olga CielemęckaMonika Rogowska-St angret

Stigmergy aS a Collectivę Research Practice

lntroduction

tn this arlicle we aim at elaborating on the problem of developing collective research

practices and collective knowledge production in the context of contemporary academia'

we juxtapose the collectivity of"such practices with the predominating individualistic

approachesundeńakeninacademicactivities,especiallyinthehumanities.It is worth stressing that the need for collaboration in the humanities is noticeable'

theadvantages ofco-working can no longer be overlooked and new perspectives' po-

tentialities and possibilities oi co-knowing, co-writing, and co-thinking are emerging'

Both thęorists and practitionęrs are underlining the assets ofcollective research practices

for introducing and stimulating social and eniironmental transformation'r Others value

the support that researchers rel"iue when acting in a group, the engagement developed

in group processes, and modes of co-knowing Jifferent from individual ways of know-

inilnurcnara, Lanou, Mathews' Peterson and Weldon 2013)'

ln this article we allude to the aforementioned collaboration' we derive inspiration

fromestablishedwaysofdoingtheorytogether,andweappreciatethediversedirectionswhich open up fbr the humanitięs thanks to collective research approach. The study we

propose is immensely indebted to feminist new materialist theorists, whose work is de-

voted,amongotherthings'tointroducingthenotionoftheposthumansub.iect,bringinghumanities into a dialogie with the natuial sciences, and putting in question the human-

ities themselves.

Bearinginmindthisvastfieldofinspiration,wewouldliketoelaborateontheverymodeof collective r.r"u..1t practices. it it fo. this aim that we use the notion of stig-

*,'fl. *i,ł. to pose the following questions: how can stigmergic resęarch activities re-

formulate predominantly individual-oriented humanities? How could they transform

theobjectofthehumanities?Whatchangeswouldtheybringtoourunderstandingsof collaboration? In which direction should we rethink the humanities to make them

opentowards this shift in values (from valuing individual achievements and ideas to ap-

preciatingcollectivityandperceivingtheoryproductioninthehumanitiesasanalways

a spccial issue of a F,ormttP.|ournal. ..Nicposłuszeństwo. l.eoria i praktyka''

'More on this toPic: see

(Roszkowska20l3).

T

52 olga Cielemęcka, Monika Rogowska-Stangret

already-collectivepractice)?Howmaynewtrends,novelideasandtheoreticalshiftsbe introduced into the model of stigmergic research practices?

our understanoing of the idea óf collectivity is tased on two assumptions, the first

oneregardstheontologyofthesubjectthatwefavor,theotherconcemsthęundęrstand-ing of cross-disciplinarity which we advocate. we aim to analyze them in greater detail

in the following sections'

Stigmergy as a Collectivę Researt

as a way to substitute the Man (i

mic intertwinements, a collectivand factors which form and tran

Natural

Second, we are inspired by the

by thinkers such as Gilles Dele(2004, 2005, 2011), Karen Baraments in humanist scholarship.age the creation of new fields c

It could open a possibility to ercrisis. By advocating multi- andoriginating from biology, physirinto the self-understanding of ta vision of the humanitięs in wland abandon the intention to circ

Inspired by Elizabeth Grosz'rhumanity" and the Darwinian ir

ities as an "evolutionary projecton - the human subject and hu

limitations, risks its "identity" tosocial, economic, technological,humanities which allows for natr

and language by embracing chanTaken from this perspective,

tionally situated within the realntering in contact with other fieldsdisciplines. Their ęncounters are

Furthemore, we would liketoation has shifted immensely in the

on a collective effort undertaken tstaffl, as well as non-human ager

ments. On the other hand, the digforming ways in which researchcommunity. They redefine the vproperty, patents, the individual (l

any or the uniqueness and solitanthe common, the scientific and the

these tendencies, and approach thIt is recognized that the dated

by a collective effort and multip

r "Difliaction" is a term borrowed fira wave encounters an obstacle or a slitphor to dęscribe methodological apprc

