Systems Thinking with a Focus on Sustainability
Having an overview of the system often requires a lot of preliminary research. As someone who dislikes starting literature research but loves to continue it, I was happy to find other, more engaging ways to collect this information over the past year. Just as conducting literature research involves digitally immersing yourself in understanding how a system works, these other methods carry an embodiment aspect, where you physically interact with the system to understand its function and meaning through direct experience. My experience so far tells me that systems thinking, sustainability, and research are closely interconnected. In short, sustainability is a sub-competence of systems thinking, and research is necessary for both. Design <> Research taught me that research can be many things. I thought the line between literature research and more engaging approaches was important for me to highlight, so I split this trio into systems thinking with a focus on sustainability and ‘normal’ research.
Over this past year, I physically interacted with the system in a project called The Eindhoven of the Future using quick interventions. The goal was to develop a process for refining 18 ambitions into 9 goals while ensuring broad and diverse resident involvement. We made and printed a variety of layouts for 3 ambitions (CA) and asked people in the Eindhoven centrum which of two random ones they found most important, switching it up with different layouts and gathering insights on which is the most appropriate in the meantime (US). We did all of this in under 2 hours. See Figures 9 and 10 for the final layouts.
Figure 9 and 10. Final Dutch and English Layouts.
As for sustainability, I explored this a lot in Designing With More-than-Human Worlds and Sustainability & Design. In creating a pair of shoes for a 5-hour hike from materials that quickly biodegrade when in contact with water, reflecting the peacock butterfly wing’s temporality, we made a low-impact situated entanglements mapping (see Figure 11). This allowed us to map the various systems the species is a part of while observing any peacock butterflies in the area (US). This whole process is also sustainable, as designing without an understanding of the system and its sustainability will inevitably lead to wastefulness, and attempting to do so at least somewhat avoids this (BE).
Figure 11. Low-Impact Situated Entanglements Mapping.
I have also started more carefully considering what materials we use to create prototypes and designs. In the Engineering Art project for the Multidisciplinary CBL, we are making 3 to 4 headpieces that relate to different tree aspects. I made a budget sheet to ensure we had enough money for that (MDC). This was similar to those I completed last year for the Intro Committee as a part of Cosmos. I listed everything we would need and only put the prices of what we would not find in scraps and what is essential (see Figure 12). This also meant that we are very under budget.
Figure 12. Budget Sheet.