Being awake to Ma: designing in between-ness as a way of becoming with

Abstract

Co-designing is an activity based on emergence where constituents are mutually changing towards purposeful outcomes. Here, I draw on the Japanese philosophy of Ma as ‘between-ness’ to explore how we are transforming and becoming together among this heterogeneity. Yet, if emergence of potentiality is hard to articulate, it is even harder to understand. As we design, we are embedded within and inscripted by conditions that we cannot quite touch or see visibly, yet manifests through its evolution. Awakening to this in-between presence is a necessary start because co-designing is performed and emerges from relational sensitivity. Here, I entangle Ma with actor-network theory (ANT) to orient our senses towards that which have yet assembled or actioned. Latour describes these as empty spaces of a network, void and ‘plasma’ that also has agency. If ANT primarily helps us see the flow of actions among being and non-beings, Ma as between-ness can re-situate us in emergence and contingency. Seen this way, co-designing can be ways to bring others along on this journey of uncertainty in a pursuit to create ‘empty’ in-betweens within and among ourselves as we mutually become together through inter-relatedness.

Keywords:

• between-ness
• Japanese philosophy
• Ma
• co-designing
• ANT
• becoming with

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. This derives from Lao Tzu (translation by Kimura 2004): ‘Thirty spokes share a hub; The usefulness of the cart lies in the space where there is nothing. Clay is kneaded into a vessel; The usefulness of the vessel lies in the space where there is nothing. A room is created by cutting out doors and windows; The usefulness of the room lies in the space where there is nothing’. While the material contains utility, the immaterial contains essence. As eluded to in the paper, Taoism has influenced Ma philosophy.

2. Ma resonates with contemporary feminist theory and French philosophy (e.g. Haraway, Barad, Deleuze, and Merleau-Ponty), but there is little room to elaborate this here. It is important to note that Ma did not develop as an intellectual critique of Cartesian paradigms, and in fact, predates it, having roots in Chinese and Japanese ancient philosophy of non-dualism and nothingness, developed through their arts, language and spirituality. I footnote this to ensure Ma is not subsumed under Western theory that dominates design.

3. The paper (Akama et al. 2012) was presented at a Disaster and Resilience conference to a non-design audience, and has inadvertently accentuated and simplified the role of design.