What can we do with Infrastructures of Mystery?
Following the previous workshop we came up with this preliminary list. To see whether our initial list resonated with people and to uncover whether we were missing certain actions, we asked our workshops' participants to add and elaborate where needed.
Appropriating: starting to use something with an intention towards mystery
Reframing: pushing a different conceptualisation and contextualisation for an existing thing to steer it towards a mystery interpretation
Juxtaposing: placing something in a contrast. The contrast being a source of the mystery experience.
Preserving and maintaining: allowing something to stay, remain or keep existing so that it can become an infrastructure of mystery or remain one.
Dismantling and replacing: tearing something apart, by a little bit or a lot, and possibly substituting parts with something else to eventually change the make-up of something with an intention towards mystery
Making inaccessible: taking opportunities for knowing or engaging with something away. The lack of knowledge and familiarity being a source of the mystery experience.
Extending or modifying: altering the fabric of an existing thing with an intention towards mystery
A first reflection is that our proposed model should make the departure point for the actions explicit. Multiple participants referred to a certain ground zero of action with words like 'being' (2x) and 'breathing'. Although it sounds like these could be part of Preserving and Maintaining, that category is truly actionable while being is not. This is the base layer of our model: letting the world and things be as is.
'Leaving alone', 'Allowing (space)', 'Silence, not acting' and 'Neglecting' at first glance seem to be part of that same ground zero, but really they highlight the need for an additional category. All of these words actually require an active effort. They ask us to reject urges to restrict or engage. The new category that emerges from this cluster of words is 'Neglecting'. This is different from 'Making inaccessible' in that it does not necessarily seek to exclude or give boundaries to.
Most of the remaining verbs fit in with existing categories. It substantiates our model with ways of taking action or looking at our actions.
What remains is a few uncategorisables which do have a place elsewhere in the understanding of this model. 'Interacting', 'Becoming' and 'Keeping them mysterious' address the foundation of every action in this framework. They all ask us to engage with something to keep things mysterious or make them become mysterious.
The other cluster, which includes trespassing and listening, points at the question in this exercise 'What do we do with infrastructures of mystery', allowing for another interpretation as well. One that looks at what we do or how we are within an infrastructure of mystery to access the mystery ourselves, instead of how we can facilitate the access for many people. Trespassing is, for example, something we can do in/with an inaccessible IoM.
