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
Los Angeles, CA; Toronto, Ontario; Warsaw, Poland; Krakow, Poland; Niagara Falls; Washington, DC; Rosslyn, VA.
Sketinghuish 1, 2, 3. Installation by Sket One, in L.A. Heat exhibit, Chinese American Museum. Painting by Audrey Chan in background. (Olvera Street, Los Angeles) 20140703Barracks moved from Wyoming. Disassembled and reconstructed American concentration camp for Japanese from Heart Mountain Wyoming circa 1942, now at Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles) 20140703Flexing at Muscle Beach. Judging for Mr and Mrs Muscle Beach on Independence Day in Venice’ California 20140704Fitting hands at the Chinese Theatre. Sizing up to Samuel L. Jackson in concrete in front of the Chinese Theater in Hollywood. Usual crowds, even on July 4.Usual pickup, Pearson Terminal 1. Even Adam says that the pattern of arriving so Pearson Airport, and being picked up by family is getting to be familiar. (Toronto) 20140705Warszawa Centralna. S3 train from Chopin Airport to Warsaw Centralna station sorry short but slow. Bought ticket for Krakow on Friday, office for English. (Warsaw, Poland) 20140716Farm north of Krakow. Train paused, horses not paying attention. Journey from Warsaw to Krakow shows lots of agriculture, and a few towns. Fighting key lag in compartment of 6 passengers. (Krakow) 20140718Barbican, Krakow. Touring historic sites in Krakow, noticing tight walkways and low headroom. Poland must have fewer lawyers, as simple warning signs of hazards suffice (Krakow) 20140719Desk at Schindler’s Factory. Enamel factory of WWII run by Oskar Schindler rebuilt into immersive museum of Krakow before and during war. Tough for Poles, tougher for Jews (Krakow) 20140720Jagiellonian U 600th Anniversary campus. Uni in Krakow dates back to 1394, but 25 minute tram ride to third campus not yet fully completed. Circular glass library fronts management and social communications school. HSSE meetings in AHFE conference (Krakow) 20140722Krakow airport construction. Reports of Krakow Terminal 1 as work in progress is accurate. Coming from a university campus due for completion in 2015, Polish economy seems healthy. Food and lodging seems cheaper than other European cities. (Krakow) 20140723Niagara Falls from the Rainbow Bridge. On a summer Friday morning, the Rainbow Bridge border crossing was the quickest, not to mention most scenic, way into the U.S. DY driving, so passenger shot out window while moving (Niagara Falls) 20140725Skylights, Library of Congress on Flickr. Ceiling to blue sky on Great Hall of the Library of Congress has lots of tourists continuing from Capitol Hill tour. Ties between public record and democratic ideals (Washington, DC) 20140726Key Bridge from Rosslyn on Flickr. Cloudy Sunday morning overlooking Potomac River into Washington DC. View from 9th floor hotel balcony, don’t see the joggers and cyclists that we saw yesterday, but we are an hour earlier (Rosslyn, VA) 20140727
Systemic Design track at ISSS. Lots of friends at #isss2014 session, says Peter Jones @redesign. @OCAD #sfi activities reviewed starting session on Systemics in the Design community. (Washington, DC) 20140731
As the book on Industry 4.0 to Industry 5.0 was taking shape in March 2023, I was invited not only to serve as an editor, but also to contribute as an author. The edited volume is the final deliverable for the In4act project centered at the KTU School of Economics and Business in Kaunas, Lithuania […]
Beyond city-building as urban planning is the idea of a Music City. This sees development of cultural life across a wide variety of arts, alongside economic benefits brought to the region. At the 119th meeting of Systems Thinking Ontario in March 2024, socio-cultural designer Adam Hogan and musician-designer Ziyan Hossain joined moderator Zaid Khan in conversation. […]
Having reached year 6 of an espoused 10-year journey, the Systems Changes Learning Circle is (again) convening monthly Dialogues on Social Innovation at the Centre for Social Innovation in Toronto. Starting up in 2019, the Circle was convening regularly in the Climate Ventures space at 192 Spadina Avenue. The pandemic interrupted in-person meetings, and the […]
EQ Lab runs Dialogic Drinks, “the kind of philosophical discussion you have in a coffee shop or bar”, twice per week. Wtih this group interested loosely in questions on leadership, I was invited to host an online session on March 12 (evening in Hong Kong and Singapore, really early in Toronto) and on March 14-15 […]
At the 118th meeting of Systems Thinking Ontario in February 2024, behavioral scientist Cameron D. Norman and design strategist Tara Campbell were invitied for a conversation guided by Zaid Khan. The panelists are both alumni of the Strategic Foresight and Innovation program at OCADU. Some time ago, they had conducted a research project on evaluation […]
An article on “sciencing and philosophizing”, coauthored by Gary S. Metcalf and myself, has been published in the Journal of the International Society for the Systems Sciences, following the ISSS 2023 Kruger Park conference in South Africa, last July. There’s a version cacned on the Coevolving Commons. This article started in a series of conversations […]
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 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 […]
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) […]
