Westermann, Claudia, Bardakos, Ioannis, Salvaggio, Eryk, Lombardi, Jude and Richards, Larry (2023) #NewMacy Studio in Sympoiesis. In: Proceedings of Relating Systems Thinking and Design Volume: RSD12, 06-20 Oct 2023, Pittsburgh, USA.

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Abstract

Sympoiesis, a term coined by Beth Dempster and further developed by Donna Haraway, works as a conceptual remedy against misappropriations of autopoiesis. Replacing the prefix auto- with syn- emphasizes interdependence. Sympoiesis, one could say, is what the concept of autopoiesis needs to become when the observation moves from the molecular domain to the domain of living beings. Sympoiesis emphasizes the interdependence of living beings and other living beings, environments, things, concepts, and ideas.

As Larry Richards has outlined, the making of something new—the process of poiesis—requires the suspension of synchronicity. In our Studio, asynchronicity will create the necessary condition for engendering the collision of two distinct phenomenal and logical domains—the domain of relations and the domain of dynamics—and affirm sympoiesis as a cybernetic concept. The #NewMacy Studio in Sympoiesis will be an exercise in the suspension of clock time.

Item Type:	Conference/Workshop Item (Paper)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	second-order cybernetics, sympoiesis, autopoiesis, anticommunication, asynchronicity
Divisions:	Faculty of Design
Date Deposited:	12 Mar 2026 16:34
Last Modified:	12 Mar 2026 16:45
URI:	https://openresearch.ocadu.ca/id/eprint/4946

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