perspectives, structures, or systems by which the world is viewed and interacted with, cultures, ways of seeing
multiplicity, an emergence of many, growth, messiness, diversity, cohabitation
A forest is a place where things grow. It’s a place where things cohabitate, collaborate, and co-nurture. It is also a place where things die. Death of ideas, letting go, relinquishing control and attachment, rebirth. In the cycle of life, death is both an end and a beginning.
This forest consists of lenses and perspectives, many frames that exist on their own and also in relation to one another. The liminal Existing and meandering in translational spaces, in between borders, and in hallways pushes us to reject silos. The ambiguity of transitional moments allows us to step back and question what exists in order to imagine new cultures and systems. spaces between the frames are the porous boundaries where cultural, emotional, habitual, and environmental relationships exchange.
And there’s our lens. As women Yasaman is an Interface Designer and Researcher focused on sensing and ecology. Paula is an Interface Designer and Technologist focused on the intersection of learning, creativity, and craft. who design interfaces, we are constantly framing The Redaction font is used on this site. The Redaction project seeks to highlight the abuses in the criminal justice system, in particular the way poor and marginalized people are imprisoned for failure to pay court fines and fees. In our usage, we are highlighting "the role and responsibility of the author of text to be conscious of legibility as a signature of power."⋒ in our work. We are, as all humans, subjective in this framing, and inevitably our perspectives are shaped by what we’ve experienced. For so long, we have been given one frame to exist within, one that we cannot fully identify with, and we are tired of this. Instead, we choose to walk amidst this forest Paula & Yasaman started AFOF in Summer 2020 with the vision of creating a welcoming space for womxn & poc to explore, learn and make. of multiple frames.
We’re not out here to “garden,” which implies a mastery or control of the forest. We’re not here to “collect,” which implies a sense of ownership or objectification of the life within the frames. This forest is messy When we iterate, we work on not just ideas but also ourselves. We grow through our shared experiences. and imperfect --- as are we.
The forest grows slow. It takes time. The many temporalities of thinking, making and being create a multifaceted present. We are ok with fast. We are ok with slow. We work together to collectively speed up and slow down, as a synchronous flock or constellation of rhythms. And we’re not the only ones in it. In our frames we reference others, and those others reference even others. The forest is informed by histories, its surrounding communities, and environs. The forest is made up of many.
The forest teaches us as we meander through it, and as we change and adapt, it changes and adapts. Frames can germinate, grow and die. Frames can live in tension Tension is the spark that illuminates the struggle towards collective freedom given the individuality of each of our experiences. We embrace our differences and seek to understand them. Rather than equating tension with hostility, we view tension as the foundation of diversity of thought to support multiplicities of thinking with respect and dignity. with one another. Different frames can take up the same space. We question, frame, and reframe, and serendipitous paths emerge.