For me, self-organization constitutes the central operative principle of complex systems. It designates processes in which order is not externally imposed but emerges immanently from recursive interactions among system elements—non-linearly, decentrally, and without central motoring.
Within the framework of second-order cybernetics, operative closure functions as an epistemological condition: once the observer is understood as part of the system observed, order can no longer be conceived as an objective given. Rather, the world—comprising concepts, numbers, natural laws, symmetries, and material entities—appears as the result of systemic operations, that is, as something enacted rather than discovered.
This perspective informs my work on theories of operative closure. It provides a conceptual space for modes of thought beyond algorithmic rationality, especially in relation to complex, non-decomposable problems. Systems thinking, in this sense, foregrounds communication, relational dynamics, and the generative handling of uncertainty as central epistemic resources—within philosophy and across disciplinary boundaries..
Project
2026
Patterns & Matrices (Meta-Patterns) in Second – Order Cyberentics
Researchproject in development
09.2026 – 12.2026
Cybernetics of Complexity
Researchproject in development
Teaching
2022
Heinz von Foersters operatives Denken.
(Operational Thinking of Heinz von Foerster)
Autumn Academy in collaboration with the University of Applied Arts & StadtWien
WS 2020/21
Selbstorganisation and ryzhomatic Ensembles.
(Self-Organization and rythomatic Ensembles)
BA & MA, Media Studies, University of Potsdam
SoSe 2020
Die Innenwelt der Blackbox: Kybernetik der 2. Ordnung.
(The inner world of the black box: 2nd order cybernetics.)
BA & MA, Media Studies, University of Potsdam
WS 2017/18
Drei Stationen einer Genealogie der Kybernetik.
(Three stages in the genealogy of cybernetics.)
BA, Media Studies, University of Potsdam
Lectures
2026
Second-Order Epistemologies as a Way Out of Algorithmic Hegemony.
ASC 2026 Meeting, Ouro Petro, Brasil
The hermeneutics of listening: reciving and making distinctions. A dialogue betwenn Heinz von Foerster, Ranulph Gnalville and Gregory Bateson.
ASC 60th Anniversary Meeting, Washington DC.
2022
Teknika eta izatearen eraketa: domestikazioa eta zaintzaren artean
UEU Sommerkurs, Donostia/San Sebastian
2021
On a Gnostic Motif of Cybernetic Epistemology
Tagung: Media Philosophy and theological aesthetics of algorithms. Charles University Prague & GfM
2020
Process and Ontogenesis: Entropy and self-organisation in embryonic development of organically and inorganically organised structures
Tagung: Taboo-Transgression-Transcendence, Universität für Angewandte Kunst
Writings
2026
Einführung: Theorien der Selbstorganisation, Utb Verlag.
(in progress)
2026
The hermeneutic of listeining: receiving and making distinctions. A dialogue between Heinz von Foerster, Ranulph Glanville and Gregory Bateson in: Constructivist Forundations (in progress)
2025
Review Essay (extended research context) of Yuk Hui (ed.), Cybernetics for the 21st Century: Epistemological Reconstruction,
MEDIENwissenschaft: Rezensionen | Reviews, Vol. 42, No. 2: 217–222.
Review of Information Flows in Digital Cultures: Theory Formation, History, and Logistical Capitalism by Matthias Denecke, Medienimpulse, 63(4), 22 pagesMedienimpuls Zeitschrift.
Liebe: Wenn eine Unmöglichkeit wahrscheinlich wird.
in: Tuczay/Ballhausen (Hg.), Mahrtenehe
(in press)
2024
Heinz von Foerster’s Operational Epistemology: Orientation for Insight into Complexity,
in: Kybernetes.Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print.
2023
Peter Sloterdijk-en antropoteknika: gizakiaren otzantasun- eta luxu-iturri
in: Jon Mentxakatorre eta Aitzol Astigarraga: Adimen artifiziala: filosofia eta teknologie bilgune, UEU.
Wenn die Kontrolle hinterherkommt. Ein Essay zur Kybernetik,
in: Zukunft 01/2023.
A Reconstruction of Epistemological Foundations of Cybernetics. The First Steps in Epistemologies of Complexity,
in: Philosophy Kitchen. Rivista di filosofia contemporanea. N. 18: Cibernetica. Prospettive sul pensiero sistemico, pg. 15-34.
2022
Der Betrug Odysseus‘ und die Wahrheit der technischen Medien,
in: Ballhausen, Thomas (Hg): Zeit und Medien, 2/2022
2021
Zu gnostischen Motiven der operativen Erkenntnistheorie,
in: Johannes Benke & Virgil Brower (Hg.), Mediality, Religion, Theology, Internationales Jahrbuch für Medienphilosophie, Bd. 7, Berlin.