ATTAIN
REALITIES
UN
FANTASIES
ABLE
Attainable realities,unattainable fantasiesKatarzyna Lukasik
TABLE OF CONTENT
Abstract................................................................................................... 2
Introduction.............................................................................................. 3-6
Chapter 1.Planning on a Social Scale........................................................... 8-23
Chapter 2.Psychology of Future Oriented Thinking................................. 24-27
Chapter 3.Rational Planning......................................................................... 283.1: Making Silly Putty: Plan........................................................ 28-313.2: Scenario Planning as a Method to Make Silly Putty............ 323.3: Planned Day and Unplanned Day......................................... 33-353.4: Productivity and Efficiency in the Planned Day................... 36-373.5: Self-control and Ego-depletion............................................ 38-40
Chapter 4: Planning in Social Interactions.................................................... 424.1: Scripted Conversations........................................................ 43-47
Chapter 5:Unattainable Fantasies................................................................ 48-49Materializing Fantasies................................................................ 50-56
Conclusion................................................................................................ 58-60
Bibliography.............................................................................................. 62-68
List Of Illustrations................................................................................... 69-70
This context report explores the phenomenon
of planning from different angles. The report
examines how various types of planning were
or are used in social, economic and urban structures of
society, such as dealing with possible hazards, creating
economical models and urban planning. The report,
also explains the psychological processes and methods
behind the action of planning, which could be described
in other words as projecting ourselves into the future by
applying our past experiences to consider possible future
outcomes.
In using the design process as a tool of investigation,
I aim to dissect my own inclination towards planning
and define the purpose it has in my life. Through
psychological experiments and observations, I explore a
rational approach to planning, as well as planning in social
scenarios. Looking at planning in a bigger social spectrum,
together with a smaller personal scale, I endeavour to
gain a deeper understanding as to what extent planning
impacts the society and my personal life in both positive
and negative ways. Additionally, I aim to investigate the
difference between the master plan, the execution of
it and the reality of the outcome. Finally, I will attempt
to investigate the area of unattainable fantasies as an
extension of planning, where design acts as a mechanism
of tangible visualisation and materialization.
3
This context report aims to present the
importance of planning in our society,
as well as introduce my personal
relation with the act of planning.
‘Thinking about the future’ and planning ‘is one of
the many human cognitive abilities that distinguish
us from other species.’(1) We tend to use this
ability within our everyday life on different scales,
from the socio-economic, to urban planning or on a
more personal scale, for instance planning our daily
activities or future holidays. Moreover, the ability to
plan in various dimensions hugely influences both
development and stagnation on a social scale, as
well as in one’s life. Despite the fact that planning
helps us prevent an unwanted future, in its core, it
is a mechanism we use to deal with the impossibility
of envisaging the future. It is beyond the bounds of
possibility to fully know, understand or even control
the time to come. The future has not yet happened,
thus we desperately try to uncover and forecast
the achievable future sequences of events, whereas
Albert Einstein said: “I never think of the future.
It comes soon enough”.(2) Nevertheless, the fear
from the unknown impacts us so far that, we create
economical models to try to predict the progress
of the economy. We follow the weather podcasts
in order to know what we are going to wear in the
next few days. We insure our homes, cars, laptops
and even lives to protect ourselves from possible
hazards, even though such plans do not have any
control over future events. Thus, we
4 5
+ 56%
£ 1.450,00
+17%
£ 8,000
-15%
£ 1.225,00
+ 47%
£ 1.300,00
deceive ourselves by creating a fake impression that
we have tackled the irrational task of predicting
and controlling the future. Therefore we as users,
are situated in a system that acts as an attempt to
accomplish our initial plan and create the future we
wished for, nevertheless, the difference between the
planned and the reality always occurs within the act
of planning. Through both this report and my studio
practice I seek to investigate how far planning can be
a factor for progress to happen, as well as influence
our behaviour when undesirable outcomes take
place.
“Design is not a discipline but a PROCESS which
humans use to materialize thought”(3), thus design
within my practice does not act as a solution to
create and execute the perfect plan. I endeavour to
use design as a tool to both understand and illustrate
my own inclination towards planning. In addition, by
looking at the phenomenon of planning I attempt
to understand the difference between the plan and
the reality, giving an example of how throughout
history plans have succeeded yet failed in their
purpose. Rather than draw out a critical statement
on the correct ways of planning, my report examines
planning from a social spectrum as well as through
presenting my own experiments.
6 7
Figure 1: Redevelopm
ent of Norrm
lan
In my context report I will explore planning
on a social scale, presenting planning as a tool of
anticipation for possible hazards. I will discuss an
attempt of controlling the economical progress by
designing economical models, as well as presenting
failure and success in urban planning. I will further
discuss my rational approach to planning, by
presenting my investigations and experiments, that
attempt to create different alternatives to a master
plan in order to diminish elements of surprise. In
addition, I will illustrate how far planning impacts
my life and well being. I will also examine planning in
social interactions. Finally, I will proceed to describe
planning in the context of unattainable fantasies.
