LECTURE | Collaborative Rhizomatic Mapping as a Method for Navigating Distributed Authorship in Design
Wed, Jun 17
|University of Lisbon
Join my lecture at the Design [Re]Thinking Research Symposium 15, Lisbon, Portugal, 17-19 June, 2026
Time & Location
Jun 17, 2026, 10:00 AM GMT+1 – Jun 19, 2026, 4:00 PM GMT+1
University of Lisbon, Cidade Universitária, Alameda da Universidade, 1649-004 Lisboa, Portugal
About the event
About the lecture
In this lecture, Dr. Ravid Rovner presents a critical evolution of Rhizomatic Mapping, moving from individual research toward a joint epistemic infrastructure. As conventional Design Thinking frameworks often rely on templates that prioritize rapid clustering and "epistemic closure," they risk flattening the complexity of contemporary design challenges.
Introducing the paper "Collaborative Rhizomatic Mapping: Fostering Distributed Authorship in a Human-AI Collective," the session explores how a structured, turn-taking "mapping game" can dismantle the solo-genius archetype. By externalizing disagreement and maintaining contradictory inputs in visible suspension, the methodology fosters relational competence – the ability of a team to remain productively engaged with ambiguity.
A key focus of the lecture is the integration of AI as a co-agent. Unlike automated systems that seek to synthesize and resolve research prematurely, this approach positions AI as an atomized data provider, ensuring that the responsibility for negotiating meaning and relational connectivity remains firmly with the human collective.
About the conference: Design [Re]Thinking
The Design Thinking Research Symposium (DTRS14) serves as a global arena for critically reassessing the assumptions that have shaped design practice and education. In a time of technological disruption and ecological crisis, the conference interrogates the "worlds" Design Thinking has constructed and those it has silenced.
Spanning four thematic tracks, the symposium explores the evolution of design generations, the ethical reconfiguration of authorship in the age of AI, and the shift toward regenerative, post-capitalist models of value. By bringing together researchers and practitioners to explore "alternative ways of thinking and doing," the event seeks to move design from a contributor to systemic crisis toward an ally of just and interdependent futures.
For further details, see: https://dtrs15.belasartes.ulisboa.pt/