We are in constant interaction with the world that surrounds us, with both living and non-living things, and simply cannot exist without the ebb and flow of this relationship. At the heart of each interaction is an exchange, a transfer of energy from one place to another. This may take on a more recognisable sensory shape, such as soundwaves parsed into varying chunks and lengths of linguistic meaning. Energy is exchanged further in the tender and equally linguistic touch of a hug, the familiar scent of freshly brewed coffee, or the taste of the crisp air on a cold and fresh winter's morning. We commune and communicate with our environment in equal measure. The creation, processing and sharing of thought and sense-making is no less an important exchange of energy that pervades our existence, whether conscious or unconscious. The shape of thought and knowledge, and how these both go on to permeate the shape of our interactions in the world, provides an interesting and essential reflexive perspective for our daily existence.
We are all primary knowers of our own experiences. Our sensory systems tingle with electrical and chemical impulses that transform external sensory stimuli into information that fuels our embodied, creative and spiritual self. Our neurology is at work across our whole body, continually making sense of our physical and mental worlds as we move through time and space. Our inner knowledging of the world is neither static nor finite, but responsive and expansive. No one can know the world in the way that we know it, because no one is in the world in the same place, at the same time, in exactly the same way. Our individual viewpoints and perspectives are unique, valid and valuable for these same reasons.
Information and knowledge also go beyond the domain of a single body. The shared experiences of community and of collaboration give knowledge a powerful shape, that can nurture and care, as well as govern and enforce. This is the directing and determining power that comes in the shape of custom and shared history, in law and order, and of academic learning. Such knowledge has expectations that shape our actions without any need for prompts or reminders. This is knowledge that can form and inform a society. It can often bring with it those who hold great power; the specialist, the expert, the leader others follow, often with little curiosity as to why, only an understanding that this is just how things are. We know the shape of hierarchy so well, it is something we have come to expect, rather than to question.
Thoughts on different interaction shapes
Lisa Chapman, 2025
The shape of such disciplinary power often takes the form of a triangle, a shape whose natural apex announces what is best, supreme, the pinnacle of achievement. The parallels with notions of empire, colonisation and of dominance over diversity are important. We see this shape, and the structure of power it represents, repeated across many domains in our Global North societies. It is the pyramid of evidence in research, or the still frequently used, but vastly outdated '
communication pyramid'. Even Maslow's hierarchy of need is topped by self-actualisation and the achievement of one's full potential. The triangle is continually portrayed as a standard, that funnels energy ever upwards towards the top and yet it provides little space for curiosity within, for reflexivity, or to embrace difference. This then is a shape where it is inherently difficult to come alongside others, especially for those who are at the top of the triangle. These expert, self-actuated, and fully 'developed' people have little time, capacity or need to take on board knowledge from others lower down in this linear hierarchy, particularly when others' knowledge comes in an entirely different shape.
The circle in the diagram is the antithesis of hierarchy, and is a metaphor for lived human experience, a 'circle of life', a celebration of our unique epistemic authority and identity as individual human beings in the world. In this sense, we are already enough, with no need for levels and charting success by movement upwards along more empirical and colonial lines. These two very different shapes and perspectives on knowledge construction and of being are hard to connect, and the entirety of that rich and expansive circle of epistemic authority, knowledge and experience can all too easily be dismissed and discarded as ill-fitting, irrelevant, and inferior.
To truly be able to be alongside and with others, we benefit from looking to what we share, a place of embracing the very circle of life experiences that are available to all of us. Acknowledging our similarities and our sensory contact and connection with the world is a great space from which to build relatedness, an honest space that brings equity and removes the barriers and levels of expert knowledge. Embracing the shape of a circle furthermore helps us resonate with being open, being in ourselves a space without boundaries or borders, where we have the freedom to be, without disconnect and linear progression. With no levels to climb, no singular direction of right or wrong, circles offer opportunities that are naturally welcoming of freedom to explore in multiple directions, with movement within a circle taking us invariably inside, to its centre. Appreciating and creating space for '
insiderness' is opening space for kindness, compassion and acceptance. Insiderness helps us understand differences in the context of nuance, feeling intensity and frequency, rhythm and melody, not just fixed positions and absolutes. In turn, we can learn how to harmonise alongside, and co-create whole symphonies, and not constantly play to the singular tune of the leaders of the band.
Thoughts on the shape of our interactions can help keep us move away from shapes of being that are angled towards fixing and productivity; ableist, behaviourist and capitalist narratives that presume one form of knowledge and way of being is best. Circles offer us welcoming shapes for how we conceptualise what it is to be well, where energy, communication and care is free to flow in all directions. Interactions feel safer and more authentic, in the knowledge of what is shared, rather than withheld, or held over others. Knowledge here has the power to be co-created, making the circle of lived experience, and of shared life experiences, an infinitely more powerful shape to embrace for nurturing the wellbeing of all involved.
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