8 9
This chapter discusses planning on
the social scale, in different areas of
anticipation of possible hazards, such as
Risk theory and prevention of potential pandemic,
creating economical models as well as urban
planning. Using these examples I aim to show how
far planning can have both a positive and negative
impact on our society. Additionally, I will examine
these examples and demonstrate the difference
between the initial plan and the reality of the
outcome.
“Risk is not the same as catastrophe, but the
anticipation of the catastrophe[…]”(4) Ulrich Beck
in his book ‘World at risk’ draws out a picture about
modern society facing numerous risks, such as global
warming, terrorist attacks and economical crises.
In addition, he presents a political use of risk, which
hugely impacts our everyday lives. However, I would
like to focus on one particular interesting issue in
the chapter ‘ Staging Global Risk’; Beck uses several
examples, where anticipation of catastrophe effects
society, thus determining that we do not object to
the enforcement of control on our freedom of living.
He presents an example of an attempted terrorist
attack during the summer of 2006. Even though, the
terrorist attack did not occur, the EU realised a new
law regulation, restricting the transport of liquids on
airplanes.(5) Beck communicates, “The passengers,
in whose minds the terrorist thread has become
lodged, accepted such restrictions on their
liberties without a demur.”(6) This example clearly
shows how our fear of the unknown helps create law
regulations, new systems or even organizations, that
in theory would help us control or perceive future
hazards. We try to tackle non-existing, non-tangible
threat by constructing a concrete system around
these issues. In this specific case, aiming to control
the future negatively influences society; it only gives
us a fake impression that we are prevented from a
thread of the possible terrorist attack.
On the other hand, planning to prevent possible
hazards for welfare can serve a positive purpose.
In 2009, the French government created a national
plan to prevent the spread of the H1N1 virus. Since
April 30th, INPES began an information campaign to
raise a hygiene awareness on the transmission of the
virus, additionally, in July that year, France ordered
94 millions of vaccines against H1N1.(7) However,
the information campaign was so well executed that
the spread of the virus was initially estimated to be
extremely low. The miscalculation cost the French
government 400 million euros,(8) “ France bought
94 million doses- almost one and a half for every
member of the population- but so far only five million
people are recorded as having been vaccinated since
the programme was launched.”(9) This example
shows that even though the state lost money,
the precautions taken resulted in a successful
anticipation of the possible risk. The safety measures
taken by the government had a very high possibility
10 11
of saving thousands of lives.
In the same way as the state attempts to
anticipate possible hazards, economists try to create
economical models to serve a similar purpose of
preventing an economical crisis happening. The
economy at its basics relies on different business
interactions driven by human nature, which
create three main forces that drive the economy:
productivity growth, short term debt cycle, long
term debt cycle.(10) To understand the complex net
of business transaction and in order to forecast its
progress, the economists design various models. One
of the models uses the laws of Ceteris Paribus, which
is Latin for “all other things being equal”.(11) In other
words, the model isolates the effect of one particular
variable on the rest of the economy. For instance, if
the economist uses the laws of Ceteris Paribus and
would like to predict the amount of the ice-cream
one could sell, while respecting the increasing and
decreasing price, it would require to hold other
factors constant.(12) Therefore, this economical
model simplifies a complicated net of business
exchange. Although, it seems reasonable to do so,
predicting every single change in the economy is in
fact nearly impossible, and is often unsuccessful. As,
“Similarly, a market participant […] might become so
dominant in certain markets that the ceteris paribus
assumption becomes unrealistic.”(13) In addition, the
economy is such an unforeseeable mechanism, that
simplifying its development while considering
different factors stable, is ultimately implausible.
Thus, “The implicit view behind standard models is
that markets and economies are inherently stable
and that they only temporarily get off track.”(14)
Even though models are created to aid progress
as well as predict failure in some areas of economy,
they often tend to be impractical. In the following
example, the difference between the plan,
prediction and the unwanted reality is clearly visible.
Throughout the 20th century we suffered numerous
economic crises, “[…] economic crises as old as the
markets themselves”(15), we kept continuing to
try to forecast the next one. Thus in 2008 we faced
yet another one when the stock market collapsed,
impacting economy on the global scale. In this
particular case, inventing models is not as negative
as blindly believing in one. The models themselves
might help us forecast the future, yet we should
remember that they are not an ultimate solution.
12 13
Figure 2: Rene B
urri, Brasilia, 1960
Creating models is not only used as tool within
economy, but in urban planning as well. I will discuss
how far it aids the success of an architectural project
to happen, as well as when it fails.
The architects of modernism strongly believed
that they could reform people through architecture
and that rational design could make rational
societies.(16) Holston states, “Rather its design and
construction were intended as a means to create
it by transforming Brazilian society”.(17) Despite
that, the realisation of the dream became a disaster.
