Toronto, Ontario
TUJazz: Multipad @Larnell_Lewis@TUJazzFest masterclass, making music with 12 triggers rolling each through 4 banks of samples in suspended chords. Previewing concert later in the evening, where most of new album will be played. Session started with some drumming, then counting to 3 while clapping to 4, followed by questions and answers in the philosophy of learning to become a musician. (Toronto Undergraduate Jazz Festival, Mel Lastman Square, North York, Ontario) 20180908TUJazz: Main stage @TUJazzFest@marilou.buron from Montreal. Bandleader calling out solos from the keyboard. Ensemble relaxed, filled out program to finish with the blues. (Toronto Undergraduate Jazz Festival, Mel Lastman Square, North York, Ontario) 20180908TUJazz: Professionals @TUJazzFest@Larnell_Lewis said @TaraKannangara would perform unrehearsed. Beside @robnchrisca in a smooth performance. Busy musicians lining up gig schedules. Years are flying by, as Don Grolnick’s “Nothing Personal” (1987) by Michael Brecker has become a jazz standard. (Toronto Undergraduate Jazz Festival, Mel Lastman Square, North York, Ontario) 20180908Richmond Station: Chef’s table facing an open kitchen with a New Canadian repertoire. Custom tasting menu, accommodating a smattering of non-dairy, gluten-free and vegan dietary restrictions, each dish coming as a surprise based on the chef’s judgment. The start of a leisurely 3-hour family celebration of RDI’s 25th birthday. (Richmond Station, Richmond Street West, Toronto, Ontario) 20180910Richmond Station: Fifth course into the custom tasting menu, rare beef tenderloin as another surprise dish. Our server asked if we were getting full, and we asked for bags for leftovers. About 2.5 hours into the 3-hour family celebration of RDI’s 25th birthday. (Richmond Station, Richmond Street West, Toronto, Ontario) 20180910CSI 215: Housecooling party @csiTO@tonyasurman reminiscing over 14 years in this venue, vacating occupants to move 459 feet across the street to the purchased and renovated property at 192 next week. Asked members to bring the spirit of this place to the new building. Broke her train of thought abruptly, noticing the newborn cradled by father, foreseeing a next generation of social innovator. (Centre for Social Innovation, Robertson Building, 215 Spadina Avenue, Toronto, Ontario) 20180914Roncesvalles: Crowds @PolishFestival steady with families. Walked slowly northbound from Queen Street to Bloor Street, passing multiple music stages, church book sales, restaurant kiosks. Pierogi and sausages abound, with Toronto multicultural cuisines well represented at other stations. Long bike ride cross town, called for rest before riding back. (Roncesvalles Avenue at Wright Avenue, Toronto, Ontario) 20180915 Lane S College E Euclid: Late afternoon #LightUptheLaneways @lanewayproject@StART_Toronto unveiling of murals on garage doors by local street artists. Painters started in morning, some still in progress on larger surfaces. Discovered this laneway doesn’t yet have a distinctive name, an opportunity for the motivated. (Lane South College East Euclid (south of College Street, between Euclid Street northbound and Palmerston Street southbound) Little Italy, Toronto, Ontario) 20180916 The Ossington: Interview @mervatim by @emilymkeeler relates history of Katherine Briggs and Isabel Myers leading to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, for the launch of The Personality Brokers book. Entertaining stories from English professor author and audience on misuse of projective personality techniques by managers. My teachings express human beings as more multidimensional, and I prefer the Keirsey temperament sorter more strongly aligned with Carl Jung. (The Ossington, Ossington Avenue, Toronto, Ontario) 20180917St. Michael’s Eye Clinic: Ophthalmological surgeon @StMikesHospital with model of eye, explaining posterior capsule opacification that was causing haziness in the left eye, following surgery for a trauma-induced cataract repaired in 2006. Performed YAG laser capsulotomy to open up an aperture through epithelial cells proliferating towards the visual axis. Procedure was painless, with a minor sensation of hearing clicking inside my head, when the laser was on. Preparation took a few years, working through prescription eye drop variants that would eventually reduce eye pressure. (St. Michael’s Hospital Eye