Design & the Displacement of Intimacy
by Daniel Marcus & Oliver Vodeb
from Radical Intimacies: Designing Non-Extractive Relationalities, by Oliver Vodeb (2023)
In a social environment that substitutes addiction for senses and relations of intimacy, we must re-establish a practice of proximity, of sharing, of closeness, and of rituals. .. When we are together, we can be in dialogue, working against the rampant anti-dialogism in society. .. By rediscovering the joy of personal connection, we can provide alternatives to the depersonalized relations to which addictive capitalism reduces us. (p. 143)
.. Turning away from extractive attention, radical intimacy is based on trust. Radical intimacy generates trust and a possibility of a continuity of our engagement with each other and the world in ways that sustain us and each other in rituals of commonality. .. Events that help us establish our relationships with each other, with our material surroundings, and the processes that link us to the world. (p. 143)