Toronto, Ontario (including Panamania Arts and Culture Celebration, PanAm and ParaPan Games)
Basketball court mural: Solo player shoots hoops in front of @JamiiEsplanade mural led by Elisa (Shalak Attack) Monreal and Julian Periquet, supported by StreetARToronto. Project was unveiled last month before PanAmGames, colours enduring even on a rainy day. Jamii is Swahili for “community”; the Esplanade was a product of the urban reform movement of the early 1970s, with influences by Jane Jacobs. (David Crombie Park, St. Lawrence neighbourhood, Toronto) 20150804Astro Stage: Greek dancing by @LevendiaX Hellenic Folklore Assoc @Taste_Danforth, near Jones Ave. Pedestrian traffic seems denser at the east end of the street festival, with kiddie rides and more community tents. Since we live within biking distance, the neighbourhood, we can visit when the crowds aren’t there. (Taste of the Danforth, Greektown, Toronto) 20150808Landlocked green space: Discovered Cairns Avenue Parkette, a filled-in ravine where Cairns Creek used to flow south into Small’s Pond before 1935. Surrounded by back yards of houses, it’s a ditch with higher grassy areas enjoyed by dogs and their walkers. Entrance on the west side, no exit any other direction. Historical research explains the strange routing of roads in east end Toronto. (Highcroft Road, Upper Beaches, East Toronto) 20150809. “A brief history of Small’s Pond, used then abused” | Chris Bateman | April 21, 2014 | BlogTO at http://www.blogto.com/city/2012/04/a_brief_history_of_smalls_pond_used_then_abused/Summer at 10pm: Thousands hear @jannarden claim @allisoncornell playing with her favourite musician @npstoronto on stage at #panamania. Relaxing songs and good humour have audience enjoying the time together on a cool August evening. Big screen on main stage has fans across the pond spacing out the crowd. (Nathan Phillips Square, Toronto) 20150811Electronic music: Synthpop @AustraTalks@npsToronto@to2015 #panamania pumping bass feels like inside a club, yet the band started on the plaza before the sunset. Haven’t heard so much sequencing live since my university days. Entertaining to watch for times when none of three keyboards had hands on keys. Even most drums were electronic. My greying hair was not representative of the audience. Austra is Ryan Wonsiak (keyboards), Maya Potestski (drums), Katie Stelmanis (vocals and keys), Dorian Wolf (bass and keys). (Nathan Phillips Square, Toronto) 20150812Escorted transport: Ontario Provincial Police motorcycle brigade clears way for buses with ParaPan athletes. Must be on their way to closing ceremonies. Uniformed police at Front Street intersections holding back pedestrians. Buses looked empty, so spectators probably went downtown early to get good seats. (Front Street, east of Jarvis Avenue, Toronto). 20150815
Carnival and vendors alley: Sunday late afternoon sees Waterfront Night Market already in action, from the supermarket directly south. Biked through heavy traffic in Portlands for supermarket shopping, finding lots of pedestrians looking for entertainment. Free sample booths inside store were fully manned. When the parking lot gets taken over for an event, where does T&T expect their customers to load their groceries into cars? (T&T Supermarket, Cherry Street, Toronto Portlands) 20150816 MOCCA Courtyard: Dean Baldwin (2015) “Queen Street Memorial Fountain”, one of three parts of the “Queen West Yacht Club” installation. Running water trickles, steps away from Queen Street West and the streetcar. Picnic tables outside give the opportunity to hang out in a convivial scenario, in the final weekend before the MOCCA closes doors at this location, and moves farther west. (Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Toronto) 20150822 Edward Gardens: Annual visit to renew vows for the 30th time, with three sons still in town. Cool summer day encouraged more leisurely walk. We watched the ducks in the stream, and had a woodchuck cross our path, that our city-raised sons hadn’t seen live, before. Fewer visitors to the park on a Monday afternoon. (Edward Gardens, Don Mills, Toronto) 20150824Island airport ferry: A new path not taken, as the tunnel to the Island Airport is an option for pedestrians. Drivers who want to park on the Island can still wait for the ferry. The ship sailed just as we approached the water. (Toronto Island Ferry) 20150825HarbourfrontCentre TaiwanFest: Neo-psychedelic indie rock @EchoBand Echo announced songs in Mandarin, and had audience dancing in their seats. Detailed instructions of directions for hands, up, down, left, right. Much of the audience wouldn’t understand the lyrics, but music plus demonstrations are a universal language. Taiwan Fest also had The Art of Seating, Pan-Asian Culinary Competition, and the Holy Sheep from LunarFest. (Harbourfront Centre, Toronto) 20150829Harbourfront Centre: As part of Taiwan Fest, the Holy Sheep exhibit encouraged visitors to take their photos as a celebration of the Year of the Sheep. The plastic white sheep (and one black sheep) last appeared at the Vancouver Art Gallery in February for Lunar New Year. (Harbourfront Centre, Toronto) 20150829
