Abstract
Design engages and is engaged by the complex dynamics of the social and natural worlds. This complexity is generated through networks of interdependent relationships among social and natural entities. My study offers a critique and complement to assumptions about “wicked problems” emerging from this conference’s presentations on Human/Nature interdependences. Complex design, in my view, does not seek reconciliation. Instead, complex design instantiates how we fully engage the juggernaut of human/nature interdependencies with ‘eyes wide open.’ I propose a framework for understanding how human/nature interdependencies generate social complexity. This framework is based on observations about the dimensions and dynamics of biotic and abiotic entities from the fields of sociology, physics, chemistry, and biology. I offer vocabulary useful for discussing the ontological ‘nature’ of entities and processes across the following conceptual map: entities as unbounded and multi-dimensional; how interactions between entities shape and are shaped by the flow of energy, matter and information; how interactions emerge along matrices of relational networks. Projects generated through local design engage not only material processes but also discursive dynamics that travel across global networks. When mechanical assumptions about social and natural dynamics slip into design processes, the project’s adaptative and innovative capacities are truncated. But more importantly rigid mechanical design elements, working in complex and dynamic environments engages the emergence of wicked problems. Complex design, then, is presented as a process constituted by the social complexity of networked, relational Human/Nature alignments that engage the capacity to reproduce statis and generate innovation across time and space.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
2023 Special Focus—Human/Nature: Toward A Reconciliation
KEYWORDS
Complexity Thinking, Human/Nature Interaction, Resilience, Social Complexity, Globalization
