution would have 4 Baudrillard. Agony of Power. 47-8.
disappeared long ago). Intelligence cannot, can never be in power because intel-
ligence consists of this double refusal.4

193 UNCONVENTIONAL COMPUTING

 If everyone stopped dominating or trying to control other people, places and things,
then surely we would achieve a more ecological balance in the world. We need to start
functioning on a level of mutual respect and ethics rather than dominance and greed,
realizing that if we are to move forward en masse we need to be less concerned about
personally getting ahead in a traditional sense. We need to start understanding that
in this time of rapid change we cannot or should no longer plan for permanence or
predictability. Rather, we need to plan for more adaptability.

What will these more dynamic pedagogical models look like? Hopefully, as one who is
aging, there is some sense of wisdom that can be passed on to the younger genera-
tion, but maybe in a more hybridized, balanced form of cooperation and collaboration
rather than dominance and control. Collaboration, in a pragmatic sense, can help to
share the workload, but can also mean a more diverse set of perspectives, insights
and knowledge from people with different backgrounds and expertise. We need to
break down the academic silos that many of our institutions have created. The chal-
lenge is to look at issues more holistically. Aldo Leopold—a major influence on the en-
vironmental movement—stated his concern over increased academic specialization
in the middle of the last century:

There are men charged with the duty of examining the construction of plants,
animals and soils which are the instruments of the great orchestra. These men
5 Leopold, Aldo. 1949. A Sand County Alma-
are called professors. Each selects one instrument and spends his life taking it
nac and Sketches Here and There. New
York: Oxford University Press. 153. apart and describing its strings and sounding boards. This process of dismem-
berment is called research. The place for dismemberment is called a university.5

A proposed future culture of collaboration across boundaries and focus on lon-

ger-term goals will create a renewed research culture, different from those that exist
in most architectural institutions today. Ideas and research should be more interlinked
with design rather than being a separate precursor, after-thought or financial pressure.
In fact, defining the problems and questions is often more important than developing
SUSANNAH DICKINSON is an architect solutions. Just because one is networking or collaborating in new ways using the
and Assistant Professor at the Univer- latest data or technology does not guarantee success—our whole design process
sity of Arizona. Her work explores the and work flows need to be readdressed. Today many professional architects complain
relationship that computational design about the lack of power that the profession has, but many act more like harlots, doing
and fabrication processes can have in whatever their rich clients tell them to do. We need to start expanding our profession-
the development of more ecologically al scope, realizing that everything is inter-connected and has effects on others and
responsive environments. This stems the environment. We can no longer sit on the sidelines as if our actions did not affect
from a background in digital process- society and the environment as a whole.
es, parametric modeling, BIM, and dig-
ital fabrication, largely gained through Currently we have the potential of incorporating large quantities of data and informa-
years of professional experience in the tion into our work, but how we make decisions about their filtering and use is crucial.
offices of Frank O. Gehry, Los Angeles This may suggest a break from our most current models of practice. Educational in-
and SHoP Architects, New York. This stitutions need to re-invent themselves as places of research, ideas and critical think-
technological background is coupled ing—attracting the brightest minds rather than being a necessary step up some tradi-
with a belief that it is our responsibility tional, known corporate ladder. They need to be places where diversity is celebrated
as architects to be concerned with the against the antithesis of a banal globalization, where some sense of value and ethics
entire built and natural environment. is part of the equation. Changing our apparent trajectory may not happen overnight,
but it is imperative that we at least begin to move in a new, awakened direction.

SUSANNAH DICKINSON 194

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