Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
ecosystem of interactions between environment and prior work of many individu-
als. Hence:
The trajectory through a creative space is not one of incrementally optimis-
ing towards a single goal or fitness measure, rather it is a complex pathway
through a series of intermediate and changing goals, each of which may de-
termine the pathway of the next, and may be creative in its own right.
If we are interested in discovering new creative spaces through the synergetic
combination of human intelligence and intuitive structuring and representation of
the conceptual space, then there are other possibilities. The evolution of species
on earth involves a complex set of interrelated processes and events. For example,
species do not exist in isolation from their environment or from other species; to-
gether they form a complex network of interdependencies that may impact on the
evolutionary process significantly. Let us see what happens if we re-conceptualise
the search of a creative space using insights from the structure and function of evo-
lutionary biological ecosystems.
2.3 Ecosystems
Ecosystems
are a popular yet somewhat nebulous concept increasingly adopted in
contemporary culture. Environmental groups want to preserve them, businesses
want to successfully strategise and exploit them, and the media is part of them.
With recent sales of Nokia mobile smartphones on the decline, Nokia CEO Stephen
Elop bemoaned that fact that his company, unlike its rivals, had failed to create
an “ecosystem”: one that encompassed smartphones, the operating system, services
and users (Shapshak
2011
). Media theorists speak of “media ecologies”—the “dy-
namic interrelation of processes and objects, beings and things, patterns and matter”
(Fuller
2005
). Philosopher Manuel De Landa emphasises the flows of energy and
nutrients through ecosystems manifesting themselves as animals and plants, stating
that bodies are “nothing but temporary coagulations in these flows: we capture in
our bodies a certain portion of the flow at birth, then release it again when we die
and micro-organisms transform us into a new batch of raw materials” (De Landa
2000
).
In the broadest terms, the modern concept of an ecosystem suggests a community
of connected, but disparate components interacting within an environment. This in-
teraction involves dependency relationships leading to feedback loops of causality.
The ecosystem has the ability to self-organise, to dynamically change and adapt in
the face of perturbation. It has redundancy and the ability to self-repair. Its mech-
anisms evoke symbiosis, mutualism and co-dependency, in contrast to pop-cultural
interpretations of evolution as exclusively a battle amongst individuals for fitness
supremacy. Yet we also speak of “fragile ecosystems”, implying a delicate balance
