Indy Johar – Living in an Age of Long Emergencies
Join Indy Johar in a transformative journey about how embracing systemic thinking can transform our approach to global challenges. Prepare to re-imagine our world.
Indy Johar is the co-founder of 00 Project and Dark Matter Labs, which is focused on building the institutional infrastructures and dealing with the dark matter of the complexity that we are living in.
In this talk for our Design Probes format, Indy gave students and attendees several points for reflection starting from the pillars that lead his vision of the world and the activity of his Lab, find some of the covered topics here.
The distinction between management and systems lies in their approach to control and agency. Management focuses on control theories, while systems recognize inherent agency. Designers create system maps to identify intervention points, often proposing solutions without ensuring they are actionable. This results in theoretical improvements without practical follow-through. Genuine system improvement requires enhancing the system’s capabilities, not just isolated interventions. Historical and current systems thinking show a shift from linear, controllable models to complex, interconnected feedback loops, highlighting the need for a relational and comprehensive approach. This is evident in Indigenous practices, which address challenges like carbon emissions and microplastics. A systems worldview transforms frameworks, including property theories, where property rights encompass responsibilities to ecological health. This perspective sees agency as distributed across time and space, challenging traditional notions of property based on human dominance. Embracing distributed agency calls for an innovative approach to our interactions with the environment, viewing it as a dynamic and interconnected system rather than merely a resource.
At Dark Matter Labs, the approach to addressing global challenges is rooted in three core principles. The first is “re-agency,” which involves rebuilding the agency of the world itself, whether it pertains to energy meters as self-sovereign entities or the self-sovereignty of land. The second principle emphasizes the importance of learning over control. Instead of management-driven control theories, Dark Matter Labs advocates for a learning framework that fosters coherence and adaptability. The third principle challenges the traditional notion of human singularity, promoting the idea that humans are plural, interconnected beings in a continuous process of becoming. This shift in perspective demands a reimagining of relationships and economies, advocating for economies of care inspired by feminist economic work. These principles fundamentally alter how we operate within and understand systems, driving transformative change.
In a systems world, the shift from the self-optimizing agents of homo economicus to economies of care becomes crucial. Feminist economic theories, which emphasize landscapes of care, are vital in this context. Traditional economic systems are grounded in private contracts that prioritize individual optimization rather than systemic care. The challenge is to reconceptualize societal care, asking how care operates within a systems theory. Philosopher Forrest Landry highlights that care involves three-dimensional problem-solving: understanding one’s perspective, empathizing through others’ viewpoints, and considering all possible outcomes. This tri-dimensional approach is essential for a new consciousness and computational theory. As machine learning and computational capabilities advance, designing systems that embed care into contracting and relationships becomes imperative. Dark Matter Labs explores this intersectional problem space with diverse expertise, aiming to break conventional frames and address the complexities of a systems-based economy.
Dark Matter Labs is a unique, not-for-profit studio comprised of 71 individuals working globally, from South Korea to Vancouver. The studio operates under a distinctive model where the pay ratio between the highest and lowest-paid members is kept at 2:1, emphasizing equity and collective effort over traditional hierarchical structures. This approach ensures that team members are compensated to enable them to pursue their passions and innovate freely. Dark Matter Labs collaborates with various international organizations, from the European Commission to UNDP, yet deliberately avoids conventional consultancy and RFP-driven projects. Instead, they develop their own work and partnerships, focusing on systems thinking and interdisciplinary collaboration. This model includes technologists, lawyers, and visual designers, all working together to address complex global challenges and drive systemic change.