Assemblages

Assemblages are the relational system of things, practices, habits, bodies, concepts, and environments that give rise to a coherent logic – the general propensity and loose identity of the assemblage. 

From the perspective of our everyday engagement with emergent systems, assemblages are what we mainly encounter: a tight network of things, practices, concepts, habits, and environments. We live in and of assemblages. 

Think as you reach for your coffee - consider the organized web of interacting relations: Coffee beans, roasters, grinders, water, stovetops, filters, cups, drinking, bodies, habits, histories, etc., that are giving rise to a unique history and culturally specific experience.

All of reality can be connected, and it is organized in unique networks of processes. Nothing is solitary— everything is configurations— an organized and stable pattern of process. These webs of processes entangle everything. But reality is not simply one massive undefined web of relations. Networks of relations individuate and have a distinct character. Some of these networks form in ways that cannot be easily separated— these semi-non-decomposable ones are “emergent.” We as individuals are also assemblages. Understanding and shifting this logic at the level of ourselves is really fundamental to beginning to engage emergent innovation.