N=1=NPK=KIMCHI=N
by
Jae Rhim Lee
B.A., Psychology (1998)
Wellesley College
Submitted to the Department of Architecture
in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of
Master of Science in Visual Studies
at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
September 2006
@ 2006 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
All rights reserved
Signature of Author:
Department of Architecture
August 11, 2006
Certified by: _
Joan Jonas
Professor of Visual Arts
Thesis Supervisor
Accepted by:
Yung Ho Chang
Professor of Architecture
Head of the Department of Architecture
MASSACHUSE-TTINS
OF TECHNOLOGY
SEP 18 2006
LIBRARIES
E
ROTCH
N=1=NPK=KIMCHI=N
by
Jae Rhim Lee
Submitted to the Department of Architecture
on August 11, 2006 in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of
Master of Science in Visual Studies
ABSTRACT
N=1 =NPK=KIMCHI=N is a mobile, expandable living unit which consists of a urinal,
urine processing system, hydroponic napa cabbage garden, seedling growing area,
customized bed, and kitchen table. I tested my urine, modified my diet to produce a
urine ideal for growing napa cabbage, grew napa cabbage hydroponically with the
optimized urine, made kimchi from the napa cabbage, and fed the kimchi to the public
from the living unit.
In this paper I elaborate on the intimate affiliation between the "narcissistic self" and the
planet proposed by N=1=NPK=KIMCHI=N. I synthesize concepts of the self-body,
narcissism, death, and ecology to arrive at a methodology for the long-term preservation
of the self and planet.
Thesis Supervisor: Joan Jonas
Title: Professor of Visual Arts
TABLE OF CONTENTS
A BS T R A C T ...................................................................................................
2
TABLE OF CONTENTS. .................................................................................
3
I. CASE HISTORY: BIOGRAPHY, PROJECTS
.............................. 4
ILL US T RA T IO N S ..........................................................................................
12
II. NARCISSISM // SUSTAINABILITY.............................................................18
Ill. MASTERLIST........................................................................................35
B IBLIO G R A P HY ...........................................................................................
40
ILLUSTRATION CREDITS ...........................................................................
42
T H AN KS Y'A LL! ..........................................................................................
43
3
I. CASE HISTORY: BIOGRAPHY, PROJECTS
Man's capacity to dig himself in, to secrete a shell, to build around
himself a tenuous barrier of defence, even in apparently desperate
circumstances, is astonishing and merits a serious study. It is
based on an invaluable activity of adaptation, partly passive and
unconscious, partly active: of hammering in a nail above his bunk
from which to hang up his shoes; of concluding tacit pacts of nonaggression with neighbours; of understanding and accepting the
customs and laws of a single Kommando, a single Block.
Primo Levi, Survival in Auschwitz
Translated from the Italian by Stuart Woolf
What I would like to experience most of all would be to find myself
freed, even if only for a moment, from the weight of my body. I
wouldn't want to overdo it-just to hang suspended for a
reasonable period-and yet I feel intensely envious of those
weightless astronauts whom we are permitted to see all too rarely
on our TV screens....
Where does this presentiment of what is now a concrete reality
come from? Perhaps it is a memory common to the species,
inherited from our proto-bird-like aquatic reptiles. Or maybe this
dream is a prelude to a future, as yet unclear, in which the umbilical
cord which calls us back to mother earth will be superfluous and
transparent: the advent of a new mode of locomotion...
Thus we have vast and unforeseen margins of safety: the visionary
idea of humanity migrating from star to star on vessels with huge
sails driven by stellar light might have limits, but not that of
weightlessness: our poor body, so vulnerable to swords, to guns
and to viruses, is space-proof.
Primo Levi, "Weightless"
Translated from the Italian by Piers Spence
I define love thus: The will to extend one's self for the purpose of
nurturing one's own or another's spiritual growth.
M. Scott Peck, The Road Less Traveled
4
N=1
I have taken over 15 personality tests and career inventories, read 20 self-help books,
consulted 6 career counselors, and pursued a range of career paths in an effort to find a
vocation perfectly matched to my interests and abilities. So far, I have learned that I
strongly resemble a Navy general, I may have an aptitude for window dressing, I am an
"idealist" and a "healer", and I am ill-suited for careers in academia, banking, medicine,
social work, non-profit management, psychology, documentary photography, the
military, tutoring, administration, social policy and scientific research, retail, and
telemarketing.
My favorite hobbies at age thirteen were nocturnal-sleeping on the roof, running in the
dark, and regularly rearranging my bedroom furniture in the middle of the night, usually
in concert with my dad's halting, thunderous snores.
At fourteen, I moved my bedroom furniture to the basement, gave away most of my
clothing and other belongings, tore out the carpet, and slept on the hardwood floor for
eight months until I caught the flu.
In the summer, I alternated between watching music videos on MTV all day and
following a self-imposed daily schedule-0700: wake up, drink 2 glasses of lukewarm
water, 0713: brush teeth, wash face, make bed, 0718: do step-aerobics, stretch, drink 2
glasses of cold water, 0759: eat 2 bowls of cereal and half a grapefruit, 0831: shower
and dress, 0850: do required summer reading, 1250: eat salad, turkey sandwich, and
one apple, 1315: clean bathroom, 1400: study for SAT...
Ten years later I built 7 custom-fit body struts/chairs that held my body in various
therapeutic and uncomfortable positions. Each 'chair' had three or four configurations,
and I walked from chair to chair, my movements punctuated by moments of stillness as
my body conformed to each chair/position.
5
At 18 I enrolled in a women's college known as 'the nunnery' that was once considered
a finishing school for wealthy young women. During my first year I 'shopped' 5 different
Protestant churches but within six months decided that I was agnostic. At the beginning
of my sophomore year I joined Army ROTC and learned how to grunt (AHUJA), march
in formation, set landmines, and shoot M-16 rifles. The following summer I attended
and was kicked out of Army Airborne School at Fort Benning, Georgia.
