Attempting to make some distinctions between what we might mean by “systems aesthetics” as a whole, as opposed to “systems” + “aesthetics”, we might be informed by the direction of the Systems Changes Learning Circle that has focused on living systems.
One stream that is compatible with our thinking that draws together ecological anthropology and art is the “Knowing from the Inside” project at University of Aberdeen.
Knowing From the Inside (KFI) seeks to reconfigure the relation between practices of inquiry in the human sciences and the forms of knowledge to which they give rise.
This website is a compendium of KFI publishing – The Unfinishing of Things. At present it contains pdf files of the KFI books, and will develop to hold an archive of KFI materials.
Home — Knowing From The Inside .
There’s a downloadable PDF there (including writings by Tim Ingold).
It’s unclear how long the website will continue to exist, if we look at the more formal institutional website.
Knowing From the Inside: Anthropology, Art, Architecture and Design (or for short, KFI) is a 5-year project funded by a European Research Council Advanced Grant held by Professor Tim Ingold. It commenced in June 2013, and will run until May 2018.
Knowing From the Inside seeks to reconfigure the relation between practices of inquiry in the human sciences and the forms of knowledge to which they give rise. Its fundamental premise is that knowledge is not created through an encounter between minds furnished with concepts and theories, and a material world already populated with objects, but grows from the crucible of our practical and observational engagement with the world around us. Knowledge, we contend, comes from thinking with, from and through beings and things, not just about them. Our overall aim is to show how research underpinned by this premise could make a difference to the sustainability of environmental relations and to the well-being that depends on it.
