Relational Design Lab is a research and development lab focused on belonging and technology.
We collect, cultivate, and conduct research on small groups, networks, communities of practice, technology design patterns, and living systems.
We prototype and build digital and social technologies to support being together. We support the development of community-owned technology.
As above so below
We study how groups are affected by the containers where they convene, the systems that impact their members, and the contexts of their engagement.
People who do things together contend with the effects of culture, family systems, economics, and biological systems, which impact their ability to collaborate and share resources.
Systems and behaviours change through action and practice. Practice offers paths to greater mastery as well as an invitation to emergence and shared discovery.
We are particularly interested in structural design that allows, supports, and enables groups and individuals to practice with non-coercive, voluntary, distributed responsibility.
Fumbling towards digital technology in right relationship
In order to avoid the replication of harmful patterns and behaviours, groups that practice collaboratively require structure and explicit guardrails against dominance and coercion. Technology comes with many antisocial patterns baked in. We focus on technology that can operate outside the dominant systems, where collective responsibility is a feature, not something to be erased in service of convenience. We believe technology can be both collectively managed and a joy to use. Our experiments and prototypes centre on ways that people engage with one another in digital spaces that are purpose-developed for their contexts and communities.
Beyond design, we believe that the context of development matters. If we ourselves are operating from our trauma, driven by misaligned incentives, and out of relationship with one another and the living systems we're a part of, how can our technology do anything but reinforce the systems we propose to change?
Economies of descale
Small groups of people are naturally anti-capitalist and anti-authoritarian. We have inherent instincts towards cooperation, mutual aid, and connection. This is how humans survived and evolved for most of our history. We are creatures who can't survive without others for an incredibly long part of our development relative to other animals. Most kinds of relational behaviour among humans are undermined by the sense that others are taking our interest into account only for extrinsic reward or payment.
Our current context involves commodified care work, artificial intimacy, and disregard for the ecological effects of our actions. These are antithetical to the concept of right relationship found in most indigenous cultures and even among modern spiritual belief structures. Exploitation, profligate extraction, and large-scale systems of violence are not inevitable. They have emerged in systems driven by imperialism, patriarchal dominance, and accumulative capitalism.
Despite these forces, small groups are the experimental spaces where more human practices can flourish. We document patterns of practice, prototype technologies, and run experiments to understand and share effective group strategies and structures. We support the design and development of learning and practice collectives using small groups as the building blocks of network development.
Welcoming complexity
The modern world fetishizes convenience. We appreciate simplicity in the form of minimalist solutions, while keeping in mind that everything is connected. We are beings made of millions of systems, deeply affected by our surroundings and other beings, and in constant flux and blending. If we continue to build technology and other systems without consideration for the externalities and impacts of our actions and our resource usage, we will hasten death and systems collapse.
Some of the changes humanity has activated have already gone past the point of repair or reversion. As we enter into a time of large-scale system disruption and failure, we will need to refresh our skills as collaborators in small groups. We will need to have the skills of generosity, grace, and openness to new ideas and ways of being. We can't just read about these ideas or watch YouTube videos.
Our "theory of change"
Practice in small groups is necessary for the big changes to come, and we can cultivate the conditions for the proliferation of practice.