Two days after I graduated from college, 5 friends and I moved into a 3 bedroom
apartment with a sloping floor on a quiet street in "Meffah," Massachusetts. An average
of 9 people lived in the apartment at any given time. Whenever our landlord dropped
by, most of us scampered into closets or hid in our beds. I slept on a 14"x60" carpet
remnant in the 'sun room' and woke up every morning with my face pressed up against
the wall.
Five years later I lived in a 5'2"x5'2"x4' wooden box for 24 hours inside Le Corbusier's
Carpenter Center with a blanket, mattress pad, gallon of water, banana, pencil, pad of
paper, roll of toilet paper, cell phone, plastic urine bag, 7.5 watt light bulb, and two shortterm visitors. I took overhead slides once every hour and later projected these into the
bottom of the box.
In September 2003, I spent two weeks in silence, semi-isolation, and stillness while
learning Vipassana meditation. Each day began at 6 am with silent meditation in a
dimly lit, cavernous room. Meditators were separated by gender and were prohibited
from leaving the center, harming any living being, talking, stealing, having sex, underdressing, worshipping, writing, reading, exercising, overeating....
Meditation sessions typically lasted 2-3 hours, and we were asked to sit still
continuously, without shifting our bodies or making any noise. Occasionally, my mind
became totally clear and I could feel no physical sensations, as if disembodied. At other
times, obsessive thoughts, insights, to-do lists, food cravings, and a range of emotions
6
hijacked my concentration, accompanied by intense pain or bizarre sensations. For 1012 hours a day, I simply observed the range of my thoughts and bodily phenomena.
Eight months after Vipassana I built a "weightless" bed made of 10 separate pieces of
wood molded to the negative spaces of my supine body. I inspected my body. I
molded templates in clay of each supine negative space. I carved matching wooden
slabs and sanded each slab until it fit my body perfectly. With each slab placed
perfectly beneath me, I felt completely comfortable, weightless, incorporeal. When it
was finished, I threw out my coil mattress and began sleeping on my new bed. For two
weeks I tried unsuccessfully to sleep perfectly still on the wooden slabs. Each time I
moved, the slabs would become intolerably painful. Sleeping for more than a couple of
hours at a time was impossible. I stored the bed in a small pine box and bought another
coil mattress.
Over the next year, I measured and examined other parts of my body and made two
more beds-1) a vertical sleep bed made of wooden ribs contoured to the front of my
body with a wearable foam mattress, and 2), a portable bed consisting of 15 separate
adjustable nylon straps with quick-release buckles for sleeping on the underside of
tables. I slept on these beds for 15 minutes and 2 minutes, respectively.
For years my dentist has told me that my nighttime teeth grinding is decimating my
molars. Despite the hygienist's threats that I will develop TMJ and my face will become
compressed, I refuse the $600 customized mouth guard they offer me at each visit.
After my last teeth cleaning, I made a silicone cheek attachment with an elastic
headband which was programmed and calibrated to detect my teeth grinding then
deliver a mild shock to my cheek muscles.
N=1=NPK'
NPK values represent the percentage of Nitrogen(N), Phosphorus (P), and Potassium
(K) in plant fertilizer.
1
7
During my second semester of grad school, I subleted my apartment and lived in my
studio for three months. Worried about formaldehyde, benzene, dustmites, carbon
monoxide, lead, chlorofluorocarbons, toluene, xylene, perchloroethylene, nitrogen
oxide, sulfur dioxide, mouse poop, and other airborne pollutants, I tested the air and
bought four spider plants (Chlorophytum comosum), a 5 foot Areca palm
(Chrysalidocarpus lutescens), a corn plant (Dracaena Massangeana), a Janet Craig
plant (Dracaena "Janet Craig"), and an english ivy (Hedera Helix). NASA research
indicates that these plants are highly effective at removing toxins from the air. I
underwent a homeopathic parasite cleanse in which I ate no sugar, fruit, yeast, or
processed foods, swallowed six capsules daily, and drank water to which I added 14
drops of tincture three times a day for four weeks.
I built a 'passivity system' in which I sat completely still while a recycling timer controlled
1) a 75 watt full-spectrum light bulb, 2) a turntable which spun the Areca palm whose
leaves tenderly brushed my cheek and 3) a water pump which delivered a custom-made
liquid nutrient solution (with minerals necessary for both plant and human nutrition) into
my mouth and to the roots of the Areca palm at a rate of 2 gph. For one minute every
10 minutes, the system turned on and confirmed that I was conscious.
Four months later, I lived in a 1O'x10' room for 24 hours with the same rotating Areca
palm, gallon of water, urine containers, and sleeping mat. I occasionally peed into the
soil of the Areca palm and continuously measured the C02, CO, humidity, and
temperature in the room.
Six months after that I made a portable indoor/outdoor urinal made of sod, recycled
plastic, and rubber tubes which distributed liquid directly into the soil. I sewed a
waterproof skirt that rolled up into its own belt to wear with my urinal. To use the urinal,
I unrolled the waterproof skirt, and squatted above the sod.
8
N=1=NPK=j Al 2 =N
In May 2006 I sent my urine to a floriculture lab and followed a customized vegan diet
designed to transform my urine into an ideal nutrient solution for plants. I diluted my
urine with water and added ground soybeans, which contain urease, the enzyme which
converts urea into ammonia. I also added nitrosomas bacteria to activate the nitrogen
cycle, which converts ammonia into nitrate, the form of nitrogen required by plants. I
then sterilized the solution and pumped it into a hydroponic napa cabbage garden. I
built an expandable mobile living unit which contained a urine processing system, urinal,
foam bed in the shape of my body, kitchen, and hydroponic garden. I urinated, I made
kimchi from the napa cabbage, and I served the kimchi to my colleagues at school and
to gallery goers at an exhibition of the living unit.
