CREDITS
I am grateful to have had an advisory committee of esteemed scholars whom I admire both personally and professionally. I am deeply indebted to them for their time, encouragement, guidance, and support. In addition, I was honored to have architect and Islamic studies scholar Dr. Samir Mahmoud examine this research. His work at the intersection of design, aesthetics, and the sacred was highly influential, and I am thankful to have been able to engage with him on these topics.
ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Dr. Jonathan Chapman, Carnegie Mellon University (primary)
Dr. Gideon Kossoff, Carnegie Mellon University (secondary)
Dr. Caner Dagli, College of the Holy Cross (external)
Dr. Oludamini Ogunnaike, University of Virginia (external)
ABSTRACT
The principle of ontological design states that the artifacts we design act back on us, influencing our way of being in the world. However, this principle does not give adequate consideration to the role of worldview as a critical determinant of what and why we choose to design. This research therefore begins to address that gap. Weaving together a number of different disciplinary threads, I explore worldview through the lens of the sacred by juxtaposing the traditional worldview, which centers the sacred in all things, with modernity, which largely diminishes our ability to recognize, let alone protect, the sacred. I investigate the implications of each worldview, analyzing the ways that each manifests vastly different types of worldmaking, worlds, and frames of mind.
Citing philosophers, traditionalist scholars, and decolonial theorists, I present the core beliefs of the traditional worldview and its central relation to the sacred, showing how those beliefs translate to a markedly different form of worldmaking than contemporary design. In traditional worlds, sacredness exists, by design, within a system and at multiple scales. Contemporary design practice, however, is founded on a number of modern principles that removed the sacred and matters of the spirit from our circle of concern. With this desacralized epistemological foundation, design practice tends to violate the sanctity of human and non-human life, prioritizing profit maximization instead. Therefore, I argue, modern design is desacralized and perpetuates the desacralization of our worlds.
Reflecting on worldviews and worldmaking through the lens of the sacred has several implications. Firstly, this work sparks reflection on and a reevaluation of our current conceptions of design. Honoring the inviolability of sacrality would radically alter the constraints within which we design, because it places limits on what we are willing to destroy, abandon, or sacrifice in order to achieve our ends. In addition, it brings to attention the imperative to reintroduce the needs of the human spirit—which had otherwise long been neglected—as a focus of design. In contrasting two radically different forms of sense-making, this work shows that the sacred-centeredness of tradition is the antipode, and therefore potential antidote, to modern paradigms that have resulted in disordered, dysfunctional, and anti-sacred worlds. By highlighting the deep wisdom of traditional forms of worldmaking around the world, this dissertation also challenges prevailing hierarchies that marginalize and dismiss other worldviews, making space for alternative approaches to flourish. Finally, but most significantly, this research demonstrates the ways that worldview critically influences the types of worlds we choose and are able to design. From this, it becomes clear that it is not sufficient to articulate a future vision for our world, but that we must also formulate a collective worldview that will enable us to realize and sustain that imagined future.
WRITING SAMPLE
An excerpt of my dissertation. Page layout and formatting also done by me.
