Radically Constructing Place

Place—what it means to be somewhere, or to be from somewhere, and how we then construct this as an idea and in built form—is a common thread running through the many systemic crises of our time. It is both a value under threat from globalisation, networked technologies, gentrification, and ecological and humanitarian disasters, and at the same time a contributing factor to political and social tensions that are intertwined with these issues, becoming visible in the reinforcement of borders and in current tendencies towards ever more specific units of political identity and nationhood. As an emerging theme in recent RSD conferences (e.g. Karl Otto Ellefsen’s keynote at RSD6; Perin Ruttonsha’s workshop at RSD5), place is an issue where systemic design and architectural theory can fruitfully contribute to each other. This is, however, not as straightforward as it might appear. One of the most influential works on place within architectural theory is Christian Norberg-Schulz’s Genius Loci (published 1980). In this and related works, Norberg-Schulz turned towards phenomenology and in particular Heidegger’s later philosophy. This enabled him to move from the abstraction that is characteristic of his earlier writing to understanding architecture in more concrete and qualitative terms. Phenomenological approaches such as that taken by Norberg-Schulz have been in retreat in architectural theory in recent decades. This has followed significant criticisms that are especially pertinent to contemporary discussions of place: the theoretical underpinnings of phenomenological approaches to architecture are entangled with the nativism that is currently resurgent in our politics; the regionalist approach that phenomenology has motivated has been co-opted by the global capitalism that it had sought to counter; the tendency of phenomenological accounts of architecture to downplay the spatial consequences of social and economic factors is not tenable from a contemporary standpoint. Thus, while the phenomenological approach to place that has been pursued in architectural theory may have much to contribute, it is bound up with some of the very issues that are in need of being addressed. In this paper I explore an alternative theoretical basis for understanding place. Although Norberg-Schulz is perhaps best known for introducing Heidegger into architectural theory, he also makes use of a diverse range of other references. While this is especially the case in his earlier work, many of these sources are still prominent in his thinking even after his turn towards phenomenology. These include Jean Piaget, who I focus on here. Piaget’s ideas have, in parallel, been a significant influence on the development of the epistemological position known as radical constructivism (and the overlapping field of second-order cybernetics) through Ernst von Glasersfeld and Ranulph Glanville amongst others. In this working paper, I reformulate Norberg- Schulz’s discussion of spatial experience in radically constructivist rather than phenomenological terms, building on the role that Piaget’s ideas have in his thinking and the connections that these ideas make possible. This shift allows for a significantly different understanding of place, emphasising the personal and interactive qualities of spatial experience rather than the properties of spaces in themselves. This avoids some of the complications that arise with phenomenological approaches and may be used to initiate new connections to fields where constructivism has been influential, such as cybernetics, systems thinking, and design research. This, in turn, allows for some of the less tangible issues that are bound up with contemporary conflicts over place—such as the design of technologies and services—to be understood in similar terms to place itself

How design and cybernetics reflect each other

Keynote address delivered by Ranulph Glanville at the RSD3 2014 Symposium Relating Systems Thinking & Design 3 on October 15, 2014 at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design. Transcript by Thomas Fischer, Timothy Jachna and Albert Mueller, with an introduction by Aartje Hulstein

Biographically oriented cooperative inquiry: a shift to complexity in theories of learning

The author reflects on the power of biographical methods in recomposing the dichotomies that dominate the mainstream of education and research – theory/practice, research/education, body/mind, individual/collective, and so on. Dominant theories of learning are focused on the single rational individual, acting based on conscious purpose, while democratic and social change is undervalued in favour of neoliberal goals. The problems created by this hegemonic western epistemology can be healed by thinking in terms of stories, as suggested by systems’ theorist Gregory Bateson. An epistemological shift is then needed, in the light of complexity theories, and their concepts of self-organisation, emergence, and embodied cognition. Self-narratives illuminate more than individual lives, to sustain a complex view of learning as the emergent feature of entangled interactions, at different levels: micro, meso, and macro – that is, individual, interactional, and social. Adult education needs methods to overcome the dominant view and re-establish its fundamental role in granting social justice and peaceful co-existence. Biographically oriented cooperative inquiry is presented as such a method, dialogically working on contents and processes to build liveable knowledge based on human embodied and shared experience and able to foster systemic change through deliberate action