N=1=NPK=7JA1*=N1=N2=N 3...
Body double, monkey twin 3 , doppelganger, analogue, impersonator, mirror image,
Siamese twin, stunt double, facsimile, imitation, reproduction, cosmic twin, shadow,
lookalike, stand-in, dead ringer, the one, shape shifter, alter ego, alias, counterpart,
clone, replica, spitting image, chip off the old block, mate, match, counterpart, duplicate,
carbon copy, equal, model, equivalent, dead ringer, parallel, peer, take-off, exact
likeness, print, fake, photocopy, mock-up, maquette.
Two summers ago, I decided to visit a friend in Shanghai, China. Halfway across the
Pacific Ocean, however, I realized that I had forgotten to get a visa. After disembarking
in Tokyo, I caught the next flight to Hong Kong. After a week alone in Hong Kong, I got
my visa and took a train to Shanghai. For three weeks, I did yoga daily, ate mostly
packaged bread and water, contracted intestinal parasites, and designed and ordered
Korean characters for kimchi, a fermented pickled dish made from napa cabbage.
3 Monkey twin (n.) A lesser version of someone. The average person is both someone
else's monkey twin and possesses a monkey twin. The more attractive one is, the less
likely he/she is someone else's monkey twin, and the more unattractive one is, the less
likely he/she is to possess a monkey twin.
2
9
custom-fit clothing for my body. Everywhere I went in Hong Kong and China my feet
always reached the floor when I sat in chairs, benches, subway seats.
Two years ago I altered an assortment of discarded clothing in various ways to fit my
body-adding foam to the inner lining of a men's blazer, cutting slits into a girl's school
uniform shirt, sewing the outline of my body into men's XL jeans, cutting up a bedsheet
into 10 uniform rectangles to which I attached Velcro dots so that the pieces could be
connected in multiple ways....
On July 2, 2006, I walked into the Target store in Watertown, MA and bought 1 men's
blazer, 1 pair of boy's athletic shorts, 2 toddler skirts, 1 crocheted toddler sweater, 1
girl's school uniform jumper, and 1 maternity blouse. I altered each item to fit my body,
and returned them to the store.
I recently had a scan taken of my body with the VITUS/smart 3D Body Scanner at
Cornell University. The scanner was situated around a platform (31.5" x 31.5" x 15")
raised one foot off the ground. In each corner was an eye-safe laser (four lasers in all),
and eight cameras were placed around the periphery of the platform. I stood on the
platform with my feet 15 inches apart and extended my arms straight, 6-7 inches from
my body. After a few seconds the scanning began, and I was not allowed to move until
the scan was complete. In front of me was a mirror in which I could see the scanner's
laser roving up my body in a line bent by the curves of my body.
The entire scan took about 12 seconds and captured 300,000 data points. Once the 3D
scanner collected the data points, Polyworks, a software program, mapped the points
and created different visualization modes--cross section, slice area, surface area, and
volume.
In September 2006, I will design and commercially distribute a clothing line which will
use the data from my 3D body scan.
10
Today, I'm back on the job market. I go to weekly cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy
sessions. I meditate, attend yoga classes, and get shiatsu massages periodically. I
follow a highly irregular schedule, I eat solid foods. I live in a sunny, level, five bedroom
apartment with four roommates, sleep on a coil mattress in my own bedroom, use
standard flush toilets, keep warm in the winter, and make kimchi with store-bought napa
cabbage fertilized by free-range, vegetarian cows.
11
ILLUSTRATIONS
N=1=NPK=KIMCHI=N
Figure 1. N=1=NPK=KIMCHI=N, living unit.
12
Figure 2. N=1=NPK=KIMCHI=N. Detail of bed, urinal, and kitchen table.
13
Figure 3. N=1=NPK=KIMCHI=N.
Jae Rhim Lee and urinal.
14
Figure 4. N=1=NPK=KIMCHI=N.
Detail, sleeping.
15
Figure 5. N=1=NPK=KIMCHI=N.
Making kimchi.
16
I
I
Figure 6. N=1=NPK=KIMCHI=N. Detail, making kimchi.
KIMCHI (VEGETARIAN VERSION)
1 large Chinese cabbage (2 1/2 - 3 lb)
1/2 cup salt
6 green onions, chopped
3 large cloves garlic, minced
2 T red pepper powder
1/4 t grated fresh ginger root
1 T sugar
3/4 cup hot water
Wash and drain cabbage. Rub salt into each leaf. Let stand for 2 hours. Rinse
cabbage in cold water and squeeze out excess liquid. Place the cabbage in a large
bowl.
Add the onions, garlic, red pepper powder, ginger, and sugar to the cabbage. Toss
and mix all the ingredients so that the cabbage pieces are well-coated.
Pack the cabbage mixture into a large glass jar. Cover the jar with a tight lid and place
in a cool room for 2 days before refrigerating.
17
1I. NARCISSISM // SUSTAINABILITY:
A Model of Nature-Human Integration for the Long-Term
Preservation of the Self and the Environment
In my work, self-seeking is conflated with artistic process and "minimal" selfhood is the
foundation for a design practice. Confronted with physical pain, alienation from the
natural world, exhaustion, invisibility, and excess workloads, I attempt to become
weightless, sleep vertically, merge with plants, and distribute my body into the public. I
examine myself and attempt to arrive at solutions, which meet these ideals in one way
or another. Central to this process is the making and deployment of customized,
functional tools for my body, which represent ideal states of being and serve immediate
and long-term physical and emotional needs. In the beginning, I imagine that each
object/solution is the perfect, obvious solution. Inevitably, I do not/will not/can not adapt
to the object/system I've made for myself. Adaptation is not impossible, but requires
that I become less myself, and more cyborg, corpse, monk/nun, bird, or bat. Each
system/tool is more suitable than its predecessor as personal needs become more
aligned with planetary needs and boundaries between self, nature, and other become
increasingly blurred. The result is a closer integration of self and planet.
