ABSTRACT
The act of “designing” inherently involves mediated proximity, whether at the scale of an object or an entire city. Creative leaders must balance their projects with the relationships they generate. This chapter adopts a broad understanding of design as a creative practice and explores the concept of proximity within contemporary society, where overexposure and closeness risk diminishing the significance of creative practices. To support this perspective, the chapter introduces the idea of a “society of transparency”, a framework that sheds light on societal dynamics. This concept is then applied to analyse relational art and creative installations that explore the transformation of the body and interrogate dynamics of control, power, and ownership in urban public spaces. The discussion demonstrates how philosophical insights can intersect with design approaches to generate new interpretations of proximity, redefining and enriching our understanding of distance in an overexposed society. The conclusion highlights the potential of integrating reflective philosophical perspectives with practical design methodologies as a means to advance creative research and education in this domain.