Clinic, Queen Street East, Toronto, Ontario) 20180918 Systems Thinking Ontario: Debriefing by @AllennaLeonard@redesign@zaid___khan on @ISSSMeeting@asc_cybernetics conferences this summer. Impressions on the content of the meetings, plus extra context filled in for those who don’t know the organizations. Trial balloons in discussion, as we all tried to make sense of #systemsthinking. (Systems Thinking Ontario, Lambert Lounge, OCADU, McCaul Street, Toronto, Ontario) 20180919 Onsite Gallery: Measuring and Being @pete5000 lecture, visiting from London while @ONSITEatOCADU had programmed Diagrams of Power exhibition. Quantified Self now records statistics digitally, the data assemblage can reinforce a belief system, or be a critical visualization of unexamined ways of thinking. Historically, this goes back to industrialization, when clocks also changed perceptions of time. This talk may evolve on the way to publication as a book chapter. (Onsite Gallery, OCADU, Richmond Street, Toronto, Ontario) 20180920Victoria College: En route to @VicCollege_UofT booksale, noticed Northrup Frye bench statue by Darren Byers and Fred Harrison installed in 2012. Browsing through non-fiction selections, discovered but declined to buy three cybernetics books obscure for even university libraries, by researchers I know. Saw an inscription inside one book, that may have revealed the original donor. (Victoria College, University of Toronto, Queen’s Park Crescent, Toronto) 20180921Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto: Hiba Abdallah + Justin Langlois (2018) “Failing is a matter of perspective” dartboard idea doesn’t quite ring for preschooler. Opening data for new arts institution in a 55,000 square foot former industrial space, attracting large crowds. (Museum of Contemporary Art, Sterling Road, Lower Junction, Toronto, Ontario) 20180922Dentonia Park: Before sunset People & Trees @SarvenazRayati still setting up installation @artsinparksTO. Figures of bamboo sticks and paper mache are undoubtedly more impressive lit up in the dark, but then the trees would be harder to see. (Dentonia Park, Crescent Town, Toronto, Ontario) 20180924 CSI 192: First salad day @csiTO, second official day in new building after the move across the street. Acknowledgement of traditional lands, plus back stories from DECAs. Conversation tables set up with suggested discussion starters on the theme of home. Contributed homemade daikon carrot pickle resulting from spouse having bought too many root vegetables. I’m not Vietnamese, but can follow a simple recipe. (Centre for Social innovation, 192 Spadina Avenue, Toronto, Ontario) 20180925 Regis College: Agenda @RegisCollege film series, led by Monty Williams, S.J., departs from previous sessions. Spiritual conversation isn’t discussion about the movie, it’s about the ways each individual is touched by the work, and then observing the responses from others in a small group. The 2016 documentary of “Fire at Sea” tells a story of villagers in Lampedusa, the southernmost island of Sicily, closest landfall for migrants crossing the sea from Tunisia. (Regis College, Wellesley Street West, Toronto, Ontario) 20180926Toronto City Hall: Pre-dusk @nuitblancheTO, @ibrahim_mahama drapes jute sacks over the roof edges of building facing @npstoronto, drawing attention to complex trade networks of a global economy and invisible labour. I’ve previously seen Coal Sacks by this artist @saatchi_gallery in London, so both the materials and the observers move. (Toronto City Hall, Nathan Phillips Square, Queen Street, Toronto, Ontario) 20180929
St. Charles Clock Tower: Firehall #3 tower built in 1872 has heritage designation, in progress of restoration integrated with the new Halo Residences. Steel reinforcements are visible inside the front doorway, and the base is surrounded by yellow beams, probably related to a relocation slightly north. Venue was famous as a tavern from the 1950s into the 1970s, with the rise of the gay movement. (488 Yonge Street at Grosvenor Street, Toronto, Ontario) 20180930
Exploring the possibility of a renewed Systems Thinking TO, #ChrisChapman convened a ST/TO: One More Pass Through the Loop session. The last in-person event met in 2019, and then the Covid pandemic interrupted a regeneration. The group put post-it notes up on the whiteboard as reflections on features of prior success, and prospects when many […]
