5_year_updates
Dear Colleagues,
We thank those who participated in the network for Sciences, Engineering, Arts, and Design (SEAD) report, which was published this year as “Steps to an Ecology of Networked Knowledge and Innovation” (MIT Press, 2015).
The process that led to this report began about five years ago with a number of convenings supported by the US National Science Foundation, US National Endowment for the Arts, and US National Endowment for the Humanities, as well as internationally. We note that recently the European Commission also issued its ICT-Arts CONNECT report, launching the STARTS program, and there have been a number of transatlantic discussions. We think it would be useful to provide a “snapshot” update on significant developments over the past few years and would like to solicit your thoughts.
WOULD YOU BE WILLING TO POST ONE OR TWO PARAGRAPHS (NO MORE) ON A SEAD-RELATED TOPIC OR TREND THAT IS IMPORTANT TO YOU? Please use this template.
If you prefer to send comments offline, please email
Robert Thill: robert.thill@gmail.com
For example, we note trends in the rising cost of education and concurrent number of MOOCs, DOCCs, and low-residency postdoc programs; the increasing number of STEAM initiatives; new phases in the maker/hacker phenomenon; ubiquity of 3D printing; increasing strength of social media “citizen justice” and “citizen science” fora; the rising need for peer review of transdisciplinary research and creative work; and the formation of new organisations such as a2ru in the USA.
We hope you might be willing to post a comment on this page with a very brief input of this kind, explaining why you think the particular update is important. We will synthesize all comments received and include them in a SEAD Update on the MIT Press publication.
We are looking for inputs by November 1, 2015.
SEAD will also host a panel discussion at the 2016 US College Art Association (CAA) conference, February 3-6 in Washington, DC. At this panel session, we will also present the results of the “snapshot” update.
Thank you, and best regards,
– Carol LaFayette, Carol Strohecker, Roger Malina and the SEAD network
Published on October 11, 2015
SEAD: White Papers 
It is becoming more and more important to focus on resilience, complex systems, ecology, and the individual. I’m drawn toward tracing the strands that connect ecological systems with personal ecologies. Where are the limits/boundaries of the self, and where does the ecosystem begin? How can we re-vision resilience to move us beyond sustainability as a mere mitigation of human impact and become proactive in building an integrative ecological relationship moving forward?