Systems At Play #2

Systems At Play #2

The Self-Organising Symposium On Self-Organisation (continues...)

International Artscience Symposium    

at Center Leo Apostel (CLEA), Vrije Universiteit Brussel

2-4 June, 2023 

The Center Leo Apostel for Transdisciplinary Studies (CLEA) at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), hosts its second international artscience symposium: ‘Systems At Play: The Self-Organising Symposium on Self-Organisation & Play’, on 2-4 June 2023.

"Look! It's moving. It's alive!" (Mary Shelly)

About the symposium

The first self-organising symposium on art and science took place in February 2023. Harnessing both play and self-organisation, the event was successful in generating many new collaborations, community and momentum. It can be said to have truly emerged into a living demonstration of the autopoiesis, and the origins of goal directedness.

So much so that, indeed, a new self-organising symposium has emerged, just 4 months later, brought together by many of the initial participants as well as new ones.

Systems At Play starts from the idea that art and science are mutually beneficial means of perception and insight creation. It thus provides a transdisciplinary contact zone for artists and scientists to meet, exchange, think, share, take time, and, ultimately, play and self-organise together.

Play and self-organisation are analogous. Systems At Play forms a shared basis for transdisciplinary discovery between art and science through the genius of self-organisation and play.

Rather than simply organise a symposium about artscience and self-organisation, we have tried to embody the principals of self-organisation together, and created a self-organising symposium on self-organisation, one that embodies the principals of self-organisation directly, and determines its own final goals through all our interactions together.

Please follow this link to read more about the core concepts of the initial Systems At Play Symposium.

Participants at the time of writing: 

Damien Rudd (artist), Dario Chillemi (musician), David Tann (clown), Dorota Radzimirska (artist), Emanuele Barreca (space exploration researcher), Evo Busseniers (Mathematical anarchism), Gihan Abouzeid (gender expert), Irina Lavrinovic (artist), Jill Locke (movement expert, magic researcher), Joost Rekveld (film-maker, cybernetics researcher), Karin Verelst (history of science / microbiology), Laura Stalenhoef (cognition and climate-change researcher), Lianne van Roekel (artist), Loretta Mesiti (dramaturg), Nathan Stewart, Marta Noordhoek (psychologist), Orion Maxted (artist / CLEA director of artscience), Pim Tournaye (artist / musician), Robert Steijn (choreographer / shaman), Sem Oueslati (fashion student) Stijn Smeets (monk), Tajana Reznić Brenko (transdisciplinary studies of contemporary art and education), Thomas Meijs (philosophy researcher), Yulia Ratman (artist), Zlatka Heylighen.

Practical details

From June 2, 2023 at 11am (start)until June 3, 2023 at 6pm (end)

Participation fee: €60

Address: CLEA House, Rue de la Stratégie 33, 1160 Bruxelles, Belgium

The Symposium has very few places left, if you would like to join, please write to Orion.Maxted@vub.be for details.