ANTIMICROBIAL RESISTANCE

Systems within Systems: Mapping Pathways.

Mariana Heilmann

Contributions from: Dr Enrique Castro Sanchez and Nidhee Jadeja

Systems Within Systems is a thinking tool.

It is an interactive method to map pathways through the complex and inter-related web of factors that affect health. For this exhibition, this method is being used to explore the global topic of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), in particular, the important part that the individual plays in the bigger picture.

In collaboration with Dr. Enrique Castro Sanchez (Imperial College London), the method has been adapted for the purpose of running workshops with local school children. The featured pathway is intended to promote awareness and empowerment around the topic of keeping healthy (thereby avoiding antibiotics).

Progressively, each layer represents a system and the subsystems that exist within it. Through dialogue and analysis, each layer is filled. The wipe-able blackboard material allows for multiple “journeys” of thought and analysis.

BEHIND THE MAKING

1-Concept piece

Systems Within Systems installation (seven nesting hemispheres) - stoneware clay, blackboard paint & chalk pen

The original idea to use the Russian doll effect / nested bowls, was intended to make it possible to physically feel one system relating to another, each with factors that interrelate to the preceding and subsequent layers.
Stoneware clay was used as a reference to Earth systems.
Blackboard paint was used to reference a thinking, analysing and learning platform. It was intended to be a wipe-able surface like a blackboard, onto which many iterations and explorations could happen.
A next stage for this concept piece could be to make the “bowls” from blackboard painted wood. This would make it lighter, more durable, and more satisfying to interact with.

3- Interactive tool No.2

A layered construction and blackboard finish establishes a method that allows a workshop leader to guide participants through multiple iterations and journeys through complex web of interconnected factors. This prototype could become and education tool and produced in a way that each participant would have their own mapping set to explore multiple subjects.

The thinking behind the material choice for this was based on improving the sensorial experience of this method.
Using wooden discs with rounded edges and a smooth blackboard finish enhances the feel and thereby contributes to the learning experience.
The aesthetics and visual language are more in keeping with the overall concept.
The base can be used to draw out the web that is being analysed.

2- Interactive tool No.1

3-Interactive drawing system (seven discs of varying dimensions) – acrylic & whiteboard marker

The acrylic discs are two sided. One side is white board, the other is covered in a blackboard vinyl.

The bottom depicts a photo of the earth from space in reference to the global system that we are all part of.
This is an adaptation of the concept piece and was designed to be:
- Easily and cost effectively reproduced.
- Easy to carry to community workshop events.
- Easy to write on, clean and interact with.
- Robust
- Easy to reproduced and becoming a standard thinking tool in the classroom.