Breathful’ design in breathless times

Abstract

This position paper seeks to address the operational logic that created the conditions for thepandemic to take hold. Grasping the crisis as an opportunity for an anthropological inquiryacross disciplines, this exploration firmly anchors design inside the social commitmentrequired by breathing bodies and life-enabling atmospheres. By infusing the self-understanding of design with experiences and conceptions from Eastern and Western‘breathwork’ practices the adaptation strategy in uncertainty shifts from perpetuating thestatus quo towards the creative reinterpretation of internal priorities. It also changes thenature of our projects, from making to enacting, from preprogrammed solutions to earthlyengagement, from interfacing with inert matter to caring for living matters. Taking ouruniversally shared breath as the resounding call for action, ‘breathful’ design is about thenever-finished, perpetually opening task of persisting through bodily vigilance, diligence, andself-critical forsight for ‘knowing what to do when no one knows what to do'.