Frank Withford wrote that: “’Modern’ architecture,
according to some has let society down, and the
arrogance of too many architects who put dogma
above utility and believe they know better than
their clients how their clients should live”.(18) For
instance, Brasilia a city designed by Lucio Costa and
Oscar Niemeyer, and built entirely from the ground-
up following their original plan Pilot Plan (Plano
Piloto) is an example of a failed architectural plan.
Nowadays less than 10% live in the Pilot Plan area,
demonstrating how unsuccessful the architectural
design was.(19)
14 15
Figure 4: Construção de B
rasilia
Figure 3: Oscar N
iemeyer: classic and unpublished
16 17
Figure 5: Pruitt Igoe
Figure 6: Implosion of Pruitt-Igoe in 1972
The most significant indicator of the end of the
modern architecture was the demolition of social
housing blocks, starting by the destruction of the
Pruitt-Igoe estate in St. Louis Missouri, designed by
Minoru Yamasaki.(20) He himself stated: “ It’s a job I
wish I hadn’t done”.(21)
There is an ongoing debate about the reason why
modern architecture has failed, it has its supporters
and opponents, both in architects as well as in
residents of some of the modern buildings. However,
I would like to use this example as another evidence
where meticulous planning has failed to follow
through with its initial goal.
18 19
Figure 7: Com
misionesrs’ Proposla for M
anhattan Grid, 1811
Although, I have mentioned failed architectural
plans, there are also some that have succeeded
and still stand today such as the Manhattan Grid
System. In 1811, the Commissioners (Gouverneur
Morris, Simeon DeWitt, John Rutherford) presented
the first plan, which would enable to transform the
Island of Manhattan into a grid system.(22) Rapid
increase in the city’s population and living conditions
were among one of the reasons why the plan was
implemented, “The protection of public health and
safety, […] reason for proposing that the city develop
a network of board, straight streets.”(23) The
Commissioners Plan intended to apply “a
physical representation of the Cartesian coordinate
system”(24) onto a landscape. However, the plan had
to transform Manhattan’s landscape dramatically,
Reuben Skye Rose-Redwood in her study states,
“[…] the grid plan sought to convert this diverse
Manhattan landscape into a tabula rasa […]”(25) In
the same respect as previously mentioned Modernist
Architecture, the Manhattan Grid System has as
many enthusiasts as opponents. Rem Koolhass,
expresses, “The Grid’s two-dimensional discipline
also creates […] freedom for three-dimensional
anarchy […] a metropolis of rigid chaos.”(26)
He also criticises its artificiality and states that,
20 21
Figure 9: Manhattan A
rchitecturte, 2005
Figure 8: Old N
ew Y
ork
“Central Park is a synthetic Arcadian Carpet”.(27)
Imposing a physical grid onto a landscape resulted
in changing its natural environment into “one of the
most humanized environments on the face of the
Earth”.(28) After 200 years of its existence it still
remains both “political and economical functionality”.
(29) Sarah Henry the deputy of the Museum of the
City of New York stated, “The grid has shaped this
vibrant city, imposing an order and controlling its
chaos.”(30) The example of the Manhattan Grid
System shows that urban planning can be both
effective and contribute to the development of the
city.
22 23
Figure 10: Plan of the City of N
ew Y
ork, 1807
To conclude, the anticipation of possible hazards
in respect to planning can act as a tool to impose
control over people’s freedom of life. On the other
hand, governmental involvement in preventing
possible problems can result in saving people’s lives.
The state should use planning in an intelligent way as
a mechanism to diminish potential threats in order
to protect society from endangerment. Economical
models attempt to understand future consequences
of economic growth, even though these models are
intelligent and have power to work. Relying on just
one is dangerous because throughout time it might
need to be rethought. The same goes for architects
trying to plan the perfect city, this might result in
controlling but not fulfilling its purpose. Although
urban planning can contribute to the economic and
social growth of the city, it has its price. In all these
examples, it is clear that planning can have both a
positive and negative impact on social structure,
progress of the economy or urban planning. Bearing
in mind that the difference between the original plan
and its purpose are significant in both successful and
failed plans.
24 25
temporal-spatial relations among these events.”(34)
The second one is explained as our knowledge
about the world, “It is a mental thesaurus, organized
knowledge a person possesses about words and
other verbal symbols,[...]”.(35)
It is crucial to distinguish the difference between
‘knowing’ and ‘remembering’, for instance using
semantic memory enables us to know the name of
the restaurant we went to with our friends. On the
other hand, episodic memory allows us to remember
the unpleasant conversation we had with the waiter.
In favor of projecting the self in the future, we use
both of the above mentioned types of memories for
the episodic future thinking to emerge. The semantic
and episodic memory act as an informative method
for us to envision ourselves in different future
scenarios. We use the episodic future thinking as
a tool to imagine a time to come, whether it is for
‘social cognition’ or ‘decision making’.(36)
In this chapter I will discuss psychological studies
about planning and future oriented thinking.