SELF /
N = 1
NARCISSISM 101
Narcissists are popularly characterized as being highly self-centered by virtue of a belief
that the world is a mirror of the self and a source of endless attention and admiration,
the so-called narcissistic supply. The narcissistic individual sees him/herself reflected in
all living and inanimate objects, such that everything is an extension of the self.
According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV (DSM-IV),
Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD), is defined as:
18
A pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration,
and lack of empathy, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of
contexts, as indicated by five (or more) of the following:
(1) has a grandiose sense of self-importance (e.g., exaggerates achievements
and talents, expects to be recognized as superior without commensurate
achievements)
(2) is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty,
or ideal love
(3) believes that he or she is "special" and unique and can only be understood
by, or should associate with, other special or high-status people (or institutions)
(4) requires excessive admiration
(5) has a sense of entitlement, i.e., unreasonable expectations of especially
favorable treatment or automatic compliance with his or her expectations
(6) is interpersonally exploitative, i.e., takes advantage of others to achieve his or
her own ends
(7) lacks empathy: is unwilling to recognize or identify with the feelings and
needs of others
(8) is often envious of others or believes that others are envious of him or her
(9) shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes
Although popularly regarded as a negative trait, since its inception into psychological
canon the concept of narcissism has been viewed as having both healthy and unhealthy
manifestations.
In "On Narcissism" Freud distinguishes primary narcissism from
secondary narcissism.
Primary narcissism is universally experienced and is the
focusing of libidinal energy upon the self for the purpose of self-preservation. A variety
of positive traits necessary for healthy functioning, including self-esteem and stability,
are thought to be derived from primary narcissism (Stolorow 1975). Secondary
narcissism, pathological narcissism, arises from primary narcissism when the libido
ceases engage worldly objects and instead focuses solely on the self, resulting in a
"false self".
More contemporary research reveals a diversity of typologies and constructions of
narcissism, with some disagreement about the validity of each (Wink 1996). Many
psychologists further delineate unhealthy narcissism into covert and overt styles. Overt
narcissists frequently display "grandiosity, exhibitionism, and entitlement", similar to the
DSM-IV definition. Covert narcissists appear shy, timid, and withdrawing in public, but
19
exhibit all the qualities of covert narcissists in private. The primary exception is that
covert narcissists tend to have relationships based on idealization rather than mirroring,
which are more typical of overt narcissists (Wink 1996).
Unhealthy narcissists are also frequently subdivided into high, middle, and lowfunctioning groups. High functioning narcissists are "frequently found in artistic and
creative professions that allow them to sublimate their exhibitionism and use
productively their intellectual interests and keen sense of empathy (Wink 1996). Middle
and low functioning individuals tend to have serious difficulties in work and relationship
due to their "impaired empathy, exploitativeness, hypersensitivity, and boredom." (Wink
1996).
SELF AT RISK: CULTURAL NARCISSISM and TRAUMA vs. RESILIENCE
Christopher Lasch suggests that modern conditions, including mass consumption,
warfare, economic decline, environmental degradation, and the dependence on
technologies, pose a threat to the self, resulting in a "contraction" of the self-focused on
survival through so-called self-serving and hedonistic activities. The threatened self in a
time of crisis becomes the minimal, narcissistic self pre-occupied with its own psychic
preservation (1984). Lasch writes: "...minimal selfhood is not just a defensive response
to danger but arises out of a more fundamental social transformation: the replacement
of a reliable world of durable objects by a world of flickering images that make it harder
and harder to distinguish reality from fantasy."
Lasch's pessimistic view of cultural decline suggests that consumptive self-involvement
is the primary outcome of psychological and cultural annihilation. Is anything else
possible? A significant, growing body of contemporary work on resilience and growth in
the face of trauma suggests that we have overlooked innate hardiness and resistance to
trauma that is found among some individuals who face loss. George Bonanno, a social
psychologist, points out that we misunderstand and underestimate resilience because
much of our understanding about trauma comes from treating and studying individuals
20
who have negative responses to loss (2004).
Varying levels of narcissism seem to play a role in the degree of resilience individuals
exhibit. Taylor and Brown (1998) found that self-enhancement, although socially
undesirable, often serves as a buffer against negative reactions to loss and hardship. In
a study of survivors of the September 11 bombings at the World Trade Center, selfenhancers "reported better adjustment and more active social networks and were rated
more positively and as better adjusted by their close friends" (Bonanno, Rennicke,
Dekel, & Rosen, 2003).
Although the possibility of resilience provides some hope, it is also an unreliable
phenomenon at the mercy of individual and societal conditions. Hardiness may be an
effective coping (defensive) strategy for some, but in a time of mounting threat and
destruction, the self also needs an offensive strategy, one that heals the core of the
psyche.
SELF/PLANET AT RISK: ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION & ECOPSYCHOLOGY
Theodore Roszak calls Lasch's concept of a culture of narcissism a "lambast of the
public, one which doesn't know better" and argues that "the general battering of
narcissism was a reaction to entrenched values of American Judeo-Christian values, a
moral horror based on a "radical sense of 'human unworthiness"' (1998). Rather than
denigrate self-seeking, Roszak says that the public's growing, less than academic
search for therapeutic self-knowledge is a positive cultural development worth
observing, no matter how shallow some of its manifestations may be:
The deepening psychological tone of the late twentieth century life, however
amateurishly expressed, is born of a healthy sense of unlived life and alienated
power. Just as neurosis, recognized and diagnosed, can be the first step toward
sanity, so a narcissistic fascination with the self can be the beginning of cultural
renewal. (1992)
The cultural renewal Roszak seeks is an ecological revolution that bridges ecology and
psychology by marrying society's contemporary obsession with self-seeking with the
21
preservation of the planet.
