The Parts Around Us: Intro
It’s 2023. At current time, we live in an absolutely astounding, built-up world. A machine that provides for us, and challenges us with new problems every day that we must solve together in order to keep it running.
Everywhere you look, to the furthest extents of the surface of this Earth, you will find the mark of humanity. Whether it is the cacophony of a bustling city, or carved initials on a tree trunk in the middle of a field; hundreds of miles from anywhere.
The state of this global machine, the development of it, and the collaboration required to keep it humming along; fascinates me. It is a constant source of optimism in times where the image of humanity may seem lost, or misguided. When all around us there is evidence to the opposite.
Hidden in a glance of an ordinary bus stop are dozens of parts. Hundreds of interactions between thousands of people scattered across the globe. The sourcing of the material that gives it structure. The processing of this raw material into beams, joints, and fasteners that hold everything together.
Who designed this? Where did this material originate from, where was it processed? Who decided that it should sit exactly where it does? Who chose the shape of the glass, or the angle of the ceiling? Who wrote the instructions that were given to the people installing it? Can we even trace down these decisions? Or are they lost in the orchestra of the process that brought it together.
This worldview is one that constantly returns more questions than can be answered. With this blog series, I aim to bring you along as I attempt to pluck from the ether, answers to these scattered questions.
This blog series will follow along as I select a part from the world around us, and attempt to give insight into its entire lifecycle. From idea, to manufacture, to how it ended up where it did, and how it is impacting our view of the physical world around it.
The aim here, is to provide an insight into these background processes that exist silently all around us. The ones that literally shape the world we walk through, the world we grow through. By providing this information in this format, I hope to change the way you think about what your impact on the built-up world can be.
The barrier-to-entry to shape the world around you is a lot lower than you may think.