THE SYSTEMIC DESIGN ASSOCIATION
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH OCAD UNIVERSITY
RSD14-2025
PARTICIPANT GUIDE
OCTOBER 3–21*
RSD14-RSDX online community-led sessions and RSD14-Paper Talks precede the on-campus programme. Speakers, panels, workshops, and peer-reviewed paper talks run throughout October. Expect rigorous, transdisciplinary sessions led by researchers and practitioners generating arcs of impact across multi-scale, multi-actor systems.
This ticket includes livestream sessions from RSD14-TORONTO. Online festival access is pay-what-you-can.
RSD14 returns to OCAD University in Toronto, Canada, after nine years in new locations. This year, the symposium builds on Toronto’s presence as a centre for design, practitioners networks, and higher education. RSD14-TORONTO takes place on the campus at 100 McCaul Street, Toronto. OCADU is one of the founding schools of the RSD movement.
This ticket includes the Festival Pass.
The Systems School invites you to the RSD14 Leadership Retreat for those of us seeking to enable the greater emergence of systemic leadership. This is a calling-in for folks who design and lead systemic leadership capability building programmes so that together, through listening, sharing and collective sensemaking, we can create new edges for the field.
This ticket includes the Festival Pass.
October 2025
* APAC-friendly timezone series is the morning of the next day
3–7
Community (ac)Chords is the epic online series that amplifies the voices and visions of the systemic design community. Tune in for over 30 sessions—keynotes, talks, panels, and interactive formats—plus a dozen hands-on workshops led by practitioners around the world.
Photo: Mathilda Tham is in the house with Hannah Jones and Anette Lundebye. Their plenary session is Retrospective and Prospective Storytelling of Metadesign Research and Education Impacts—A 60-Year Arc.
8–10
Streaming Knowledge features 90 peer-reviewed papers, presented online by their authors in Paper Talks. Each grouping of related or contrasting work includes an expert moderator and time for direct feedback and dialogue on inter- and transdisciplinary approaches to systemic design.
Photo: RSD14 Chair, Peter Jones, is a founding member of the Systemic Design Association and serves as its Vice-President.
11
Relational Connectedness is a space for designers to explore the question of how we can design better social worlds through our communication, relationships, and the larger systems in which we are a part. Hosted by the Coordinated Management of Meaning Institute.
Photo: Co-organiser and facilitator, Abbie VanMeter, is CMMi’s Executive Director.
12
Ecologies of Knowing brings together an ONLINE cybernetic series exploring design and authorship, care and control, experimental glossaries, archival practice, and organisational theory. Hosted by The American Society for Cybernetics and #NewMacy.
Photo: Co-organiser, Merve Sahin, is an EODIAH Fellow and PhD candidate in the Visual and Performing Arts program at the Harry W. Bass Jr. School of Arts, Humanities, and Technology.
15
On campus workshops all day at OCADU.
Photo: Louis Kauffman (above) and Thomas Fischer bring Tangle Circuits and the Limits of Knowing to Toronto. Check out Lou’s Sightlines article, Crossing Algebra and Systemic Design.
16–18
Arcs of Impact is the live circuit of RSD14—a four-day gathering of speakers, panels, and conversations in downtown Toronto. Set within the city’s vibrant culture, RSD14 plugs into Toronto’s networks of practice, education, and innovation. Hosted by OCAD University.
Photo: OCADU’s iconic Rosalie Sharp Centre for Design is a “tabletop” structure that stands above the Beverley campus building on 12 colourful steel legs. Architect: Will Alsop.
19
Navigating New Edges for the Field is a one-of-a-kind, one-day retreat on the Toronto Islands. This is a calling-in for those who design and lead systemic leadership capability-building programs. A dedicated time for sharing, listening, and collective sensemaking. Hosted by The Systems School.
Photo: Seanna Davidson, Director, The Systems School, is the retreat’s catalyst, facilitator, and lead organiser.
21
The Systemic Design Association’s annual General Assembly is open to all. The Board shares a report on the current state of systemic design, and SDA members are invited to vote on organisational matters.
Photo: Systemic Design Association’s President, Maria Davidová, hosts the General Assembly.
21–22*
The case reporting co-inquiry evolved from a collective sense that now is the time to formally recognise and track, where “track” means both “follow and capture” and “include” as in creating a discourse—case reports. Do you agree? This is not a case study is a one-day exploratory inquiry into case reporting.
* Morning session hosted by Snowmelt on October 22 (UTC+11)
Photo: Lead organiser, Ryan Murphy, is a Systemic Design Association board member, serving as Secretary.
FAQS
Can’t find what you are looking for? Contact rsd14@rsdsymposium.org
sessions
alpha order A–Z
Presenting partnership
Each year, the host organisation sets the primary time zone for the symposium. For RSD14, that’s OCAD University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada (UTC−4). The official dates are October 3 at 8:00 AM to October 21 at 8:00 PM (UTC−4), but sessions span from UTC+14 to UTC−12—so you can join live sessions from almost anywhere in the world.
Online sessions are hosted on Zoom Events, which automatically displays times in your local time zone. The interactive agenda supports calendar integration and provides immediate access to session recordings.