Lexicon

Abject
Accretion
Actant
Aeration
Aerobic
Algae-boosted
Animal
Anthropomorphism
Anti-Continuous Construction
Apocalypse
Aquaculture
Aquanaut
Ark
Artificial Intelligence
Autopoiesis
Assemblages
Asymmetry
Atrophy
Attraction
Autarchy
Automata
Automation
Autosymbiosis
Bambassador
Bathyscaphe
Bioconurbation
Biomedia
Bionics
Biosphere
Biotechnique
By-product
Capacity
Actant
Coisolation
Composting
Conservative Surgery
Consumer Envelope
Consumption
Continuous Construction
Conurbation
Correalism
Cultural_Memory
Cybernetics
Cybertecture
Cyborg
Dispositif
Diving Saucer
Dross
Earthship
Ecocatastrophe
Effluvium
Egosphere
End-use
Entanglement
Eutopia
Feedback
Foam
Folk
Gadget
Garbage House
Green Cyborg
Heuristic
Hoard
Holism
Homogenization of Desire
Hostile
Human Affect
Hybridized Folk
Hydroponic
Hyper-Materialism
Information Economy
Inner Space
Interama
Intra-Uterine
Maque
Megalopolis
Min-use
Mobility
Monorail
Multi-Hinge
Non-Design
Oceanaut
Oppositional Consciousness
Organic
Ouroboros
Panarchy
Parasite
Perceived Continuation
Permanence
Place
Prototype
Post-Animal
Reclamation
RI: Data Farms
RI: Garbage and Animals
RI:Shipbreaking
RI: Toxic Sublime
Sampling
Scale
Sensing Structure
Simulacrum
Simulation
Soft Energy
Spaceship Earth
Submersible
Superwindow
Symbiosis
Synthetic Environment
Technocratic
Technological Heredity
Technological Sublime
Telechirics
The Sublime
Thermal Panel
Actant
Thing-Power
Thinking Machines
Tool
Toxic Withdrawal
Turbulence
UV-Transparent Film
Vibrant Matter
Waste
Work

Panarchy

Panarchy is a conceptual term first coined by the Belgian philosopher, economist, and botanist Paul Emile de Puydt in 1860, referring to a specific form of governance (-archy) that would encompass all(-pan) others. Panarchy as a topological model accommodates a hierarchy of adaptive cycles interconnected across different scales in time and space. Specifically three major events are considered: 1. Conservation or Consolidation 2. Release or Collapse and 3. Reorganization or Renewal.1 The significance of SEEK2 as an exhibit is that it attempts to put on display, and maintain dynamic symmetries at multiple scales and phases. The gerbils are for the most part agitated within the confines of the glass box and through their movement continuously reconfigure the arrangement of the metal toy blocks. Meanwhile the robotic arm with the aid of recorded data incessantly tries to rearrange the blocks back into its original city organization. This condition is maintained for not too long, before once again the overall organization is disturbed. From this perspective, it can be seen as an act of growing resilience.

1 Jianguo Wu and Tong Wu, “Ecological Resilience as a Foundation for Urban Design and Sustainability”, Chapter 10 in Resilience in Ecology and Urban Design, 2013.
2 Nicholas Negroponte, Soft Architecture Machines (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1975), pp.32-51.