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Mud, Hay, Plywood, Pheasants: Towards a Rurally Embodied Queer Curatorial Practice
Get PDFThis thesis is a twofold project that explores a queer and rurally-embodied curatorial methodological approach to exhibition making in rural Northeastern Ontario. The central focus is around an experimental presentation space I launched in the pheasant coop on my family farm in Kerns Township called Between Pheasants Contemporary. Secondly, this thesis also includes a critical contextualization of two artworks in the inaugural exhibition, tethers, featuring queer Métis artist Andrew Harding, and Luke Maddaford, a queer artist from rural Saskatchewan. tethers, which concerns itself with queer and anti-colonial critiques of nationalist mythologies attached to the aesthetics of circulated visual and material culture in the rural, serves as a case study to explore how Between Pheasants Contemporary is poised to readily respond to the unique cultural fabric of Kerns Township. Mud, Hay, Plywood, Pheasants: Towards a Rurally Embodied Queer Curatorial Practice answers the following research questions: How does rural cultural production differ from — and even oppose — urban, metronormative queer cultural production? What, then, is a rurally embodied queer curatorial methodology and exhibition making practice? Why do curatorial projects excel in non-institutional and experimental spaces in the rural North? What makes BPC’s programming approach differ from regional artistic discourse, while also challenging urban queer curatorial discourse? As this thesis unfolds, I draw upon the importance of a deep reading of local communities to inform curatorial practices outside of the centre, and how a queer, anti-colonial methodological approach to exhibition making challenges both existing artistic discourse in this area of the rural North, and queer urban discourse. Using Scott Herring’s notion of ‘critical queer rusticity’ and Mary L. Gray’s concept of the ‘boundary public’, I identify the specific underpinnings that sustain and produce a rurally embodied queer curatorial practice
Shifting Spaces Outside of Time: Constructing Counter-Narratives Through Collage
Get PDFThis paper explores how the methodology of collage refuses notions of linear temporality through the production of counter-narratives. As a framework for analysis, counter-narrative becomes a useful lens to understand the types of critiques that collage can engender by examining the power and privilege that art history, mass media, and constructions of identity hold in a multiracial world. By focusing specifically on the potential of collage to visualize non-linear approaches to piecing the world together through objects of material culture, this research fills a gap between collage as practice, social critique, and pedagogical methodology by weaving these notionstogether to expose a dynamic interplay between storytelling, history and pedagogy. Engaging the multidisciplinary artistic practices of three emerging contemporary artists working with collage in Canada, Jasmine Cardenas, Aaron Jones, and Anna Binta Diallo provide generative insight to challenge monolithic visual culture to reconcile histories of erasure, oppression, and colonization. Questioning and reconstructing these notions through the production of counter-narratives become a crucial method of resistance to situate radical imaginings in their histories. Ultimately, their work with collage is a direct assurance that another world is possible
THIS PAPER IS MADE OF BOOKS
Get PDFThe purpose of this project is to demonstrate value of the book as art and to highlight the power of narrative. To expose the archive of self, I pull from various theorists, ranging from Walter Fisher and Umberto Eco to Albert Camus and Julietta Singh: touching on a unique set of subjects creates a balanced space to ask new questions. This project pushes boundaries to prove a point, and reframes the book less as a literary form than a shifting cultural object. THIS PAPER IS MADE OF BOOKS is about many things, but is really about books, how we communicate and what we trust to hold that communication: not only the object but the oral tradition it intermingles with, too.
I will argue that books are special and unique, and irreplaceable: the book is both symbol and object, and needs to be reintroduced as such to demonstrate its actual value. First, this project uses autoethnography as a research framework and a methodology, which allows me to look inwards and share outwards, respectively. Second, from both object and print perspective, bookmaking is another methodology and lens through which I observe the book; and last, keep your mind open to seeing books in places you wouldn’t expect.
