Governance for sustainability: learning from VSM practice

Purpose – While there is some agreement on the usefulness of systems and complexity approaches to tackle the sustainability challenges facing the organisations and governments in the twenty-first century, less is clear regarding the way such approaches can inspire new ways of governance for sustainability. The purpose of this paper is to progress ongoing research using the Viable System Model (VSM) as a meta-language to facilitate long-term sustainability in business, communities and societies, using the “Methodology to support self-transformation”, by focusing on ways of learning about governance for sustainability. Design/methodology/approach – It summarises core self-governance challenges for long-term sustainability, and the organisational capabilities required to face them, at the “Framework for Assessing Sustainable Governance”. This tool is then used to analyse capabilities for governance for sustainability at three real situations where the mentioned Methodology inspired bottom up processes of self-organisation. It analyses the transformations decided from each organisation, in terms of capabilities for sustainable governance, using the suggested Framework. Findings – Core technical lessons learned from using the framework are discussed, include the usefulness of using a unified language and tool when studying governance for sustainability in differing types and scales of case study organisations. Research limitations/implications – As with other exploratory research, it reckons the convenience for further development and testing of the proposed tools to improve their reliability and robustness. Practical implications – A final conclusion suggests that the suggested tools offer a useful heuristic path to learn about governance for sustainability, from a VSM perspective; the learning from each organisational self-transformation regarding governance for sustainability is insightful for policy and strategy design and evaluation; in particular the possibility of comparing situations from different scales and types of organisations. Originality/value – There is very little coherence in the governance literature and the field of governance for sustainability is an emerging field. This piece of exploratory research is valuable as it presents an effective tool to learn about governance for sustainability, based in the “Methodology for Self-Transformation”; and offers reflexions on applications of the methodology and the tool, that contribute to clarify the meaning of governance for sustainability in practice, in organisations from different scales and types

Sibernetik felsefe, performatiflik ve yeni medya estetiği

By drawing upon philosophical repercussions of cybernetics, this article reformulates the notion of performativity in the context of new media aesthetics. It links performativity to new media aesthetics via the cybernetic notions of information processing and generating systems, recursive electronic and digital feedback loops, emergency, complexity, dynamism, and autonomously evolving systems. In doing so, I argue that the operational logic and infrastructure of new media technologies can only be understood from a performative perspective. The term performance basically refers here to the movement which governs the generation and transformation of systems by putting them into action. It is through this action that the various components and parts of a system relay and process information and produce complex interactive systems. As a result, this kind of complex interactivity leads to the emergence of new forms. It is in this way that these complex systems produce new codes, configurations, and constellations. Such a formulation constitutes my starting point to describe a hybrid framework that may eventually lead to a better understanding of the essential characteristics of new media technologies and aesthetics. The shift from single, discrete, and isolated mechanical artifacts to technological systems laid the foundations for a new kind of aesthetics, the aesthetics of information processing and generating systems. The study of the art object as a system or an environment rather than a single object is crucial to address the way in which the system itself might be conceived of as an aesthetic medium. I foreground my definition of new media in the notions of medium and mediation and discuss the aesthetic possibilities brought forth by the emergence and advancement of information and communication technologies. The method used in this article is literature review.Bu makale sibernetiğin felsefi altyapısını inceleyerek yeni medya estetiği bağlamında performatiflik kavramını yeniden formüle ediyor. Bilgi işleme ve üretme sistemleri, öz-düşünümsel elektronik ve dijital döngüler, karmaşıklık, dinamizm ve özerk olarak gelişen sistemler gibi sibernetik kavramlar aracılığıyla performatiflik kavramını yeni medya estetiği ışığında açıklıyor ve yeni medya teknolojilerinin operasyonel mantığı ve altyapısının ancak performatif bir bakış açısıyla anlaşılabileceğini savunuyor. Performans terimi, temel olarak, sistemlerin oluşturulmasını ve dönüştürülmesini, onları eyleme geçirerek yöneten hareketi ifade eder. Bu eylem aracılığıyla, bir sistemin çeşitli bileşenleri ve parçaları bilgileri ileterek karmaşık etkileşimli sistemler üretir. Sonuç olarak, bu tür karmaşık etkileşimler yeni formların ortaya çıkmasına neden olur. Bu karmaşık sistemlerin yeni kodlar, konfigürasyonlar ve formlar üretmesi bu şekildedir. Böyle bir formülasyon, sonunda yeni medya teknolojilerinin ve estetiğinin temel özelliklerinin daha iyi anlaşılmasına yol açabilecek melez bir çerçeveyi tanımlamak için bir başlangıç noktası oluşturuyor. Tek, ayrık ve birbiriyle bağlantısı olmayan mekanik araçlardan teknolojik sistemlere geçişle birlikte yeni bir estetik anlayışın temelleri atıldı. Bilgi ve iletişim teknolojilerinin mümkün kıldığı yeni medya estetiği sanat eserini tek, bağımsız ve somut bir nesne olarak incelemektense sanat eserinin kendisinin ortam ve mecra olduğunu ve estetik olanın sanat nesnesi yerine ortam ve mecranın kendisi olarak düşünülebileceğini gösterdi. Bu makale yeni medya kavramını mecra ve dolayımlama kavramları üzerinden temellendirerek yeni medya sanatının yarattığı estetik anlayışı sistemler ve ağlar bağlamında tartışmaktadır. Bu makalede kullanılan metod literatür tarama ve değerlendirmedir.Publisher's Versio