Relational Subj ectivitY

First,agentsengagedinresearchactivitiesareunderstoodasalwaysalreadysubmergedinmultipleanddynamicrelationsintowhichtheyentertogetherwiththeirconstitutive"outside", be it the oU.l""i oith"

'tudy' environmlnt' "9uil*:l::

discourse' institutions'

the organic and inorganic, human, cultural, technological, economic or natural factors

and.,collaborators,'. That is, the subject is no longer an autonomous observer, but a "re-

lational" participant and contributo'' tht idea ofiuch a "relational subiect"' as we have

namedit(alludingr,"..toavasttraditionofcapturingtherelationalsenseofthesub-ject2)' is inspired by tne work of philosophers *ńo t,uu" questioned the subject as being

autonomous, self-contained, formed predominantly by his voluntary decisions' and op-

posed to /ris environment and other others. This formulation is thus heavily inspired

bythinkerswhocapturesubjectivityassomethingsimultaneouslyformingandbeingformed by power, knowledgó, environment, biolĘy and technology. In particu|ar our

research is indebted to and inspired by the work of t4ichel Foucault. Jakob von Uexkiill'

Karen Barad and Rosi Braidotti'

ToexemplifythisstreamofinspirationweturntoJakobvonUexkiill'sresęarchand his concept of [Jmwelt,the self'centęręd environment or perceptual world of a be-

ing.Eachbeingalwaysa.ise,attheintersectionwithits(Jmwelt,intimatelyconnectedwith everything that *po,., it. ln order to illustrate this idea' let us turn to an example

provided by the Sattic biologist' In '4 fheoty of MeaniyS.he writes about the [Jmwelt

ofaspider,whose..webis""".tuinlyfotmedina.fly-like'manner,becausethespideritself is .fly-like, . i o'be .ńy-rike, means. that the body structure of the spider has taken

on ceńain of the fly,s chńcteristics (...)'' (Uexkiill źoto,.loon;. Therefore, evolution

isnotaboutunits(i.e.inaiviauatorganisms;butaboutspecificalliances:thespidercan-not ęvolve alone, rather it must evolve together witn ine spider's web and the insect

it "intends" to catch.

Everybeingisthereforestructuredthrough'andtogetherwith'itsenvironment'through intra-active, in,"r"o.po."al entanglemJnts and chiasms that fashion it' lt is a re-

lational subject, i,.l"ru"tuuty submerged ń a web of material and worldly figurations

anditsagencyisalways/attheoutset,toborrowStacyAlaimo'Sterm,atranscotporea,lone (Alaimo 2010).

Whatconsequencesandimpactcouldthisapproachhaveonrethinkingresearchcre-ation and scholar|y col1aboration? Eschewing tńó lnoiuioualistic approach in the human-

ities, we put forward the model of doing .eóa.ch and participating in research projects

rcn. ,J.'...'-....-....---i.n**no or."flection on the relationally of the subject that is worth mentioning emerges tiom

the fęminist epistemologies, in particular tiom feminist standpoint theory (Llarding 2004 and l991;

HarawaY 1988; Braidotti 2013)'

Stigmergy as a Collęctive Ręsęarch Practice 53

aSawaytosubstitutetheMan(i.e.themodernsubject)withaplethoraofsuperorganis-mic interlwinements, a collective subjectivity *ou",l by manifold agents, subjectivities

and factors which form and transform it'

Natural Sciences and the Humanities

ed

ve

flS'

.ors

Second,weareinspiredbythenaturalsg]gncesandthepossibility-demonstratedby thinkers such as ciltesbeteuze and Fćlix Guattari (2007 [l980l), Elizabeth Grosz