Deliberating about these studies helps me to
understand the ability of human cognition, previously
mentioned in the introduction. Each of us consciously
or unconsciously plan or think about the future. It
is psychologically proven that every human being
who has not had a frontal lobe lesion is capable
of imagining future scenarios.(31) I would like to
briefly describe the mechanisms, which stand behind
self-projection and episodic future thinking, both
responsible for envisioning the future. Although
these psychological studies did not directly inform
my studio practice experiments, I have gained a
better understanding about my behavior and action
of planning when it comes to thinking about the
future.
Self-projection is the ability of ‘shifting
perspectives from the immediate present’, informed
by ‘past memories’ and our ‘present situation’, to
try to predict upcoming scenarios by projecting
ourselves into the future.(32) According to
psychologist Endel Tulving, our memory consists
of two separate structures: episodic and semantic.
The episodic memory differs from the semantic
memory, the first one enables us to remember
personal events or situations from the past as well
as re-experience them.(33) Tulving writes: “ Episodic
memory receives and stores information about
temporally dated episodes or events, and
26 27
Figure 11: Design Process
To conclude, there is a clear evidence that we
have an ability for future orientated thinking and
planning, as it acts as a very useful tool to apply
in our everyday lives. This capacity enables us to
predict or prepare ourselves for possible future
situations or outcomes. Hence, I have gained a better
understanding of the different processes occurring in
my brain, and how they influence my decisions and
planning. I am also looking at my planning behavior
as a way to deal with unknown future scenarios,
rather than thinking of it as an unhealthy obsession.
28 29
MAKING SILLY PUTTY: THE PLAN3.1
In this chapter I will present a personal investigation
which, helped me comprehend to what extent
planning influences my life and overall well being.
It also illustrates the disparity between the expected
result and the reality. I have designed three different
experiments which depict the reasoning behind
planning, where in my personal case the plan serves
as wanting to be more efficient and productive.
I would now like to describe a rational approach to
planning, which reflects upon the activity I undertook
in the material research brief. I chose to make Silly
Putty as a material related to my project because of
that fact that it has a flexible and runny consistency
but once snapped it quickly falls into chunks.
Through this specific phenomenon I found a link
between planning and being ready when something
does not go according to plan. In addition, designing a
way to source all the ingredients I needed to make it
with, resulted in creating a rational plan.
After doing some research I found three different
instructions on how to make Silly Putty, then I listed
all the components and the essential equipment. I
first assumed that purchasing some of the
ingredients might not be easy, and the possibility of
me going to different locations to obtain these was
high. With that in mind, I made different sourcing
plans for each of the recipes. I had one variation
for each of the three plans, yet as I went along I
developed more than one option for some of the
recipes, assuming that the first attempt to source
the ingredient might not work. Additionally, the plan
intended to help me be as efficient as I could. As a
result, I created three different plans (A, B, C,) with
different alternatives to some of them, yet in the end
it took six different attempts to make the Silly Putty.
By listing every single location I needed to go
to, every ingredient I had to buy and every single
piece of equipment I needed to use, I collected a fair
amount of data as physical evidence. I concluded
that unlike planning daily activities, I had designed
different plans for different occurrence in events,
excluding the element surprise and disappointment
when the first plan would not work. I examine this
activity further in the next paragraph.
30 31
( (+( (=3 tbl spoons of
glue2 tbl spoons of
liquid starchSilly Putty
( (+( (=2 tbl spoons of
glue2 tbl spoons of
laundry detergentSilly Putty
( (+ =1 tbl spoons of
glue2 tbl spoons of
BoraxSilly Putty
Tesco
Home
University
Figure 12: Planning for Silly Putty
PLAN_A
PLAN_A_2 PLAN_A_3
University
Tesco
Sainsbury’s
Home
DIY Shop
University
Tesco
Sainsbury’s
Home
University
Tesco
Sainsbury’s
Home
University
Home
University
Tesco
Home
Homebase
PLAN_C_2
PLAN_B PLAN_C
( (
32 33
SENARIO PLANNING AS A METHOD TO MAKE SILLY PUTTY
PLANNED DAY ANDUNPLANNED DAY3.2 3.3
I will now analyze my putty planning activity. I
thought about every single step of the plan: potential
consequences of each action, as well as solutions
if a particular attempt did not succeed. Therefore
I define my method as ‘Scenario Planning’. Paul
J.H.Schoemaker in his article states that “scenario
planning is a disciplined method for imagining
possible futures”(37). He also explains Scenario
Planning as an attempt to capture, “the richness and
range of possibilities, stimulating decision makers
to consider changes they would otherwise ignore.”
(38) As a result, although I assumed that making Silly
Putty would take one day, in reality it took me three
days, in which case I observed the discrepancies
between my initial plan the reality. However, it takes
directly experiencing it to realize how difficult it is to
fulfill plans to the most minute detail. By designing
a plan that foresaw any possible obstacles, I was
attempting to diminish the element of surprise and
frustration from a plan that would go array. However,
given it is practically impossible to plan for every
problem, my plan did not go as expected.
