Enacting Gregory Bateson’s Ecological Aesthetics in Architecture and Design

• Applicants: Dr. Marie Davidova; Dr. Dulmini Perera
• Subject Area: Art History ; Architecture, Building and Construction History, Construction Research, Sustainable Building Technology ; Communication Sciences ; City Planning, Spatial Planning, Transportation and Infrastructure Planning, Landscape Planning
• Term: from 2022 to 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 508363000

• Final Report Year: 2025

Final Report Abstract

Social and ecological transformation requires the fields of design and architecture to develop new and more expansive ways of thinking and acting that engage more effectively with ecological questions. This project examines how the work of anthropologist and cybernetician Gregory Bateson (1904-1980) can contribute a new frame of action to navigate this challenge. Drawing on the concerns of Bateson's later work, the project asks: In the contexts of design and architecture, what forms of thinking and acting can address the complexities of environmental crises, bridging between rich ecological ideas and the practical challenges of concrete situations? As early as the 1960s, Gregory Bateson argued that the environmental crisis was the result of a broader crisis of ideas and the resulting forms of organisation. He criticised piecemeal approaches to environmental action that only address identifiable and solvable “problems”. Bateson’s distinctive way of thinking spanned numerous fields, including biology, anthropology, cybernetics, family therapy, ethology, and ecology. He was also deeply engaged with urban planning and counterculture. In all these contexts, Bateson conceptualises living systems of all kinds - octopuses, cities, families, forests, and so on - in terms of communication, information, and relationships. This is in contrast to more conventional characterisations (both then and now) of environmental concerns in terms of matter and energy. Bateson speculated on how to develop a “systemic philosophy” to guide human relationships with the environment. Throughout the project we examined Bateson’s arguments, by situating them historically within the disciplinary and social contexts in which they developed, as well as positioning them in relation to today’s political and design challenges concerning ecology. Through dialogue with Bateson’s work, the project members have highlighted questions and issues around conscious purpose, temporality, empathy, metaphor, difference, cosmology and the extended mind as possible starting points for alternative methods of enquiry. These explorations are intended to help designers better navigate contexts of ecology and ecological crisis. In addition to published research, the team has produced accessible resources such as maps, illustrations and prototypes to support new forms of engagement with Bateson's ideas among students, teachers, researchers, and practitioners in architecture and design.

Publications

• Architecture, ecology, and hubris. In Proceedings of the 67th Annual Meeting of the International Society for the Systems Sciences
  Sweeting, B.
  
• BioDiveIn: Leveraging the ecosystem through social and environmental systems. Proceedings of Relating Systems Thinking and Design
  Davidová M., Valverde Rojas M. C. & Behnam H.
  
• COLife—More-Than-Human Community Codesign: Cocreating Synergetic Post-Anthropocene Within Systemic Approach to Architectural Performance. Sustainable Development Goals Series, 347-362. Springer International Publishing.
  Davidová, Marie
  
• Epistemological error, levels of learning, and the double bind. Proceedings of Relating Systems Thinking and Design
  Boehnert J. & Sweeting B.
  
• Root metaphors of systemic design, problems and possibilities: An invitation to dialogue. Proceedings of Relating Systems Thinking and Design
  Perera D. & Sweeting B.
  
• The double bind of design: An introduction to Gregory Bateson. [Panel discussion]. Royal College of Art
  Goodbun, J., Perera, D., Sadler, S., Sweeting, B., Boehnert, J. & Davidová, M.
  
• Two Ecologies/The Three Ecologies; keynote talks , RSD12
  Goodbun, Jon,
  
• Challenging the bifurcation of mind and nature: Deleuze, Guattari, and Bateson. Invited lecture and workshop, Deleuze and Guattari Studies Conference and Camp, TU Delft
  Perera, D. & Kodalak, G.
  
• COLife_00 - Gigamap and Fabrication Data. (V1 ed.)
  Davidova, M., Teye, M. T., Fischer, L. K., Valverde Rojas, M. C., Behnam, H., Guimaraez di Stasi, M., He, M., Hildebrandt, H., Chau, W. M., Pittiglio, A., Asa, P., Kuo, C. C., Blagojevic, E., Hillebrecht, R., Hillemanns, T., Schaal, M., Spielvogel, M., Sweeting, B., Goodbun, J., … & Bohnert
  
• COLife_01 - Gigamap and DIY Files. (V1 ed.)
  Davidova, M., Valverde Rojas, M. C., Behnam, H., Fischer, L. K., Fadini, T., Haueise, J., Hauke, A., Florescu, M., Ferrari, V., Ros, A. P., Vujovic, N., Knutelsky, S., Wosiak, O. & Candìa
  
• COLife_02 - Gigamap and Game Design. (V1 ed.)
  Davidova, M., Behnam, H., Valverde Rojas, M. C., Guerriero, C., Yeh, H., Huang, J. & Köse
  
• COLife_03 - Gigamap and DIY. (V1 ed.)
  Davidova, M., Behnam, H., Valverde Rojas, M. C., Juarez, D., Grgurovic, N., Herlevi, L., Zinder, D., Bortone, L., Belli, F. S. & Gado
  
• COLife_04 - Multi-Scale More-than-Human Atlas Gigamaping, Ecosystem Mapping and CoDesigning. (V1 ed.)
  Davidova, M., Porqueddu, E., Behnam, H., Valverde Rojas, M. C., Zímová, K., Gazdová, K., Sweeting, B., Goodbun, J., Perera, D., Sadler, S. & Hüthofer, S.
  
