RSD12-TORONTO is an immersive hub event connected to 13 others around the world as RSD12: Entangled in Emergence, the annual Relating Systems Thinking and Design symposium.
This gathering, with a special workshop, speakers, and panels on Thursday* and Friday and breakout sessions and synthesis on Saturday, creates space for anyone who enjoys being in the company of other designers. It is a positive, affirmative time to be part of interdisciplinary groups and consider uncertainty and complexity in the context of possible, preferable, or avoidable futures.
* Thursday’s panel in partnership with Canadian Society for Ecological Economics, CANSEE 2023—BY DESIGN NOT DISASTER. To highlight a shared interest in facilitating systems change for prosperous futures and building connections between systemic design and ecological economic communities, tickets to CANSEE2023 are offered to RSD12-Toronto participants at a discounted rate. A discount code will be shared with your RSD12-Toronto ticket confirmation.
Complexity as Normality
Systemic design thinkers, practitioners, and researchers are called to join an exploration of futuring, defuturing, and fictioning (Perera & Fry) during immersive Friday evening and Saturday sessions. Step into the messy mix of high opportunity, hard challenges, and accelerating complexity, and join other designers to envision audacious impacts in the face of future uncertainty and complacency of the present moment. This event goes beyond conventional design approaches and into the complexities of systems change, AI, design fiction, experiential futures, exnovation, power, regeneration, and loss and transition.
In the modernist world, design has long been associated with the continuous production of consumer products and high-tech platforms, delivering value to customers. However, in the postmodern era, designers are reevaluating their role, seeking to break free from consumerism and high-tech innovation traps. As we navigate social bias, politics, and culture, we question whether designers—especially systemic designers—can guide the way toward futuring, challenging established norms, and embracing new approaches to design. The session asks:
• What actions can futurists and designers take to ensure that their decisions and innovations contribute to flourishing human and ecological futures—humanity-centred design—even when the long-term consequences are uncertain?
SDA-Toronto is a Systemic Design Association-affiliated group that serves as a platform for dialogue, exploration, and collaboration through thought-provoking speakers, captivating panels & discussions, interactive working sessions, and research presentations.
Chief Instigator: Nabeel Kassam, nabeel@systemic-design.info