Toronto, Ontario
Ren Clinic: Chinese herbs for 7 days, each basket used to sort little sachets to be dissolved with a half cup of hot water for consuming at lunchtime. A modern customization prescribed for my father, the usual format I see is either as vials of tablets to be counted out, or a litle bag of leaves and twigs to be brewed as a decoction. Double explanations by the Chinese doctor, once in English, and then again in Cantonese. (Ren Clinic, Sheppard Avenue East, Scarborough, Ontario) 20221102Imperial Pub: In the west room, family came to watch @adriank_yee in Musicians Anonymous jam hosted by @thepom.co . Groove feels like the San Francisco in the 1960s, better than the more univeral 12-bar blues. First in a series expected to repeat on Wednesday evenings, had some slight pauses to run an extension cord across the room, the electronics were drawing too much power off one circuit. (Imperial Pub, Dundas Street East, Toronto, Ontario) 20221102Ivan Forrest Gardens: Two red chairs bolted to the ground, with a view of yellow deciduous leaves falling to the ground. Fencing from streetscape improvements in place since the spring have been removed, now clear walkway north into the Glen Stewart Ravine. Scheduled bicycling early, shift out of Daylight Savings Time means sunset around 5pm. (Ivan Forrest Gardens, Queen Street East, Toronto, Ontario) 20221106Udupi Palace: Catching up on some missed years, since old friends only remember our sons as teenagers. Unexpected spiciness in the assorted appetizers with the chili pakoras. Appreciated guidance through the dosa filled with potatoes and onions, and the rice-based bisi bele bath. (Udupi Palace, Gerrard Street East, Toronto, Ontario) 20221109Onsite Gallery: Moose skulls @Artist_JBennett (2022) Netukulit on wall made from gift, (2022) Embrace on floor from three antlers harvested in community. Color patterns inspired by quill boxes and sear covers in Mi’kmaq community. Gallery is dedicated to solo exhibition titled Souvenir. (Onsite Gallery, Richmond Street East, Toronto, Ontario) 2022110
Onsite Gallery: #JordanBennett (2022) Aosamia’jij: Behind glass on south wall, 18th and 19th century Mi’kmaq boxes, baskets and fan handle, many borrowed from #RoyalOntarioMuseum, paired on north wall with soundtrack played on hybrid basket-speakers, trimmed with sweet grass. Multiple tracks separated, so the sound moved across the five sources. Technology for Aosamia’jij 2022 by @jordanbennettart last appeared in Smithsonian in 2017. (Onsite Gallery, Richmond Street West, Toronto, Ontario) 20221110
Corkin Gallery: Montreal-based #PeterCampbell (2021) Shrouded Guardians oil on canvas. Recorded interview by artist described paint applied in layers, drying slowly, leading to slow production. Outside in the Distillery District, workers were in the process of installing Christmas decorations while temperatures dropped. (Corkin Gallery, Tank House Lane, Distillery District, Toronto, Ontario) 20221112Nathan Phillips Square: Multicultural holiday season approaching, city worker in crane basket adding ornaments to the Christmas tree to be lit in Calvacade of Lights opening in 3 days on November 26. Lighting the first candle on the menorah will coincide with Hannakah on December 18. Plaza was clear of snow, with a mound pushed in the corner from last week’s precipitation. (Nathan Phillips Square, Queen Street West, Toronto, Ontario) 20221123Brookfield Place: In #AllenLambertGalleria, #StudioFMinus (2022) Snowfall:Frost is a 20-foot tall blue interactive sculpture inspired by the Y shape of the corridors, repeated in fractal patterns as might be seen in a frosted-over window plane. Rows of smaller ceiling fixtures in white carry the theme into the alcoves. Out bicycling downtown on a warmer than usual day, but sunset persists in late afternoon. (Brookfield Place, Bay Street, Toronto, Ontario) 20221126Elmsley Place: Red bow, green fringes, white and blue lights on the laneway leading up to Brennan Hall. Originally a residential neighbourhood of Victorian houses in the 1890s, St. Michael’s College purchased title to the street in the 1920s. Residences for students are steps away from the commercial hubbub of Yorkville. (Elmsley Place, St. Michael’s College, University of Toronto) 20221129Centre for Social Innovation Spadina: At @ForesightCAC Demo Day, Xavier from @PicketaSystems describing the real-time plant tissue analysis system for farms. Successful pilots with eastern Canadian potato farmers, announced first customer in Alberta. Presentation was one of four promising ventures in cleantech. (Centre for Social Innovation, Spadina Avenue, Toronto, Ontario) 20221130
For the November 2023 Systems Thinking Ontario session, historian and policy advisor Dr. Michael Bonner was invited for an interview by Zaid Khan. In organizing the sessions, we’re trying to avoid the trap of systems thinking becoming a discipline, through learning with a sweeping-in process. The session opened on a map of The Sassanid Empire […]
It the systems sciences are an open system, then learning more and more about systems of interest are foundational. This was called a sweep-in process by C. West Churchman, in the heritage of Edgar A. Singer. Jr. A concise definition is found in the entry on “Experimentalism” in the International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics: […]
For the Relating Systems and Design RSD12 symposium on October 14, 2023, members of the Explainers subgroup of the Systems Changes Learning Circle conducted an in-person workshop on “Explaining Systems Changes Learning: Metaphors and translations” at OCADU in Toronto. RSD12 included both in-person sessions and online sessions. In the planning phase for the symposium, our […]
Judith Rosen agreed to give an online presentation for the Systems Thinking Ontario meeting in October 2023, after we converted her in-person meeting at OCADU in August into a discussion circle. Channelling the anticipatory systems approach of her father, mathematical biologist Robert Rosen, Judith has been extended those ideas in her own continuing observation of […]
An article related to the ISSS plenary talk of July 2022 has now passed the peer review process, and is published in early view for Systems Research and Behavioral Science. It should shortly be printed in the November issue of SRBS that serves as the General Systems Yearbook. Update on Nov. 22, 2023: A full-text, […]
In a return to original Systems Thinking Ontario format, we reviewed an (old) systems thinking paper from 1998. Mohammed Badrah served as reviewer. Kelly Okamura was the discussant. The author, David Hawk, was available during the discussion period for extended knowledge. As compared to prior Systems Thinking Ontario sessions with the word “entropy” in the […]
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 ›
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 ›
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 […]
In reviewing the original introduction for Systems Thinking: Selected Readings in the 1969 Penguin paperback, there’s a few threads that I only recognize, many years later. The tables of contents (disambiguating various editions) were previously listed as 1969, 1981 Emery, System Thinking: Selected Readings. — begin paste — Introduction In the selection of papers for this […]
In a recording of the debate between Michael Quinn Patton and Michael C. Jackson on “Systems Concepts in Evaluation”, Patton referenced four concepts published in the “Principles for effective use of systems thinking in evaluation” (2018) by the Systems in Evaluation Topical Interest Group (SETIG) of the American Evaluation Society. The four concepts are: (i) […]
How might the quality of an action research initiative be evaluated? — begin paste — We have linked our five validity criteria (outcome, process, democratic, catalytic, and dialogic) to the goals of action research. Most traditions of action research agree on the following goals: (a) the generation of new knowledge, (b) the achievement of action-oriented […]
After 90 minutes on phone and online chat with WesternUnion, the existence of the canton of Ticino in Switzerland is denied, so I can’t send money from Canada. TicinoTurismo should be unhappy. The IT developers at Western Union should be dissatisfied that customer support agents aren’t sending them legitimate bug reports I initially tried the […]
