In an address to the bib⁄Royal Institute of British Architects, Ivan Illich writes:
To dwell then meant to inhabit one’s own traces, to let daily life write the webs and knots of one’s biography into the landscape.
Dwelling is a dual process, writing into the environment to then inhabit it. To live amongst a landscape with no trace of the self is to be alienated. To live amongst a landscape with no trace of an other is to be alone. The modernist impulse towards generalized solutions for generic individuals homogenizes the landscape in this manner, precisely because one is unable to read the self or an other in it. As such, infrastructure must permit to be written on, to allow for dwelling.
This process of Writing, however, is not a pure, a direct inscription of the mind. It is mediated by the tool at hand. In Tools for Conviviality, while discussing industrial tooling, bib⁄Ivan Illich writes:
To the degree that [an individual] masters his tools, he can invest the world with his meaning; to the degree that he is mastered by his tools, the shape of the tool determines his own self-image. Convivial tools are those which give each person who uses them the greatest opportunity to enrich the environment with the fruits of his or her vision. Industrial tools deny this possibility to those who use them and they allow their designers to determine the meaning and expectations of others. Most tools today cannot be used in a convivial fashion.
Conversely, simple tools which can be wielded by the user afford agency and empowerment. Ken Isaacs, in the introduction to bib⁄his manual for DIY living structures, writes:
ADVANTAGES OF SIMPLE TOOLING: This same concentration permits us to set about breaking the relentless grip of a culture which demands that we have the newest, biggest, & fastest power tools before we being building anything. It will make it possible for us to utilize, understand, & control simple tooling. The ability to use simple tooling effectively is not just good for our state of being but from a pragmatic point of view it means you can build without investing too much of your economics resources. In ecological terms, if the investment is low the result is personal independence & the handmaidens of personal independence are beyond price for they are gentle assurance & non-violent self-confidence.