“Whether music or madness, we live by one of the two”. So begins the song Fever to the Form by Nick Mulvey. Whether it has always been in our nature, or is a product of contemporary pressures, there is an increasing tendency towards control in all of human existence. It is there in every element of our daily lives, in our labour markets, in our cities, in our homes, in our relationships with our children. We seek predictability, stability, optimisation. And so we design. We design not for organic, emergent outcomes, but for top-down, controlled outcomes. Something is lost in this tendency however. In our search for forms which enforce our need for control and order, we often prevent anything we give life to ever really being alive. How do we build systems which can live?

Our search for control has its roots in fear. Fear that without control, without the ability to foresee outcomes, we will be caught short in some way. We become overly sanitised in our lifestyles, rejecting the organic and informal. Mulvey sings of “the very thing you’re afraid of, it leaves you clean but unclear… is the dirt that you’re made of, and that’s nothing to fear.”. He’s campaigning for a rejection of modern ideals of order and control, and advocating for an embrace of the very chaos from which life emerged in all it’s mess and beauty. Disorder should not be seen as a failure of design, but the very mechanism around which we can design for emergent outcomes.

Mulvey’s lyrics address the broader human condition. He sings “you were never empty, yet still we ask for more”, suggesting that abundance is no guarantee of an end to longing. It is our search for more that drives our creativity, bringing us music, architecture, art. Mulvey seems to suggest that it our creative force which brings “fever to the form” of modern human existence. Our creative endeavours make manifest the potential in all of human experience, breaking out of the control structures we as a society have imposed upon ourselves.

For those of us who identify as designers, the song acts as a reminder that good design embraces the value in disorder. As designers we are tasked with the responsibilty of bridging chaos and structure. We must give form to structures and artifacts which create the conditions for human creativity, emotion, ritual, and connection to combine and animate their environment. We must make allowances for the intangible energy which binds all life, whether that is expressed through the construct of religion, of community, of love, and enable this energy to break down the walls we have built out of fear, and finally empower us to feel full.

Fever to the Form
Nick Mulvey

So whether music or madness
Live by one of the two
By one of the two

Go on, fill your heart up with gladness
Not a moment too soon
Not a moment too soon

Should we ration the reasons
To the charts that ignore
Of this I’ve never been sure

So I will follow the feeling
And sing fever to the form
Oh my fever to the form

‘Cause the very thing you’re afraid, afraid of
It keeps you clean but unclear
Clean but unclear

Is the dirt that you’re made, you’re made of
And thats nothing to fear
No, its nothing my dear

How did I know what you’re thinking
Maybe I thought it before

Maybe that’s why I’m at your window
Hear me at your door
Singing give me some more

Oh fever to the form
Won’t you hear me at your door
Singing give me some more

‘Cause you were never empty
And we’ve been here before
Yes, we’ve been here before

But now theres always plenty
Yet still we ask for more
Singing fever to the form