From performing to mapping and choreographing complex thinking: challenges and opportunities
Ana Teixeira de Melo
Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra
Nov. 7, 2024, 11 a.m. UTC // Nov. 7, 2024, 11 a.m. in UTC
In this presentation I will introduce a framework for the operationalisation of the practice of Complex Thinking conceptualised as a mode of coupling between an observer and their environment that: (i) attends to (describing, explaining, anticipating) and recognises properties attributed to complex systems and (ii) enacts and performs such properties as contributions to a complex coupling relation with a given target system of interest, showing an congruent organisation with the principles organising natural and social complex systems. I will introduce the Complexigraphy method as a qualitative visual method, based on ideograms for mapping, dynamically, the complexity of the thinking. These maps capture the dynamic relation between the parts of the thinking and its emergent whole as a dance to the complexity of the thinking. I will explore the notion of complex thinking as a dance to take a leap towards the possibility of physically choreographing the thinking through embodied and enactive strategies. I will explore possible pathways for the development of new tools, strategies and approaches in this domain.