Ecopsychology, proposes that the best antidote to
environmental degradation and the alienation and "false identity" created by the urbanindustrial system is a recovery of the ecological unconscious, the fundamental
connection between humans and nature located at the "core of the mind" (1978).
Ecopsychology provides an alternative to current efforts. According to Roszak, the
ecology movement today is poorly equipped to bring about significant change in our
relationship with the environment, because it relies on fear and guilt, extrinsic factors, in
its efforts to motivate individuals to change rather than desire and interest, intrinsic
factors. The answer lies in a blending of self and planet:
Is there an alternative to scare tactics and guilt trips that will lend ecological
necessity both intelligence and passion? It is the concern that arises from shared
identity: two lives that become one. Where that identity is experienced deeply,
we call it love. More coolly and distantly felt, it is compassion. This is the link we
must find between ourselves and the planet that gives us life. (1992).
Despite its folk wisdom and widespread reception, ecopsychology has failed thus far to
engage psychology in a truly rigorous manner.
As Joseph Reser points out,
ecopsychology is often confused, in both Roszak's writings and public perception, with
psychiatry, pop psychology, and various New Age practices. Reser challenges social
psychologists in particular to develop and revive the field of ecopsychology with more
dynamic constructions of the self as a step towards understanding how self-construal
and environmental stewardship are related (1995).
Drawing upon Roszak's ecopsychology movement, Ernest Becker's writings on death,
and new developments in existential psychology I propose a more intimate, narcissistic
affiliation between the self, the physical body, and the ecosystem, one which ensures
the psychological well-being and survival of both person and planet. In this relationship,
self-seeking, and the needs of plants and the larger ecosystem are closely tied, thus
offering an expanded construction of the self.
22
PRINCIPLES OF ECOPSYCHOLOGY
(from Roszak, Theodore. (1992). The Voice of the Earth. New York: Simon & Schuster.)
1. The core of the mind is the ecological unconscious. For ecopsychology, repression of the
ecological unconscious is the deepest root of collusive madness in industrial society. Open
access to the ecological unconscious is the path to sanity.
2. The contents of the ecological unconscious represent, in some degree, at some level of
mentality, the living record of cosmic evolution, tracing back to distant initial conditions in the
history of time. Contemporary studies in the ordered complexity of nature tell us that life and
mind emerge from this evolutionary tale as culminating natural systems within the unfolding
sequence of physical, biological, mental, and cultural systems we know as "the universe."
Ecopsychology draws upon these findings of the new cosmology, striving to make them real to
experience.
3. Just as it has been the goal of previous therapies to recover the repressed contents of the
unconscious, so the goal of ecopsychology is to awaken the inherent sense of environmental
reciprocity that lies within the ecological unconscious. Other therapies seek to heal the
alienation between person and person, person and family, person and society. Ecopsychology
seeks to heal the more fundamental alienation between the recently created urban psyche and
the age-old natural environment.
4. For ecopsychology as for other therapies, the crucial stage of development is the life of the
child. The ecological unconscious is regenerated, as if it were a gift, in the newborn's enchanted
sense of the world. Ecopsychology seeks to recover the child's innately animistic quality of
experience in functionally "sane" adults. To do this, it turns to many sources, among them
traditional healing techniques of primary people, nature mysticism as expressed in religion and
art, the experience of wilderness, the insights of Deep Ecology. Thus, for example,
Wordsworth's hymns to the child's love of nature are basic texts for developmental
ecopsychology, a first step toward creating the ecological ego.
5. The ecological ego matures toward a sense of ethical responsibility to the planet that is as
vividly experienced as our ethical responsibility to other people. It seeks to weave that
responsibility into the fabric of social relations and political decisions.
6. Among the therapeutic projects most important to ecopsychology is the re-evaluation of
certain compulsively "masculine" character traits that permeate our structures of political power
and which drive us to dominate nature as if it were an alien and rightless realm. In this regard,
ecopsychology draws significantly on the insights of ecofeminism with a view to demystifying the
sexual stereotypes.
7. Whatever contributes to small scale social forms and personal empowerment nourishes the
ecological ego. Whatever strives for large-scale domination and the suppression of personhood
undermines the ecological ego. Ecopsychology therefore deeply questions the essential sanity
of our gargantuan urban-industrial culture, whether capitalistic or collectivistic in its organization.
But it does so without necessarily rejecting the technological genius of our species or some lifeenhancing measure of the industrial power we have assembled. Ecopsychology is postindustrial
not anti-industrial in its social orientation.
8. Ecopsychology holds that there is a synergistic interplay between planetary and personal
well-being. The term "synergy" is chosen deliberately for its traditional theological connotation,
which once taught that the human and divine are cooperatively linked in the quest for salvation.
The contemporary ecological translation of the term might be: the needs of the planet are the
needs of the person, the rights of the person are the rights of the planet.
23
SELF@BODY
N= 1=NPK=KIMCHI=N begins with two procedures: urine testing and diet modification in
order to purify and optimize the urine. I examine my body to understand its processes
and conditions, I subject my body and my thoughts to experiments, I develop
tools/systems to purify, alter, and comfort the body. The tools and systems are
customized for my body, mirrors of the self-body.
THE BODY AT THE CORE OF THE SELF
William James relegated the body to a secondary role in the definition of the self.
