Yael Eylat Van-Essen PhD – Curator / Researcher

Adaptation in an Unpredictable Reality – Resilience and Vulnerability

The beginning of the 21st century is characterised by a high degree of uncertainty resulting from the unpredictable and destructive forces of both, natural disasters and human activities. It is to a large extent a consequence of a new reality of networked mediated systems that transforms the paradigm of pre-structures organisations with complex systems comprised of artificial edifices and living organisms whose performance cannot always be predicted.

In his seminal paper from 1973, “Resilience and Stability of Ecological Systems”, Holling referred to the concept of resilience in relation to ecological issues, devised many of the principles underlying thinking about resilient systems today in the era of the Anthropocene. He argued that the ability of a system to change, through adaptation processes, without necessarily maintaining its stability has a greater advantage for its productivity. Holling replaced the simple idea of dynamic stability with abstract ideas derived from systems theory and cybernetics, based on the fact that complex systems have a multiple equilibriums and that the transition from one to the other does not necessarily cause the system’s collapse but rather an adaptive cycle. The theories of resilience that continue Holling’s concept originating in environmental issues, propose to see the advantages derived from situations of change, insecurity, and even vulnerability and harm.  

This paper explores current resilient mechanisms, based on ‘smart’ systems, in which, natural phenomena’ are mediated with technological agency, on the one hand, and artificial systems are acquiring natural characteristics, on the one hand. They connect between body and mind, ecology and urban infrastructures, public and private, local and global, security and military apparatus, and civic organizations. These mechanisms are grounded on parametric systems that maintain the principles of efficiency and optimization and in many contexts reflect the values of neoliberal economics and governance. As Neoliberalism preserves states of instability as an engine for growth and development, taking risks and absorbing harm becomes a legitimate factor within this equation. In this paper I propose to consider speculation as a critical tool for examining the ethical aspects of these mechanisms, as well as the potential for the restructuring a new human-nature relations.