ArtScience Symposium - Systems At Play: In the Noosphere |

Systems At Play:

In The Noosphere

A Symposium On Artscience & Play In The Noosphere

When? October 4-7, 2023

Where? CLEA HOUSE and A.PASS, Brussels

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Contents

Introduction
What is the Noosphere?
Becoming Noosphere together...
Themes: What will our collective Noosphere think about?
How to take part
Fee structure
Venue & travel info
Accommodation
Background info
Sponsors
Curatorial team
Contact

1. Introduction

To mark the centennial of the term "Noosphere" in 2023—the Center Leo Apostel for Transdisciplinary Studies (CLEA) at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), in partnership with Human Energy, presents "Systems At Play: In The Noosphere". The symposium will take place across two locations in Brussels (CLEA house and a.pass) from October 4th until 7th, 2023

"Systems at Play" is a transdisciplinary contact zone for artists, scientists and related disciplines to meet at the focused on the intersection of systems sciences and play. For this edition, we turn our attention to the Noosphere, the thinking layer enveloping the Earth. Instead of simply coming together to discuss role of art, science and play in the Noosphere, we shall become a living Noosphere together during the symposium: a collective intelligence, formed by all of us through our shared interactions, experiments and presentations.

How will we do this? We invite diverse applications and proposals in collective intelligence, storytelling, immersive theatre, systems science, play, and more, which critically engage with the idea of Noosphere.

2. What is the Noosphere?

A century ago, the term "Noosphere" first emerged out of a dialogue between Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and Vladimir Vernadsky (who also coined the term biosphere). Also known as The Global Brain, the Noosphere is proposed as a superorganism, a thinking layer enveloping the planet, a Global Collective Intelligence formed through the interconnected thinking systems of humans, non-humans, and technology. The Noosphere also signifies the evolution and self-organisation of the planet into higher levels of relationality and complexity. And, since the Noosphere has evolved primarily through human activity, de Chardin also imagined the Noosphere as the evolutionary path, and destiny, of Homo Sapiens.

Emerging from the biosphere, the formation of the Noosphere began to accelerate with the advent of human language, then, with the advent of communication technologies like the printing press, and later, the internet and other global communication technology. In this era of accelerated Noosphere transformation, it's vital that we critically engage with this planetary mind.

The Noosphere, emblematic of our collective agency, serves as the focus for human purpose and meaning. Our role then is to shape this intellectual stratum in a manner that aligns more harmoniously with the biosphere, thereby securing the well-being of all life on Earth.

3. Becoming Noosphere together…

Rather than organise a symposium simply about the Noosphere, we are attempting to come together to template, a collective intelligence embodying the flavour, self-organising nature, and ethos, of the Noosphere.
This collective intelligence will form through our interactions and a smorgasbord of playful experiments and presentations throughout the symposium.

The foundation of our experiment is the intersection of two main topics: First; The systems sciences that underpin the theory of the Noosphere - i.e. self-organisation, complex adaptive systems, cybernetics, emergence, 4E cognition - and second; play.

Play may be a good metaphor or template for the Noosphere: It invites humanity to engage in an infinite game through which we become a superorganism whilst also acquiring knowledge and wisdom about the world without predefined outcomes. To genuinely embody the interconnected consciousness and emergence of the Noosphere, we must recognise that we cannot fully anticipate every interaction, nor the final outcome of this collective mind.

To facilitate this organic unfolding, we'll introduce both structure and open spaces, allowing for both pre-planned activity and the affordance of spontaneity and on-the-spot idea proposals. Play - physically, intellectually, creatively - remains the guiding principle: we are free to play and propose ideas while nobody is obliged to collaborate or participate. There will be plenty of space to wander off, take a coffee break, and perhaps come up with alternative suggestions for activities you feel appropriate to the moment. Together we will create a self-organising brain that tries to adapt to all our interests, abilities and expectations throughout our time together.

To feed the symposium, we will tap into the enormous resources of experience which we collectively possess, drawing upon scientific expertise, mathematical modelling, algorithmic theatre, musical composition, choreography, collective thinking, global brain and noosphere research, collective mindfulness practices, play, ritual and mythological research.

4. Themes: What will our collective Noosphere think about?

We welcome talks and "embodied models of emergence" in the form of live games, scores, presentations, conversations, small algorithmic performances and collective experiments, in all media, connecting to one or more of the following themes:

The Science of the Noosphere. It helps to understand the Noosphere in relation to the global brain, collective intelligence, emergence, complex adaptive systems, cybernetics, origins of goal-directedness, self-organisation, 4E cognition, cognitive science, distributed cognition.

Play In The Noosphere. The role of play in fostering human connection, meaning, intelligence, community, exploration, understanding systems from an objective, subjective and transjective perspective, practices of shared imaginal augmentation, play and imagination to connect to the Noosphere, reanimation of the world, games about the Noosphere, collective intelligence, games about systems, games to understand systems, immersive theatre, worlding, live action roleplay, interactive theatre, free-play, serious and non-serious play, play for its own sake.

