Science as systems learning. Some reflections on the cognitive and communicational aspects of science

This paper undertakes a theoretical investigation of the 'learning' aspect of science as opposed to the 'knowledge' aspect. The practical background of the paper is in agricultural systems research – an area of science that can be characterised as 'systemic' because it is involved in the development of its own subject area, agriculture. And the practical purpose of the theoretical investigation is to contribute to a more adequate understanding of science in such areas, which can form a basis for developing and evaluating systemic research methods, and for determining appropriate criteria of scientific quality. Two main perspectives on science as a learning process are explored: research as the learning process of a cognitive system, and science as a social, communicational system. A simple model of a cognitive system is suggested, which integrates both semiotic and cybernetic aspects, as well as a model of selfreflective learning in research, which entails moving from an inside 'actor' stance to an outside 'observer' stance, and back. This leads to a view of scientific knowledge as inherently contextual and to the suggestion of reflexive objectivity and relevance as two related key criteria of good science

Enacting Enaction-Enaction Enacted: Experiments With and Through Enactive Ontologies

Over the last three decades the enactive approach to life, mind and nature has exerted an impressive amount of influence across a broad range of disciplines and varied research topics. At the core of the enactive approach is a thorough rejection of a number of modernist ideals and tenets; from anthropocentrism, determinism and reductionism to a host of deeply entrenched dualisms found across academia and beyond. This work brings this rejection of certain modernist tenets – qua ‘enactive matters of concern’ – into dialogue with Bruno Latour’s analysis of modernity. This is done primarily as a means to explore, to think-with and through, how and where certain enactive theorists not only reject these modernist tenets but also often reproduce them. Drawing from work in science and technology studies (STS), feminist science studies and anthropology, this work then attempts to ‘bring to light’ the different contrasting worlds enacted by certain enactive theorists. It explores how, in and through the development of ‘autopoietic enactivism’, these contrasting worlds are enacted in relation to key aspects of modernist thought and practice

Art and Technology: coherence, connectedness, and the integrative field

Merged with duplicate record 10026.1/690 on 03.04.2017 by CS (TIS)This thesis is a theoretical and practical intervention in the field of art and technology. It proceeds from the re-examination of four specific domains that in the past 40 years have considerably informed the invention of new aesthetic forms. They are: art, science, nature and technology. We have identified that each one of these domains and the way they inform one another reflects the influence of a Western analytical tradition based on fragmentation, dichotomies and dualities. In consequence of this, art of the last decades has suffered from a sort of mechanistic thought which results from a predominantly weary aesthetic model, founded in dualities such as: object/process, form/behaviour, meaning/information. The main question that the present study addresses is how to overcome this predominantly reductionist inheritance and to develop an aesthetic model able to interconnect in an integrative fashion those disparate domains, respective discourses and practices? The answer to this question, developed throughout this thesis, is an aesthetic principle built upon the notions of resonance, coherence and field models, rooted in an integrative view of living organisms based on the theory of biophotons. This constitutes the main contribution of the thesis to new knowledge. The theoretical approach of this thesis is developed upon the revision of the concept of form, supported by a Gestalt analysis as provided by Rudolf Arnheim, and has involved the consideration of the ideas of Gilbert Simondon (the concept of "concretisation") and Vilem Flusser (the concept of "apparatus"), in order to gain a deeper insight into the nature of technology. In conclusion, the practice-based methodology of this thesis has been to develop artworks based on the confluence of living organisms (plants) and artificial systems in order to permit empirical observation and reflection on the proposed theory. The major outcome of the practice is the artwork "Breathing", a hybrid creature made of a living organism (a plant) and an artificial system. The creature responds to its environment through movement, light and the noise of its mechanical parts and interacts with the observer through his/her act of breathing. This work is the result of an investigation into plants as sensitive agents for the creation of art. The intention was to explore new forms of artistic experience through the dialogue of natural and artificial processes

UNSTABLE TERRITORIES OF REPRESENTATION: Architectural Experience and the Behaviour of Forms, Spaces and the Collective Dynamic Environment

This thesis applies an interdisciplinary cybernetic and phenomenological analysis to contemporary theories of representation and interpretation of architecture, resulting in a speculative theoretical model of architectural experience as a behavioural system. The methodological model adopted for this research defines the main structure of the thesis where the narrative and the contributing parts of its complexity emerge. The narrative is presented through objectives and hypotheses that shift and slide between architectural representation and its experience based on three key internal components in architecture: the architectural forms and spaces, the active observers that interact with their environment, and finally, the responsive environment. Three interrelated research questions are considered. The first seeks to define the influence of the theoretical instability between complex life processes, emerging technologies and active perception upon architecture. The second questions the way in which the architectural experience is generated. The third asks: Does architecture behave? And if so, is it possible to define its behavioural characteristics related to its representation, experience and the medium of communication in-between? The thesis begins by exploring the effect of developments in digitally interactive, biological, and hybrid technologies on representation in architecture. An account of architectural examples considers the shift in the meaning of representation in architecture from the actual and literal to the more conceptual and experimental, from the individual human body and its relations to the multifaceted ecosystem of collective and connected cultures. The writings of Kester Rattenbury, Neil Leach, and Peter Cook among others contribute to the transformation of the ordinary perceptual experience of architecture, the development of experimental practices in architectural theory, and the dynamism of our perception. The thesis goes on to suggest that instability in architectural representation does not only depend on the internal components of the architectural system but also on the principles and processes of complex systems as well as changes in active perception and our consciousness that act as the external influences on the system. Established theoretical endeavours in biology of D’Arcy Thompson, Alan Turing, and John Holland and philosophies of Merleau-Ponty, Richard Gregory, and Deleuze and Guattari are discussed in this context. Pre-programmed and computational models, illustrative and generative, are presented throughout the thesis. In the final stage of the development of the thesis architecture is analysed as a system. This is not an unprecedented notion, however defining the main elements and components of this system and their interactions and thereafter identifying that the system behaves and defining its behavioural characteristics, adds to the knowledge in the field of theoretical and experimental architecture. This thesis considers the behavioural characteristics of architecture to be derived from the hypothetical links and unstable thresholds of its non-dualistic notions of materiality and immateriality, reality and virtuality, and finally, intentionality and interpretation