According to James, the self is dialogical--the self as knower ("I") perpetually overseeing
the self as known ("Me"). The body is merely the "innermost part of the material self'
which happens to be one of four "constituents" of an even larger three parts of the Me.
The boundary between the self and not-self is thus defined not in physical terms but
rather in ephemeral thought (1890).
Yet in much of psychology's history, the body is a principle aspect of the self. Since
Freud's reductionist assertions, the body has played a significant role in the
development, construction and ongoing negotiation and development of the self in
psychology. In Lacan's Mirror Stage, the infant begins to develop a sense of and "ideal-I" as a result of seeing its reflected body. D.W. Winnicott and others believe the body
to be the physical boundary of the self (1965). Fisher posited that the psychological
boundary of the self is rooted in the experience of the body (1986). Antonio Damasio
and other cognitive psychologists propose that the self is merely a checking system of
physiological states (2003). Terror Management Theory posits that because the body is
a constant reminder of mortality, we engage in efforts to regulate the body in order to
elevate the body from animal status to that of cultural symbol, thereby minimizing our
vulnerability to death (Goldenberg and Pyszczynski, et.al, 2000).
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TECHNOLOGIES OF THE SELF
In a time of war and environmental degradation, the beleaguered body-self might
4
attempt to engage in self-care practices, what Michel Foucault has termed
"technologies of the self', those "which permit individuals to effect by their own means
or with the help of others a certain number of operations on their own bodies and souls,
thoughts, conduct, and way of being, so as to transform themselves in order to attain a
certain state of happiness, purity, wisdom, perfection or immortality" (1988).
Foucault's survey of technologies of the self, his last writing, reveals that spiritual and
political (social) fitness and participation is contingent on on-going self-care practices,
which in early Greek-Roman and Christian practices involved vigilant self-examination
and self-questioning, purification of the soul, reflection through dialogue, meditation and
writing, dream analysis, and other truth games. Self-preservation and "narcissistic"
activity were not considered coping mechanisms for distress or pathological in any way.
They were prerequisites and necessary aspects of engagement with the divinity and
society. These technologies are the precursors to contemporary self-care practices and
point to their importance in the spiritual and social lives of its citizens, despite any
narcissistic (pathological or other) undertones. Foucault notes that our own morality of
asceticism has allowed us to obscure the importance of self-care because the self is
that which one can reject (1988).
SELF-EXPERIMENTATION
Self-experimentation is one such technology of the self.
Human experimentation, particularly outside of established, legitimate medical settings,
carries with it echoes of inhumane acts at Nazi war camps. However, the committees
Foucault's work on "technologies of the self" was largely inspired by a reading of
Lasch's The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing
4
Expectations.
25
established to prevent such atrocities and abuses by researchers, the IRB's and others,
frequently do not regulate self-experimentation. Moreover, as Lawrence Altman, MD
points out in his book Who Goes First?, the Nuremburg Code, developed in response to
the Holocaust, specifically supports and encourages self-experimentation. The fifth
code states:
No experiment should be conducted where there is an a priori reason to
believe that death or disabling injury will occur; except, perhaps, in
those experiments where the experimental physicians also serve as
subjects.
Over the course of history, numerous scientists have conducted experiments on
themselves, most likely inspired by the second tenet of the Nuremberg Code:
The experiment should be such as to yield fruitful results for the good of
society, unprocurable by other methods or means of study, and not
random and unnecessary in nature.
Daniel Carrion, a medical student in Lima, Peru died after he purposely infected himself
with veruga perruana, a skin disease that produces bumps and rashes. His goal was to
discover the skin disease and Oroya fever were related. For Carrion, the decision to
experiment on himself was an ethical one, a necessary step to gaining knowledge about
the course of the disease (Altman 1986).
Seth Roberts, a professor of psychology at Stanford University, has conducted a
number of studies on his own body. For over twelve years he has undergone intense
self-examination of his everyday activities and measured the effects of different
activities on his weight, sleep patterns, susceptibility to cold, etc. Some of his
experiments have failed or yielded insignificant results. Some experiments produce
unusual findings. One of his most interesting findings was that drinking unflavored
fructose water causes weight loss. His explanation as that "flavors associated with
calories raise the body-fat set point: The stronger the association, the greater the
increase. Between meals the set point declines" (Roberts 2004).
26
Carrion's and Roberts' examples illustrate that 1) self-experimentation is a promising,
unrestricted source of scientific and humanistic discoveries, exempt from the scrutiny of
the International Review Board or other governing bodies, 2) failure is common to any
self-experimentation, and 3) one must have a specific relationship with oneself in order
to engage in self-experimentation.
What is this unique relationship? We diet, we exercise, we manipulate our physical
appearance, we engage in or refrain from sex, we care for our bodies or we abuse
them. Exerting control over the body provides the most immediate, most accessible
form of affirming personal power. Technologies of the self represent an exertion of
personal control usually for a higher purpose. The sum of these activities between the
body and self results in a closer relationship between self and body, but at the same
time enforces the hierarchy of psyche over body.
27
SELF
DEATH4BODY
The attempt to achieve a still, weightless body and the distribution of the body via
growing and sharing vegetables made with one's urine (N=1...) are simulations of
death, thought experiments of an irrevocable, terminal state enacted through the
body.
DEATH IS THE MEDIUM BETWEEN THE BODY AND THE
SELF
DEATH, DENIAL & HEROISM
Before Christopher Lasch, Ernest Becker offered an alternative, although not
incompatible view of the self and the human condition synthesized from the work of
Soren Kierkegaard, Sigmund Freud, Otto Rank, Abraham Maslow, and others. In The
Denial of Death, he argues that the struggle for heroism' is central to human nature and
is based on "organismic narcissism" and our innate need for self-esteem: "Society itself
is a codified hero system, which means that society everywhere is a living myth of the
significance of human life, a defiant creation of meaning."(1973) Becker goes on to
conclude that this heroism is a reaction against the fear of death, what William James
calls the "worm at the core," the universal dilemma.
