Cybernetics and Metadesign: Modes of Embodied, Virtual, and Hybrid Communication

Participant: Jher
Affiliation: Communication & Society, Institute of Cognitive & Decision Sciences, Center for Advanced Technology in Education, University of Oregon
Format: Presentation and Conversation
Themes: recursion, paradigm, praxis

This presentation draws upon cybernetics and metadesign to illustrate practices for embodied, virtual, and hybrid communication. What are the patterns which connect humans, environments, and machines? From first-order flows of information in systems, to second-order embodied interactions between an observer and system (autopoiesis), to hybrid third-order complex adaptive systems (virtual embodiment and embodied virtuality); what are the aesthetic and ethical courses that can assist in navigating rapidly transforming immersive environments? Acknowledging the enactions of analogue and digital domains, this presentation will illustrate how we can encourage sharing and collaboration between, across, and beyond, creative concepts and practices in art, science, and community. Conceptual and contextual frames that will be addressed include:

  • transformations in intellectual property and identity schemas
  • increasing immersion into the metaverse (open and proprietary)
  • compelling need for re-engagements back to/with the lifeworld
  • three-dimensional depth-sensor based cameras and systems
  • hybridization of these environments and systems as mirror worlds
  • notions of three-dimensional printing and fabrication
  • the emergence of D.I.Y. (Do-It-Yourself) culture and maker spaces
  • practical applications:
    • free/open software and print-on-demand
    • open source hardware and the Open Source Ecology project
    • open source biology and remediation
  • movements from sustainability based dialogues to thrivability based metalogues
  • …and the emergent framing of the digital humanities…

As these concepts, practices, and enactments mesh at ever increasing rates, humanity will require ever-increasing agile ethico-aesthetics. This presentation illuminates how Metamedia at the University of Oregon engages the interfacing, networking, and transcending of disciplinary boundaries to enable flexible metadesign frameworks.