Abraham Burickson | Author, Teacher, Architect, Experience Designer

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Abraham Burickson

If you want the normal about me
kind of stuff, click my name up top.
Otherwise, click the screen.

I’m glad you’re here. Click!

You can go backwards by clicking the left side of the screen.

Odyssey Works diagram titled THE BOOK OF SEPARATION, a looping journey map of colored paths on black

I want to talk to you
about something.

though I’m not sure
why you’re here.

Abraham Burickson grinning wide-eyed in a pale checked shirt, surrounded by leafy green trees

I’m assuming it’s because you
want to know more about what I do

A man in a striped shirt and rubber horse mask standing before a graffitied blue wooden wall

who the heck is this guy?

I can summarize

I’m an experience designer

I design experiences
for small audiences

I teach in various contexts

mostly out in the world

A bearded man gesturing as he talks beside a woman in sunglasses at a garden table

I run the Experience Design Certificate Program with Ayden LeRoux

You can check that out here if you want or keep clicking

Two small children in winter coats looking out through the open wood framing of a house

this is my happy place

I design houses

(in kind of an unusual way)

and I write books

Book cover: Experience Design: A Participatory Manifesto by Abraham Burickson, a wooden stool in a meadow

like this one

Closer view of the Experience Design: A Participatory Manifesto cover, foreword by Ellen Lupton

I’m supposed to get you
to buy it. Go ahead.

Zoomed in further on the book cover's title lettering and the stool in the grass

I mean, I really do want
you to. Go ahead!

Extreme close-up of the word DESIGN from the book cover over green grass

The Experience Design: A Participatory Manifesto book cover shown small on a green background

if you’ve made it this far
you’re probably my target
audience. Last chance.

An archery target with several arrows clustered in the bullseye against bright blue

An archery target with several arrows clustered in the bullseye against bright blue

well, this is awkward

An archery target with several arrows clustered in the bullseye against bright blue

you’re a target

A girl with a long braid aiming a crossbow across a grassy field

who designed this relationship?

A girl with a long braid aiming a crossbow across a grassy field

could we try a less hunter-prey
approach to sharing ideas?

why don’t we go
for a walk instead

it will take just a few minutes

I want to talk to you
about the design of experience

Architectural diagram titled "Qualities of Light and Space: Caroline House, The Long Architecture Project" showing annotated rooms set in a forest.

I think I mentioned I was
trained as an architect?

Curving, shimmering titanium walls and angled glass of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao at dusk.

I love looking at pictures
of beautiful buildings

Mosque courtyard framed by dark columns, with cascading domes, slender minarets and a central domed fountain.

one day I visited this
building in Istanbul

I had to wash my hands
before entering

and take off my shoes

A man in a long white robe kneels on a patterned green prayer carpet in soft sunlight.

inside most people were
sitting and kneeling

Looking straight up into an ornate mosque dome ringed with windows, beneath a star-shaped hanging chandelier frame.

these actions put me in the mind
of the majesty of the world

Upward view of a painted mosque dome with calligraphy roundels, arched windows and a six-pointed chandelier frame.

I hadn’t realized when looking at all the pretty pictures that the real design was the Experience

The ornate mosque dome seen from directly below, lamps and arched windows radiating around its center.

Majesty

Tall capped rock pinnacles rise above an eroded valley of pale stone formations at sunset.

a few weeks later
I climbed a stone tower

A dim rock-carved chapel alcove with faded red frescoes of a seated figure and haloed saints.

to find an ancient frescoed chapel
high in the air

Wonder

A woman in a green sweater stands on a small platform of a mirrored cabin among pine trees.

suddenly it was so obvious:
buildings were not things

A surreal corridor of paneled doorways folding into an endless zigzag tunnel of light and shadow.

they were containers
for experience:

Gallery with a board-formed concrete spiral staircase, paintings on white walls and visitors looking at art.

The connections between ideas

A vast, skylit design studio packed with desks, models and supplies beneath white steel trusses and stairs.

The grandeur of creativity

A black cat in a colorful collar gazes out a sunlit window beside a computer monitor.

Home

Black-and-white photo of four young children standing barefoot on a grassy clearing.

later, I went to live in the Amazon

Black-and-white close-up of rough wooden poles lashed together in a cross, against a bright sky.

to learn about Shuar architecture

Black-and-white photo of a forearm gripping a large fallen log amid jungle leaves.

it quickly became clear

Blurred black-and-white close-up of a fist gripping a log in the jungle.

that I couldn’t be a real human

A tall waterfall pours down a rock face into a boulder-strewn pool, surrounded by dense green rainforest.

without seeking power from
the spirits in the waterfalls

Black-and-white photo of a shirtless young man in a headband in the jungle, an older man in a cap blurred in front.

because that was how things
worked in the Shuar world

Closer black-and-white view of the young man in a headband gazing past the blurred older man in a cap.

