Piotr Michura
This interactive session creates a space to explore how aspects of an epistemological model informed by second-order cybernetics and systems theory can be operationalised within a design context.
The first part of the session presents an analysis of how a particular approach to time has shaped the conceptualisation of several significant heritage exhibitions in Poland and the United States, examines the strategies underpinning these curatorial frameworks, and proposes ways in which multi-temporality approaches might be effectively employed.
The discussion that follows, engaging participants directly, expands from this analysis to explore the evolution of design frameworks grounded in a dynamic oscillation between temporalities and social constructs of time—what Bakhtin (1981) described as chronotopes, the interconnectedness of time and space in narrative—here extended to illuminate design contexts.
Chronotope
We will give the name chronotope (literally, “time space”) to the intrinsic connectedness of temporal and spatial relationships that are artistically expressed in literature. This term [spacetime] is employed in mathematics and was introduced as part of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. The special meaning it has in relativity theory is not important for our purposes; we are borrowing it for literary criticism almost as a metaphor (almost, but not entirely). What counts for us in the fact that it expresses the inseparability of space and time (time as the fourth dimension of space). We understand the chronotope as a formally constitutive category of literature; we will not deal with the chronotope in other areas of culture. (Bahkin, 1981, p. 84)
Bakhtin, M. M. (1981). Forms of time and of the chronotope in the novel. In M. Holquist (Ed.), The dialogic imagination: Four essays (C. Emerson & M. Holquist, Trans., pp. 84–258). University of Texas Press.
Piotr Michura
School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Piotr Michura is an Associate Professor in the Department of Visual Communication Design at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He holds degrees from the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow (MFA, PhD) and the University of Alberta (MDes), and was awarded a Fulbright Senior Advanced Research Award in 2015 to conduct research at the Institute of Design, IIT Chicago.
Piotr has contributed to research at Mount Royal University (Canada), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (USA), UNISINOS (Brazil), and IIT Chicago. He has collaborated internationally on digital humanities projects (NORA, MONK, INKE, PlotViz), specialising in visualisation and interface design.
His PhD explored experimental visualisations for interacting with digital texts in the humanities, leading to ongoing work in information design, interaction design, and text visualisation. A core theme of his practice is “conversation modelling,” including the design of both digital and tactile/3D interfaces to support critical dialogue. His current research focuses on the intersection of systems theory, second-order cybernetics, and design.
In parallel with academic work, Piotr maintains a freelance practice in exhibition, book, and interface design, collaborating with leading cultural institutions in Poland. He is a member of the Systemic Design Association (SDA), former regional representative for IIID, and co-founder/editor of the Polish design journal, Formy.
Adapted from piotrmichura.com
