Amid global issues we rush to contend with, we find ourselves in a crisis of disconnection, productivity and excess. Moments of quiet allow us to come undone. Pause promotes reflection, self-awareness and recontextualisation.
Slow down, listen, quiet, silence.
Kerb 32 explores the unsaid, unnoticed, forgotten, silent and marginalised undercurrents that flow through our lives and the landscapes we inhabit. We may not know or remember the language to describe them, but they are still there, quietly connecting us.
To support this focus, we have asked our contributors to explore practices and methodologies that voice or listen to what is often unacknowledged. We invited them to contemplate our place as designers and our capacity to create environments grounded in empathy and reciprocity, which acknowledge mutual influence and agency in shaping landscapes across scales.
As we become aware of our own positionality and socio-cultural capabilities, we find ourselves in a crisis of practice – how do we make space in design to acknowledge, support and listen to a diversity of perspectives and epistemologies? We consider what the long unacknowledged and unheard could offer us, not only in the ways we design but also in how we engage with the static, linear and hierarchical overarching systems that have shaped us and that, ultimately, we are beholden to.
How the journal is intended to be read
Contributors have approached ‘Unsaid’ with intentions of listening, opening up discourse, and exploring difference and commonality. As editors, we have framed ‘Unsaid’ through three ways of engaging with the journal: attuning, expanding and commoning. Each verb set up a way of approaching the unsaid. Each is intended to invite the reader to reconsider their unique position and connections while reading, and to contemplate how a piece might be calling on them to connect with or think about a concept. This editorial approach has provoked a process of de-centring ourselves as editors, and we acknowledge that, through curating a journal such as this, things will remain unsaid, intentionally and unintentionally. It is our hope, however, that by addressing this topic the way we have, it may help others give pause to address what is unsaid in their orbit.
Attuning
Attuning is a prologue, a gentle guide leading readers into a contemplative journey. To attune is to use all bodily senses, to ‘soak’ in what is unnoticed. It’s not solely listening; it is about slowing yourself enough to be able to use all your bodily senses to perceive something – a situation, a knowledge, a place. Attuning is a very personal experience and sets up a way of thinking that will take us through the journal. To begin, we quiet down and engage in listening: what does it mean to listen, how do we listen, who are we listening to and what do we
discover through listening? This process helps us feel our positionality and ‘encourages the intellectual mind to relax while the intuitive mind engages’ (Sophie, Dave and Mark, ‘Speaks Mutawintji’, p. 34).
Amer Kanngieser, who opens ‘Attuning’, describes ‘listening as more than hearing; it is an immersive, wholebody experience’ that requires being present and open to the voices and stories that landscapes offer. Through the diverse storytelling of contributors like Pat Lowe, we learn to appreciate the humble termite that plays a crucial ecological role, reminding us of hidden connections within natural systems.
Dr Hannah Hopewell invites us to notice subtle interactions and transformations in landscapes, deepening our awareness of place and presence.
In these times of distraction and rapid change, attuning to the landscape is an act of resistance and reconnection, expressing a decentralised and humble attitude. This section sets the stage for a journey into the unseen, unsaid and unnoticed elements that introduce readers to expanding possibilities in the next chapter.
Expanding
To expand is to uncover and open up and can encompass both personal and collective growth. It emphasises the need to build relationships and interconnections between human to human and human to more-than-human. To reflect this ambition, ‘Expanding’
includes contributions that take the form of conversations and interviews, as to expand is to build on what we know and open ourselves up.
‘Expanding’ uncovers intertwined relationships and hidden narratives – unsaid historical events, cultural traditions, subtle ecological interactions and marginalised voices that shape our environment. Through interviews and companion articles, with some unexpected perspectives and understandings, it invites readers to explore beyond traditional boundaries. Interviews provide firsthand personal perspectives, while companion articles complement and expand these views through background information and theoretical analysis. An interview with Inside Outside Office uncovers the hidden depths and layers of soil and discusses how we can advocate for soil health through our projects. In ‘Toward Planetary Intelligence’,’ Bonnie Lester discusses how AI and other technologies can help us understand complex ecological systems and interactions, complementing and expanding on Bruce Pascoe’s emphasis on the importance and ecological value of Indigenous land management practices. Through engaging with others – human and non-human, through concepts and stories – we open ourselves up to the possibility of change. ‘Expanding’ challenges readers to think critically and empathetically about the impact of our work, fostering a deeper connection to the land and its stories through conversation and shared experiences.
Commoning
‘Commoning’ describes how we approach the unsaid within our communities and in practice. It is about reciprocity and reflection, returning to slower, more empathetic ways of being. ’Commoning’ addresses how ‘Attuning’ and “Expanding’ might lead to the restructuring and reorganising of undercurrents in our lives and in our practices. Where ‘Attuning’ introduces more sensitive ways of perceiving and ‘Expanding’ opens our perspective further through collaboration and conversation with others, ‘Commoning’ sees the possibility for how these shifts in thinking can enact change with and for others, encouraging readers to consider design as a collective endeavour, and envisioning future spaces and practices of inclusivity, diversity and shared responsibility. Jane Jose opens the conversation, exploring interconnections where ‘the unsaid and unseen walk together’, and ‘promises of possibility’ highlight the intertwined systems of human and more-than-human worlds, where shared experiences and ‘a moment of connection’ nurture community and belonging. Bridget Keane explores ‘drifting’ as a concept, where ‘landscape movements, times and materials navigate within dynamic and complex educational landscapes’, parallelling this journal where movement throughout is nonlinear and interconnected. Brave and Curious’s contribution brings the journal to a close by slowing down, listening and valuing the unsaid and unseen. Weaving reflections of silence, connection and collective consciousness, we begin to create a tapestry of expansive and diverse knowledge. These contributions ask: how can we design for inclusivity and shared responsibility? Can we create environments that truly reflect diversity of experiences and perspectives?
Positioning
Our editorial position emerged from a deep yearning for reconnection with our sensorial, relational world, from an urge to consider our emotional needs in our work and, through observance of the tensions, from a desire to pull the threads of our design practices together. Throughout the production of the journal, we explored modalities of care, acknowledged slow, silent perceptions, and celebrated other ways of knowing and behaving. Throughout this process we acknowledged the inherent animacy, aliveness and responsiveness of landscapes within and beyond the discipline of landscape architecture.
This journal closes with an invitation to continue to contemplate and reconsider connections between ourselves and the more-than-human, and to envision a future of design as inclusive, empathetic and imbued with mutual responsibility for our interconnected world.