Through conversations and discussions with systems scientists, we identified three essential influencing factors of systems for our artistic research project SENSING LIVING SYSTEMS:

• The boundaries of a system, or the drawing of boundaries (set or assumed boundaries)

• The entities of a system (participants, which can include institutions, natural forces, people, etc.)

• Relations / connections

To understand and influence living systems, it is important to recognize that we are all living systems, which can only exist when embedded in others. The boundaries we perceive, how we set and define them, depend on individual and collective worldviews, necessities, and possibilities.

With this scenographic study, we pose the question of observation in two ways in the space (at AIL/Post Office Savings Bank) and to its manifold visitors/users:

1. Is the accumulated soil with components of natural and human-made objects a system? Part of a system? And where do observers place the boundaries?

2. Do they see themselves as a system? With what limitations?

We left open the possibility for visitors to change and influence the installative scenography by adding or removing objects, crossing, and blurring the set boundaries of the accumulated soil. Sprouting seeds and thriving plants could be watered, and dead ones buried as fertilizer for the growing ones.

In conversations with numerous recipients, we found that the objectification of the system concept, and the possibility of touching and smelling, are helpful for cognitive processes and finding language for system ideas. There were debates about whether the objects in the soil are connected and what relationship they can be seen to have with each other. Different narratives emerged, and the realization followed: boundary drawing is changeable and often based on collectively anchored stories and worldviews. Organismic worldviews are reinforced with conscious sensory perception of one's environment.

About the series: ART CABIN at AIL

The Otto Wagner Cashier Hall offers a special opportunity to give insights to processes and activities of SENSING LIVING SYSTEMS. For the first time, the historical cabin is used for ongoing artistic installations to make methods more visible, relatable and comprehensible for a public audience. Surrounded by visitors of the hall, the cafe and AIL, also by other institutions in the building (Academy of Science, FWF, JKU) offer a chance to gather feedback and reactions to the project and the specific stages of studies that will be incorporated into the project outcome.