The goal of my next experiment was to contrast
my sense of personal achievement between a
Planned and Unplanned Day. Through both collecting
and visualising the data, I was able to see where the
plan failed or succeeded.
Planning a day ahead of time, and drawing out
the goals I wanted to achieve at the end of that day, I
tried to execute every single step from my list. Most
of the goals revolved around my university life and
some of the daily activities. After performing the
experiment I felt like I had had quite a successful day,
as I managed to tick off all items from my list except
for one. Use the data from the experiment I created
a graph of my activities and compared what had
provoked feeling of content and guilt. On completing
the graph I found that nearly 95% of the time I felt
content, thus the closer I get to feeling very content
the more I fulfilled my goal. As a result, I’ve assumed
that in my own case, planning becomes a tool for
progress, enabling me to become a better version of
myself and keep me motivated. Similarly to my
34 35
Silly Putty experiments, there was an occurrence
of unexpected events, in this case the fact that the
swimming pool was closed which influenced my
goals list. Again this particular event shows the
difference between my plan and outside factors,
which impacted my day. In order to challenge my
behavioural pattern towards planning, I decided to
spend a non-planned day.
The second experiment, a non-planned day, was
much harder for me to execute. Leaving my house,
I took a route which I barely ever do, and not having
any pre-set goals greatly influenced my day and
the course of events dramatically. Furthermore,
wandering around with not aim made me feel
uncomfortable and constantly looking for places
where I could occupy myself with something to do,
such as entering an unknown coffee shop to read a
newspaper. Throughout the day I managed to reach
the point of ‘content’, mainly because I knew that
I was doing an investigation, which would help my
project. Finally, I returned home to procrastinate for
the rest of the day, which made me feel guilty. Thus,
as opposed to the first experiment, the lack of goals
made the non-planned day revolve around random
actions which were a trigger for the ‘non plan’ to
carry on.
To conclude, comparing these three examples
demonstrates how in my own case, a plan serves a
motivational purpose to increase my productivity,
ambition, and contentedness. As a result, the rational
planning approach to schedule my activities has a
very positive impact on my personal development
and well-being. The other activity left me with a
feeling of being lost and not-knowing what to do
next. For that reason, the example of the non-
planned day clearly illustrates how this activity has
a negative influence on my daily life. Therefore, I
will now analyze the productivity and efficiency in a
Planned Day, as I consider it as a positive aspect of
planning.
36 37
11.00
12.00
13.00
14.00
15.00
16.00
17.00
18.00
19.00
20.00
21.00
22.00
23.00
Very Content
Medium Content
Content
Guilty
Medium Guilty
Very Guilty
38 39
Very Content
Medium Content
Content
Guilty
Medium Guilty
Very Guilty
10.00
11.00
12.00
13.00
14.00
15.00
16.00
40 41
03.45 h
02.00 h
02.25 h
01.45 h
00.30 h
01.15 h
01.45 h
01.45 h
Figure: 14 Planned Day Time
In this paragraph, I would like to take a closer look
at my goal achievements, in order to get an insight
of how productive I was during the planned day. As
stated earlier, I had felt like I achieved what I wanted,
however when I added up the time I had spent on
different activities, I was surprised to see that during
a 14 hour active day, I spent only 3:45 hours studying
and 1:45 hours developing my skills. I came to
observe the time certain activities, which constitute
my day take, such as smoking which totals to 1:45
hours. Moreover, my daily routine activities add up
to 5 hours, such activities not contributing to my
personal development.
PRODUCTIVITY AND EFFICIENCY IN THE PLANNED DAY3.4
42 43
To gain a better understanding of how to plan
in an effective way as well as to execute a plan,
I undertook research in the field of psychology.
Setting goals and taking action to fulfill them are two
different things, which are often confused. Lisa G.
Aspinawall states that “[...] research suggests that
simply thinking about desired future outcomes is not
enough to promote the thoughts and actions required
to attain those outcomes.”(39) This quote illustrates
how my fantasizing about my goal achievement is
simply not enough to keep me being persistent while
trying to attain them, reflecting upon the productivity
during my planned day activity. Another factor,
which is significant when fulfilling goals is self-
control, it is among the deciding factors when trying
to attain the desired outcome. Hence self-control is a
limited resource which easily be used up. Brandon J.
Schmeichel, Kathleen D. Vohs and Roy F. Baumeister
write in their article, “ [...] active self-control can
be costly in the sense that it depletes some inner
resources, akin to energy or strength […] when this
resource is depleted the self’s performance of its
functions is often impaired.”(40) Therefore, being
mentally productive has its limit. We can reach a
state when we are not able to perform well on a
particular task because we have reached the limit of
our mental capacity. Schmeichel, Vohs and
Baumeister in the same article mentioned above,
describe three experiments to prove that self-
control is a finite resource which can be depleted.
