1.
The Visual Representation of Complex Systems:
A Typology of Visual Codes for Systemic Relations
Dr. Joanna Boehnert
Research Fellow (part-time + temporary)
Centre for the Evaluation of Complexity Across the Nexus (CECAN)
University of Surrey
@EcoLabs + @ecocene
http://ecolabsblog.wordpress.com

2.
Content
A. Introduction to CECAN Research
B. Research Design
C. List of Key Terms
D. RSD6 Surveys
E. What next?
* website links are embeded in this slideshow

3.
The Visual Representation of Complex Systems:
A Typology of Visual Codes for Systemic Relations
A. Introduction to CECAN Research

4.
The Visual Representation of Complex Systems:
A Typology of Visual Codes for Systemic Relations
Abstract: Sustainability practitioners have long relied on the
use of images to display relationships in complex adaptive
systems on various scales and across different domains.
Visual representations play an important role in facilitating
communication, learning and collaboration on social,
environmental and economic issues that are characterised
as complex systems.

5.
The project will address the need for images that are widely
understood across different fields and sectors in order to
facilitate conversations and decisions making between
researchers, policy makers, practitioners and evaluators
(with varying degrees of familiarity with complexity
science). By attempting to identify the best visual practices
and standardise visual codes used to represent some
of the key features of complex systems this project will
contribute to the evolving the visual language used to
communicate complexity.

6.
B. Research Design
Goal: The identification, classification and design of
visual codes to represent key features of complexity.
The research process:
STEP ONE
presentation +
informal survey
RSD6 OSLO
STEP TWO
workshop 1
London
November 2017
STEP THREE
workshop 2
London
December 2017
Step One: 50 surveys at the Relating Systems Thinking
and Design 6 conference in Oslo, Norway, October 2017.

7.
Outcomes
1) Visual outcomes - ‘A Typology of Visual Codes for
Systemic Relations’
2) Journal paper - ‘The Visual Representation of
Complex Systems: A Typology of Visual Codes for
Systemic Relations’
3) Content for the Magenta Book - Annexe Complexity
Characteristics

8.
List of Key Features of Complexity
1. Feedback (positive + negative)
2. Emergence
3. Self organization
4. Levers / hubs
5. Property non-linearity
6. Domains of stability / attractors
7. Adaptation
8. Path + path dependency
9. Tipping points
10. Boundary / Threshold
11. Change over time
12. Open system
C. List of Key Features of Complexity
Phase 1. Images on the following 12
pages are from 50 surveys distributed
at RSD6.

9.
1. Feedback

10.
2. Emergence

11.
3. Self-organisation

12.
4. Levers and Hubs

13.
5. Property non-linearity

14.
6. Domains of stability / attractors

15.
7. Adaptation

16.
8. Path and path dependency

17.
9. Tipping points

18.
10. Boundaries / Thresholds

19.
11. Change over time

20.
12. Open System

21.
• 46 surveys were collected in Oslo at RSD6. These
surveys contained images and ideas submitted by
systems oriented designers from around the world.
• Audience participation, including multiple images can
be seen at the #RSD6 hashtag on Twitter.
• A ‘Visualising Complexity’ Storify was created by
CECAN collaborator Martha Bicket.
D. RSD6 Surveys

22.
Next?
The images collected in the surveys will be used in two
participatory design workshop in London (November 17 &
December 15, 2017).
The first phase of the design of ‘A Typology of Visual Codes
for Systemic Relations’ on key features of complexity will be
completed by the end of January 2017.
E. What Next?

23.
Joanna Boehnert PhD
https://ecolabsblog.wordpress.com
@ecocene + @ecolabs
jboehnert@eco-labs.org
JOANNA BOEHNERT
Towards the Ecocene
JOANNABOEHNERT,,
DESIGN www.bloomsbury.com
Cover design: Clare Turner, Joanna Boehnert, Lazaros Kakoulidis and Tzortzis Rallis
Also available
from Bloomsbury
‘At last, a book that clearly locates design for sustainability within a sophisticated
account of contemporary political economy. To accomplish the transition toward
more sustainable futures, we urgently need the lucid negotiation of social complexity
that this book provides.’
Cameron Tonkinwise, Director of Design Studies at Carnegie Mellon University, USA
‘Boehnert’s book shows in a masterful manner that there are no technological,
ideological or other easy fixes to the contradiction between capitalism and
nature. She powerfully makes the point that we need political design in order to
create a better world. A must-read for everyone interested in design, ecology,
communication and politics.’
Christian Fuchs, Professor of Social Media at the University of Westminster, UK
‘In this work, Boehnert examines foundational elements of human perception and
design, beautifully integrating situated knowledge into the complex systems in
which it exists, offering insights both relevant and practicable.’
Mara Averick, Research Analyst at the Economic Development Assistance Consortium, USA
‘Boehnert envisions a possible, eco-ethical praxis sufficient to the urgency of
the Ecocene era. With inspirational tempo, she sweeps across and connects the
significant ideas that advance design eco-literacy, decolonizing and replacing
outmoded discourses with powerful fresh starts.’
Peter Jones, Co-founder of the Systemic Design Research Network at OCAD
University, Canada
Design, Ecology, Politics describes a powerful role for design in making sustainable ways
of living not only possible but desirable. It examines the relationships between three
domains. Part I: Design explains how new ways of living are created and made appealing.
Part II: Ecology explores the philosophical problems at the root of the environmental crisis
and considers how design can either contribute to or address these problems. Part III:
Politics describes why sustainable transitions are currently so difficult to achieve.
By theorizing design, ecological and socio-political theory concurrently, Boehnert shows
how social relations are constructed, reproduced and obfuscated in ways which often
cause environmental and social harms. Where design theory fails to recognize the
historical roots of unsustainable practice, it reproduces old errors. With the understanding
that design negotiates the intimately intertwined space between self, society and the
environment, design can more effectively engage with complex contemporary challenges.
The transformative potential of design is dependent on deep-reaching analysis of the
problems design attempts to address. With this ecologically literate and critically
engaged foundation, design is a practice primed to facilitate the creation of sustainable
and just futures.
JOANNA BOEHNERT is a Research Fellow at the Centre for the Evaluation of Complexity
Across the Nexus (CECAN) at the University of Surrey, UK.
Please get in touch with feedback or questions.
& Look out for this in early 2018.