Experience Value: Prelude

Experience Value is a theory-in-progress that I've been developing for a little over a year now. It indicates that there is an intellectual, sensational and emotional wealth to be yielded from taking risks and by subverting preventative and protective systems through exposures.

This exploration embraces the creative processes used at the Design Department of Goldsmith College, University of London (where I graduated in 2008), and emphasises participatory design.

How It Began: Protections, Preventions and Interventions

The Context of the Research

This research process has led me far beyond my comfort zones. It took me on a quest for experience and challenged my cautious attitudes. Through it, I’ve tried to redefine my behaviour and ultimately, who I am.

I've always been jealous of impulsive people; they have the best stories. However, when I began my project, I wasn't thinking about risk at all, but rather protection - and imbuing objects and contexts with a sense of safety.

Understanding the value of the Protective Aesthetic

Maslows Hierarchy of Needs is a neat (if contentious) summary of the prerequisites for self-actualisation. It demonstrates the importance of security, validating the need to understand how security can be communicated in design and the semantics behind the protective aesthetics. For anyone interested on the subject, I'd highly recommend MoMa's exhibition "Safe: Design Takes on Risk" and the related book.

The Reinforced Flash Drive and The Concrete Pen

Having identified a need for design to feel "secure", I began experimenting with materials and form; recontextualising objects and their psycho-aesthetic.

Soon, however, I became unhappy with the direction my work was heading in. I was beginning to feel that essentially I was just making superficial changes, towards styling and away from designing with tangible benefit. I was struggling to find the "MacGuffin"* ; the driving force behind my exploration.

*(a Hitchcockism, I think Alan Fletcher used it first in a Design context)

I had recently read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and was very interested in the concept of Value. I began to look for the value in protection and the protective aesthetic. I reasoned that through a process of reductio ad absurdum that I could show the value in protection by removing it.

Instead, I stumbled upon the value of experience, through risks and exposures:

Running Blind: Removing protective layers - The Point of Insight

This video marks the turning point in my exploration, and established the foundation of my experiential research. To heighten the element of risk - running blindfolded between trees - I removed a layer of security: my hands were tied behind my back.

The experience was thrilling.

The emotions I felt running blind - the fear mixed with elation; the sensations - of my feet across uneven ground, my lack of balance, the sound of the crowd muffled through my clothing; it was a rush. The longing for security was gone. There was too much to experience.

And I was well on my way to establishing a theory...

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