PHILOSOPHY
WHY PATTERN, WHY NOW?
Delve Into Our Founding Values, Vision and Philosophy In Practice
Trace the steps we've already taken and discover our vision of the future. Delve deeper into the PATTERNITY way of seeing and being with these excerpts from our co-founders Anna and Grace.
"When we launched PATTERNITY in 2009, our aim was to establish an inclusive and long-lasting organisation with a bold ambition: to use pattern to inspire people to see and experience the world differently"
Anna Murray
A Vision to Inspire an Interconnected Way of Seeing and Being
PATTERNITY was conceived to celebrate the infinite presence and beauty of pattern. To use pattern to better understand life. But in an increasingly complex, materialistic and fast-paced world, filled with large conglomerates and flooded by vast amounts of waste, we also wanted to ‘break the pattern’.
Our aim was to embark on a voyage of discovery using pattern to explore many of the complex dilemmas of our time. We wanted to use pattern as an antidote to humankind’s mounting disconnection and sense of isolation; to promote a ‘new way of seeing’ that starts simply with slowing down to notice the magnificence in the mundane.
To recognise the beauty in the seemingly banal is to foster a new kind of awareness that extends beyond our immediate surroundings. Reminding ourselves of our place within the bigger picture, can help us to put our day-to-day concerns into perspective.
To observe the overlooked and consider coincidence is to find an enduring sense of connection to our environment and to each other – a connection that can simply begin by opening our eyes.
"We set out to create a company with longevity, grounded by core principles and values that will (we hope) outlive us as founders"
Grace Winteringham
Curiosity: How can Pattern can Help us See the Everyday World with More Appreciation?
At the dawn of PATTERNITY, we looked first to the repetitive shapes and structures of our everyday urban surroundings for inspiration. We were drawn to bold, geometric, monochrome patterns, whether graphic stripes painted on the walls of an art gallery, the slatted grid of an iron drain cover or the serried windows of an apartment block.
"This recognisable aesthetic was easily accessible and allowed us to spread our ethos far and wide, giving pattern in its many guises the voice and platform it richly deserves."
Grace Winteringham
We aim to work with the unique power of pattern as a catalyst: to surprise, to rouse curiosity, and to bring disparate specialisms together and spark unexpected outcomes. Over time, our pattern-focused research, creative collaborations and educational events have taken us further afield, leading us to explore the patterns that connect the man-made with nature.
"We've become so overloaded with the barrage of everyday life, so busy travelling from A to B, absorbed by our screens and endless notifications, we have forgotten how and where to look: everyone, no matter where they are, can benefit from pausing to reflect and rediscover a sense of wonder."
Anna Murray
Venturing deeper still, our knowledge and understanding of both the visual and non-visual patterns that shape life, from the microscopic to the cosmic, have influenced our direction and defined our perspective. From art and design to music, mathematics, science, spirituality and beyond, pattern has a powerful ability to unify worlds, skills and disciplines to positive effect. More than just seeing patterns, PATTERNITY seeks to draw inspiration from them, to learn from them and engage with them. This cross-pollination is fundamental to us and continues to be the defining feature of our philosophy and creative projects today.
It is impossible to journey very far into the inspirational power of pattern without beginning to ask deep-rooted questions about existence and the way we live. Pattern, in all its forms, is vastly inspiring and its effects can be wide-reaching.
"To observe the overlooked and consider coincidence is to find an enduring sense of connection to our environment and to each other – a connection that can simply begin by opening our eyes."
Anna Murray
Collaboration: How Pattern can Help us Design More Positive and Purposeful Patterns of Behaviour…
Our research has provided us with a diverse and unique documentation of life. Exploring and implementing pattern has allowed us to dig beneath the surface and collaborate with many different disciplines and specialists, branching out from our own specialisms within art and design into many other fields.
"Along the way, we have unearthed timely scientific, theoretical, spiritual and philosophical points of view, both old and new, that have widened our perspective and set a new course for the next phase of the PATTERNITY journey. A new phase that is only just beginning to reveal itself"
Grace Winteringham
We are living in a time of great transformation. A time where we are beginning to question every part of the system that shapes the world we share. The ancient mathematical philosophers described the integration of pattern as harmonia mundi, ‘harmony of the world’. Years later we are living through a time of great discord. However, as we begin to emerge and learn from a competitive age challenged by fragmentation, there is a sense of comfort in the realisation that life is a beautifully interconnected web.
"It is both humbling and timely to remember that nature, filled with infinitely inspiring patterns, has its own way of finding simplicity and balance."
Anna Murray
There are numerous simple, universal solutions to the problems of our time just waiting to be discovered. Should we wish to open up to new ways of seeing – and also being – we have the opportunity to delve deeper than we ever have before, to spend more of our time exploring the bigger, worthwhile questions as we begin to pick up the ancient threads that, for so long, have been severed from our collective and connected consciousness. It is time that we begin to learn from the wise and powerful patterns that surround us all.
Connectivity: How Pattern can Help us Re-connect with Our Creativity and Our Wider Environment…
Our collective future is resting on our will to become more aware, to co-operate and cross-pollinate ideas and skills – and to remember our deep connectivity both to each other and to the natural world. We need to celebrate the commonalities that unite us all.
"Our ability to detect and appreciate patterns big or small, regardless of discipline, is fast becoming one of the most important skills in aiding us to develop and enhance our understanding of our world and beyond."
Anna Murray
We are honoured in only the first chapter of the journey so far we have grown a community of pattern explorers, specialists and partners who support our manifesto, and who share our fundamental belief in the positive power of pattern. At a time when it has perhaps become ever more essential for value-driven communities to join together and create new patterns of meaning, we’re looking forward to co-creating the future.
For those who seek to understand it, pattern is a highly creative force. PATTERNITY serves as not only a collation and instigator of innovative, pattern-focused projects and phenomena, but also through the very pattern of our organisation and culture we are seeking to venture beyond the material world.
"We look to inspire simple ways of doing and being as we begin to ‘set an example' for others to follow – and the journey has only just begun!"
Grace Winteringham