(2004,2005,2011)'KarenBarad(fOOl)-touseitsmethods'terminologyandargu-ments in humanist scholarship. sriaglng the humanities and the sciences may encour-

agethecreationofnewfieldsofinquiryandhelpdelimitnew.horizonsforresearch.Itcould open a por*luiriiy-to envision tire.future of the humanities beyond its current

crisis. By advocating -'ń- and cross-disciplinary research practices in which concepts

originatingfrombiology,physics'orcomputersciencesandotherscanbeinterwoveninto the self-understanding of the humanities and help form their strategies' we offer

a vision of the humanities-in which these embrace their transitory' "undone" character

andabandontheintęntiontocircumscribetheirownandproperfieldofinquiry.lnspiredbyE,lizabethGrosz,s(Grosz201l)researchonthe..humansubject,..fleeting

humanity,'andtheDarwinianideaofevolution,wewouldliketodepictthęhuman-itiesasan..evolutionaryproject,,.Thehumanities,alongwiththeconceptsitisbasedon - the human suu.1ect anó humanism - ęyg|yg5. It constantly transgresses its own

limitations,risksits..identity,,tobecomęsomethingelse.It..adjuStS''tothechanging-social, economi., t""r.,nońg1cal' and ecological - ńality. We advocate thę idea of (post)

humanities which allows fór natural and applied sciences to affect its shapes, problems

unO tunguug" by embracing change and !h,e

mutation brought by them'

Taken from trii s peffitive, The problem s' methods' "1l1. :"t", :{:]Y::tJl""oi -

r&ve

sub-eingi op-piredbeing)f ourrxklill'

;Se&fCh

rf a be-

lnectedxarnPleIJmwelte sPiderras takenlvolution

'idęr can.

he insect

,irontnent'

.. lt is a re-

figurations,siorporeal

tionally situated within the realm of the humanities create "diffractive patterns"3 by en-

tering in contact with other fields of scholarship, methodologies, languages and scientific

disciplines.Theiręncountersareproductive,innovativeandengagedintheworld.Furthermore, we would like to acknowledge that the praxis of collaboration and c(Hre-

ationhasshiftedimme',"''.*lastfewdecades.Researchpracticesinthesciencesrelyon a collective effort unoeiuę.n t,y teams of scientists, younger ręsearchers and laboratory

staff, as węll u, non-nu-un ug"ń, involved in observations, experiments and measure.

ments. on the other n"nj, in" E,gital culture of cognitive capitalism is defining and trans-

forming ways in which ,","u,"h",",ults are disseńinated and sharęd within thę scientific

community.Theyredefin.th"*uy,inwhichweunderstandideassuchasintellectualpoperty, patents' the individual 1nótions such as these of the genius, the individual epiph-

any orthe uniqueness "";sol;ń ;ature of a'disc:"T::^!",:"::::::::"::,',*i:}:#:

:search crę-

thę htrman.

rrch Projects

q emergęs from

r-oo4 and 1991;

-iffi*;,ffi;ilil and tnó commercializable. Today's humanities should recognlze

thesetendencies,andapproachthęmfrombothcriticalandcreativepositions.ltisrecognizedthatthedatedideaofanauthor/subjectischallengedandsubstituted

byacollective effort and r"iiiff" agents'roles in the research' The humanities cannot

1-Dttrracttm" ts a tenm borrowed tiom physics, it refbrs to various phenomcna which occur when

tliavę encountęrs an obstacle or a slit. slnoe l qqo, within f-eminist theories it has becn used as a meta-

Ń;iltb. ;.thodological "f|.no"h"' (t]arad 2007; l laraway 1997;

.l.uin 201 l ).

54 olga Cielemęcka, Monika Rogowska-Stangręt

isolate themselves fiom the surrounding world by rejecting the mission to offer socially

responsible solutions, design strategies and produce social innovations.

For these reasons, in oulr proposltion of a model of collaborative practices in human-

istic research we experimenf wiil't the use of a biological concept. We dwell on the idea

ofstigmergyanditspotentialusesoutsidethebiologicalcontext.

