The Curiosity Chronicles

Curious about…Ancient Energy as a Design Tool.

 

Songlines, also called Dreaming tracks by Indigenous Australians within the indigenous belief system, are paths across the land (or, sometimes the sky) which mark the route followed by localised ‘creator-beings’ during the Dreaming. The paths of the songlines are recorded in traditional songs, stories, dance, and painting.

A knowledgeable person is able to navigate across the land by repeating the words of the song, which describe the location of landmarks, waterholes, and other natural phenomena. In some cases, the path of the creator-beings are said to be evident from their marks on the land, such as large depressions, which are said to be their footprints.

By singing the songs in the appropriate sequence, indigenous people could navigate vast distances, often travelling through the deserts of country’s interior. The Australian continent contains an extensive system of songlines, some of which are of a few kilometres whilst others traverse hundreds of kilometres through lands of many different Indigenous peoples - peoples who may speak markedly different languages and have different cultural traditions.

Since a songline can span the lands of several different language groups, different parts of the song are said to be in those different languages. Languages are not a barrier because the melodic contour of the song describes the nature of the land over which the song passes. The rhythm is what is crucial to understanding the song. Listening to the song of the land is the same as walking on this songline and observing the land.

In some cases, a songline has a particular direction, and walking the wrong way along a songline may be a sacrilegious act. Traditional Aboriginal people regard all land as sacred, and the songs must be continually sung to keep the land “alive”.

Ley lines are alleged alignments of a number of places of geographical interest, such as ancient monuments, natural ridge-tops and water-fords. Their existence was suggested in 1921 by the amateur archaeologist Alfred Watkins in his books Early British Trackways and The Old Straight Track. Watkins theorized that these alignments were created for ease of overland trekking by line of sight navigation during neolithic times and had persisted in the landscape over millennia. In more recent times, the term ley lines has come to be associated with spiritual and mystical theories about land forms, including Chinese Feng Shui.

Feng Shui is an ancient Chinese system of aesthetics and energy movement believed to use the laws of both Heaven (astronomy) and Earth (geography) to help one improve life by receiving positive energy, or Qi. Historically, Feng Shui was widely used to orient buildings - often spiritually significant structures such as tombs, but also dwellings and other structures. Depending on the particular style of feng shui being used, an auspicious site could be determined by reference to local features such as bodies of water, stars, or a compass. Feng shui was suppressed in China during the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s, but has since seen an increase in popularity.

What Of It? As designers we spend so much time designing highly rational journeys, experiences that logically unfold over time. I wonder how we might explore designing emotional, spiritual, energetic journeys as well?

I am Curious to learn more about how ancient cultures “designed,” using the tools of the day: land, sky, energy.