Collective Intelligence / More than Human Intelligences. Experiments and games in collective intelligence, strategies for and talks about CI, distributed intelligence, artificial intelligence and artificial life as a means to connect to the Noosphere, and non-human intelligences in any substrate; artificial, biological or other; approaches which both recognise diverse minds, and bring them into relation, as a thinking network or distributed intelligence.

The Technosocial Dilemma & The Crisis of Meaning. Understanding the technosocial dilemma and the crisis of meaning in relation to the Noosphere, crisis, hope.

New Connective Stories for Humanity. We welcome new stories for and about connecting humanity, connecting to the Noosphere and the third story, reimagining humankind in light of the technological dilemma and meaning crisis, nonlinear, methods of connecting diverse minds in real-time story generation.

Wisdom traditions. Lessons from the wisdom traditions- ancient and contemporary, mindfulness, mythology, transjective rituals of shared imaginal augmentation to connect with the Noosphere, non-western ideas, pre-scientific ideas, in relation to the Noosphere.

How to build a Noosphere? Ideas about how we can become a (template for) a Noosphere together.

To read more on these themes please click here.

We also encourage you to visit Human Energy (video) to read more broadly around the Noosphere to see how you would like to contribute to this network of ideas.

5. How to take part?

1. Fill in this contact form ( https://forms.gle/zL64DvK3idmZafjc9 ) so we can keep you updated about this symposium and future projects.

2. We encourage you to visit Human Energy (video) to learn more about the Noosphere and see how you would like to contribute to this network of ideas.

3. Come to one of our online meetings to discuss ideas for the symposium. This is optional. Click here to find the dates of our next meetings.

4. Then, if you are ready to submit an idea, please fill in this application form (https://forms.gle/vKCyu4E2Eip6vHTT6 ). We welcome a plethora of responses, be it in affirmation or critical analysis. You also don’t have to propose an experiment to come, you can also just come and take part.

6. Fee Structure

1. If you are currently funded or salaried for your work, or you are able to claim back this amount as a legitimate professional expense, then we propose you pay €200. This money will be used to help others attend the symposium.

2. If you are on a low income, between paid projects, or unable to reclaim the costs as a legitimate professional expense, then we propose you pay €50.

3. There is a limited fund to provide a day or two of paid work to prepare an experiment for the symposium.

4. If you need assistance with other costs, such as travel (within Europe), or childcare, you can apply for a bursary, we have a limited amount of honorariums available which are negotiated case-by-case, please also state this in the application form.

Please note that fees and bursaries are reserved for those who do not have access to institutional or private funding in order to help the most number of people attend the symposium.

The bursaries will be negotiated on a needs-based basis. If you wish to apply for a bursary please let us know what your needs are in the application form.

Further assistance with funding

If you require an official letter of invitation for your home country or institution please contact the organisers directly. If none of these options fit your needs, please let us know.

7. Venue & travel info

The Symposium will take place across two locations:

Day 1: CLEA house, home of Center Leo Apostel for Transdisciplinary Studies.

Day 2-4: a.pass, School of Advanced Performance & Scenography, Brussels.

Addresses:

CLEA house

Krijgskundestraat 33, 1160 Brussel

Vrije Universiteit Brussel

Google Maps link

A.PASS

Posthogeschool voor Podiumkunsten Vzw

Delaunoystraat 58/17

1080 Brussels (Sint-Jans-Molenbeek)

Google Maps link

Brussels is readily reachable by train, can, bus or plane.
Vrije Universiteit is a 10 min walk from either Petilion or Etterbeek station.
Please contact us if you require further assistance.

8. Accommodation

The Vrije Universiteit Brussel cannot provide accommodation for everyone on this occasion, and you are encouraged to find your own accommodation where possible. However, we do have a limited number of places that will be allocated on a needs-based basis.

We can recommend hotels, or try to help find alternative accommodation solutions if you do not have somewhere to stay in Brussels.

9. Background Information

CLEA is collaborating with Human Energy to establish a scientific and artistic foundation for the theory of the Noosphere — a sphere of collective thought enveloping the Earth. This initiative is a natural extension of CLEA's research into collective distributed intelligence and the Global Brain. Together with Human Energy, we are helping to develop "the Third Story of the Universe”.

This upcoming symposium also extends upon our first artscience symposium, "Systems At Play: A Self-Organising Symposium on Self-Organisation" which in turn forms part of CLEA’s research into the Origins of Goal-Directedness, where CLEA researchers develop a mathematical foundation for the narrative framework developed in the HEP.

This unique gathering begins from the understanding that art and science are mutually beneficial means of perception and insight creation. It thus provides a transdisciplinary contact zone for artists, scientists and other creative-minded individuals, to meet, exchange, think, share, take time, and play together.

Systems At Play is also an ongoing network of artists and scientists who have participated in one or more of the previous editions. We warmly welcome new researchers into this network.

Click here or see below to watch a short documentary about our first symposium.

10. Sponsors

The Symposium is funded by Vrije Universiteit, Brussel, Human Energy and the Ben Kacyra Foundation, and supported by a.pass.

11. Curatorial team

The Symposium is curated by artist Orion Maxted together with Francis Heylighen, Tomas Veloz, Karin Verelst, Jasmine De Bruycker, Evo Busseniers, Marta Lenartowicz and the CLEA artscience research group.