Stigmergy as a Col|ective Resęal

recognize a multilayered enga6impossible to single out individIook their embeddedness in thecrobes dwelling in the researchring and behaving, technologicrofothers (books, classes, discusin a specific material context, I

weather conditions, habits, etc.Moreoveą stigmergy a|lows

organization, co-operation, andoccur in the world as each actioris created and lived by active beed in the lived, material world.practice ofresponding to other łideas and concepts in the search

Stigmergy enables us to thinwork of interrelated forces formto the actions and reactions ofoas networks are vulnerable; by tunpredictable. may be surprisintr

Stigmergy also highlights thttivity are not entirely voluntaryattunemęnt with something thatour thoughts in a different direct

We use the notion of stigmelwhich would question the divisi(as objects of investigation of s

and practice. Here a theorist is aas acting in the world, influencilthat this shift from the theory-prunlocks a sphere ofan encounter

Experimenl

One of the key concepts to thinkperimentation due to the fact thattion, namely novelty. We cannot t

without novel ideas, theoreticalfrom introducing new paradigmsly-stable theoretical frameworkssigned horizons or shedding new

Experimentation is per Se ęnfthe heań of stigmergic research pcess of knowledge production toare mechanically reproduced, it ioperandi for a scholar or researcl

What Is StigmergY?

Stigmergy is a biological mechanism described and named by the Fręnch zoologist

Pierre-Paul Grassć (Grassó l959). Grassć was interęsted in mechanisms that determine

emergence, coordination and control of activities in social insects and he observed cer-

tain fatterns in animal behavior. He sought to understand how animals such as ants

and termites managę to coordinate their collective actions. During his observations, he

noticed that the trace left in the environment by an action of an individual insect stimu-

lates the perfbrmance of a subsequent action, whether by the same agent or a different

one. As a result, subsequent actions tend to boost and build on each other' leading to

the Spontaneou. ".".g"nce of coherent' apparently Systęmatic activity. This mechanism

allows ants to build complex networks as they mark their way back to the nest with

pheromonal message once they have found food. Termites' on their part' build their

enormous hives by marking mudballs with hormonęs which attract other termites to

drop their mudballs on top łthose already deposited on the ground. The zoologist used

the term "stigmergy"' to iefer to this mechanism of communication mediated through

environmental modifications (Marsh and Onof 2007)'

without apparent hierarchies, commands, coercion, planning or task assignment,

insects manage to communicate, collaborate and co-create. There are creative actions

emerging froń their chaotic individual activities. This ..pheromona| literacy'', or ..Su-

peror:gan-is-ic creativity" as Vicki Kirby aptly calls it (Kirby 2Ol1,4l), this insectal

,yn"h'.ony reveals a fascinating complexity of the animal world; but it is far from limited

to the animal kingdom. The notion of stigmergy can and has been applied to understand

human communal behaviors, to analyzea variety of phenomena from weather conditions

to traffic jams, and to construct technological devices - stigmergic compositions can

be traced in various phenomena ranging from intemet search engines and Wikipedia to

the economy and stock markets.4

How Does lt Work?

By making reference to two suppositions outlined above, we would like to describe

research activities in the humanities as a form of collective projects evolving along

the lines oIstigmergY.The reason why we insist on the concept of "stigmergy" as a theoretical model for

understanding research activities is that "stigmergy" emphasizes the intertwinement

of multiple beings with their environment, and the performative, agential character

of their encounters in the world. That means that the notion of stigmergy helps us to

Ę*,pj'- --.at n.;u. orc ognitive Systems Research dedicated to the topic of ..Stigmergy in the Human

Domain" (Doyle 2013).

55Stigmergy as a Collęctive Research Practice

listrine

ants

i, heimu-erentng tolnismr withI theirites tost usedhrough

lnment'actionsor '"su-

insectaln limitedrderstandonditionsitions can

kiPedia to

recognize a multilayered engagement that reveals itself in research practices' It is thus

impJssible to single out individual researchers from their research collectives and over-

look their embeddedness in the material world, whether this be their collaborators' mi-

crobes dwelling in the researchers'bodies and influencing their moods' modes of think-

ing and behaving, technological devices such as a computer or the intemet, the work

ofothers (books, classes, diJcussions, lectures, workshops)' the fact that they are located

in a specific material context, living experience or lit-e situation, geopolitical situation'

weather conditions, habits' etc.

