Abstract

In the urban, our visual world may be compared to a game of Monopoly. In thinking about the game and what it represents both physically and as an abstraction, there is a growing sense of an emergent dialogue between an unlikely pair of constructs. Constructs that inherit substantial indefinable characteristics; and yet both, when combined, create the magic in our urban we so cherish and often take for granted. This paper explores our visual world for similarities and affordances that may be present in two of today’s less well frequented theoretical frameworks. Tacit knowing and heuristics. Heuristics, however, with a modern twist. As we hover over the Monopoly board, saturated in a fetish of light-hearted greed, how does our behaviour of extending meaning differ in the real world? This study is a theoretical exploration. It looks at conceptual relationships, rather than data scraping or solicitation of surveys and case studies, to make a point. The focus is on three main issues. Firstly, how we orient ourselves in the urban. Secondly, the role tacit knowing and heuristics play in orienting us. And lastly, the potential that orienting and heuristics hold as conceptual frameworks. The aim is to provide a lens through which a concept of visual sustainability can find traction in the discourse of modern-day sustainability. One desperately needed in today’s melee of visual uncertainty. As we continue to click and gaze our way into new levels of unsustainability.