• COLife_05: Gigamap and Game Introduction. (V1 ed.)
  Davidova, M., Valverde Rojas, M. C., Behnam, H., Montserrat Castillo Cordova, A., Çavuşoğlu, S., Eyüboğlu, H., Gado, N., Grgurovic, N., Sayyad, Z. & Skorniewska, K. A.-D. F. G.
  
• COLridor - Responsive Wood Insect Hotels. (V1 ed.)
  Davidova, M., Prokop, Š., Zímová, K., Goryczka, K., Michálek, O., Psaras, M., Konatzii, P., Kyprianou, S., Vučić, M., Hanzlík, K., Trgala, K. & Oberhofnerová, E.
  
• Design and regenerative practices: Daniel C. Wahl in conversation with Dulmini Perera (S. Huthöfer, Assistant). [Podcast].
  Perera, D. & Daniel C. Wahl
  
• Double bind, decoloniality, the question of aesthetics: Madina Tlostanova in conversation with Dulmini Perera. (S. Huthöfer, Assistant). [Podcast]
  Perera, D. & Madina Tlostanova
  
• Explorations of appropriation in systemic and ecosocial design: A workshop and collaborative autoethnography. RSD13: Rivers of Conversations (Relating Systems Thinking and Design)
  Boehnert, J. & Vink, J.
  
• Gigamapping CoDesign Processes with Eye Tracking: Search on how to interact with the gigamaps. In Relating Systems Thinking and Design (RSD13) 2024 Symposium. Oslo: Systemic Design Association
  Davidová, M., Kurzhals, K., Koch, M., Behnam, H., Valverde Rojas, M.C. & Weiskopf, D.
  
• Gregory Bateson, applied anthropology, design: David H. Price in conversation with Dulmini Perera (S. Huthöfer, Assistant). [Podcast]
  Perera, D. & David H. Price
  
• Gregory Bateson, long sixties, ecological consciousness: Anthony Chaney in conversation with Dulmini Perera (S. Huthöfer, Assistant). [Podcast]
  Perera, D. & Anthony Chaney
  
• Mind, ecology, enaction: Encounters between Gregory Bateson and Francisco Varela: Evan Thompson and Bruce Clarke in conversation with Dulmini Perera (S. Huthöfer, Assistant). [Podcast]
  Perera, D., Evan Thompson & Bruce Clarke
  
• Multi-scale more-than-human atlas gigamapping. Relating Systems Thinking and Design
  Davidová M., Porqueddu E., Behnam H. & Valverde Rojas M. C.
  
• NetWall: The more-than-human ecosystemic socio-technical intervention codesign. In Relating Systems Thinking and Design (RSD13) 2024 Symposium. Oslo: Systemic Design Association
  Davidová, M., Behnam, H., Valverde Rojas, M.C. & Lagner Zímová, K.
  
• Orders of change: Mary Catherine Bateson on ecological thinking, narrative practices and attending to worlds in transformation. Technoetic Arts, 22(1), 9-24.
  Perera, Dulmini
  
• Re-Use Aesthetics and the Architectural Roots of Ecological Crisis. The Pedagogies of Re-Use, 43-55. Routledge.
  Sweeting, Ben
  
• Systemic design and the limitations of conscious purpose. Paper presented at the 68th Annual Meeting of the International Society for the Systems Sciences
  Sweeting, B.
  
• The ecological relevance of the serious time games of Gregory Bateson, Warren Brodey and Anatol Holt. Paper presented at the American Society of Cybernetics 60 Conference, DC Arts Centre, Washington, June 15–19 [2024]
  Perera, D.
  
• An Introduction to Gregory Bateson. Digital Futures Doctoral Consortium, Architecture and Philosophy Series
  Perera, D.
  
• BioDiveIn + GoCoLife:. Strategic Design Research Journal, 16(3), 368-386.
  Davidova, Marie; Valverde Rojas, Maria Claudia & Behnam, Hanane
  
• Codesigning More-than-Human Ecosystems with Social and Environmental Systems: The Gamification of NetWall and BioDiveIn. Land, 14(1), 165.
  Davidová, Marie; Valverde Rojas, María Claudia & Behnam, Hanane
  
• COLife_06: Gigamap, Synthesis Map, DIY, Project Portfolio and Introduction. (V1 ed.)
  Davidova, M., Valverde Rojas, M. C., Behnam, H., Yu, Y., Veselý, T., Liu, J., Jiao, F., Pérez del Solar, A., Baros, C., Fu, Y., Pommerening, L., Tietz, E., Ventura Saavedra, O. G., Preniqi, B., Hany, S., Kuhn, J., Benavides, T., Vigueras García, M., Escriche Narvión, Á. & Carraud, E. A.-D. F. G.
  
• Design and Difference in a World of Contradictory Instructions. NERD III - New Experimental Research in Design, 203-222. De Gruyter.
  Perera, Dulmini
  
• Gregory Bateson's cosmos.
  Perera, D., Link, L., Huthoefer, S., Ferrari, P. & Tudzierez, F.
  
• Mapping ecologies of mind: #1 Epistemological error. Drift. Sink. Emerge. Repeat. Diffracting the Critical through Multimodal Submersion: A Catalogue to the STS HUB 2025 Exhibition.. PubPub.
  Boehnert, J.
  
• Steps around a theory of action: Notes on seven Bateson conferences.
  Perera, D., Goodbun, J., Sadler, S., Sweeting, B., Link, L., Huthöfer, S., Ferrari, P. & Tudzierez, F.