Systems Thinking

This graduate course on Systems Thinking focuses on analyzing, mapping, and designing complex systems by exploring their boundaries, components, and interactions, while considering material and energy flows, human agency, and environmental impacts. Using tools like system maps, influence diagrams, and pattern languages, it emphasizes designing sustainable, interconnected systems that prioritize ecological restoration, cultural context, and meaningful human-centered solutions.

In addition to system maps, influence diagrams, and pattern languages, this Systems Thinking course utilizes tools such as rich pictures for stakeholder and lifecycle mapping, whole systems mapping for component-level analysis, CATWOE for understanding stakeholders and constraints, and system archetypes to identify and address recurring behavioral patterns. It also incorporates visual diagrams, behavior-over-time models, stock-and-flow diagrams, and biomimicry-inspired frameworks to explore and design interconnected, sustainable systems.

Systems Changes for Sustainability

This graduate project applies Systems Thinking principles to redesign the artist's design process into a sustainable and regenerative system. Using tools like system maps, CATWOE analysis, and Life's Principles, it explores circular material sourcing, local partnerships, and collaborative networks to reduce waste and foster community. By analyzing the design process as a complex adaptive system, the project aligns artistic practices with ecological and social values, creating a more sustainable, impactful, and interconnected approach to art-making.

See the research:

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