Toronto, Ontario; Sarnia, Ontario; LaSalle, IL; Allerton Park, IL; Mount Carmel, IL; Toledo, OH; Markham, Ontario.
Play reading with supertitles. Workshop @FuGenTheatre of Da Jia by Sophie Gee Nervous Hunter mixing English, Cantonese + Mandarin. Story in development, feels like Canadian Chinese families (Toronto) 20140902Real cattails, bronze birds. Ontario Travel Centre at Sarnia is a convenient rest stop before crossing into Port Huron. American border guard confiscated Canadian grape tomatoes (Sarnia) 20140909Blue Water Bridge view north. Crossing St. Clair River westbound from Sarnia to Port Huron on a Tuesday noon means no delays. Landmark lighthouse, is that a boat? (Port Huron) 20140909Lock 16, LaSalle Il. Historic Illinois & Michigan Canal, with boat for education and events. Wooden locks still intact, could require rebuilding if we ever needed heavy use again. Lock 16 at LaSalle, Il 20140910PLoP plenary. Introduction to Writers’ Workshop approach by Richard Gabriel as a more teacher-like, in the library at the Allerton Park Retreat Center for Pattern Languages of Programs Conference 2014 (Allerton Park) 20140915Writers Workshop at PLoP 2014. Reviewing process led by @rpg with @taka_iba as up first. Writers group labeled as Narrow Road to the Deep North focused on social applications of Alexandrian pattern language (Allerton Park) 20140915PLoP 2014 closing ceremony. Network of yarn as social graph of relationships gained at the end of Pattern Languages of Programs conference. Warm way to say goodbye. (Allerton Park) 20140917Wabash and White Rivers. Mount Carmel IL is at the junction of the Wabash and White Rivers. Twin Rivers Resto for relaxed lunch with Tom and Dorothy, we have all gotten grey hair since grad school days (Mount Carmel, IL) 20140918Trying out glassware. At the Libbey Factory Outlet in Toledo, appreciating the large variety of shapes for drinking glasses. We prefer shapes that fit the hand, but can they also be modern? (Toledo, Ohio) 20140919Wedding band. Bride at leisure after nuptials completed on a sunny fall afternoon. Swing band adding gaiety to the fun of the wedding. Markham Museum a festive site for all. (Markham) 20140920No parking mural. Pedestrian Sunday buskers in Kensington Market cause bike dismount in front of mural with dogs playing cards. Real dogs in yard next to garage. (Toronto) 20140928Boardwalk fall sunset. Runners in shorts, dog walkers, baby strollers enjoying the warm September dusk, before the dark brings cool. Expect good weather tomorrow. (Toronto) 20140929
California Sandwiches. Even splitting a veal sandwich on a date is a lot of food for lunch. Cheap date for old married couple (Toronto) 20140930
The February 2019 Systems Thinking Ontario meeting was an opportunity to bring those unfamiliar with the work of Christopher Alexander on methods revealed in the Eishin School and Multi-Service Centers projects.
The wholeness generated through pattern language may be influenced by stronger foundations from advances in the systems sciences, not just in built environments, but also in other domains.
An invitation to give a talk at IBM Research Almaden presented an opportunity to trace the history of science of pattern language, as it developed inside the company, and with the external community.
An invitation as a keynote presenter at the 2018 International Conference on Smart Cities and Urban Design (SCUD) was initiated on a recommendation by Susu Nousala to the program chair WU Jing. Blending the conference theme with my recent doctoral research, I proposed the topic “Innovation Learning for Sustainability: What’s smarter for urban systems”? For […]
The March 2018 lecture on Architecting for Wicked Messes for the OCAD SFI Understanding Systems and Systemic Design course was influenced having just taught Systems Methods at UToronto, and launching the Open Innovation Learning book.
The idea of managers being proactive only dates back to 1964, as classes of functions described by Abraham Zaleznik: homeostatic, mediative, and proactive. Predispositions may or may not be altered through educational development.
Concerns on #personaldata should be reframed as interpersonal, says @sheldrake , less the nodes and more the edge connections. “I want to take back control” superficial, @hartzog says control doesn’t scale. Agency is about negotiation in the world, more rhizomatic…Read more ›
Doing science should be wayfinding (pathfinding), says #TimIngold , gaining grounding in the art of paying attention, towards research as the pursuit of truth. Truth is more than objective facts, where science and art are embraced with materials, so that we can see the quality inside the natural world as it forms, rather than as […]
We should be more vigourous, says @MazzucatoM , in debating differences between value extraction and value creation, and between profits and rents. Lecture at Blavatnik School of Government, Oxford U., January 2019Read more ›
Most destructive analogy last 100 years @DavidGelernter @econtalker : Post-Turing thinkers decided that brains were organic computers, that computation was a perfect model of what minds do ... and that mind relates to brain as software relates to computer Read more ›
Before judging democratic systems over authoritarian, examine the functioning of governments through its diplomats, where plutocracy has an alternative in meritocracy, says @mahbubani_k @longnow @asiasocietysfx. [1:19:30] … when people compare the American government with the Chinese government, they say: “This…Read more ›
The story of #JosephNeedham by @simonwwriter, about the scholar behind the 27-volume Science and Civilisation in China starting in 1954 and continuing after his death in 1995. Arriving in China in 1942, Needham discovered gunpowder, printing and the magnetic compass…Read more ›
Satire can be an antidote, says Prof. #PaulBabbitt @muleriders , to #bullshit (c.f. rhetoric; hypocrisy; crocodile tears; propaganda; intellectual dishonesty; politeness, etiquette and civility; commonsense and conventional wisdom; symbolic votes; platitudes and valence issues).
If we don’t first know “what is system is”, how do we approach an intervention? #MichaelCJackson OBE and Dr. #LuisGSambo appreciate the difference between “systems thinking” (plural) and “system dynamics” (singular), and suggest expanding theory with Critical #SystemThinking in Health Systems Research. An ignorance of history is, if anything, even more pronounced among those authors […]
In deciphering Yin-Yang and Five Elements (Five Phases) thinking, #Kaptchuk (1983) has a footnote and then an appendix that clarifies the way forward for appreciating foundations of Chinese medicine favouring the former.
The field theory in psychology by #KurtLewin 1943 derives from classical field theory (viz. electromagnetism and gravitation), predating quantum field theory (viz. subatomic particles). For psychology, Lewin wrote in 1943 how history (and a subjective view of the future) matters. It is correct that field theory emphasizes the importance of the fact that any event […]
Many who cite #KurtLewin haven't read the original 1947/1951 writings, say @strategybuild @ToddBridgman @kgbphd with the "refreezing" part of "unfreezing → changing → refreezing" emerging in a subsequent career of an idea that can be traced genealogically and archaeologically.
Human organizations may learn from wolves, with groups of 2 to 6 taking down elk, and cooperative expert groups of 9 to 13+ taking down larger bison. #DanielMacNulty, #AimeeTallian #DanielRStahler #DouglasWSmith (2014).
