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About

The metamodern world, with its planetary challenges, opens up spaces for new modes of being and relating. Drawing on a variety of verbal and non-verbal languages, I explore the potential of bridging images, words, movement, and spaces. Through my engagement with the social transformation of our century, I invite reflection on human beliefs and habits, holding spaces for post-anthropocentric thinking and life-oriented, regenerative ways of living.

I'm Sylwia Orczykowska, a Systemic Transformation Designer through Communication(s), Art, and Movement with a focus on Relational Dynamics and Design. Originally from Poland, I’m currently based in Zurich, Switzerland.

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In the folds of misty fjords, body language. CAS ETH in Regenerative Systems. Norway, June 2024.

Whether I design an educational brochure or develop a creative workshop, I bring people of various disciplines and worldviews together. By exploring how relationships unfold within and across complex contexts, I cultivate conditions that let their essence emerge, without steering the process and desiging the outcome.

As a critical system design thinker and practitioner, I synthesize the dots beyond the latest technologies and fuse pioneering science, together with unwritten knowledge, lived experience, and human understanding to support real-world practices for more sustainable and regenerative futures. 

My take on the art of communication is the ability to work with images, text, movement, and space simultaneously, bringing a natural flow and integrity to the accompanying experience. I attach particular importance to the values embedded in the message, as they are living forces that shape how we see the world, act within it, and imagine what it could become.

Over 15 years of co-designing public discourse through advertising, marketing, communications, and graphic design in Poland, Turkey, Serbia and Spain gave me a deep understanding of diverse cultural dynamics and social mechanisms, along with a broad set of tools to tap into their potential. Engaging with the projects in Switzerland had a pivotal role in shifting my focus toward transformative communication, addressing environmental challenges, and social transformation of our century (2019-present). My experiments on regenerative, life-centric communication design gave foundations to the white-on-white philosophy. 

Exploring the systems view of life and the interdisciplinary approach of systemic design resulted in joining the Systemic Design Labs at ETH Zurich, as a Communication and Art Designer. My versatile work background and rich creative skillset support the development of the pioneering ETH MAS executive programme in Regenerative Systems, guiding thought leaders and decision-makers worldwide in dealing with complexities and uncertainties across system types and governance scales for resilience and real-world regeneration interventions (2023-present).

In association with a living systems lab MonViso Institute in Ostana, Italy, I weave research, education, with entrepreneurship on sustainability transitions and regenerative design. I develop system design communication coupled with field practices, addressing complex challenges on a global scale with place-based responses. I am also associated with the partnering project Systemic Cycles: cycling journeys towards resilient regenerative futures combined with a regional exploration of supply chain systems. (2023-present)

In my search for alternative angles of scaling out individually experienced transformation to a global level of shifting societal paradigms, I sparked Art Now, the community of artists engaged in social transformation. We are passionate designers of various performance and workshop formats, raising environmental awareness, moving boundaries, and inspiring human actions through art-enhanced experiences. One of the explored analogies is inspired by the language of science, echoing the fundamental principles of nature found in quantum mechanics: QHM Experiment (2021-present). Another research explores how art-infused culinary experiences, including food's sourcing, preparation, serving, and tasting, serve as a multisensory and transformative medium of embodying regenerative processes that go beyond the limits of spoken language (2025).
 
I dedicated many years to my passion for dance, practicing modern jazz and Broadway jazz in renowned studios in Warsaw, Poland (Ballet School of R. Turczynowicz, Egurrola Dance Studio) and in Barcelona, Spain (Escola Coco Comin). The turning point in my experience of drawing the source of movement was the discovery and intensive practice of contact improvisation in Zurich. Recognizing the driving life force inside rather than outside the body has an ongoing considerable impact on my professional work for social transformation.
 
Started some years ago with no expectations, yoga has become a vital part of my mornings, bringing long-lasting body strengthening and an in-depth experience of being and becoming. I also practice mountain biking, which I find an illustrative analogy of exploring my boundaries, recognising spaces to expand and grow, while honoring my inner integrity.

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