"Forms of Life: The Center," a Philosophical Exhibition Organized by Researcher-in-Residence Toby Shorin

As part of a research residency with cultural researcher Toby Shorin, Baukunst hosted Forms of Life: The Center on March 28, 2025. In this piece, Toby recaps his work so far as Baukunst's Researcher-in-Residence and reflects on the exhibition.

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Forms of Life was a philosophical exhibition exploring physical centers as a locus for community, creativity, and spiritual needs in the current cultural moment. The exhibition examined the form of the Center historically, conceptually, and from a designer's perspective. The aim was to provoke ideas about how physical space can better serve contemporary communities. It was the culmination of the first part of my research residency at Baukunst.

The Concept

This project grew out of a months-long Baukunst residency focused on magic—interpreted broadly, from Western esotericism to psychotherapy to design theory. After several months I arrived at the idea that form, the literal shape of physical and social space, is one of the most powerful influences on thought and reality.

To ground this idea in the context of the show, I made use of two thinkers who have influenced my thinking on form: the architect and theorist Christopher Alexander, and the German poet, scientist, and statesman Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

In his famous book A Pattern Language, Christopher Alexander charts out timeless patterns that combine to create environments suited to human belonging. Less well-known is Alexander's principle of centers, outlined in his more spiritual volumes, The Nature of Order. In Christopher Alexander's understanding of metaphysical reality, centers are a structuring principle that define the shape of living order.

Goethe shares a similar understanding of form as a basic principle of reality. In his works of botany and animal biology, as well as his studies of culture and civilizations, he discovered life cycles of growth in which natural forms unfold through metamorphosis, each stage of growth an organic intensification of a single underlying type. Like Alexander's centers, Goethe locates the source of order within life itself.

I apply these ideas to the social form of the center, and social forms at large. Social forms are forms of life, and the repertoire of forms dictates the kind of life available to us.

The Exhibition

Forms of Life departed from a traditional gallery format, incorporating visual art, interactive gathering spaces, video, and curated displays of research materials that informed my recent thinking. The show was co-curated by my colleague, artist and spiritual care provider Mati Engel. Mati was also my primary thought partner for “Prototyping Social Forms of Care,” an essay I also published in the course of my research residency.

Each portion of the exhibition featured wall-mounted images and text, where circulation of the space led visitors through a narrative: first introducing the concept of the center, then the center's underling cultural meanings, then its design principles, and finally examples of centers through time.

The exhibition images included photographs by artist-activist photographer Sharon Avraham, who documents communes and collectives and their centers of life.

We felt it was important to not only explain and represent the form of the center through text, and image, but to also demonstrate the center's design principles. In keeping with this we created a "temple" area, featuring works in ceramic, glass, and light from Oakland-based sculptor Annie Artell, whose work explores architectural forms with spiritual significance in the tradition of the Universal Constructivist movement.

One corner of the Baukunst studio housed an experimental video work about the exhibition from artist & documentarian Ethan Goldwater, who documents consciousness movements, leaders, and centers in the Bay Area and elsewhere.

Thanks to polymath designer James Risberg, who collaborated on spatial design, circulation, lighting, and furniture, we were able to transform the Baukunst studio into a prototype of the kind of center we'd like to see more of.

Journey to the Center

A key component of the exhibition was an experimental dinner at the Baukunst Studio, organized principally by Mati Engel, in which we invited over 25 leaders from Bay Area centers dedicated to fostering connection and social care.

Participants included representatives from institutions such as UC Berkeley’s Center for the Science of Psychedelics, Alchemy Springs, Commonweal, Fairfax's iconic Wu Wei Tea Temple, Grace Cathedral, and The Berkeley Alembic. We facilitated a few exercises to reflect on our history as leaders of centers and explore challenges and approaches to community-building.

It was beautiful to use Baukunst as a space for this work. The presence of an enriching and artistic intervention surprised many of the artists and community leaders who joined for the opening and the dinner. But the Baukunst studio is already an important center, not only for San Francisco's community of creative technologists, but also for Bernal Heights community, where it is used by neighborhood groups for meetings and holiday markets. Since my exhibition last year we've begun hosting more regular art openings through our First Fridays initiative.

It was a privilege to work with Baukunst on this project, and we're all excited to think about what's next.