Design research as a variety of second-order Cybernetic practice

> Context • The relationship between design and science has shifted over recent decades. One bridge between the two is cybernetics, which offers perspectives on both in terms of their practice. From around 1980 onwards, drawing on ideas from cybernetics, Glanville has suggested that rather than apply science to design, it makes more sense to understand science as a form of design activity, reversing the more usual hierarchy between the two. I return to review this argument here, in the context of recent discussions in this journal regarding second-order science (SOS). > Problem • Despite numerous connections to practice, second-order cybernetics (SOC) has tended to be associated with theory. As a result, SOC is perceived as separate to the more tangible aspects of earlier cybernetics in a way that obscures both the continuity between the two and also current opportunities for developing the field. > Method • I review Glanville's understanding of design, and particularly his account of scientific research as a designlike activity, placing this within the context of the shifting relation between science and design during the development of SOC, with reference to the work of Rittel and Feyerabend. Through this, I summarise significant parallels and overlaps between SOC and the contemporary concerns of design research. > Results • I suggest that we can see design research not just as a field influenced by cybernetics but as a form of SOC practice even where cybernetics is not explicitly referenced. > Implications • Given this, design research offers much to cybernetics as an important example of SOC that is both outward looking and practice based. As such, it bridges the gap between SOC and the more tangible legacy of earlier cybernetics, while also suggesting connections to contemporary concerns in this journal with SOS in terms of researching research. > Constructivist content • By suggesting that we see design research as an example of SOC, I develop connections between constructivism and practice

Attending responding becoming : a living-learning inquiry in a naturally inclusional playspace

Traditional scientific paradigms emphasise writing in the third person, effectively marginalising the subjective perspective of the researcher. Many systems thinking, cybernetics and complexity approaches are better in this regard, as they involve systemic interventions where the relationships between the researcher and other participants really matter. Writing in the first person therefore becomes acceptable.In this Thesis (and a partner document coupled with it), I have explored how to reincorporate subjective empiricism into my systemic intervention practice. This has brought forth many unanticipated contributions. These take the form of new frameworks, concepts and approaches for systems and complexity practice, emerging from my engagements with myself and others, as well as from reflections upon those engagements.However, the content of my reflections and ‘becomings’ are not all that represent my doctoral contribution; there is also the form of my representation(s), as well as the emergent nature of the process through which they have come to be. I have drawn from Gregory Bateson’s use of metalogues: where the nature of a conversation mirrors its content – e.g. getting into a muddle whilst talking about muddles! Intuitively, I grasped the importance of metalogue in what I was attempting, and found myself coining the term metalogic coherence. Without fully appreciating what this might mean in practice, I groped my way into undertaking and documenting my research in ways that I believed would be metalogically coherent with the complexity-attuned principles to which I was committing. In sum, and key to appreciating what unfolds in the narrative, is recognising this Thesis and its partner document as metalogically coherent artefacts of naturally inclusional, complexity-attuned, evolutionary research.To fully acknowledge the different ways of knowing that have flowed into my inquiry, I have written in multiple voices (called statewaves, for reasons to be explained in the thesis). I found myself shifting from one voice to another as I explored and expressed different dimensions of what I was experiencing and discovering.In addition, I have made liberal use of hyperlinks, so both documents are far from linear. They are more akin to a mycorrhizal network, interlinking flows of ideas and sensemaking, all of which can be accessed and experienced differently, depending on each reader’s engagement with and through it.The thesis and its partner document are part of a composite submission that contains both poetry and artwork (visual depictions and animations of the ideas). These elements, along with the more conventional academic text, are augmented by penetrating reflections on my personal motivations, guided by a narrator signposting the streams as they flow into and between each other. All of my being has been implicated and impacted by this endeavour. When insights and new ‘becomings’ emerged flowfully during my practice, my joy was reflected in my narrative; as indeed were my pain, doubts and reinterpretations associated with ideas that were difficult to birth. I present all this in my submission, without retrospective sanitisation or simplification. In so doing, I am keeping faith with the principle that I remain at the heart of my research, and cannot be extracted from it without doing violence to the metalogical coherence that gives it meaning

Beyond Participatory Design for Service Robotics

The spread of technologies as Cloud and Distributed Computing, the Internet of Things (IoT) and Machine Learning techniques comes with highly disruptive innovation potential and consequent design imperatives. High connectivity of devices and machines is shaping not only sensing and monitoring capabilities, but also describing ever more ubiquitous and diffuse computing capabilities, affecting decision-making with a wide range of assisting tools and methods. With the scaling potential of moving beyond its contemporary application such as industrial facilities monitoring, precision farming and agriculture, healthcare and risk management scenarios, RaaS is bound to involve an increasingly fluid and diverse range of users, shaping new socio-technical systems where practices, habits and relationships will evolve in respect to its adoption. On these premises, applied research at Polytechnic Interdepartmental Centre for Service Robotics in Turin, Italy, focuses on the development of a service robotics platform able to operate on the local scale and capable of adapting to evolving scenarios