Defining Body Conscious Design

Galen Cranz (University of California Berkeley)

At age 12, I was diagnosed with ideopathic (cause unknown) scoliosis, a lateral curve of the spine. Muscles on one side of the spine overwork while those on the other do little, so chronic pain results. Common academic tasks like bending over to read, write, and sort papers exacerbate the lateral curves and increase pain. Swimming helps, but while working on my first book, The Politics of Park Design, I promised myself that I would find new ways to move. A research assistant suggested the Alexander Technique (a system of kinesthetic education). My first lesson shocked me because it seemed so gentle, yet I left that session almost completely pain-free. When I decided to certify as a teacher, after four years of taking lessons, I had just received tenure--clocking in at the Berkeley average of 62 hours per week. Friends asked, how could I be a full time professor and enter a training program 4 days a week for three years? I replied that I would find a topic where the body and the environment meet: the chair. Surprisingly, this pragmatic choice gave me a way to critique much of Western civilization and define a new field-- Body Conscious Design. The Chair: Rethinking Culture, Body and Design grew out of my search for ways to live with my body; it was not the response to an RFP. It turned out that the problems I experience are shared by others.

Additionally, appreciating the physical side of existence gave me a way of knowing that put academic values in their place. Even before enrolling in the Alexander training course, while still taking private lessons, the quest for tenure itself was put into perspective--still practically important, but no longer a judgment about my worth as a human on the planet.