Who We Are

At Sitara Systems, we aim to create interactive works that challenge audiences to think critically about the future so that they can help shape it.

In today’s increasingly digital world, technology is a driving force that shapes human development, geopolitics, ecology, the economy, and much, much more.? This makes the 21st century an era where thoughtful design is required more than ever to harness the enormous potential of technology.

This new era poses many new challenges and opportunities. New advances in technology are rapidly allowing the development of new products and services, new ways of communicating and collaborating, and powerful new computational tools.? At the same time, new technologies and paradigms threaten to destroy the environment, worsen socioeconomic class differences, and create new tools for the control and manipulation of others.

At Sitara Systems, we aim to create interactive works that challenge audiences to think critically about the future so that they can shape it.? We take ideas about complex systems and break them down into easy-to-digest pieces; we provide opportunities to reflect on the things that are important to us; and we create experiences that give audiences a sense of wonder and inspire them to do more.

While we’re experts in technology and design, our work takes us across a variety of domains.? What we bring to each project is a way of thinking about the world.? Here are some guiding principles that we bring to our work:

Systems Thinking

Technology has accelerated the interconnectedness and complexity of everything around us, and our ability to comprehend complex systems needs to step up to match.? While our brains are wired to see direct cause-and-effect relationships, the world is now full of feedback loops and long-ranging delayed reactions that we need a new way to think about.

We work to uncover the complex relationships in the modern world and help clarify how seemingly unrelated things might be connected.

Interdisciplinary Approach

All disciplines are intertwined now, and most problems can’t be solved with a single point of view.? And we don’t just mean technical disciplines – especially with regards to technology, we realize that rational analysis is just one way to look at a problem.

We encourage others to embrace art, design, philosophy, psychology, and spirituality in order to look at the whole picture of how advancements affect us.

Bottom-Up Development

We recognize that we don’t have all of the answers – and neither do our clients.? There’s a lot that we can learn just by talking to our audience.

We see our community members as co-designers, and design and technology professionals are facilitators and mentors.

Self-Reflection

Our minds are like icebergs – the part that we’re aware of is only a tiny part of the whole.? Our subconscious mind is full of unintentional thoughts, behaviors, and actions.? We often don’t understand why we’re doing certain things, or why we feel the way that we feel.

We aim to create experiences that encourage our audience to self-reflect – to change how they see themselves and their feelings, and ultimately, to change how they act.

Experiencing More

As we move into the future, the age of consumption must come to an end.? As we can no longer continue to expand our footprints forever, we must move from consuming more to experiencing more.? This means finding joy, wonder, and awe in the things that we already have – whether those things are treasured possessions, the natural world, or our communities and traditions.

We delight in showing others how to be content with the small things in life – finding wonder in unexpected places and happiness from the things we had forgotten we already have.

Future Thinking

The future is an abstract idea, and the present is something we can touch and feel right now – how can we bridge this gap to help people make better decisions for the future???

We see it as our mission to help people think about the future as vividly as they feel the present, and help us find new ways to move into the future without being beholden to the past.