An epistemic dimension space for musical devices

The analysis of digital music systems has traditionally been characterized by an approach that can be defined as phenomenological. The focus has been on the body and its relationship to the machine, often neglecting the system’s conceptual design. This paper brings into focus the epistemic features of digital systems, which implies emphasizing the cognitive, conceptual and music theoretical side of our musical instruments. An epistemic dimension space for the analysis of musical devices is proposed

Ambivalent animal

The Ambivalent Animal project explores the interactions of animals, culture and technology. The project employs both artistic practice and critical theory, each in ways that inspire the other. My creative practice centers around two projects that focus on domestic pets. These projects highlight the animal's uncertain status as they explore the overlapping ontologies of animal, human and machine. They provide concrete artifacts that engage with theoretical issues of anthropocentrism, animality and alterity. My theoretical work navigates between the fields of animal studies, art and design, media and culture studies, and philosophy. My dissertation explores animality through four real and imagined animal roles: cyborg, clone, chimera and shapeshifter. Each animal role is considered in relation to three dialectics: irreducibility and procedurality, autonomy and integration, aura and abjection. These dialectics do not seek full synthesis but instead embrace the oscillations of irresolvable debates and desires. The dialectics bring into focus issues of epistemology, ontology, corporeality and subjectivity. When the four animal roles engage the three dialectics, connected yet varied themes emerge. The cyborgian animal is simultaneously liberated and regulated, assisted and restricted, integrated and isolated. The cloned animal is an emblem of renewal and loss; she is both idealized code and material flesh and finds herself caught in the battles of nature and nurture. The chimera is both rebel and conformist; his unusual juxtapositions pioneer radical corporeal transgressions but also conform to the mechanisms of global capital. And the shapeshifter explores the thrill and anxiety of an altered phenomenology; she gains new perceptions though unstable subjectivity. These roles reveal corporeal adjustments and unfamiliar subjectivities that inspire the creative practice. Both my writing and making employ an ambivalent aesthetic--an aesthetic approach that evokes two or more incompatible sensibilities. The animal's uncertain status contributes to this aesthetic: some animals enjoy remarkable care and attention, while others are routinely exploited, abused and discarded. Ambivalence acknowledges the complexity of lived experience, philosophical and political debate, and academic inquiry. My approach recognizes the light and dark of these complex ambivalences--it privileges paradox and embraces the confusion and wonder of creative research. Rather than erase, conceal or resolve ambiguity, an ambivalent aesthetic foregrounds the limits of language and representation and highlights contradiction and irresolution.Ph.D.Committee Chair: Bolter, Jay; Committee Member: DiSalvo, Carl; Committee Member: Do, Ellen; Committee Member: Prophet, Jane; Committee Member: Thacker, Eugen

Interactive Art and the Action of Behavioral Aesthetics in Embodied Philosophy

https://digitalmaine.com/academic/1004/thumbnail.jp

Lichtsuchende: exploring the emergence of a cybernetic society

In this paper, we describe Lichtsuchende, an interactive installation, built using a society of biologically inspired, cybernetic creatures who exchange light as a source of energy and a means of communication. Visitors are invited to engage with the installation using torches to influence and interact with the phototropic robots. As well as describing the finished piece, we explore some of the issues around creating works based on biologically inspired robots. We present an account of the development of the creatures in order to highlight the gulfs between conceptual ideas of how to allow emergent behaviours and the manners in which they are implemented. We also expose the interrelations and tensions between the needs of the creatures as they emerge and the needs of the creators, to understand the duet between the cyber-organisms and their initiators. Finally, we look at the ways in which creators, robots and visitors are enrolled to perform their functions, so that the network of activity can be woven between all parties

Digital and Technological Identities – In Whose Image?:A philosophical-theological approach to identity construction in social media and technology

New technological developments have fundamentally transformed human life. Throughout this process, fundamental questions about human beings have once again been posed. The paper examines how technological change affectsunderstandings of human beings and their bodies, thereby requiring new approaches to anthropology. First, Section 2 illustrates how the use of technology has changed the understanding of human beings and their bodies. A newconnection between the human being or the body and technology has emerged. Section 3 then moves onto considering the increasing blurring of the boundaries between organisms and machines, showing how the understanding of humans and bodies is constantly being renegotiated in relation to machines. Based on this,Section 4 explores how the understanding of the human being and the body can be redesigned in the context of modern technology. To this end, approaches for a contemporary anthropology can be derived from critical posthumanism. Section 5 addresses concrete practice and examines the construction of identity in social media platforms such as Instagram.The paper argues that technological processes and social media are places where theology is constructed and appeals for a responsible theological co-creation of these places. It advocates that technology offers the opportunity to question traditional anthropological concepts and to renegotiate understandings of the human being and the body

Robot life: simulation and participation in the study of evolution and social behavior.

This paper explores the case of using robots to simulate evolution, in particular the case of Hamilton's Law. The uses of robots raises several questions that this paper seeks to address. The first concerns the role of the robots in biological research: do they simulate something (life, evolution, sociality) or do they participate in something? The second question concerns the physicality of the robots: what difference does embodiment make to the role of the robot in these experiments. Thirdly, how do life, embodiment and social behavior relate in contemporary biology and why is it possible for robots to illuminate this relation? These questions are provoked by a strange similarity that has not been noted before: between the problem of simulation in philosophy of science, and Deleuze's reading of Plato on the relationship of ideas, copies and simulacra