I will focus on the first, where they confirmed that
ego-depletion can only negatively affect cognitive
performance. Participants of the experiment were
divided into two groups, all of them watching the
same video of a women being interviewed. The first
group was presented with a video where unrelated
words would flash at the bottom of the screen;
the participants were asked to ignore the words.
After the interview all the participants took the
GRE test, which measures general cognitive ability.
The results showed that participants from the
first group achieved lower scores in the GRE test,
confirming that using self-regulatory processes
influenced their performance on the test. Watching
the interview and trying not to pay attention to
the flashing words contributed to reaching the
stage of ego-depletion.(41) This study helped
me understand that by using self-control during
the day, I might reach the stage when I am not
physically tired but I am mentally unable to motivate
myself to continue with the desired performance.
Reaching the point of ego-depletion can effect me
executing a plan, when instead of carrying on with
an activity such as reading or studying, I decide to
take a cigarette break. The effect of reaching the
level of ego-depletion not only can, but also impairs
my desired performance, which again links it back
SELF-CONTROL AND EGO-DEPLETION3.5
44 45
to wished performance and the actual execution
of the plan. Bearing this in mind, I could gain a
better understanding of my undesired behaviour,
and instead of looking at my cigarette break as a
negative behaviour, I can start to comprehend that in
fact it will help me to be more productive throughout
the day.
46 47
SCRIPTED CONVERSATIONS4.1In this chapter I would like to introduce a
different observation, which I made so as
to understand both my planning process
and my plan failure in situations where I create a
social scenario such as scripted conversations. As
opposed to previously run experiments, introducing
a script in the act of a social scenario takes other
peoples’s involvement into consideration. Therefore,
my approach to planning is vastly different as my
conversationalist responses are just as significant as
my script. In order to investigate both the execution
of the script as well as the difference between the
planned dialogue and the actual one, I have designed
an experiment.
I could honestly call myself a conversation
rehearser, I pre-write conversations in my head all
the time and then run them through and practice
them before I perform them in real life. After
talking to other people I have found that they often
behave in a very similar way. They plan a variety of
conversations, from chitchats with friends and family
to longer and more complex ones, such as preparing
for a tutorial or having an argument with their
partner. However, the aspect that I find the most
interesting in this habit is the fact that we all often
fail to either say everything we want or to execute a
particular conversation in the manner we wished for.
Therefore, through my experiment I was able
to observe when the script of a conversation
changes direction. I have written down a very short
conversation with my friend in which I wanted
to persuade him to come to my place. I wrote
down the exact phrases I would say to him with
both the answer I assumed I would get and the
answer I thought I would not get. According to the
experiment, I would stick to the script no matter
what his answer would be. In addition to convincing
my friend to come and visit me I planned to use
another argument, in this particular case that I
would cook the dinner, as a trigger for him to come. I
assumed that my friend’s answer would be
48 49
negative as he lives far away and he does not like
to drive in the traffic, however I did not expect for
him to agree to come, yet in this case I would still
continue with my script acting as if he had said no.
To my surprise, he agreed to my offer, in which case I
continued acting out the script I had prepared in case
he refused.
The reason, why I found this experiment
interesting was because of the difference between
my assumption and the real outcome of the
conversation. We all script conversations, we plan
a perfect argument with our boss or our partner,
sometimes however, it only takes a slightly different
response from the other person for the conversation
not to go according to our expectations. What I
personally find most intriguing is the moment,
the snap point, when our plan goes astray and we
fail to execute the talk which we had prepared
so thoroughly. In the processes behind the act of
planning I sense a constant discrepancies between
our expectations, fantasies and the undesired
realities.
Hi, do you want to come over to mine?
No, I’m tired, and I’m working tomorrow.
What I thought would happen.
But, I really want you to come. I’ll make a dinner.
No. you live so far. I don’t want to drive in a traffic.
50 51
Hi, do you want to come over to mine?
I don’t know really. I’m quiet tired.
What actually happened.
But, I really want you to come. I’ll make a dinner.
Dinner, you saying. I think I might come.
Figure 15: Scripted Conversations
Hi, do you want to come over to mine?
Yes, sure.
What I thought would not happen.
But, I really want you to come. I’ll make a dinner.
I just said, that I will come.
52 53
‘In both analysis and life, we perceive reality through
a veil of unconscious infantile fantasy. Nothing
we say or do or think is ever puerly ‘rational’ or
‘irrational’, puerly ‘real’ or ‘transferential’.’
Janet Malcolm (42)
In the previous chapter I have described several
of my experiments; all of them are linked to daily
planning and planning for the near future, despite
the difference between them. However, in real life I
‘fantasize’ about the future outcome of my decisions,
activities or conversations. The ‘fantasy’ in this
context is called ‘planning’, because I am planning
for an ‘attainable future’. Although the plan does not
always go according to my wishes, it still deals with
activities or scenarios in a daily life.
On the other hand, ‘fantasizing’ about the future
through a planning process, makes the future
‘tangible’, and therefore it becomes a reality.
