DesignShift: From Control to Creativity
“We are living in a time of blurred boundaries, broken binaries, and beleaguered borders. A time of Al, coups, climate chaos, cancellation myths, declining trust, and frightening heat. We will have to think within the storm, within the tensions, within the ripples. There's no place to stand; the world is moving, and we must move with it.”
- Bayo Akomolafe
I know I am not alone when I say that 2025 has already felt like an entire year compressed into two months. A relentless stream of new political narratives and policies threaten human rights. AI tools emerge at a dizzying pace, promising efficiency while simultaneously jeopardizing jobs. Layoffs are rampant, grocery prices continue to soar.
Uncertainty feels like the only constant. How do we bring back control?
In the slow study course We Will Dance With Mountains: VUNJA! Bayo Akomolafe says: “We are living in a time of blurred boundaries, broken binaries, and beleaguered borders. A time of Al, coups, climate chaos, cancellation myths, declining trust, and frightening heat. We will have to think within the storm, within the tensions, within the ripples. There's no place to stand; the world is moving, and we must move with it.”
His quote made me realize that if we want to try to navigate a world that feels frightening and uncertain, we have to let go of control and lean into creativity.
DesignShift: From control to creativity
Creativity doesn’t ask you to solve current problems. It invites you to sit with tensions, resist current systems, and dream of better futures. It helps us feel for, with, and through others. Creativity connects. Creativity tells you to: expand your mind. Open your heart. Relate.
Creativity is not orderly. It’s quite messy. We might resist its messiness the same way we resist the messiness of life. But without the twists and turns, the ups and downs, we won’t experience expansion.
Creativity cares.
