Moments March 2015 weeks 3-4: Toronto, Ontario; Niagara Falls, NY; Allendale, NJ; New York City (Manhattan), NY
Toronto, Ontario; Niagara Falls, NY; Allendale, NJ; New York City (Manhattan), NY
Former Unilever site . East of Don Roadway, north of Lakeshore Boulevard East, south of the Adelaide Street onramp, there’s 29 acres to be redeveloped, up to 60 acres with city and other private properties, says “Jobs, transit and the future: How an empty lot at the foot of Toronto could transform it” | Elizabeth Church | March 14, 2015 | Globe & Mail at http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/toronto/jobs-transit-and-the-future-how-an-empty-lot-at-the-foot-of-toronto-could-transform-it/article23461556/ (Toronto) 20150515Systems Thinking Ontario March 2015. Session on Systems and Resilience Redux: Deciphering Panarchy (Some More) extended discussion from last month. Some attendees had not pre-read article, so interpreting figures without visual aids was like described video on television. Returning attendees thought that extra time spent on the same theme helped unwrap the mystery, and the month in between gave time for consideration. (Systems Thinking Ontario, OCAD U. Lambert Lounge) 20150318SFI class fishbowl. Inner circle of discussants on systemic design methods, with outer circle of observers who can swap into inner. Smaller group enables richer interaction amongst active participants, questions build amongst students paying attention. (Strategic Foresight and Innovation program, OCAD U., Toronto) 20150319Niagara Falls from Rainbow Bridge. On drive to NYC, stopped for hour walk through Niagara State Park. Oldest park on the U.S., quiet on a March Friday. First time to see falls on the American side, we have seen the more commercial Canadian side frequently. (Rainbow Bridge, Niagara Falls, NY) 20150321Celery Farm. Nature preserve with pond mostly still frozen. Watched mallard duck couple getting fat on sunfish in surface ice, and just through a small hole. Snapping turtles may be driving fish to the top. (Celery Farm Natural Area, Allendale, NJ) 20150322Times Square. Sunday spring stroll down 7th Avenue, at temperature above freezing. Loose weekend before a Monday morning meeting. Benefits of a friend with a Manhattan apartment. (New York City) 20150322
New York City; Corning, NY; Toronto, Ontario.
NYC skyline north from 42nd Street. Sunset soon over Manhattan, view from 20th floor apartment in Hells Kitchen. Surprisingly easy access into NYC on a lazy summer weekend. (New York City) 20140802Innovation Stage, Corning Museum of Glass. Expert glassblower working at high speed, with commentators on English and Mandarin. Corning Museum deserves more time than our visit today will allow. (Corning, NY) 20140804Fountains at Massey College. Natural cooling on a warm August late afternoon at the U of Toronto, outside the Junior Common Room at Massey College. A quiet place to meet, if invited. (Toronto) 20140808Free sample lineup. Mob in front of @Sabra foods truck @ToTheDanforth, but dips all gone late Sunday afternoon, just offering pita chips. Festival stretches east of Pape, bike is best way there. (Toronto, Sunday) 20140810Table or bench? In Little India, outdoor furniture by sidewalk provided by restaurant, either as low tables or high benches. Short stools underneath add to options. Early before dinner rush. (Toronto) 20140813Gates to nowhere. Short drive to precipitous drop down east bank of Don Valley, south of Mount Stephen St., east of Blackburn St. Nearby signs say Hydro One replacing equipment at Gerrard Transformer Station. Empty space close to downtown Toronto. 20140818Trompe d’oeil mural. Not a back door into a garden on the west side of Bleeker Street south of Wellesley Street, but instead some brightness on the long brick wall of Fudger House. Paint is fading, could use a retouch. (Toronto) 20140822Fountains at Edward Gardens. Annual ritual repeated for the 29th time, renewing the promise again. Busy Sunday with wedding parties, our sons away on their own lives. (Don Mills) 20140824Mural on O’Keefe Lane. Colourful bridge joining Ed Mirvish Theatre entrance on Yonge Street and former Pantages Theatre on Victoria Street. Dumpsters not so scenic, steps south of Yonge-Dundas Square. (Toronto) 20140828
Art on a clothesline. Wind Warriors photographs with oversized clothespins beside children’s garden at Princess Park One of the Stories from the Esplanade, part of the Contact Festival (Toronto) 20140830
Hell’s Kitchen is an intriguing name for a New York neighbourhood, worth an early morning walk in the summer.
West of the theatre district in New York City is Hell’s Kitchen, a district with such a menacing name. I’ve never had a reason to go there, but since I was staying in a hotel right on the edge of the neighbourhood, it was worth an early morning walk. I started at 49th Street, walking south on 9th Avenue. It’s a wide street, with traffic one-way downtown (i.e. southbound).
On the east side of the street, the security gates on some shops were still down in the early morning. They don’t present the most attractive face for the city.
Another block south to 48th Street, there were more shops with shutters down.
The variety of storefronts on 9th Avenue means convenient shopping for residents nearby on the side streets.
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 […]
The International Society for General Systems Research formed circa 1956 became the International Society for the Systems Sciences in 1988. In 1985, Bela H. Banathy organized the annual meeting on the theme of “Systems Inquiring”. Proceedings normally are published in the year following. In 1987, John A. Dillon summarized Banathy’s perspective in the yearbook, General […]
For five immersive days, a team of six researchers had the opporunity to collaborate on ideas on rhythmic shifts (mostly based on Systems Changes Learning) and anticipatory systems (in the legacy of Robert Rosen). The 2024 Banathy Conversation was organized by the Creative Systemic Research Platform Institute, facilitated by Susu Nousala, Gary S. Metcalf, and […]
Systems Processes Theory has been under development for many decades, led by Len Troncale, a past president of the International Society for the Ssytems Sciences. Many have found getting a grip on the science to be a demanding task, both in scope and in depth. Over many decades, Lynn Rasmussen was a collaborator, refining and […]
The Socio-Technical Systems (STS) perspective, dating back to the studies of Eric L. Trist and Fred E. Emery, was on the reading list of organizational behaviour classes in my undergraduate and master’s degree programs. It wasn’t until 15 years later, when I got involved with the systems sciences and David L. Hawk, that the Socio-Ecological […]
Civic Tech can be described as projects using technology “for the public good“. Civic Tech may be related to, but different from Gov Tech. For the May 2024 Systems Thinking Onrtario, we had two knowledgeable guests in conversation. Dorothy Eng, executive director of Code for Canada since 2021, related her professional journey from engineering to […]
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 ›
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 […]
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 […]
