The Emergent Rhythms of a Robot Vacuum Cleaner—An Empirically Grounded Account of Agential Realism

This article builds on the argument that design for complex interactive systems should shift from creating linear transactional interactions toward organizing relational complexity. Grounded in Karen Barad’s agential realism, we argue that a designer’s role can benefit from not predefining interactions but from curating the material-discursive conditions under which meaningful relations can emerge. To explore the empirical and temporal dimensions of this practice, we conducted an exploratory workshop setting the conditions for emergent gameplay dynamics and discussions on agential realist anticipation. Participants utilized a custom-designed game and built their own physical controllers to anticipate and adapt to shifting gameplay conditions. Our results demonstrate how alterations in relational constraints, rather than explicit pre-programmed goals, drove the emergence of non-predefined gameplay rhythms. The findings provide empirical grounding for an agential realist understanding of anticipation, showing that an interactive system’s identity lies in its unfolding processual patterns rather than a static final state. Based on these findings, we propose three design principles for further exploration: Design for Relational Emergence, Design for Re-membering, and Design for Emergent Patterns. Consequently, we conclude by outlining a conceptual approach for non-linear computational architectures, drawing on principles from Enactive AI and reservoir computing.