The story of ‘The Spirit of the Hibiscus’; worldmaking activities from Bali

The spirit of the Hibiscus is a creativity story of design otherwise, or design for other world making purposes that is a strategic response to the violence of universalism and Western imperialism. This participatory action research (PAR) approach facilitates storytelling through an intimate entanglement – thinking with the soil. Chakra, a Balinese sacred activist, and autonomous change agent directs his experiences to find relevant knowledge that both transforms himself and the community. Through his story, an epistemology of the South, we come to understand soil as a living infrastructure and one that is crucial for plant, animal, and human wellbeing. Framed in this way means to re-politicise the design literature through counter-narratives of creativity and worldmaking activity. To present new ways of understanding plurality through integrated thinking that links the organic and sociocultural worlds through a synergy of biological, social, and political perspective. A shift in consciousness that understands humans as soil-forming and soil-destroying agents; worldmaking is a matter of life and death.