The sciences of complexity are appropriate for the world which on all levels - political, social, economic, technical - appear to us to be, more dynamic, more complex, and more interconnected than ever before. Lev Manovich
Artists have a "tendency automatically to assume the role of photographer in order to produce photographs"Tomas 2004 p85. And because of this, they cannot satisfactorily examine photography beyond photographs. To do this, David Tomas states, artists "must adopt a different identity, set of tools, and practices"Tomas 2004 p85. This thesis has adopted concepts of complexity as a way of transcending conventional analysis. The study of complex systems moves beyond the confines of art models and concepts to offer an approach that emphasizes connectedness and an holistic view of systems.
Although the majority of research is still science based, it is frequently suggested that complexity is useful beyond science - where it resonates as a framework, viewpoint and metaphor for inquiry. Complexity is being pursued across a broad range of areas outside of the sciences, from organizational management to philosophy and the arts.
Chris Lucas and Yuris Milov demonstrate that complexity can successfully be employed to conflict resolution by understanding conflict as emergent phenomena. Approached in this way, conflict resolution is achieved by understanding the dynamics and behaviour of the social system and working with system tendencies and perturbations to implement change. Richard Seel approaches organizational management using insights from complexity. He uses emergence as a perspective to consider creativity within organizations and also employs complex system characteristics to, for example, change the culture within workplaces.
The artist and author Manuel De Landa is one of a number of theorists who have adopted complexity as a worldview. He uses complexity to advance contemporary philosophical discourse about virtual environments, synthetic reasoning and interfaces. He has also translated the works /concepts of Deleuze and Deleuze and Guattari into terms of complexity. John Protevi has followed De Landa's work merging philosophy and science through the concepts of complexity. Paul Cilliers takes a similar approach re-examining the post-modern theories of Derrida and Lyotard using complexity. Using connectionist principles and neural network models, Cilliers is able to demonstrate that language is a complex system; that learning, philosophy and ethics benefit from a complexity paradigm; and that postmodernism "could also be viewed as a manifestation of an inherent sensitivity to complexity".
Artist Paul Brown uses emergence as a theme in his writing and artworks. He discusses the groundbreaking work of early computer artists in the context of an emergent culture; as well as his own interest in complexity and emergence as a mode for generating artwork. Lev Manovich employs complexity as a way to articulate our "global informational networked society". In the catalogue essay Abstraction and Complexity for the off-line and on-line exhibition 
Abstraction Now , Manovich concludes that contemporary software abstraction - software that has been developed to function as art - is an appropriate visual language for a "society which in all areas needs to represent more data, more layers, more connections".Manovich 2004
Within visual arts galleries, complexity is also emerging as an area of interest. In 2002, the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art presented the Complexity Art and Complex Systems Exhibition. The premise of the exhibition, according to organizers Philip Galanter and Ellen Levy is that:
Art reflects aspects of complexity and responds to the science of complex systems either intentionally or intuitively. Our belief is that the visual and material aspects of the art works will exhibit threads of correspondences that the viewer can follow within each work and with other, related work. In fact the works are largely visually self-explanatory even though the specific methodology of their creation may not be accessible. Galanter and Levy 2002
They go on to state the importance of recognizing that art "offers its own unique approaches and epistemic standards in the consideration of complexity. Artistic approaches to complexity encompass visualization, repetition, sequences, relationships of text to image, and varied methods of transformation" Galanter and Levy 2002. Complexity as subject matter for an art exhibition is a beginning, complexity as a framework for visual arts in general is still a future possibility.
So what about photography?
So much of photography's theory, critique and history has been restricted to the photograph. As David Tomas points out:
The attention has focussed exclusively on the photograph from the standpoint of reception. From this position, a photograph is perceived as an autonomous product that is understood to be complete in itself.Tomas 2004 p83
Approaching photography from a complexity viewpoint, means shifting the focus from the photograph as an autonomous product (or part) to the interactions, interdependencies, and interrelated systems that form the photographic universe (the whole). Understanding photography as a complex system does not replace conventional analysis, rather it is an additional framework, a meta-framework that operates at levels above the photograph. Complexity has the potential to open up new discourses about the interactions that occur between photographer and camera; the processes and practices of photography; the interactions across systems of media and technology. It is an inclusive rather than exclusive approach to photography that still accommodates conventional critique. Furthermore complexity provides the potential for new kinds of critiques and new kinds of photography.
Instead of being bound by the limits of existing technologies and the physical boundaries of associated artifacts (camera and photographs), one could move across symbolic pathways, from technology to technology, and from artifact to artifact. This movement could create a pattern that produces a picture that has been plotted through a cultural space or field defined by concrete objects. Since these objects would also be the materialization of ideas, the cultural spaces of fields could also be treated as pathways of ideational possibilities. Picture making would begin to exist at this level and in these terms. Thus instead of starting at the level of the subject as defined by a camera and viewfinder, one could begin at the level of the system and its position in an intersystem.Tomas 2004 p86
This thesis cannot possibly cover all the aspects of all the systems, interactions and interdependencies of photography. Instead four case studies are offered to demonstrate how photography can benefit from complexity. The Photographic Universe presents key insights from Vilem Flusser's Towards a Philosophy of Photography. Although he doesn't directly reference complexity, we can see how his observations and understanding of systems theory fits with a complex systems approach. Flusser set out to use photography as a means for comprehending transitions into post-industrial society in general. His analysis of photography becomes significant not just as a way of understanding the photographic universe, but also as a means for understanding our future. An Ecology of Post-Photography explores a current photographic state that is often described as "after but not yet beyond photography". David Tomas transforms post-photography from musings about photography's present and future into an ecological counter-practice for artists where process is given priority over product. The Complex Processes of Abstraction identifies photographic abstraction as photography's second culture having been ignored by both history and critique. It is presented via process and linked to the abstract nature of our contemporary experience within information culture. The Emergence of Flickr explores the online photo management and photo-sharing website in terms of self-organization and emergence. It can be seen as a way of understanding more recent movements in photography - and offers a way of coming to terms with future possibilities for photography.
These four essays provide the basis for the final essay Intertwingularity which employs Complexity to provide a context for a discussion of the artifacts of this thesis. Complexity offers a basis for the generation of the artifacts as well as their critique - they are articulations and embodiments of the principles of complexity. The following essays demonstrate how photography and complexity are interconnected.
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