A cyber-systemic space for the study, practice, and leadership of complex and emergent systems
RSDX has become a defining feature of the Relating Systems Thinking and Design Symposium. What began as an improvised response to the pandemic has grown into a place where colleagues across regions, disciplines, and time zones meet, share work, and stay connected between annual gatherings.
Call for participation
SDA invites you to join the RSDX platform for online public sessions you are organising between January and June 2026. Let’s pilot a space for convening that’s shaped by the people and work brought into it and the range of contributions presented.
A short form is available for those interested in offering a session, attending regularly, or joining the organising group. Please add your session information here.
Contact cheryl@systemic-design.org to discuss the RSDX concept.
The backstory
RSDX, the online sessions that run alongside the annual Relating Systems Thinking and Design Symposium, started in 2020 as the world faced COVID. RSD9 Chair, Praveen Nahar, and the team at the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad, India, launched the first iteration of RSD online. The sessions included meditative moments and beautiful backgrounds. It was exhilarating for colleagues to meet during such an uncertain time. When RSD10 approached, Mieke van der Bijl and the TU Delft team developed an excellent online programme as Schengen and other borders opened and closed due to the ongoing pandemic. By the time we got to Brighton in 2022, RSD’s online programme was clearly crossing time and budget barriers and bringing together unusual and adjacent configurations of people working with systemic design’s relational, interdisciplinary approach. Interest in workshops was also growing, and there were far too many to host onsite, so RSD11 Chair Ben Sweeting proposed an online programme under the RSDX banner. Thanks to the University of Brighton events group, we also had the opportunity to pilot the Zoom Events platform, which significantly improved our capabilities. Everything clicked, and RSD12 Chair Evan Barba took it to a whole new level, embracing twelve RSD12 hubs with sessions streamed into the platform via Georgetown University. Then, Birger Sevaldson and Peter Jones, respectively RSD13 (Oslo School of Architecture and Design) and RSD14 (OCAD University) Chairs, stewarded transdisciplinary online programmes of community-led sessions.
In 2025, SDA acquired its own Zoom Events subscription. RSDX-unbound is the next step in this trajectory — a year-round cyber-systemic space for the study, practice, and leadership of complex and emergent systems that reflects the character RSDX has already taken on: a space not confined to a single venue or moment, open to distributed contributions, and responsive to the shifting rhythms of the field.
Call for participation for the pilot
Drawing on the RSD14 online programme and current infrastructure, SDA is launching a six-month pilot to explore what a continuous convening space could offer.
Duration: From January–June 2026, SDA is hosting a weekly multi-session Zoom Events hub, typically running for up to six days, with one dark day.
Format:
- Open-access talks, dialogues, workshops, and works-in-progress.
- Participation is free; voluntary contributions support shared infrastructure.
Objectives:
- Provide a common space that supports ongoing field coherence.
- Increase accessibility to cyber-systemic knowledge and practice.
- Offer lightweight infrastructure for smaller and adjacent communities.
- Complement annual conferences and place-based gatherings with regular opportunities to gather and share work.
Evaluation:
Engagement patterns, partner diversity, session quality, contribution sustainability, and strengthened relational ties.
RSDX UNBOUND
Forging Fridays Workshop Series
Elon University’s Design Forge organises events to meet and learn directly from acclaimed relational designers.