welcome

a systemic designer's perspective

• norms are changing

• many norms have been disrupted

• some norms needed disrupting

• new norms need to be created

Design produces desired changes and additions to reality. Change by chance or necessity is ongoing but desired change occurs only through human action. To assist humans in determining desired directions and outcomes for their intentional actions they need the agency of the ‘wise hand’ — the reconstitution of thinking and action as an integrated whole. Designers, as scholar-practitioners are seminal in this function.

The world is now understood to be more complex and dynamic than previously thought. Things are systemically interrelated and interrelating. Design creates ‘reality’ and augments human ‘being’. From the beginning of human history, humans have engaged in design activities – designing – but little is known of its true nature or full potential. Familiar approaches to designing and design education no longer match the real-world necessities and expectations of modern societies. It is difficult to determine prudent courses of action when designing in and with complexity. Systemic-design provides a clear option.

When not pushed or pulled into someone else’s future, our futures can be approached in four ways: 1) drifting—adapting to whatever happens,  2) colliding—reacting and enduring,  3) retreating—backing away from undesirable states or conditions, or   4) advancing—navigating into desirable states-of-affairs. The norms nowadays are to drift, collide or retreat into the future. The fourth approach, the proactive approach, is the more apt response given the rising expectations and complex challenges that are the new norm for the foreseeable future.

The fourth approach depends on the agency of individuals who have the capacity to handle the challenge of securing desired outcomes in indeterminate situations on behalf of concomitant stakeholders and clients through design agency.

This is the space for the formation of a self-organizing cohort of people who are intent on becoming champions for, participants in, and students of, strategies and tactics for securing improvement and advancement in the human condition. It is a coffee house where conversations and discussions are built on one another’s contributions.

There will be several; posts per month as appropriate topics present themselves. Posts will include original thoughts, reflections, critiques, and comments on ideas and real-world events from a systemic-designers perspective. Design, as a culture of inquiry, is distinct from the sciences and the arts yet shares some common ground. Design is aesthetic and humanistic. Systemics are the logics and reasoning of design. Systemic-design is inquiry for action followed by action. Therefore posts will be both reflective as well as pragmatic.

Paid subscribers will get full access to all posts and references. Free subscribers will have access to introductory and summary written materials.