This is a paper made of books, and therefore is a book itself. This book is broken into parts, each referring and expanding on one key idea: the book as self and as archive. This book’s research is rooted in bookmaking and its evolving process, closely followed by Jewishness and its sharing nature. This book is balanced: it contains humour, seriousness, personal anecdotes, and theories; it is a clear refusal of obsolescence. This book embraces its reader, welcomes them, and invites them to participate. This book shares a softness, a sensitive and personal approach to a thesis, in a way that invites discussion, reflection, and welcomes all to the table
Storytelling for Systems Design: Embedding and communicating complex and intangible data through narratives
Get PDFOur research explores how storytelling can support complex systems thinking. In systems thinking, a major challenge is to communicate a large amount of data of complex systems and to give meaning to this data through expressing intangible aspects such as interpretation, intuition, purpose, mental bias, and uncertainty. This is key for systems thinkers to fully apprehend systems, but also for other stakeholders involved in the co-design process to easily access this complexity. There is a need for practical tools that embed in the systems design process the systems’ complexity associated with relevant intangible aspects. Narratives do have the potential to gather, embed, make understandable and memorable the complex and intangible data of systems. We propose several uses of systemic storytelling, an approach based on building parallel story arcs constructed on and/or connected by systems’ elements. Systemic storytelling combines logical analysis with an intuitive and empathetic comprehension of systems. This approach has benefits at several stages of the systems design process: to engage stakeholders and enable the sharing and capturing of their different perspectives, to effectively communicate systems insights, and to ideate on future systems. In this short paper, we describe the method principles and show three preliminary application examples
Reflections on Design Practice at Dark Matter Labs
No full textIndy Johar’s reflections on design practice are framed by his experience as an architect, co-founder of 00 (project00.cc) and a Senior Innovation Associate with the Young Foundation and Visiting Professor at the University of Sheffield.
Indy is co-founder of Dark Matter Labs, which aims to apply complex systems science to urban and regional renewal. The team is currently working on a range of initiatives from developing a new class of System Change – Impact funds, to @Town_halls for Social Innovation, to the development of a new generation of polytechnics, and the transformation of numerous existing institutions.
On behalf of 00, Indy has co-founded multiple social ventures from Impact Hub Westminster to Impact Hub Birmingham and the HubLaunchpad Accelerator, along with working with large global multinationals & institutions to support their transition to a positive Systems Economy. He has also co-led research projects such as The Compendium for the Civic Economy, whilst supporting several 00 explorations/experiments including the wikihouse.cc, opendesk.cc. Indy is an Advisor to the Earth Security Initiative, a director of WikiHouse Foundation, and co-founder of Project00.cc Research Laboratory & Skunk Works.
Profile
Indy was Director of the Global Impact Hub Association and Impact Hub Islington [the original Impact Hub in the Hub Network], and worked with Jonathan Robinson to design the protocols and modes of the network scaling. He has taught & lectured at various institutions including the University of Bath, TU-Berlin, Architectural Association, University College London; and Princeton. He has written for many national and international publications on the future of design, systems change and social investment.
Indy is a Fellow of the RSA, Respublica Fellow, JRF Anti-Poverty Strategy Programme Advisory Group member, a member of the Mayor of London’s SME Working Group and, most recently, a member of the RSA Inclusive Growth Commission.
From RS
Dilemmas and Conflicts in Systemic Design: Towards a theoretical framework for individual-system dialectic
Get PDFThe productive potential of conflicts, dilemmas, and tensions have attracted scholarly attention, which is also implied by the conference theme: Playing with Tensions. This paper proposes that interconnections in a complex system can be examined using dialectic thinking (i.e. thesis-antithesis-synthesis), which can be facilitated through the micro-meso-macro system architecture. Borrowing insights from a project on bike-security systems, individual dilemmas at the micro-level, inter-stakeholder conflicts at the meso level, and conceptual conflicts at the macro-level are examined. Although conflicts are traceable at each level, their structure changes from experiential conflicts (i.e. dilemmas) to interpersonal and conceptual conflicts, respectively. In systemic design, dilemmas help maintain the richness and nuance of individuals’ lived experiences when shifting the focus from individuals to systems. In addition, inter-stakeholder conflicts help address conflicting values and perspectives among stakeholders through revealing their interconnections; and conceptual conflicts help expose the moral and political dimensions of design decisions. Finally, dialectic thinking helps ‘probe’ the system to reveal the reciprocal and emergent relationships among the interconnected elements of a system. Future research is needed to further deepen the theoretical grounding of this framework and to reveal its implications for systemic design practices
