Rhythms of change: the perception and mapping of dynamic processes
📍 BioBAT Art Space
🗓 Saturday, October 11, 2025
🕒 4:00–7:00 PM
📌 Parsons School of Design | Anna-Maria and Stephen Keller Auditorium Room N101
66 5th Avenue New York, NY 10011
📞 On-site contact: +1 347 730 3139
🔗 For RSVP click here
Looking at how the more thank human world reflects, incorporates and senses change, and how we, humans, can measure, trace, understand these shifts and visualize them. We are interested in exploring how plants sense the world, adapt to change; we’re excited to dive into speculative botanical futures and discover how adaptive intelligence inspired by the botanical world looks like; and finally we are as usual open to new learnings and perspectives from the more-than-human world.
Speakers:
Daniel H. Rothman
Theoretical Geophysicist of Earth’s Complex Systems
Professor of Geophysics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Co-Director of the Lorenz Center, where he studies how life and the physical environment co-evolve through the lens of mathematics and nonlinear physics. His work focuses on the carbon cycle, climate dynamics, and the emergence of global biogeochemical patterns, offering fundamental insights into the forces shaping Earth’s past, present, and future. Trained in applied mathematics at Brown and earning his PhD in geophysics from Stanford, Rothman joined MIT initially to strengthen its seismology program—only to carve new ground in complex systems, from fluid dynamics and pattern formation to mass extinction events. His models reveal how instabilities in the carbon cycle relate to planetary tipping points, contributing a theoretical framework to pressing environmental questions at planetary scale.
Tega Brain
Artist of Eccentric Ecologies & Experimental Infrastructures
Artist and environmental engineer whose work explores how ecology, data, and automation collide within technological systems. Now based in New York, she creates experimental infrastructures, from networks controlled by weather, to data obfuscation tools, to a viral smell-based dating service, all probing how technologies shape agency in the age of climate crisis. She holds PhD from the Australian National University, developing the concept of eccentric engineering, a speculative design methodology for creating systems that prioritize ecosystemic rather than purely human goals. Her work has been exhibited at the Whitney Museum, ZKM, Smithsonian, ACCA, and HEK Basel, and she’s received awards from Creative Capital, Eyebeam, Pioneer Works, and Ars Electronica. She is Industry Associate Professor at NYU and co-author of Code as Creative Medium (MIT Press).
Johannes Jaeger
Theoretical Biologist of Dynamic Systems
Systems biologist and natural philosopher investigating organisms as dynamic, evolving processes. Bridging evolutionary biology, complex systems theory, and the philosophy of science, he works at the intersection of mechanism and emergence, exploring questions around causality, agency, and the limits of reductionism in biology. With a background in genetics, holistic science, and nonlinear modeling, Jaeger has led research at institutions including the Centre for Genomic Regulation (Barcelona) and the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research, and was affiliated with the Complexity Science Hub Vienna. His project, Pushing the Boundaries, develops a new conceptual framework for evolution as an open-ended, creative process.
Harpreet Sareen
Designer of Biohybrid Systems & Convergent Ecologies
Harpreet Sareen is Associate Professor at Parsons School of Design, where he leads research at the intersection of biology, electronics, and material science. His concept of Convergent Design explores hybrid systems—living materials, bionic substrates, and ecological sensors that reimagine interaction and environmental intelligence. A graduate of the MIT Media Lab, Harpreet has worked with Google Creative Lab, Microsoft Research, and Ars Electronica, and exhibited at venues like Somerset House, MIT Museum, and CID Grand Hornu. He is a Berggruen Honorary Fellow, INK Fellow, and was named an MIT Innovator Under 35. His work bridges disciplines to shape responsive, nature-aligned technologies for the future.
Andreas Weber
Biologist, philosopher, and nature writer with degrees in Marine Biology and Cultural Studies
Having collaborated with theoretical biologist Francisco Varela, his work rethinks organisms as subjects and the biosphere as a poetic, meaning-creating reality. In books such as The Biology of Wonder, Enlivenment (MIT Press, 2019), and Sharing Life (Boell Foundation, 2020), he develops a “poetic ecology” that understands feeling as the principle of all life, proposing that subjectivity and imagination are the foundations of existence. He teaches at the University of the Arts, Berlin, and the Università delle Scienze Gastronomiche in Pollenzo, Italy.