Overhead lamp shades strung over the narrow passage may now be weathered by years of cold winters. Live-work spaces of the Artscape Distillery Studios were vacated in 2021 at the end of the 20-year lease from Cityscape Development. East end of lane terminates with white facade of The Gooderham Condos. (Case Goods Lane, Distillery District, […]
Surrealist #ChristianButterfield (2024) Cold No. 6 - Up Up Higher is acrylic and collage on canvas. Order and disorder are in contrast with sculpted geometric shapes and colours, with newspaper clippings reflecting the oversaturation of media. Vulnerability and reflection is evoked in the declarations of consumer culture, societal pressure, and/or interpersonal strains. (Corkin Gallery, Tank […]
Last day of advance poll for Canada federal election. Queue winding upstairs to second floor was a 30 minute wait, poll for surname in last half of alphabet had DY finished 15 minutes earlier. Unexpected crowd at 4:00pm, voters must have already made up their minds. (Jimmy Simpson Recreation Centre, Queen Street East, Toronto, Ontario) […]
Bridge across Portage River in 49-acre park on a chilly spring day. Had picnic lunch with windbreak under covered shelter. Unproductive visit to city centre, discovered Kalamazoo was practically vacant on Easter Sunday afternoon. (Milham Park, East Kilgore Road, Kalamazoo, Michigan) 20250420
White tablecloth dinner of Afghan cuisine, close to home for international family from grad school days. One retired, while the other is slowly moving out of business. Catching up on kids now adults with their own children, in Hawaii and Delaware. (Kabul House, Dempster Street, Evanston, Illinois) 20250419
Fourth floor Fernanda Laguna (2018) I Love It is two panels of acrylic on canvas with cutouts. Feminst artist has cofounded galleries, publishing house, and art education program in Argentina. Works are part of the Descending the Staircase exhibition series. (Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, East Chicago Avenue, Chicago, Illinois) 20240419
Freshly made deep dish Chicago-style pizza, made with soy cheese and seitan pepperoni. I used to enjoy this specialty in grad school, but gave up dairy 30-some years ago. I managed two slices as DY ate around the crust, leaving more than enough for a picnic on the drive back to Toronto, and a lunch […]
Late afternoon lunch in vegan restaurant with attitude. Followed overhead thread of light over bar, across to west wall. Ordered deep dish Chicago style pizza, kitchen prep time estimated at 35-45 minutes. (Kitchen 17, West Diversey Avenue, Chicago, Illinois) 20250419
Visiting home of CMN, lifelong career shifts from tennis pro, to high energy physicist, strategy professor, now jazz pianist. First met him as a graduate school advisor 45 years ago, when I entered my master's degree program. I recall a day biking the 20 miles up from Evanston to the prior bigger house, and then […]
Two years after submitting an academic manuscript and responding to double-blind reviews, “Rethinking work, with the pandemic disruption” has now been published in the International Journal of Organization Theory and Behavior (IJOTB) as earlycite. The article has a DOI (Document Object Identifier), and should be streamed with an official volume and issue number soon. The […]
The 128th meeting of Systems Thinking Ontario was convened in person. The classroom was filled with current students, alumni, our regular participants, and a few curious newcomers. Moderated by Zaid Khan, the conversation was sparked by Stephen Davies and myself (David Ing) on the evolving styles in learning systems thinking. Stephen has been leading SFIN-6011 […]
The “Understanding Systems” SFIN-6011 course is a requirement in the master’s program in Strategic Foresight and Innovation at OCADU. For winter 2025, the class is now led by Stephen Davies, breaking the incremental evolving of content since 2008. While still on faculty at OCADU, the original course designer Peter H. Jones is now a Distinguished […]
In the 1970s, five ways of knowing were established by C. West Churchman in The Design of Inquiring Systtems. In the 1990s, his student Ian Mitroff carried on the tradition and extended that work in The Unbounded Mind. Now in the 2020s, the technology of Generative AI opens up opportunties to query or request responses […]
