Wednesday, August 12, 2026

Persistence is something systems do, not something they possess — Systems Theory · Systemic Persistence · persistence, maintenance, continuity · PersistenceRemake — Anto Lloveras · Socioplastics · LAPIEZA-LAB, Madrid · 2026


Persistence sounds like a property something either has or lacks, a kind of durability built in at the start; treated more accurately, it is an ongoing activity, something a system does continuously rather than something it possesses once and keeps. A bridge does not persist because it was built well thirty years ago; it persists because it is inspected, repaired and maintained continuously, and the moment that activity stops, the bridge's persistence stops with it regardless of how sound the original engineering was. Systemic persistence, understood this way, folds maintenance into the definition of continuity rather than treating maintenance as separate upkeep performed on an already-persistent object. PersistenceRemake applies directly: what looks like unchanged continuity from the outside is, on the inside, being continuously remade through exactly this maintenance work, so that apparent stability and constant renovation turn out to be the same process viewed from different distances.


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