Avery, Helen (2023) Cutting Loose From Ghost Nets: Reestablishing trust and common ground in perilous waters. In: Proceedings of Relating Systems Thinking and Design Volume: RSD12, 06-20 Oct 2023.

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Abstract

Feedback loops are among the core notions in systems thinking – and the various fields of theory and practice that draw on it, including systemic design. We use these notions to develop methodological approaches, conceptualise processes, assess the adequacy of solutions, and anticipate how the design object may interact with its immediate surroundings and beyond. In my presentation, I discuss the recent explosion in the accessibility of AI-driven technologies from the perspective of information loops, impacts on knowledge production systems, and the implications for our methodologies, as well as for the wider landscapes within which we act. These do not only involve the inertia, rigidity and lock-in effects of visible structures and vested interests but also the more insidious entanglements of drifting ghost nets.

Design traditions anchored in situated, lived experiences, localised knowledge and materiality are powerful assets in the new global landscapes. Crucially, our international community of systemic design practice allows us to access wide interpersonal networks that help interpret information that would be otherwise de-authored and opaque. Nevertheless, as a community, we need to develop our own criteria for assessing the plausibility of information impacting the current or future behaviour of the wider systems. We also have to ensure that we do not miss weak signals (Ahlqvist & Uotila, 2020) that can drown in the amplification of white noise while we develop new forms of common grounding and values in co-creative design work that do not depend on an assumption of trust and good-will as an obvious point of departure.

Item Type:	Conference/Workshop Item (Paper)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	trust, expert knowledge production systems, information loops, horizons of time-place and scale
Divisions:	Faculty of Design
Date Deposited:	11 Mar 2026 20:39
Last Modified:	11 Mar 2026 20:45
URI:	https://openresearch.ocadu.ca/id/eprint/4887

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