Leveraging Creative Tension between Sustainable Development Targets for Developing Micro-macro Level Collaboration
Get PDFThe Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide a shared blueprint for the peace and prosperity of people as well as the planet. Although national governments have been mandated with monitoring progress, it is impossible to achieve the SDG targets by 2030, without the active contribution of other stakeholders like private companies, civil society organisations, etc. However, there is a lack of clarity on roles the different stakeholders are expected to play, inadequate accountability mechanisms and the urgent need to create spaces for collective action towards the 2030 Agenda. This situation gives rise to two distinct forms of tensions, among others. Firstly, the inherent power differences between the government, civil society and industry, poses a challenge to collaboration, where they don’t see eye to eye on what constitutes “sustainable” development. Secondly, progress on SDG implementation is being monitored top-down, while most implementation is taking place bottom-up. In order to deal with these tensions, there is a need to explore the interrelations among different SDGs and their underlying targets. This study explores the merit of using systems thinking to amplify the positive interactions (enablers) between various SDG targets and mitigate the negative ones (inhibitors) for unlocking their transformative potential
Mapping Transition Readiness: A model for identifying how and where design can intervene in system transitions
Get PDFDesigners are increasingly tackling complex societal challenges and fostering system transitions. Transitions are long-term, multi-level, multi-phasal system changes involving numerous actors, requiring innovations that develop new relationships within the system. Therefore, the process of designing for transitions requires new ways of bridging system analysis and system synthesis. This paper explores the concepts of ‘transition readiness’ and ‘value conflicts’ as valuable indicators to bridge this gap and support designers in fostering system transitions. Synthesizing insights from literature and previous experience, we propose a first step towards an integrative model for mapping a system transition in a way that inspires design. Our model, called the Transition Readiness Profile, anticipates the dynamics of a system transition and helps identify how and where design can intervene to accelerate the transition. It analyzes the transition at the user-, organization-, and ecosystem level to understand the system dynamics and reveal what organizations can bring forward to foster the transition relative to others. The Profile captures the relational dimension of a transition by mapping readiness and value conflict
Sustainability and its Paradoxes: The case study of a big coffee roasting company in the Turin Metropolitan Area on the lens of systemic design
Get PDFCoffee is one of the most important agricultural commodities in the world. Due to its economic importance and its growing worldwide demand, it is well-known that the coffee value chain is responsible for several wicked problems, mainly associated with sustainability. Systemic design seems to provide an answer to deal with these issues, by defining a structured and holistic process and promoting an innovative approach towards a sustainable and resilient future. This paper aims to frame the role of the systemic designer as a figure capable of proposing sustainable strategies with an innovative and transdisciplinary approach. The discussion is narrowed to the specific case study of a big coffee roasting company present on the territory of the Turin Metropolitan Area, which has been analysed on the lens of the SD approach. The set of tools and methods provided by SD has led to the identification of paradoxes related to the sustainability vision promoted by the company itself. Owing to the fact that the company also operates on the international scene, very often it tends to confine its interventions towards sustainability to localized actions, instead of considering the whole system made of inter-connections. The role of the systemic designer becomes crucial in dealing with these tensions and proposing solutions in order to strike a balance in the sustainability dilemma
Triggering Spontaneous Self-Regeneration in Cities: Towards a systemic approach to spatial design
Get PDFThe recent theory of planning and urban design highlights how healthy vibrant cities behave as complex adaptive systems that are subject to spontaneous cycles of regeneration and decline. Although such systems cannot be designed entirely top-down or controlled, they can be influenced. In this perspective, the present paper investigates the power of spatial design to intervene in site-specific adaptive cycles, in order to foster processes of spontaneous self-regeneration and prevent or invert emergent decline. Such a systemic approach to spatial design endeavours to frame the most appropriate type, position and scale of minimum interventions which can maintain the system between the extremes of uniformity and diversity, stability and dynamism, thus preserving its adaptive capacity. The two case studies presented here show how such an approach succeeds in (1) increasing the system’s ability to keep self-organizing in new better social-spatial configurations (which can neither be predicted, nor predetermined), (2) triggering cross-scale incremental positive effects which extend in time far beyond the scale of the project site, and (3) minimizing social and economic costs, an aspect which is particularly relevant at a time when economic resources are extremely limited