From soft politics, soft power and soft spaces to fluid territories,
software and soft programming, Bracket 2 unpacks the use and role of
responsive, indeterminate, flexible, and immaterial systems in design.
In an era of declared crises--economic, ecological and climatic, among
others--the notion of soft systems has gained increasing traction as a
counterpoint to permanent, static and hard systems. Acknowledging fluid
and indeterminate situations with complex feedback loops that allow for
reaction and adaption, the possibility of soft systems has reentered the
domain of design. The examples displayed in "Bracket goes soft" are
offered as nothing more than a short catalog of soft systems--some
explicitly architectural, others geological, others entirely
metaphorical. In all cases, these examples explore how the notion of
going soft can be iterated across professions, disciplines, and fields
of research. The book is divided into the themes "sensing/feedback";
"interfacing/ enveloping"; "subverting/hijacking"; "formatting/
distributing"; "contingency/ resilience"; "diffusing/generating".
Bracket is a book series structured around an open call that highlights
emerging critical issues at the juncture of architecture, environment,
and digital culture. The editorial board and jury for Bracket 2 includes
Benjamin Bratton, Julia Czerniak, Jeffrey Inaba, Geoff Manaugh,
Philippe Rahm, Charles Renfro, as well as co-editors Neeraj Bhatia and
Lola Sheppard. Bracket is a collaboration between InfraNet Lab and
Archinect.