Becker's concept of "heroism" is echoed in Lasch's "hedonistic and self-serving
practices" as our attempts to escape the fear of death lead us to consume, amass
wealth and prestige, and build systems of power. Thus, though they are different in
their approaches, Becker and Lasch derive their arguments from the same basic focus
on self-preservation as a primary motivation. Becker's fear of death is a survival
instinct, a biological and evolutionary tool to ensure life, much as Lasch's minimalist,
narcissistic self is focused on psychic survival.
28
TERROR MANAGEMENT THEORY
Our existential fears are centered around the body, the symbol of our mortality. Becker
writes: "[T]he existential dilemma, the essence of man: we are half animal, half
symbolic." This duality of body and conscious self is irreconcilable, for "[H]is body is a
material fleshy casing that is alien to him in many ways-the strangest and most
repugnant way being that it aches and bleeds and will decay and die." (1973).
Becker's synthesis of psychoanalytic thought, existentialism, cultural criticism, and
humanistic psychology has been widely influential. Psychologists Jeff Greenberg and
Todd Pyszczynski developed Terror Management Theory (TMT) in homage and
response to Becker's work. TMT posits that human beings need two kinds of support
against the knowledge that we must die: self-esteem and an enhanced cultural
worldview. Self-esteem, according to TMT is derived from the knowledge that one is
meeting cultural standards for beauty, achievement, wealth, etc.
The body is frequently a focus of TMT inquiry, reflecting Becker's influence.
Goldenberg and Pyszczynski, et.al. (2000) argue that because the body is a constant
reminder of mortality, we engage in efforts to imbue the body with meaning in order to
elevate the body from animal status to that of cultural symbol, thereby minimizing our
psychic vulnerability to death. TMT is used to explain societal norms regarding physical
attractiveness, hygiene, dress, and sexual behavior. Solomon, Greenberg, &
Pyszczynski (2000) observe that:
Although a variety of hypotheses derived from TMT have been tested, the most
widely researched is the MS [mortality salience] hypothesis, which states that to
the extent that psychological structures provide protection from the potential for
death-related anxiety, reminders of death should intensify efforts to uphold the
psychological structures-cultural worldviews and self-esteem-that provide this
protection. More than 120 studies have supported variants of this MS hypothesis
by showing that thoughts of one's own death affect a wide range of human
activities, including prosocial behavior, aggression, nationalism, prejudice, selfesteem striving, sexual attitudes, risk taking, and close relationships (see
Goldenberg, Pyszczynski, Greenberg, & Solomon, 2000; Greenberg et al., 1997;
Mikulincer, Florian, & Hirschberger, 2003)
29
Terror Management Theory, despite 20 years of empirical evidence, has not yet
explored whether any conditions or behaviors actually reduce the fear of mortality.
Solomon, Greenberg and Pyszczynski's observations point to the fact that there are a
number of confirmed and defensive responses to perceived existential threats. They
test the potential functionality of certain anxiety-reducing measures, but fail to confirm
that they in fact do affect death-anxiety. A handful of studies have observed actual
effects of anxiety buffers on death-anxiety. These include studies of close relationships
(Mikulincer, Florian, Birnbaum, and Malishkevich 2002), objective self-awareness (Silvia
2001), and self-esteem (Greenberg, Pyszczynski, and Solomon, 1993; Harmon-Jones,
Simon, Greenberg, Pyszczynski, Solomon, McGregor, 1997, and others). These
anxiety buffers present the most likely candidates for reducing mortality threat. For
instance, one could test the effect of increases (albeit temporary) in self-esteem on
mortality salience, etc.
Self-esteem as Anxiety Buffer
Self-esteem as an anxiety buffer was an early focus of TMT research, and further
empirical evidence continues to support the importance of self-esteem as a key factor in
managing existential fear (Solomon, Greenberg, Pyszczynski 2004). For example,
Harmon-Jones, et al (1997) found that high self-esteem individuals did not respond to
mortality threat with an increased worldview, a terror management response.
Individuals with high self esteem thus did not need to rely on another construct in order
to deal with the mortality threat; rather their positive self-regard acted as a buffer against
the threat of death. In a previous study, Goldenberg, et al (2000) studied the effects of
mortality salience on identification with one's body. They found that those with high
self-esteem identify and cling to the body when reminded of death whereas those with
low self-esteem distance themselves from the body when reminded of death. The
authors explain that those who feel they are (by their own standards) living up to cultural
standards of physical attractiveness have high self-esteem, and in the face of death will
thus cling to their bodies as a source of self-worth to buffer the threat of death. Those
30
who feel they are not living up to cultural standards will have lower self-esteem and will
thus seek alternative sources of self-worth to deal with the threat of death. More work
appears necessary in this area, as self-esteem is the product of many different factors,
including satisfaction with one's physical appearance. Furthermore, it would be useful
to distinguish between the effects of global self-esteem and trait-specific self-esteem on
mortality threat.
Thus, Terror Management Theory, particularly the mortality salience studies, seem to
confirm Ernest Becker's thesis that death is intimately tied with conceptions of the self,
and dealing with existential threat appears to be a major focus of the mind's activities.
Death is a major component of our psychological make-up, is constantly on our minds
and affects our everyday actions, beliefs, etc. The self, in confronting the body, must
also confront death.
31
BODY@DEATH@P LANET
If the body is the first boundary of the self and digestion and purification are largely
internal experiences, growing and sharing vegetables made with one's urine represents
a dispersal of the self-body, and a union of bodies and body-nature.
