Attuning with/in Spirituality - Relational Practices in Circular Design

Speakers

Yoko Akama

Associate Professor, School of Design, RMIT University / Co-Lead, Designing Entangled Social Innovation in Asia-Pacific (DESIAP)
Masafumi Kawachi

Representative Director, Deep Care Lab / Co-Representative, PUBLIC & DESIGN
Kok Yoong Lim

Associate Professor, School of Communication & Design, RMIT University Vietnam

In circular design, “spirituality” tends to be avoided. Why do we hesitate to engage with it? The session opened with this question posed by Yoko Akama (RMIT University), who challenged practices that prioritize efficiency and profitability alone. While the possibility of re-examining spirituality and religiosity in Asia and Japan had also surfaced in Session 1—through discussions of sorcery and yokai—this session sought to make those ideas more concrete and actionable.

Practices of Memorialization and Circulation

Masafumi Kawachi (Deep Care Lab / PUBLIC & DESIGN) described how his experience living in Finland led him to recognize the importance of receiving care. Drawing on the Jōdo Buddhist concept of ōsō-gensō (往相還相, the reciprocal movement of going and returning), he applies this idea to contemporary practice.
In a marine project, he experimented with transforming the shells of long-spined sea urchins into skipping stones or dangos and returning them to the sea as a form of playful memorial offering. This practice attempts to reconcile material circulation with spiritual circulation.
At Ōten-in Temple in Osaka, he organized workshops centered on kuyō (供養, memorial rites) for objects, living beings, and even the AI robot aibo. Through a ritual of “removing the soul” conducted by a Buddhist priest, participants experienced a symbolic severing of attachment to objects, opening space for new relational possibilities.

Masafumi Kawachi

Metamodernism and the Spiritual Circular Economy

Kok Yoong Lim (RMIT University Vietnam) situated the present as an era of polycrisis, in which multiple crises are entangled. He argued that spirituality can function as a tool for addressing deep-seated existential anxieties. A circular economy focused solely on material circulation risks becoming greenwashing; what is truly needed is a “spiritual loop” of meaning and responsibility.
In smart city research in Vietnam, Lim redefines technology not as an enemy of spirituality but as a tool for self-reflection. By reframing users as “existors” (beings-in-existence), he proposed a new framework for embedding spirituality within digital design.

Embodied Practice and the Concept of Kokoro

In the latter half of the session, participants engaged in one of three embodied practices: shakyō (写経, sutra copying), zazen (座禅, seated meditation), or Hokōzen (歩行禅, walking meditation). Through these experiences, Akama emphasized that spirituality must be encountered through the body.
Drawing on her research on kokoro, she highlighted the inseparability of mind, body, emotion, and spirit, introducing a co-ontological perspective she terms “ko-ontology.” She also cautioned that reducing spirituality to strictly religious meaning risks obscuring its essence. Within the ebb and flow of daily life, like the rising and falling tide, it may be important to consciously switch on and off moments of attentiveness to spirituality, without abandoning materiality or embodiment.

Discussion

In response to Kawachi’s marine project and aibo memorial example, Lim reiterated the importance of spiritual circulation alongside material circulation. Regarding contemporary issues such as digital afterlife and the AI simulation of the deceased, participants noted the danger that transforming the dead into AI might fix relationships in place and eliminate space for creativity.
Kawachi emphasized that the act of explicitly marking an ending through kuyō enables new relationships to begin. He noted resonance with Wakabayashi’s argument on “the importance of dying.”
In response to Lim’s proposal, Kawachi inquired about the positioning of a spiritual layer within smart cities. Lim suggested redefining technology as a tool for self-reflection rather than treating it as the adversary of spirituality. In Vietnam, where spiritual culture remains deeply embedded in everyday life, he proposed developing models that reflect each city’s specificity, incorporating what might be called “spiritual technologies.” The discussion ultimately underscored the importance of recovering cycles of meaning and responsibility by refusing to separate materiality and spirituality, and by cultivating new relationships among memorial practice, care, and technology.

Afterthoughts

Written by

Shin Okamoto

monlon G.I.A.

For me, this session became an introspective moment of asking myself: Why am I here now? This question emerged not only from the presentations in the first half, but also from personally experiencing sutra copying, seated meditation, and walking meditation in the latter half. Beginning from concerns of work and everyday life, a quiet atmosphere emerged in which each participant reflected on how they are situated within multiple relationships and why they find themselves here in this moment.
As discussed, spirituality can be understood beyond religion as a kind of relational “in-betweenness” in daily life. I felt this particularly during the fieldwork visit on Day 2 to the Imo Kannon in Nagahama and Kinomoto. Originally created as a Buddhist statue of a specific sect, the Kannon image was repeatedly buried by local residents during times of war and unearthed once peace returned. Over time, it came to be known as Imo Kannon and became a presence watching over the community, transcending sectarian boundaries. Today, networks of care extend beyond religious practitioners and local people. Support from a broader community sustains the statue and its hall.
As this example shows, spirituality in Japan often exists beyond formal religion, embedded in wishes amid uncertain times and in everyday habits, transcending generations and temporal boundaries. Might we also discover such spirituality—consciously or unconsciously—within our own lives?
Having co-hosted a workshop at Ōten-in with Kawachi, I recall similar discussions centered on the theme of “ancestors.” Situating ancestors within family, work, and social relationships is not confined to religious meaning. Likewise, PUBLIC & DESIGN’s initiatives address themes such as birth, death, and aging—topics often treated as taboo in daily life—by bringing them into public discourse.
One of the key learnings from this session was that spirituality, though sometimes avoided, can be accepted as something already present among us, and meaningfully integrated into both life and work.