🎪 Panopticon Mind Prisons, Breaking into World Building, & Desire Path Trailblazers
Enter the world of the world builders.
WELCOME TO MIND YOUR STEP - ISSUE 7!
This is a special one for me.
I’ve been looking for direction lately.
When I started writing, I knew I wanted to focus my content on two things: practical applications for environmental psychology and imaginative ideation. I’d even prepared a list of over 150 topics I was eager to explore.
I was ready to immerse myself in the ocean of my favourite subject and to set sail and explore its seas.
If you read my last piece you’ll know that I’ve built a world in my mind. A world where I was once the ruler of Limbo — Prince of Purgatory — God of the ghosts. And yet, in this reality, I was preparing to adventure on a little raft going nowhere in particular.
My inner demon finally spoke up and challenged me to think grander thoughts. He’s a glutton for world domination, so I knew I had to think bigger than blindly sailing the ocean.
I realized that deep down, I want to be the ocean.
I want to make the waves. I want to have the depth. I want to create the space where others feel immersed in my underwater world.
This epiphany gave me a major jolt of motivation. I found the compass I was looking for — a world to build.
It reminded me just how much power there is in building worlds. It was an obvious sentiment when we were children who could create an entire universe with nothing more than a cardboard box or a homemade fort. And at its core, I think that the empowering feeling that comes from shaping the world around us is what draws me to environmental psychology.
I want to double down on the concept of world building. And I’m officially dedicating this newsletter to empowering future world builders.
Here’s to unleashing yours!
Your fellow architect,
Lamar ✌️👽
DEAR WORLD BUILDERS
Shoutout to all you world builders out there
How cool is it that we share Earth and yet we all live in our own worlds?!
Some designing their realms into books and stories. Others projecting them onto screens and canvases.
Some of us erect elaborate cities in our imagination, while others construct the cities we live in.
All of us working toward the same goals:
To reshape reality into the vision we have in our heads.
To invite others into our worlds.
And to immerse our visitors into our creations.
But how can we make sure our world doesn’t end up uninhabited? What can we do to attract a long lineup of people eager for entry?
The most influential world builders out there (the Walt Disneys, the Hayao Miyazakis, the parents creating a home where their children can thrive) — they all have one thing in common:
They know that the key to designing immersive environments is to understand the subliminal influence of our surroundings.
They know that true immersion means making people feel something, think differently, and leave impacted and reformed.
If you’re a world builder who wants to design spaces like that — spaces that influence the way people think and act, then let’s explore together.
Let’s tour the spaces designed to influence people. Let’s deep dive into the mindsets and strategies of effective world builders. And lets chat about the worlds that you dream of building.
Let’s join worlds and create a universe worth visiting 🪐
FEATURED PLACE: PANOPTICONS
Panopticons: The Prisons Designed to Imprison Prisoners in their Mind
You know how Santa sees you when you’re sleeping and knows when you’re awake. And yet, you never ever get to see him. That’s because he was once a guard in a panopticon prison.
Jail cells lined along a circular perimeter.
Guards posted in a watchtower in the centre of the ring.
A 360 degree vantage point with a clear view into each and every cell.
The interior of the watchtower, however, is veiled. And prisoners are unable to see the guards inside.
The Hawthorne effect: when people behave differently because they know they are being watched.
The (potentially) watchful eye of a panopticon prison is designed to shackle both the body and the mind. Prisoners know they could be being watched at any given moment, but they can never know when.
Santa likely knew when they were being bad or good, so they were more likely to be consistently good. Not for goodness’ sake. But for the sake of a paranoid sense of internalized authority — the fear of being watched by the disapproving eyes of someone in power.
Jeremy Bentham, the social theorist and philosopher who invented the concept of the panopticon prison believed that power should be visible and unverifiable.
Just like our almighty Santa Claus.
FEATURED THEORY: DESIRE PATHS
Desire Path Trailblazing
You ever notice how much of our movement is governed by invisible forcefields?
Go for a walk and notice all of the magnetic forces pushing you away from things.
Away from the inside of a lawn.
Away from the red light across the street.
Away from the 🐶💩 on the sidewalk.
These forcefields come together to build the walls of our maze. And whether we recognize it or not, most of us are just rats focused on getting to our destination of cheese.
Some of us, however, are a special kind of rat. A rebellious kind of rat. A mole rat.
