TIL about Knolling

Knoll /noʊl/

BULLET VIII: ALWAYS BE KNOLLING (ABK)

1. Scan your environment for materials, tools, books, music, etc. which are not in use

2. Put away everything not in use. If you aren’t sure, leave it out

3. Group all ‘like’ objects

4. Align or square all objects to either the surface they rest on, or the studio itself

—Tom Sachs

Today I learned:

• Knolling is the biggest rabbit hole I’ve fallen into for years.
• Reading about Symmetry ODC I run into the Tumblr Things Organized Neatly created by Austin Radcliffe.
• The blog has an accompanying book: Things Organized Neatly: The Art of Arranging the Everyday. The book has a foreword by Tom Sachs that reads as follows:

“Knolling” is the method of organizing things neatly that my studio employs. There are other names that others use: stackenblocken, tessellation, tidying up, making like piles, and Things Organized Neatly. Much is made to compare these methods with obsessive-compulsive disorder but we all know that OCD is a form of narcissism. That the patient believes if he doesn’t go through a specific ritual then something terrible will happen. ’This is an irrational thought because it’s based on fear and a sense of grand self-importance, where the subject feels that his ritual actions control unrelated events.

Knolling helps us see what’s in front of us so we can discern. It helps us make more things fit into less space, or fewer things into more space, but always with the aim of understanding materials. This book shows us how things, when organized neatly, help us to build, to organize, to pack for a trip, or to conquer a nation.

• I’m now obsessed with the obsession of order, organization, layout, grids, and the beauty that arises from them all.
• But above all, I am fascinated by the magic of an activity that should have no name, but it does.
• Reference links:
  • 10 Bullets, #8: “ALWAYS BE KNOLLING”. By Tom Sachs. The how-to manual by the OG.
  • Zen and the Art of Knolling at the Make: magazine.
  • The History of Knolling — Our Favorite Instagram Trend