We live in an overall ecosystem that encapsulates so many aspects of our life. Within the ecosystem we live in, there are other, smaller systems that run and allow us to live our lives the way we do. I found it hard at first to distinguish what was considered a system and what wasn’t but I think I have figured out some ways to tell the difference. Any object or thing could have been part of a system at one point but it doesn’t mean it currently is one at that moment. There’s a difference between being in a system and being a part of a system. For example, a shirt was part of a manufacturing system and then through a store system and then eventually it became someone’s possession. But when you’re just wearing the shirt, the shirt itself is not a system, it was just in a system.
So when we were working on the in class activity, in order to list all the systems present, I thought about whether the object I was looking at met a certain requirement. The requirement was that the object, in the moment the photo was taken, was part of a system. It didn’t count if the object could have been in a system previously or if it could become part of a system in the future. For example, there was a police officer in the picture. Because this officer was doing his job and carrying out his orders as an officer, he was part of the police system when the photo was taken. If it was just a picture of the officer himself, then he wouldn’t be considered a system.
I still find it difficult at times to distinguish whether something is a system or not but I think the most helpful thing for me is to consider whether the object being discussed is at that moment is working in a system, not whether or not if it was or will be part of one.
After creating the infographic for my studio class, the list of systems that I encountered were the water, electric, internet, solar, education, traffic, and economic systems. I chose these systems because although I encountered many more systems, these were the ones I thought stood out. Also I decided to choose these systems that are rather big and include smaller systems within them because it kept me from creating an infographic that was too complicated.
