Toronto, Ontario; Hamilton, Ontario
Woodbine Beach: Winter Stations art installation #CemreÖnertürk #EgeÇakır (2022) “Enter Face” designed as two dark boxes, now has two lounge chairs not in the original specification. Shorter east box has three holes where participants can stick their heads in, for a common view of a textured transparent screen while physically isolated. The taller west box textured vertical screen looks inland, with lakeside metal rails despite signs discouraging climbing. (Woodbine Beach, Toronto, Ontario) 20200306Commissioners Street, east of Saulter Street: Looking west into the sunset, the Commissioners Street bridges are in place, but Don Roadway is being rebuilt at a higher elevation to protect this east bank from flooding. The westside route to the new bridge will be wider with bike paths along the north side of River Park. Construction won’t be complete until 2024. (Commissioners Street, east of Saulter Street, Port Lands, Toronto, Ontario) 20220310Cherry Street North Bridge: New bridge for crossing the Keating Channel is in place, awaiting new north-south road and LRT routes, completion not until 2024? This is one of four bridges in the Port Lands districts, viewed from the older Cherry Street Lift Bridge. The bike route north of Lakeshore Boulevard has been closed, and the detour along Villiers Street is muddy. (Cherry Street North Bridge, Keaing Channel, Toronto, Ontario) 20220316Harbourfront Artport Gallery: Esmarkbreen glacier in the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard #LauraMillard (2021) Collapse shows clear image in lightbox up top, spilling out below as impermanence into a printed fabric inspired by installations of crumpled paper. Part of the Shared Terrain group exhibition in cultural exchanges between artists and designers from Canada and the Nordics. Apparel change away from winter, as a bright spring day gives optimism for the end of snowbanks. (Artport Gallery, Harbourfront Centre, Queens Quay West, Toronto, Ontario) 20220317Jollibee Heartland: First experience @JollibeeCanada, international cultural tourism to @Seafood_City Missisauga without leaving the country. Battered fried chicken was good, gravy an added feature! Palabok rice noodles with pork and shrimp a larger departure from western norms. Walking supermarket aisles, we recognize a few Filipino brands, but Chinese supermarkets typically don’t have the variety or price points that expats might find familiar. (Jollibee, Heartland Town Centre, Boyer Boulevard, Mississauga, Ontario) 20210318
Devil’s Punchbowl: Exploring the #waterfalls of #Hamilton, wending way across the ridge of the Niagara Escarpment by Stoney Creek to find the south-facing view of a ribbon of melt water as winter turns to spring. Impressed by coloured layers of red shale, grey shale, limestone and shale dolomite from the end of the last ice age. North-facing outlook over Hamilton Harbour, with the Keeper of the Cross installation from 1966 a noticeable landmark. (Devil’s Punchbowl, Ridge Road, Stoney Creek, Ontario) 20220318
111 Elizabeth Street: On request, farewell speech by @Ryan_Ing, upon his coming departure from Toronto to NYC this coming week. Friends invited to parktake in food, a psychic reading, and a pro protographer creating a collage of faces for the evening. Guests asking parents about the move to the Big Apple, it’s not even a change in time zone away from us. (111 Elizabeth Street, Toronto, Ontario) 20210319Dim Sum King: Three tables for lunch, more than originally thought would attend at the first gathering of the Lowkong Society after the pandemic halted socializing. The house on Huron Street is now in the past, so we’ll look to a new future. Met a few cousins, an era of English-first speakers now shows much grey hair. (Dim Sum King, Dundas Street West, Toronto, Ontario) 20220320Yueh Tung: After years of Wedneday night takeout dinners with three sons during the pandemic, we’ll only have two on most weeks. Taking advantage of Old Chinatown location across the street from the apartment building, before clearing out kitchen appliances and lots of the little conveniences acquired to maintain a real home. Contexts packed into two vehicles for temporary storage in vacated bedroom back at the house, on the expectation of cascading down to the last son to move out. (Yeuh Tung, Elizabeth Street, Toronto, Ontario) 20220323
Riverside neighbourhood: Arborists @TOtrees outside my window this morning, sawing at the linden tree in our front yard. Pruner in the articulated boom lift (cherry picker) with shears above, collector of branches on the ground, below. The sapling was owned by the city when we moved in so many decades ago, and has been professionally maintained mostly without our attention. (Riverside neighbourhood, Toronto, Ontario) 20220331
Researching the philosophical foundations of systems theory to understand the meanings of “causal texture, contextualism, contextural” from the Tavistock legacy led to philosopher Stephen C. Pepper. The philosophical lineage and contributions of Pepper were the focus for the January online meeting of Systems Thinking Ontario. A deep reading of Pepper’s work (over a month!) was […]
The first Systems Thinking Ontario session for 2023 is scheduled for January 9, on “Root Metaphors and World Hypotheses”. This is philosophical content, for which a guided tour and discussion will be better than attempting a solo reading of the World Hypotheses wiki on the Open Learning Commons. Upon announcing the session on social media, […]
The October online meeting of Systems Thinking Ontario presented an opportunity for an update on progress made by the Systems Changes Learning Circle by 2022. A slide deck had been prepared an in-person seminar at the Universitat de Barcelona Graduate Programmes in Business, organized by Ryan C. Armstrong, one week earlier. Our regular monthly meeting, […]
Just before starting a trip to Spain, I received an invitation from Ryan C. Armstrong at the Universitat de Barcelona Business School to give some lectures. The students in the bachelor’s programme in international business had a short mention of systems thinking in the first lecture of the operationa management class. With that brief entry, […]
While the adaptive cycle and panarchical connections reflect the possiblity of movement from one stable state to another, it’s possible to get “stuck” in a disfavoured trap. Social ecological systems involve both natural systems and human systems. After widespread recognition of the 2002 Panarchy book, reflections in 2010 revealed further development of the theory and […]
In order to appreciate the influence of resilience science and panarchy on ongoing research into systems changes, revisiting foundational works sometimes resurfaces insights. In the 2002 Panarchy book, Chapter 15 provides a summary of findings. In the course of the project hat led to this volume, we identified twelve conclusions (Table 15-1) in our search for […]
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 ›
For the @ArchFoundation, #TimIngold distinguishes outcome-oriented making from process-oriented growing, revisiting #MartinHeidegger “Building Dwelling Thinking”. Organisms are made; artefacts grow. The distinction seems obvious, until you stop to ask what assumptions it contains, about the inside and outside of things…Read more ›
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 ›
An online version of a special issue of Paunch (1980) on "Root Metaphor: The Live Thought of Stephen C. Pepper" has been preserved on the internet Archive
Attributed to Hippocrates is the use of the term kairos in observational methodology, and the presentation of significant findings. Just to be scholarly, Hippocrates is generally reported as a institution, rather than a person. Although Hippocrates is generally accepted as the father of medicine, few have recognized, or even realized, the extent to which he […]
Autopoiesis, as coined by Humberto Maturana, is in the contextualist root metaphor of Stephen C. Pepper, rather than the organismic root metaphor, say #HowardMancing and #JenniferMarstonWilliam .
