a solution that fits into the ecology

In this wonderfully optimistic interview, Designer Bruce Mau talks about the failures of approaching problems and solutions as singular tasks. The movement equivalent of this way of thinking is to strengthen a weak shoulder or to stretch a tight one. This may lead to temporary change, but it doesn’t change how the shoulder functions.

Over time, Mau and his team have begun to "think about the ecosystem.” Now, they see a design problem “as an ecology. And how to design a solution that fits into the ecology, which is a fundamentally different way of working.”

The Feldenkrais Method is also a process that is a fundamentally different way of working. It considers the body and its movements as an ecosystem. Strengthening or loosening a problem shoulder may be one step toward feeling better, but to truly improve, the shoulder needs to learn to communicate with the head and spine, the ribs and pelvis. In other words, it needs to learn to function within the whole. It may sound overwhelming, but the body is an integrated unit and working with it as such is a lot easier than the discomfort and injury that results when we keep the body as a collection of separate, isolated parts.

Which part of you feels the most disconnected to the rest of your body? What do you think would change if it could learn to become more connected to the whole?