Systemics (or, Exhibition as a series)

More about the book

Systemics presents a collection of new writing and curatorial projects from Kunsthal Aarhus, Denmark, spanning 2013 to 2014. This compilation includes details of four core exhibitions, two commissioned exhibitions, and four essays, forming the complete Systemics series program. The series unfolds over time through associative parts, employing descriptive and poetic exhibition titles to create a cumulative experience. Drawing on the term systemics from Austrian cybernetician Heinz von Foerster, the book highlights a conceptual approach that embraces the complexities of the world, extending this idea to curatorial thinking as both theme and method. The result is an understanding of exhibitions as a series, where ideas develop through their temporal relations, akin to episodes in a film, sentences in a narrative, or data arranged by algorithms. Systemics encourages contemplation of curatorial "events" that span longer durations, connecting elements across space and time—exhibitions, texts, and projects—formally and thematically, creating overlapping feedback loops in a cybernetic system. Contributing authors and curators include Franco "Bifo" Berardi, Boris Groys, Mathias Kokholm, Joasia Krysa, Fatima Hellberg, Lars Bang Larsen, Bárbara Rodríguez Muñoz, and Jussi Parikka.