Forcefields are a mere suggestion to the mole rats. If they know that their cheese is behind a wall, they don’t waste time walking around the wall. They ask, “who the heck put a wall here” and then they burrow right through it.
In the urban planning world, these burrowed holes are known as desire paths.
Desire paths are people’s preferred routes across a city. They’re the physical signs of shortcuts off the beaten path. The long dirt lines of foot traffic through what was once perfectly pristine patches of greenery.
But for every DIYed dirt road there was the first mole rat to step on the grass and blaze the trail of footprints for its fellow rats to follow.
So the question is, are you carving out your own paths or are you content within the walls of the maze? How susceptible are you to the world’s invisible force fields?
P.S. Don’t fret if you are a maze rat. Trailblazers can be aspirational. But jaywalking to get to the cheese faster can be risky business. I just think it’s interesting how our behaviour around forcefields can be a potential indicator of a person’s personality. How risk averse are they? Do they tend to follow the crowd? Are they spontaneous? Are they patient? Some fun assumptions to make during our next people watching session.
RECOMMENDED READ: The Herald Article →
The dawn of transhumanism - conversations with Dr David Eagleman, the scientist creating a world of real superhumans in his laboratory
“Dr David Eagleman is the world’s leading neuroscientist. He’s unlocked how to create new senses for humans – from bat-like echolocation and ‘seeing’ heat to electromagnetism. As his new book shakes up the world of science, he talks to Neil Mackay about how the coming biological revolution will change the nature of humanity forever.”
Dr. David Eagleman is someone who epitomizes the type of world builder I want to become.
He's optimistic and imaginative about the future.
He rejects the apparent limitations that reality has presented us.
And he's actively improving our potential to interact with the world in more immersive and creative ways ✨
RECOMMENDED WEBSITE: Wonders of Street Views →
Wonders of Street Views
Travel the world by flipping through a collection of interesting corners in Google Street View.
Ice caves, Tibetan monasteries, ufo invasions… This website is like a crystal ball into the mini worlds dispersed throughout Earth 🔮
RECOMMENDED DISCUSSION
The comments to this tweet are an absolute goldmine of strategies for anyone interested in designing spaces that spark motivation 💪
RECOMMENDED VIDEO
It's fascinating how much of our world exists between the realms of reality and fantasy.
The way this video showcases how Pixar integrates reality into its animation has got me thinking about where we work to integrate fantasy into the design of our reality.
CHALLENGE WORTH TRYING
Operation Vantage Point
What would a heat map of the movement inside your home look like?
Is there a corner you’ve never stood in?
A wall you've never leaned against?
Every new vantage point offers a shift in perspective and new ways of looking at our problems.
REMINDER: BECOMING A WORLD BUILDER IS YOUR CHOICE
If studying environmental psychology teaches us anything, it’s that the way we interpret reality can be easily influenced by how we design the world around us.
True world builders choose to reject the reality they’ve been given.
They’re the ones reshaping the world into the vision they have in their heads.
Your surroundings are clay. Be their sculptor.
FEATURED WORLD BUILDER: Instagram account →
Anastasia Parmson
“How do you like your art?
I like art that is big and shiny. That catches your eye but also tells a story more profound than meets the eye at first glance.
I like art that is displayed in unexpected, derelict or historic places. In places where you might miss it if you’re not paying attention.
But I also love seeing art within the walls of large contemporary art museums. Inside architecturally impressive buildings, with refined design details and well stocked gallery shops.
I like eclectic art on people’s walls when I go visit. Not art that matches their interior but art collected with love and curiosity.”
What inspires me about Anastasia’s perspective is how art exists within the context of its environment.
She doesn’t simply admire the art within its frame. She admires the walls on which it’s framed.
Perhaps to positively connect with our spaces, we should label more things as art.
GET FEATURED
Want a chance to be featured as world builder of the week?
Connect with me on Twitter @LamarElimbo and tell me about your vision for the world that you’re craving to create. I’m pretty much a space travelling alien at this point, so I’d love to be invited as a guest in your world!
ENJOYED THIS ISSUE?
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I didn't just enjoy this issue ... I was amazed by it 😲🤗💯. You really transported me into the essence of a world builder, introducing a completely new perspective from which to analyze my surroundings and myself! Very insightful! 👏👏👏