The OWL Circles workshop, Sydney, Australia.
“How will you go about finding that thing the nature of which is totally unknown to you?”
Meno, from Plato’s dialogue (in Solnit, R. 2005)
AN OWL thinking-through-making circle is a structured gathering in which participants examine, through the making process, a relationship their body has to desire. Where do desires live in our bodies? How might our desires be supported by yet-to-be imagined technologies? How might such technologies be conceived of and developed – sufficiently that they may be evaluated – if we do not yet know what they are?
an OWL circle, and two outcomes, at the Interactivation Lab, UTS, Sydney, 2010
an OWL circle, and two outcomes, at the Interactivation Lab, UTS, Sydney, 2010
OWL circles are 2 hours long, during which time you are supported to create a personal exploratory device. The device is not designed in any traditional sense, rather it emerges from an open making process that combines art and design ideation techniques with scientific curiosity and retrospective ethnographic evaluation. You will create, present and document your outcomes during the circle. We bring tools and materials for making. We ask you to bring your imagination and desires.
thinking-through-making. GM Ten Gallery, Azabujuban, Tokyo.
ma’a • curiosity • revenge • home
The OWL circle is part of a larger project that is predicated on Arthur C. Clarke’s third rule of technology prediction, that “any sufficiently advance technology is indistinguishable from magic”. It began with a series of exploratory body-props that were used to examine emergent body-technology desires in participants from a range of socio-cultural backgrounds […]. From this work the OWL circle naturally emerged. Four circles have been undertaken to date, two in Tokyo, one in Sydney and one in Istanbul.
masticatory amplifier for food enthusiasts • vest for accepting things that happen to you • speech and movement impeder to help you become a bird