Death is the
eventual distribution of the body into the earth via decay-- the ultimate formlessness,
weightlessness of the body.
DEATH IS THE MEDIUM BETWEEN THE BODY AND THE
PLANET
Ernest Becker's Denial of Death and Terror Management Theory suggest that the body
and self/soul are somehow separate entities that are connected but at odds with one
another. The body perpetually asserts itself via excrement, hunger, pain, exhaustion,
and sexual desire. The self attempts to elevate itself into a symbol of transcendence,
one that is immortal and therefore immune from the smells and tastes of the (lesser)
mortal body. This split between body and self as a result of fear of one's mortality is
echoed in the difficulty of marketing ecological burials to the public:
There's a cultural barrier to green burial in mainstream culture," says Kim Sorvig, a
landscape architect at the University of New Mexico who serves as an advisor to
the Green Burial Council. "We have a detachment or denial about people dying.
You can go your entire life and never be confronted with the actual facts of death."
Sorvig says planning for conservation burial can change the way people view their
own deaths, and thus their lives. "People are depriving themselves of important
psychological or spiritual connections by playing along with the idea of death
embedded in the conventional culture," says Sorvig. "This offers great potential for
engaging people now and helping them connect with the cycle of birth and death
as a part of human ecology -- it's a very meaningful use of the earth"
(http://www.alternet.org/envirohealth/39923/)
By confronting death in an ecological way, it is possible to achieve a reconciliation with
one's own mortality. This reconciliation eliminates the "worm at the core," one's
g
r
e
a
t
e
s
t
f
e
a
r
32
That mounting environmental degradation threatens the survival of the planet is a priori.
Theodore Roszak argues that the best remedy is a narcissistic revolution in which
personal needs are aligned with planetary needs:
What the modern cultural environment has required of us is an enormous
extroversion of attention and energy for the purpose of reshaping the Earth into a
global industrial economy. For two centuries we have been subordinating the
planet and our deepest personal needs to that project. This great act of
collective alienation, I have suggested, lies at the root of both the environmental
crisis and individual neurosis. In some way, at some point, a change of direction,
a therapeutic turning inward, had to take place within a culture as maniacally
driven as ours has been by the need to achieve and conquer." (1988)
The reconciliation and merger between self and planet may be accomplished via a
process of self-examination, body-self integration, reconciliation with death and a uniting
of body with nature. Once merged, the self develops an ecological unconscious.
SELF@PLANET // N=1=NPK=KIMCHI=N
1. A thorough examination of the self-body and soul.
2. Performing tests and experiments on the self to understand the best systems
and conditions for the self.
3. Confronting and dealing with the terror of death; foregoing this leads to
neurosis and despair.
4. A closer integration of the body into the self-concept
5. Connecting to nature and working to ensure the safety of the planet.
33
6. Synthesizing self-knowledge and design principles to produce technologies of
the self
7. An increasing level of personal change through adaptation, reorganization,
and retro-fitting to the new technologies of the self resulting in purification,
reconciliation with death, and a closer integration of self, body, and nature.
34
Ilil. THEMASTERLIST
abject
adaptation
advanced life support
agentic self
agriculture
air exchange
alienation
anima mundi
annhilation
biography
biomimicry
body double
body scanner
bowling alone
breast feeding
bruxism
Buddhism
case history
chair
cleanse
closed loop
confession
consciousness
consumption
contradiction
control
corporeal
corpse
35
covert/overt
cryogenics
culture of narcissism
customization
cyborg
death
decay
defense mechanism
design
dialogical self
diet
digestion
distribution
eating disorder
ecopsychology
ecosystem
ecovention
ego
environmental degradation
ergonomic
existentialism
failure
false self
feeding tube
fermentation
fertilizer
fit
fragmentation
furniture
gaia
garden
36
healing
heroism
hierarchy of needs
horticultural therapy
Human Potential movement
human subject
Humanistic Psychology
human-plant
hydroponics
idealization
identity
immortality
individualism
interdependence
International Review Board
intervention
isolation
kidney
kimchi
landscape
living unit
love
meditation
minimalist
mirror stage
monk
mortality salience
narcissism
nature
negative staining
nirvana
37
nitrogen cycle
nitrosomas/nitrobacter
npk
objectification
pain
pathology
perfection
permaculture
pickle
prophet
proprioreception
prosthetic
psychotherapy
public-private
purification
recycling
ritual
self-assertion
self-body
self-care
self-control
self-efficacy
self-examination
self-experimentation
self-help
self-preservation
septic system
simulation
sleep
soul
space
38
Spaceship Earth
Survival
sustainability
techniques of the body
technologies of the self
terror management theory
terrorism
thanatopsis
torture
transcendent
transformation
transitional object
trauma
uncanny
urban
urine diverting toilet
urine therapy
utopia
vegan
vehicle
waste
water reclamation
water treament
weightlessness
39
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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41
ILLUSTRATION CREDITS
Figures 1, 3-6. Jonathon Hexner
Figure 2. Jae Rhim Lee
42
THANKS Y'ALL!!
This project was funded by the generous financial support of the Council for the Arts at
MIT and the Peter de Florez '38 Fund for Humor at MIT.
I would like to thank the following individuals who kindly gave their time, expertise,
encouragement, and feedback. Without these folks the project could not have been
possible:
Mike Grusak, Ph.D.
Krzystof Wodiczko
Joan Jonas
Tammy Chu
Marion Dumas
Julia Scher
Chris Dewart
Charlie Mathis
Anna Jasonides, RD, LD
Dr. Reza Abdi
Kai Udert, Ph.D.,
Sarah Booth, PhD
Susan Cohen
Magda Fernandez
Douglas Pfeiffer
Special thanks to my mother, Jeong Shin Lee, for teaching me how to make kimchi.
43