For readers with an interest deeper than the 15-minute presentation given in August, the Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Socio-Technical Perspectives in Information Systems (STPIS 2024) have now been formally publishied. The invited paper on “Reifying Socio-Technical and Socio-Ecological Perspectives for Systems Changes: From rearranging objects to repacing rhythms” was reviewed by the […]
The 125th meeting of Systems Thinking Ontario coincided with the closing day for the RSD13-RSDX online program. As a regular systems convening group, we’ve had monthly meetings since January 2013. Zaid Khan moderated a discussion including me (David Ing), Tim Lloyd, Allenna Leonard, and Kelly Okamura. We recollected starting as a spinoff from Design with […]
David L. Hawk (American management theorist, architect, and systems scientist) has been hosting a weekly television show broadcast on Bold Brave Tv from the New York area on Wednesdays 6pm ET, remotely from his home in Iowa. Live, callers can join…Read more ›
Following the first day lecture on Philosophy of Chinese Medicine 1 for the Global University for Sustainability, Keekok Lee continued on a second day on some topics: * Anatomy as structure; physiology as function (and process); * Process ontology, and thing ontology; * Qi ju as qi-in-concentrating mode, and qi san as qi-in-dissipsating mode; and […]
The philosophy of science underlying Classical Chinese Medicine, in this lecture by Keekok Lee, provides insights into ways in which systems change may be approached, in a process ontology in contrast to the thing ontology underlying Western BioMedicine. Read more ›
In conversation, @zeynep with @ezraklein reveal authentic #SystemsThinking in (i) appreciating that “science” is constructed by human collectives, (ii) the west orients towards individual outcomes rather than population levels; and (iii) there’s an over-emphasis on problems of the moment, and…Read more ›
In the question-answer period after the lecture, #TimIngold proposes art as a discipline of inquiry, rather than ethnography. This refers to his thinking On Human Correspondence. — begin paste — [75m26s question] I am curious to know what art, or…Read more ›
How might our society show value for the long term, over the short term? Could we think about taxation over time, asks @carlotaprzperez in an interview: 92% for 1 day; 80% within 1 month; 50%-60% tax for 1 year; zero tax for 10 years.Read more ›
In 2024, WordPress Studio was released, making installation on a local computer simpler. The instructions were modified from MacOS to Ubuntu Linux, by Daniel Kossmann, “How to install WordPress Studio in Ubuntu Linux” | Jun 15, 2024 at https://www.danielkossmann.com/how-to-install-wordpress-studio-ubuntu-linux/ I already had NVM installed, but in Terminal, with the result “command not found”. In the […]
The appreciation of change is different in Western philosophy than in classical Chinese philosophy. JeeLoo Lin published a concise contrast on differences. Let me parse the Introduction to the journal article, that is so clearly written. The Chinese theory of time is built into a language that is tenseless. The Yijing (Book of Changes) there […]
In trying to place the World Hypotheses work of Stephen C. Pepper (with multiple root metaphors), Nicholas Rescher provides a helpful positioning. — begin paste — Philosophical perspectivism maintains that substantive philosophical positions can be maintained only from a “perspective” of some sort. But what sort? Clearly different sorts of perspectives can be conceived of, […]
Finding proper words to express system(s) change(s) can be a challenge. One alternative could be diachrony. The Oxford English dictionary provides two definitions for diachronic, the first one most generally related to time. (The second is linguistic method) diachronic ADJECTIVE Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. “diachronic (adj.), sense 1,” July 2023, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/3691792233. For completeness, prochronic relates “to […]
The selection of readings in the “Introduction” to Systems Thinking: Selected Readings, volume 2, Penguin (1981), edited by Fred E. Emery, reflects a turn from 1969 when a general systems theory was more fully entertained, towards an urgency towards changes in the world that were present in 1981. Systems thinking was again emphasized in contrast […]