Moreover, stigmergy uilo*, us to grasp the idea of the nonhierarchical modes of self-

organization,.o-op"ruiion, and advoiatethe idea ofbeing attentive to the changes that

occur in the world as each action is always already situated withinthe material world that

is created and lived by active beings. That means that agency is relational, always found-

ed in the lived, material world. Taken fiom this perspective, co-working is a perpetual

practice of responding to other agents, of taking them into accou.nt, merging our voices'

ideas and concepts in ihe search ior what is new, unexpected and not yet thought of'

stigmergy enables us to think of research activity as an activity performed in a net-

work of interrelated fbrces forming subjectivities that act and react together in response

to the actions and reactions of othórs. The subjectivities forming networks or emerging

asnetworksarevulnerable;bytheiractionstheyopenuptoothers'reactionswhichareunpredictable, may be sulprising, harmful' may boost our creativity or inhibit it'

stigmergy also highlights th! fact that decisions made in the process of research ac-

tivity are not entire|y voi-untary but are rathęr effects of a swarm of f-actors' of sudden

attunemęnt with something that caught our attention, resonated with us, affectively led

ourthoughts in a different direction.

we use the notion of stigmergy also as a model of a new kind of research strategy

which would question the divisions between the arts and sciences, nature and culture

(as objects of investigation of sciences and thę humanities, respectively), and theory

andpractice. Here a theorist is always already a practitioner and thinking is understood

as acting in the world, influencing it, transfbrming it and taking care of it' We believe

thatthis shift from the theory-pritice opposition to theory as always-already practice

unlocks a sphere of an encounter between the humanities and sciences'

Experimenting with the Yet Unthought-of

to describelving along

al model for

'ęrtwinęrnential charactery helPs us to

ry in the Human

One of the key concepts to think over the practice of stigmergic research activities is ex-

perimentatioń due to ihe fact that it engages with a concept crucial for knowledge produc-

tion, namely novelty. We cannot think oi (and we do not want to imagine) the humanitie s

without novel ideas, thęoretical shifts' terminological innovations. lts vitality emerges

ftom introducing new paradigms, initiating revolutions' finding new paths in apparent-

\*table theoretical fiamewJrks, raising tundamental questions anew, setting up rede-

signedhorizons or shedding new light on issues developed earlier'

Experimentatio n i, pn,",u "nguling

onęself with the unknown and as such it lięs at

ttreheart of stigmergic researcn p-ra"ctiós. Experimentation opens up the stigmergic pro-

c,esofknowledgeproductiontothenew.Stigmergyisnotaboutstablestructuresthatuemechanically reproduced, it is not about the will to introduce a given, fixed modus

oprandifora scholar or researcher, nor about the quest for basic, sustainable assump-

I

56 olga Cielemęcka, Monika Rogowska-Stangret

tions on how to produce knowledge collectively. Stigmergy is T']^1'.

foremost an effoń

to get out ofa rut in the search fo'r novel ideas' inspirations and concepts'

How then can onę embrace the concept "iń". '". unthough1-oi using the model

of stigmergy? How ."'";;;;age with tń" r.,t.''." of research? How can onę stimulate

*'ffil:[;; iff::T[-,,ons, we need to recarl brieflv what was previouslv stated

in terms of understanJń .r,'",subject that. serves as a background for understanding

research practices ^ JJń",''". ł*," ..i",lonal subjectivity that emerged aS a Swa'Tn

oramosaicofdifl.ereniorganic-in-o.g.ni"'t-'u,''an-no1-lyanfactorsisagential,it is a ..flow ot ug"n"y;'is".iJ zóol, rłó1 5 Barad puts it, ..Agency is not an attributę

but thę ongoing ,""onng.J.i'!l "ii.," *"ńa- (Barad żoot, t+t'. This multifactor entan.

glement brings togetneiairńent modes of u"iion and different modes of agency. There

isnoroomheretor*""t,u,'i"arepetitionoramechanicalreaction,becauseagencyoDens up tt,"r.