‘fantasize’ in this context means to plan for attainable future
‘fantasize’ in this context means to plan for unattainable future
However, I often find myself ‘fantasizing’ about more
distinctive future situations, such as the design of
my wedding dress, or wining an Oscar award. As a
result, such ‘fantasizing’ differs greatly from planning
for ‘attainable futures’, and these ‘fantasies’ are in
contrast ‘unattainable’. My process included starting
from a social spectrum, thus taking a personal angle
led me to an exploration of planning for ‘unattainable
fantasies’. In the next paragraph I would like to
elaborate on this new area of investigation.
54 55
MATERIALIZING FANTASIES winning an Oscar
being a Super-hero
saving someone else’s life
fighting for my country in the war
getting a Nobel prize in quantum physics
being a world known hacker
living in each country of the World for one year
be able to not to sleep and never be tired
speaking 30 languages
having my own charity organization
never face a death of my close realtives
for my parents to not face my death
being able to fly
being able to breath under the water like a fish
being the best rock climber in the world
being half Thai half Indian
I fantasize about...
5.1 In this paragraph I would like to describe a process
standing behind materializing one of my fantasy as
well as some research questions that were a result
of my exploration.
I fantasize about various things, especially about
having a new appearance; these differ from being
a Super-hero, to imagining my wedding dress and
winning an Oscar. When questioning other people, I
found that fantasizing is quite common. I was told
of various unattainable scenarios, whether it be
something they always wanted to do, a person they
wanted to be, or a good they wanted to possess.
Therefore, I decided to start materializing some of
my fantasies in order to gain a better understanding
of this phenomenon. As a result, I was motivated
to attempt to materialize one of my own fantasies,
as well as explore further the idea of planning for
unattainable fantasies.
Figure 16: I fantasize about...
56 57
They fantasize about...
playing in the NBA
getting a small letter every evening (I’d be surprised
by it every time), which tells me that time around me
stops for two hours and I can use it freely (the only
condition is that whatever I do in that time does not
have a deadline)
having my own chocolate factory
shopping without looking at the prices
being billionaire and a famous singer
and cure world hunger
Having my own stables with lots of ponies
and horses and a few dogs and 100’s of
farm cats
traveling through time, climbing Kilimanjaro
that one day I will walk down the red
carpet in a fabiolous dress, and everyone
will know me
being able to see through deep water the
same as I can see through air
being a chemist, performing at the
circus, understanding quantum
physics
Figure 17: They fantasize about...
58 59
The fantasy that I have most ruminated over is
my wedding. I have already designed most of the
details: wedding dress, shoes, hairstyle, makeup and
the venue. I have run through small details of the
wedding reception, thought about the shade of the
white fabric I am going to choose, even though I do
not plan to marry anyone in particular or anytime
soon. I have decided to materialize the dress, the
most iconic part of the wedding. As part of my
project I designed the dress I have always dreamt
of, I chose the fabric and I began to sew. While I have
always loved imagining this event, my family and
friends have ridiculed me for it. Yet my fantasizing
is not that far-fetched, as there exists a company
in Kyoto, Japan, that offers the service of a ‘Solo
Wedding’. It is a two-day excursion where a woman
without any partner can experience among others a
dress fitting and a full wedding photo shoot. (43) It
most interestingly points to a market that specializes
in making fantasies real.
Through the process of sewing the dress, I actually
realized that planning my wedding is not a fantasy.
Looking up its definition, I came across the following
definition, “the faculty or activity of imagining or
improbable things”.(44) There is a higher chance of
me one day getting married rather than becoming
an imagined Super-hero. Therefore, envisioning a
wedding in my head remains an act of planning, and
it thus becomes for a far future. As a result, it took Figure 18: Making of The Wedding Dress
60 61
PRESENT DIFFERENCEREALITY FANTASY
PLANNING/ EXECUTION
PRESENT DIFFERENCEREALITY FANTASY
PLANNING/ EXECUTION
FANTASY
directly experiencing it through the making process
to come to this conclusion.
The arising questions which will lead the rest of
my project are the following: what is the purpose
of imagining myself being a Super-hero or getting
a Nobel Prize in “scientific advance” in quantum
physics? Futhermore, does imagining an ‘unattainable
fantasy’ influence me, or others in any manner in real
life? By materializing the ‘unattainable fantasy’ would
the fantasy evolve into a different level/ direction,
would it become an ‘attainable’ or a ‘unattainable’
reality? If so, would the ‘distance’ between the
‘unattainable fantasy’ and the reality always be the
same? I attempt to answer these questions through
the process of visualizing and materializing some of
my ‘unattainable fantasies’. Moreover, I would like
design to act as more than solely physical evidence
of my investigation, I hope that it can also provide
the answers to these questions. Hence, in building
up research questions I have attempted and attempt
to build a platform, which can act as the possible
ground for my project to evolve.
