Foundational Inquiry
(5.27.26)
(5.27.26)
From our perspective, the problem does not come from scarcity but from abundance or, more accurately, the illusion of abundance, which is something new for humanity and something we are inexperienced with. The question we should ask is not how we deal with scarcity, but how we deal with abundance.
(David Barragán, Pascual Gangotena, Maríaluisa Borja, and Esteban Benavides for Field Notes on Scarcity.)
We are living in an age of unprecedented physical and digital abundance. The responsibility to address this abundance, and largely change the sensibilities of the public, is falling on a generation of designers with unprecedented accessibility to information. In an era of compounding social and ecological precarity, what is the best way to organize and manage this accumulated physical and digital information? How can we consider the repository and a future for how we store and engage with accumulation, sensitive to the rate and quantity in which people are consuming it?
I have been exploring these ideas since the Spring of 2024 when I started a blog called mikebrain.xyz to explore DIY practices, reuse, design, and architecture. In October of 2024, I began my senior thesis, a research project entitled Peer Labs. A workshop and installation series, the project was centered around the idea that one of the ways to engage with accumulated knowledge was to consider ways in which knowledge itself is exchanged.
The first Peer Lab was an art installation titled ‘Localized'.
‘Localized’ was originally inspired by the 2017 symposium 'Curating after the Global,’ by the Center for Curatorial Studies (CCS Bard) and the LUMA Foundation. The symposium creators asked: In a “globalized art world, in which specific discourses, commodities, and individuals seemingly circulate endlessly…what does it mean to be global, or to be local?” (Paul O’Neill, Simon Sheikh, Lucy Steeds, Mick Wilson). While this symposium focused on the globalized art world, the ideas extend beyond this context.
‘Localized’ was originally inspired by the 2017 symposium 'Curating after the Global,’ by the Center for Curatorial Studies (CCS Bard) and the LUMA Foundation. The symposium creators asked: In a “globalized art world, in which specific discourses, commodities, and individuals seemingly circulate endlessly…what does it mean to be global, or to be local?” (Paul O’Neill, Simon Sheikh, Lucy Steeds, Mick Wilson). While this symposium focused on the globalized art world, the ideas extend beyond this context.
White sheets of paper were put up all over the walls of the living room of my apartment. Participants were invited to engage with the canvas in whatever way they saw fit, however they were given a prompt to frame their exploration. It read: “I love the internet but it is too much to handle sometimes. The sudden and endless amount of great ideas is overwhelming. This is an opportunity to slow down and experience great ideas in a physical context. It is also an opportunity to highlight the importance of community and local networks in the process of creating great ideas.”
What followed ‘Localized’ was a series of two mending workshops, two symposiums, (one on keeping a notebook or sketchbook, and the other on wicked problem solving) and finally ‘STOREFRONT,’ a t-shirt pop-up store which activated a derelict garage in the back of a student apartment.
What followed ‘Localized’ was a series of two mending workshops, two symposiums, (one on keeping a notebook or sketchbook, and the other on wicked problem solving) and finally ‘STOREFRONT,’ a t-shirt pop-up store which activated a derelict garage in the back of a student apartment.
Reflecting on Peer Labs over a year later, the project granted insight into two things: first, an alternative to exchanging accumulated knowledge not centralized around an algorithm, formal instructor, or ai model; and second the benefits of peer-to-peer exchange and local networks on skill enhancement and emotional wellbeing.
The problem of abundance isn’t going away. What Peer Labs suggests is that the response doesn’t have to be institutional or algorithmic. It can be local, slow, and made between people. That instinct is worth following.
This post is a starting point. The questions discussed, around repositories, accumulation, peer exchange, and abundance are central themes this blog will keep returning to. Consider this an open invitation to think alongside.
The problem of abundance isn’t going away. What Peer Labs suggests is that the response doesn’t have to be institutional or algorithmic. It can be local, slow, and made between people. That instinct is worth following.
This post is a starting point. The questions discussed, around repositories, accumulation, peer exchange, and abundance are central themes this blog will keep returning to. Consider this an open invitation to think alongside.
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