Abstract
In questioning how we come to know the world, we have to maintain the insight that things can hang together in many ways and that the world always exceeds our modeling attempts, regardless of scale, weight and representation. Multiple orders are at play in the world and perhaps the best way to get a measure of a lively world is to move with it in performance. Modelling knowledge on endlessly unfolding and endlessly changing performance provides a way of researching the world in a lively manner: beyond static specification and blue-print simplifications. This generates a new relationship between world, knowledge and performance in the enactment of a dynamic model of knowing We live in an interconnected and dynamic world. At a global level, we are faced by the unwarranted environmental effects of the output of our current modes of consumption and production, as well as by unpredictable and high-risk phenomena such as illness, poverty and political instability. Everyday lives are subject to and dependent upon large-scale technological, infrastructural, industrial, political, economic and social systems. On an individual level, the combined pressure of interconnectivity and complexity shows itself in everyday lives strung out between large scale systems and infrastructures. Ordering is ever present, but if one link in the interconnected chain fails, the edge of chaos emerges. Complex phenomena challenge order, trust and reliability as principles governing the everyday, and furthermore make it evident that we need new models of knowing.
Keywords
Design thinking, Practice-based research, Research methodology, Science and technology studies, Complexity thinking
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/nordes.2021.42
Citation
Svabo, C.(2021) Living world dynamics - or: What Brian Eno can teach us about knowing in a complex world, in Brandt, E., Markussen, T., Berglund, E., Julier, G., Linde, P. (eds.), Nordes 2021: Matters of Scale, 15-18 August, Kolding, Denmark. https://doi.org/10.21606/nordes.2021.42
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Living world dynamics - or: What Brian Eno can teach us about knowing in a complex world
In questioning how we come to know the world, we have to maintain the insight that things can hang together in many ways and that the world always exceeds our modeling attempts, regardless of scale, weight and representation. Multiple orders are at play in the world and perhaps the best way to get a measure of a lively world is to move with it in performance. Modelling knowledge on endlessly unfolding and endlessly changing performance provides a way of researching the world in a lively manner: beyond static specification and blue-print simplifications. This generates a new relationship between world, knowledge and performance in the enactment of a dynamic model of knowing We live in an interconnected and dynamic world. At a global level, we are faced by the unwarranted environmental effects of the output of our current modes of consumption and production, as well as by unpredictable and high-risk phenomena such as illness, poverty and political instability. Everyday lives are subject to and dependent upon large-scale technological, infrastructural, industrial, political, economic and social systems. On an individual level, the combined pressure of interconnectivity and complexity shows itself in everyday lives strung out between large scale systems and infrastructures. Ordering is ever present, but if one link in the interconnected chain fails, the edge of chaos emerges. Complex phenomena challenge order, trust and reliability as principles governing the everyday, and furthermore make it evident that we need new models of knowing.