"ntu'-tgl"*""i' i" tft" unp'"Ai"iuUte'response of different factors that form

; *:i:':1"ff :H[ J:Tiił: ;:T"T:ll ","",,

.n:,i :k "| :iki

n g one sel f '.'l:"1-

ableinthefacęofttrenewwhiclrinfactcannotuetimiteaorcontrolled,butmaybothstimulate novel concepts and inhibit.th". A;;;ń:'T]ę::j"^"".e a threat (in bio-

political terms, of excessive' but still s""mingiy invisible' "':::'ol and scrutiny)' it might

also be a chance, an oppońunity to engage *i,r] .n" world differently, to find a new path,

to experiment. |. ^łL :. ,l^^ .,lnrlr| nnrl oFthe world |orm nets of re-

The agential entanglements that arę both in the world and of the

sponse-abili.v u"o ""i'ińon)passion.

rn","i. no |ossibility of the new without the field

of response-ability, thus the ability to *'d;;;.in ; ""'l*dictable' vet responsible'

way, without being ou"r*n"l.ingty t urn"Jr"Jby strict ruies, guidance and directives'

The boundar, o..*""" o.i"g,..p"ń'iule for the actions and withdrawing the oppresslve

charactęr of responsibility to enable -"th"";;;;i-actions, to enable response-ability or

an eagemess ,o ,"roo"nl"ipontaneously ,hoira stay open to negotiation' com(mon)pas-

sion is another ",u"ń noiio,, that helps ',-,".ni"il

knowledge production and research

practicesuru."ot''"',no'tmatterdeeplyinterwoveninthestructureofaffect'resonance'oassion, emotlonal engagement and the will to engage oneself in research practlces as

alwaYs-alreadY care Practices'

Conclusions

Byputtingforwardtheideaofstigmergicresearchpracticeswealesearchingforsuchmodels of collaborar,""l *".O oiganization and iesearch creation which overcome

the highly individualisii" *0."""n "dopted in ih" hu*unities' Collective research cre-

ation assume, ..,oon,iuJń, ,o the needs' lo"u, uno voices of others; it takes all collab-

orators into account i' ,",*.rl activities. p.,,tń*o.., it enables the emergence of new

ways of channeling th;;,*ti;';l and productive processęs that are Seen aS ..organlc-

like" growing structures that emerge from cooperation and communication'

The crisis of theory and the crisis of tn" tu*unities, which have beęn spelled out

by many intellectuals (ee nraidotti 2013), enforce the need for new forms of knowledge'

new ways in which -:#;;;;;;"il;i.J;.inł. it and apply it, and also for a transfor-

mation of both research practices una u"ua.ńi. inui.u,ion,. We wish to renew the hu.

Stigmergy as a Collęctivę Resea

manities by thinking about ther

of taking care of the world. S

this goal. lt reformulates the t

and the object. From this Persseen as both dialogical and mi

trust, risk, responsibilitY, and c

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20 l3 Format P 8 (special issue..Nieposłuszęństwo. Teoria ipraktyka'').

Tuin. lris van der2,0 ll "A Different Starting Point, A Different Metaphysics. Reading Bergson and Barad

Diffractively", Hypatia 1 (26): 2212.

Uęxklill, Jacob von20 l0 A Foray into the Worlds of Anima.ls and Human.s with A Theory oJ Meaning, translated

by Joseph D. O'Neil. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Why the HumanFle.

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My minimum task in this acial science, although many pr(this. The maximum task is to rrto the question ..What

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The classification of sciencritself. After centuries of a prodrcation scheme, the only sensibltwhat is the optimal scheme forintroduced by universities, libradivide lhe human sciences in(o I

The demarcation line betweeling to the subject. In such a casedisciplines that study culture. Thtancient and modern languages, lt

arts such as music and theatre. Heducation. Through an exploratirand critically, to reason, and to as

x 1'his study (research grantNo l4_01School o1-Economics' Academic l,.undI I am grateful to thc students oftheInternational Doctoral program (MpD,renl status ol'the humanities.