NICE TO MEET YOU HANNAH SWART
Please introduce yourself in a few sentences.
About 3 decades ago, on the red dusty plains of Southern Africa, a rational planner and passionate artist kissed and not long after that beautiful moment, I happened. I am in love with life and the people that share it with me. I am endlessly fascinated by the thinking that sustains and creates our lives and futures.
How did you end up at ID?
During my career as interior architect, I saw glimpses of what our future could be, but I did not know how do get there. This dissonance between what I was doing and could be doing grew until I realized that I had to leave South Africa to bridge the gap between what is and what can be. I came to Chicago to lecture at the School of the Art Institute and then stumbled across ID.
Tell us quickly about a project that you’re working on now that you’re really excited about.
During the past weeks, I started to read about living systems. This way of seeing is generating a new paradigm where we learn to work with the bigger order to create a sustainable future. This excites me beyond words.
What would you do with 20 million dollars?
I would set out to discover how a sustainable future might look, by starting an organization that brings together brilliant minds from various disciplines that can see a new way forward. Together we can prototype how new thought patterns may become tangible realities. As we discover sound ways of thinking and doing that creates wholeness, we would partner with companies to bring the future into the present. We would work with companies to redefine and broaden their identities and start the necessary transformation from the inside out.
What super-power would you most like to have, and why?
Hmmm, I’d like to be the melting muse. I’d LOVE to be able to lose my form and melt into stuff – become one with it and learn it’s core nature. Imagine melting into the side walk, being absorbed through the roots of a tree, breathed out by it’s leaves and rained back through layers of misty clouds; imagine melting into language and becoming the pattern that adapts to different meanings; imagine melting into the body and mind of a tiny 8 year old in a dusty African shanty town; imagine melting into the internet and hearing the billion voices and bits of information whizz through me, catching phrases, picking up repeats, understanding us all the more.