TheRex: Last night of @RexHotelToronto @TaraKannangara @Colin_Story @MackLongpre #ChrisPruden #JulianAB Sundays residency of August. Two sets, new CD on sneak preview in advance of official release. Tara Kannangara (vocals, trumpet), Colin Story (guitar), Chris Pruden (piano), Julian Anderson-Bowes (bass), Mackenzie Longpre (drums) (Rex Hotel, Toronto) 20150830
For those who haven’t read the 1965 Emery and Trist article, its seems as though my colleague Doug McDavid was foresighted enough to blog a summary in 2016! His words have always welcomed here, as Doug was a cofounder of this web site. At the time of writing, the target audience for this piece was […]
In the famous 1965 Emery and Trist article, the terms “causal texture” and “contextual environment” haven’t been entirely clear to me. With specific meanings in the systems thinking literature, looking up definitions in the dictionary generally isn’t helpful. Diving into the history of the uses of the words provides some insight. 1. Causal texture 2. […]
Towards appreciating “action learning”, the history of open systems thinking and pioneering work in organization science, the influence of Action Learning Group — in the Faculty of Environment Studies founded in 1968 at York University (Toronto) — deserves to be resurfaced. 1. Trist in Canada 2. Environmental studies, and contextualism in organizational-change 3. Action learning, […]
The news that Doug McDavid — my friend, colleague, and one of the original cofounders of the Coevolving Innovations web site in 2006 — had passed, first came through mutual IBM contacts. More details subsequently showed up on LinkedIn from Mike McClintock. Doug left us on May 9, while working at his desk, likely in […]
One of the challenges with the development of pattern languages is the cross-appropriation of approaches of techniques from one domain (i.e. built physical environments) into others (e.g. software development, social change). The distinction between pattern language and form language is made by Nikos Salingaros. Design in architecture and urbanism is guided by two distinct complementary […]
The 1995 article by Spinosa, Flores & Dreyfus on “Disclosing New Worlds” was assigned reading preceding the fourth of four lectures for the Systemic Design course in the Master’s program in Strategic Foresight and Innovation at OCAD University. In previous years, this topic was a detail practically undiscussed, as digging into social theory and the phenomenology […]
In web conference, #HermanDaly says #EcologicalEconomics used to get attacked from the right, now it's from the left. Panel @revkin @jon_d_erickson @ktkish @sophiesanniti #TimCrowshaw #KatieHorner livestreamed #sustainwhat .Read more ›
Complementing the idea of a @longnow , @nfergus provokes the challenge of a #shortthen as the online social media platforms distract the larger perspectives on history.Read more ›
Social ecology and environmental psychology described @dstokols @Social_Ecology , interviewed by @katiepatrick . References #WilliamsJames on attention. Book on Social Ecology in the Digital Age released in 2018.Read more ›
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 ›
Proponents of #SystemsThinking often espouse holism to counter over-emphasis on reductionism. Reading some definitions from an encyclopedia positions one in the context of the other (François 2004).
Saying “it doesn’t matter” or “it matters” is a common expression in everyday English. For scholarly work, I want to “keep using that word“, while ensuring it means what I want it to mean. The Oxford English Dictionary (third edition, March 2001) has three entries for “matter”. The first two entries for a noun. The […]
It's been challenging to find sources that specifically define two-word phrases -- i.e. "systemic change", "systematic change", "systems change" -- as opposed to loosely inferring reductively from one-word definitions in recombination. MartinReynolds @OpenUniversity clarifies uses of the phrases, with a critical eye into motives for choosing a specific label, as well as associated risks and […]
The term "environmental" can be mixed up with "ecological", when the meanings are different. We can look at the encyclopedia definitions (François 2004), and then compare the two in terms of applied science (i.e. engineering with (#TimothyFHAllen @MarioGiampietro and #AmandaMLittle, 2003).
While many outside of the field of architecture like the #ChristopherAlexander #PatternLanguage approach, it's not so well accepted by his peers. A summary of criticisms by #MichaelJDawes and #MichaelJOstwald @UNSWBuiltEnv is helpful in appreciating when the use of pattern language might be appropriate or not appropriate.
Systems thinking should include not only thinking about the system, but also its environment. Using the term "field" as the system of interest plus its influences leaves a lot of the world uncovered. From the multiple definitions in the International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics , there is variety of ways of understanding "field".