FANTASY
Figure 19: Research Questions
62 63
The aim of this context report,
supported with the studio practice
project, was to explore the
influences in the act of planning and
the effect it has on one’s life, as well
as in society. In addition, it endeavoured to observe
the difference between the initial plan and the real
outcome. More than anything, it is an investigation
of previously applied and executed plans, along with
more recent ones, as well as my own experiments
with planning. I have demonstrated that as a society
as well as an individuals we intensely try to design
for a time to come, no matter the outcome: if it
is successful or not. By looking at the anticipation
of possible hazards, such as creating economical
models and urban planning, I have showed that
in most cases planning can have both positive
and negative influences within a social spectrum.
However, its intention is usually to act as a tool
that deals with unknown and predicted potential
disruptions. Despite this, the difference between
the initial plan and its aim is that reality always
occurs. By looking at the psychology of future
oriented thinking, I gave clear evidence of how self-
projection and envisioning the future are very useful
abilities we possess. Looking at my own inclination
towards planning, I designed and executed a series
of experiments, and each of them clearly illustrated
what purpose the planning served for me, as well as
how far it influenced my behaviour. In all the design
attempts, I established that I use planning
as a mechanism to make me more ambitious and
productive. However, like in all above mentioned
examples, it was impossible for me to execute any of
those plans in the way that I had set myself out to.
As a result, my design process acted as a
tool of examination within the area of planning.
The act of planning however, became a tool for
making the future ‘tangible’, or attainable. The
aim of the project thus shifted towards planning
for ‘unattainable fantasies’, proving that we hold
certain hopes for our future even though they may
not be possible to accomplish. At this stage of the
project, the line between the ‘attainable realities’
and ‘unattainable fantasies’ is still thin and blurry.
I could argue that all examples of planning in this
context report cross over with fantasizing in some
way. Yet, the difference between the initial plan
and the reality always occurred even within the
act of planning. Are we not always able to plan for
‘unattainable realities’, or is it while executing the
master plan that the reality becomes ‘attainable’?
James Holston said, “[...] the project of modernist
planning is to transform an unwanted present by
means of imagined future.”(45) I seek to investigate
to what extent we can draw a clear line within our
imagination and divide thinking about the future into
‘attainable’ and ‘unattainable’. As well as examine
why it is that only when the plan fails, that we finally
call it utopian and ‘unattainable’. I will build upon a
series of research questions that I endeavour to use
64 65
as a ‘steering wheel’ in order to both build and
navigate the further development of this project.
I see design as a core mechanism which helps
me deeply explore this intriguing area, through
the process of materialization and visualization.
Despite my aim for the design to act not only as a
representation of tangible objects, but also as an
intervention, I can not state that it is ‘attainable’.
66 67
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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Figure 1 : Redevelopment of Norrmlan http://
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c7/
Hoghus_1-5_1963.jpg
Figure 2: Rene Burri- Brasilia, 1960 https://s-
media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/b6/d8/f6/
b6d8f6622a0bc969aa1cd62b15f75907.jpg
Figure 3: Oscar Niemeyer: classic and unpublished
http://casacultminas.com.br/uploads/postagens/
ccm_oscar_niemeyer.png
Figure 4: Construção de Brasilia http://4
bp.blogspot.com/_3ViThmFph7g/TM_73f5BypI/
AAAAAAAABaA/WvxOpv8wCwM/
s1600/010DFCA21008.jpg
Figure 5: Pruitt-Igoe wikipedia/commons/0/09/
Pruitt-Igoe_1968March03.jpgMyth_02.jpg
Figure 6: Implosion of Pruitt-Igoe in 1972 http://
www.archpaper.com/uploads/Pruitt_Igoe_http://
upload.wikimedia.org/
43. Cowen, T., ‘Kyoto markets in everything the
culture that is Japan’, http://marginalrevolution.
com/marginalrevolution/2014/11/kyoto-markets-in-
everything-the-culture-that-is-japan.html, 2014,
(accessed 10 January 2015)
44.“fantasy”. Oxford Dictionaries. http://
www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/
fantasy(accessed 13 January, 2015).
45. Lin, J., and Mele. C , The Urban Sociology Reader, New York, Routledge, 2013, p. 424.
All Figures all rights reserved by Katarzyna Lukasik
apart from:
74 75
Figure 7: Commisionesrs’ Proposla for Manhattan
Grid, 1811 Koolhaas ,R., Delirious New York, London,
Thames and Hudson Ltd, 1978
Figure 8: Old New York
http://designsuperstars.net/wp-content/
uploads/2012/05/2.-old-new-york-photo.jpg
Figure 9: Manhattan Architecture, 2005
http://static.wixstatic.com/media/574081_
cdfd8b564ed54ab8e8bbaee0b139f103.jpg
Figure 10: Plan of the City of New York,1807
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/
commons/thumb/d/d9/1807_Bridges_Map_
of_New_York_City_%281871_reissue%29_-_
Geographicus_-_NewYork-bridges-1871.
jpg/1047px-1807_Bridges_Map_of_New_York_
City_%281871_reissue%29_-_Geographicus_-_
NewYork-bridges-1871.jpg
76