I don’t believe in the spirits
in the waterfalls

Extreme blurry black-and-white close-up of a man's face under a cap, leaves at the edge.

but after two days hiking
through the jungle

Grainy, heavily blurred black-and-white close-up of a face, almost abstract.

that didn’t much matter

Dark, heavily blurred frame, nearly black, with only faint indistinct shapes visible.

I was in their world. those spirits
promised to empower me or kill me

Terror

Awe

Black-and-white photo of a smiling young boy on a grassy field, hand at his chest.

Joy

Black-and-white photo of a young man reading in the doorway of a bamboo-walled hut.

the experience changed me

moving from world to world does that

Illustration of a person in a clown costume stepping through a circle into a courtroom, becoming a gavel-holding judge.

each world offers a different self

Illustration of a person stepping through a circle toward a door marked RESTROOM with an all-gender symbol.

a different possibility of being

Athlete

Dense crowd of pilgrims in white reaching toward the black, gold-embroidered cloth of the Kaaba door.

Devotee

Gothic stone chapel with a tall bell tower, arched cloister windows, and an American flag.

Intellectual

such grand experience designs

if you want to come for a
real walk with me sometime

Lone person with outstretched arms on a lawn beneath towering orange-and-white striped columns.

I can tell you more stories

Lone person with outstretched arms on a lawn beneath towering orange-and-white striped columns.

you could reciprocate with your own

such an incredible experience,
walking with a friend

Two people walking side by side across an arched footbridge through autumn trees.

The camaraderie of the fellow traveler

I met some fellow travelers
a long time ago

and we started this thing
called Odyssey Works

Blindfolded man in a white shirt stands by a tree at a dusk forest clearing lined with glowing lanterns and a fire.

we make enormous experiences
for tiny audiences

1-person audiences

People in sun hats kneel around colorful blocks arranged on an orange cloth on a beach.

The embrace of community

Hand holding open a booklet of short musical staff fragments connected by lines like a map.

The shock of the new

Woman in red playing cello before a music stand in a bare, weathered room with two windows.

The perfectly prepared moment

Transformation

it’s been a long experiment
in what happens

when you design the experience
instead of the thing

Blue five-cent United States Postage stamp showing a bearded man in a hat, labeled Walt Whitman.

the armies of those I love engirth me

Close-up of the blue Walt Whitman five-cent United States Postage stamp portrait.

(that’s Whitman)

experience design seems
a pretty new field

Close-up of grass stems and seed heads, softly blurred water in the background.

but it has deep roots

Rust-red painted figure with a round eye, drawn on rough sandstone like a cave painting

in art and performance

Cave-painting style illustration of a simple house outline daubed in brown on stone

in architecture

Row of six dark stick figures with raised arms, painted like prehistoric rock art

in community building

Painterly cave-wall image of a figure with hands raised to its head in golden light

in religion

Illustrated cave-style painting of a line of brown figures standing together on dark rock

in education

Painterly illustration of people seated in a circle around a glowing campfire

in storytelling

Childlike charcoal drawing of a crowd of stick figures gathered around a birthday cake

in your birthday parties

Cave-painting style illustration of a horned bull wearing a virtual reality headset

new technologies can open our eyes
to experiential possibilities

but so can old ones

because, of course, experience design
is not about things

Black-and-white close-up of a forearm and hand gripping a log in the jungle

and that means cutting out the middleman

The same black-and-white arm now raised in a fist, the log gone, foliage behind

middlething?

and thinking first
about the experience

Two people soaking in a steaming outdoor hot tub facing sea, mountains and open sky

Restoration

Smiling people in bright pink hoodies guide a blindfolded woman wrapped in a green shawl

Absurdity

Silhouette of a person in a cap and glasses against a glowing golden sunset

The birth of the visionary

I’m continually blown away by
the transformative capacity
of experience design

Line drawing of a person walking into the pages of a giant open book

so simple. so ethically charged

Line drawing of a person reading a book as green glyphs flow from its pages

design for the effect you wish to have

Green line drawing of two hands holding an open book whose text forms a head

it’s changed my practice

has it changed yours?

would you like it to?

it’s pretty much my mission these
days to help people with that

Office window covered in black sticky notes and a hand-drawn skyline over city towers

hence the books, the Certificate Program,
the architecture, the consulting…

I’d love to know what you’re up to

drop me a line (you know, by clicking my name above)

or maybe we can go for
a real walk sometime

oh by the way

this walk was written by me

and built by Victor Carinha

Phone-shaped screenshot of the motto website, a mirrored city skyline reading "Welcome to Motto!"

and inspired by the work of
Vincent Morisset on motto.io

you can find other credits here

Thank you for walking with me.

Hi. I’m Abraham.

This is a walk. It takes about ten minutes, and it’s better with sound.