This is Reality: a Thesis on Work, and Living Beautifully.
Master's of Architecture Thesis, 2022-2023
"The ultimate, hidden truth of the world is that it is something that we make, and could just as easily make differently" - David Graeber
I don't dream of working all day, every day, for the rest of my life - do you? We are headed toward social and ecological catastrophe because of this fact. And yet, the the canned response to this question of work in the 21st Century is always something like: "that's just reality!" Is it? Does it have to be? What if we've got it all wrong?
When I survey the soil beneath my feet, the birds that fly above my head - when I ponder history and beauty and chance and art very little of it seems like the grand production toward a life spent behind a desk. The fact of the matter is the reality we live in, and the Reality that exists are often woefully divorced. As Architects, we've created an un-reality in which our lives are spent in air-conditioned boxes, serving to make more air conditioned boxes as the planet spins toward oblivion.
Reality is working with what already works. Take a look. Have we designed the pine or maple trees to convert carbon into breathable air? Or mycelium to break down toxins and share resources through their vast networks? Of course not. Yet we live because of them.
The point is not to not work, the point is not to work in vain.
Consider this a plea: come back to Reality.
