Moments in July 2015, weeks 1 to 3: Vienna, Austria; Danube University Krems; Krems, Austria; University of Surrey; Guildford, UK; London, England; Toronto, Ontario.
Vienna, Austria; Danube University Krems; Krems, Austria; University of Surrey; Guildford, UK; London, England; Toronto, Ontario.
Austrian Airlines Toronto to Vienna. Just realised that I’m breaking my personal rule to fly across oceans on a carrier with a Canadian flag. Direct flight for short trip trumped brand preference. Fortunately, the Austrians aren’t known as an aggressive culture. I expect to nap, and wake up in Vienna. (OS 72, still boarding at Pearson International Airport YYZ) 20150702Danube University Krems. Small university campus just one street by two blocks up hill from small town. Attending pattern language conference, PURPLSOC is third within a year. Would have meet practically all Christopher Alexander scholars by now, may focus down in future events with some interested in collaborating. Shortest lead time ever, 8 hours on plane, 3 hours on train, 1 hour to find campus, barely time for lunch, check-in and shower before first speaker started at 2:30 pm. (Danube University Krems, Austria) 20150703Wellenspiel, Krems. Conference dinner by the Danube River in Austria. Weather has been warm, around 30 degrees C and sunny. Mountain altitude, air is clean. Some familiar faces from prior pattern language conferences. (Krems, Austria) 20150704Closing ceremony at PURPLSOC. Network of yarn symbolises colleagues meet over a few short days of intense interaction. Tangle is tossed in parachute to create a knotty mess. First learned this at PLoP 2014 in Illinois. (Danube University Krems, Austria) 20150705S7 platform, Praterstern. Morning commute to airport from Vienna city centre hotel on suburban line S7. Started journey a little earlier than originally planned, discovering that I would be sitting nearly 30 minutes, as trains don’t run more frequently. Austrian efficiency means trains run on time, so the best surprise is no surprise. Flights to London Heathrow will be connecting, lowering airfare and adding miles. (Praterstern, Vienna, Austria) 20150706Glass overhead walkways. From Frank Whittle at south to Alan Turing at north, buildings connected to encourage random interactions between researchers walking and thinking. Design of campus with buildings below 4 stores an antithesis of skyscraper thinking. Statue of Turing on plaza a little further north may be overearnest recognition, as he was never part of this university, and would only come home to Guildford on weekends while a teenager at boarding school. (University of Surrey, Stag Hill campus, Guildford, UK) 20150707
Frankfurt, Germany; Hameenlinna, Finland; Takajarvi, Finland; Espoo, Finland; Vantaa, Finland; Vienna, Austria; Linz, Austria; Hull, UK; Chicago, IL; Evanston, IL; Las Vegas, NV.
Air Canada FRA. Boeing 777 arrived at Terminal B at Frankfurt, on a cloudy day. Flight delay at outset meant 3 hour connection became a 1 hour connection. Changing to Terminal A and then Gate 36 at the far end was a really long walk to Helsinki leg (20120407 0840) Frankfurt, GermanyIce and drainspouts, Hameenlinna. Field work more as art than science, as @minlii emerges a theme in thawing temperatures. Curated as a collage on Facebook photos (Hameenlinna, Finland) 20120408 1340Takajarvi docks well. Unexpected Easter snow after thaw. Docks still stacked up for the winter. Too early to prime the well head in the forest. Cottage will be more welcoming when the temperature rises. (Takajarvi, Finland) 20100409
TUAS party. Spring break for Aalto U. engineering students, jousting at party in Tuas house parking lot. Hot tub in background, naked engineers but no females participating. Sunny day, temperature above freezing isn’t like Daytona Beach. (Espoo, Finland) 20120410 1635Vantaa Design Gallery. An invitation to enjoy Finnish design at Helsinki Vantaa Airport leads to an installation of chairs designed by Finns, with biographies on display. Directions to “wear hearing protectors” a typically playful Finnish style, enabling greater enjoyment of design in “seizing the moment” (Vantaa) 20120411 1309Mariahilfer Vienna. Airline waylaid luggage, got suggestion to shop along Mariahilfer, outside the ring road. Found C&A. Browsing underwear led mindset shift, as American white briefs nowhere to be seen, nearest alternative in color with no fly. Luggage fortunately delivered later in the evening. so prior conception of foundation clothes can remain undisturbed (Vienna, Austria) 20120412 1901ArsElectronica BitFlow. Installation by Julius Popp, associated with myth of Ariadne’s thread in which chaos is vanquished by order. First exhibited in 2008, now at @ArsElectronica. (Linz, Austria) 20120418 1448ArsElectronica FabLab. 3D stylus, screen and visors still requires talent, to design to make in Fab Lab at Ars Electronica. Polygons have to be closed so that 3D printers will work. (Linz, Austria) 20120417 1604Mountains behind Salzburg. Approaching Salzburg from the east on the train, the mountains are impressive. Brief stop on the Railjet from Linz to Munich (Austria) 20120419 1058Blossoms UHull. Pink blossoms having a tough time flourishing in early British springtime, by the U. of Hull. More warmth and sunshine might help. (Hull, UK) 20120420 1251Ferens Gallery Upstairs. Second floor of the Ferens Art Gallery recently renovated, opens up with beautiful skylight. With @jmwilby, enjoyed the Precious Cargo exhibition of contemporary works by local artists more than the pre-21st century works in most of the galleries. (Hull, UK) 20120421 1307UIC view east. John Hancock tower in background behind Lecture Centre, on plaza outside Richard J. Daley Library. Beautiful spring day could make one forget that winters on the west coast of Lake Michigan can be bitter. Visited Annalenna for lunch (Chicago) 20120427 1241Kellogg Reunion 2012. Under tent on Deering Meadow, Kellogg School Class of 1982 convening as 30th year alumni. Noisy, with deejay calling people to make more noise encouraged us to decamp to private party earlier (Evanston, IL) 20120427 1722McCarran Airport gates, Immediately on arrival as Las Vegas Airport, there are slot machines nearby. Casinos don’t like cameras on their floors, but the attendants at the airport don’t seem to care (Las Vegas, NV) 20120429 1136SandsExpo breakfast. Feeding 8500 #ibmimpact attendees for breakfast in Las Vegas presents an industrial scale challenge. There’s disglamour in the Sands Expo self-service buffet and tables on the concrete floor. The style follows fast food protocols, unlike lunches served in ballrooms with carpets, and dinners hosted in onsite hotel restaurants. Maybe late Vegas evenings encourage rudimentary service early in the day. (Las Vegas, NV) 20120430 0759
Treasure Island Sirens. Almost trampled by Asian women tourists recoiling from the heat in performance of Sirens of Treasure Island on humid Las Vegas evening. Performers might have been more emotive if they weren’t lipsynching, and actually sang, instead. (Las Vegas, NV) 20120430 2032
A monastery in Pernegg, Austria, was the destination for the IFSR Conversation 2010, with Vienna a brief opportunity for some urban sightseeing.
I was invited to the 2010 IFSR Conversation at Pernegg, Austria. The closest major airport was in Vienna, where I had never been, so I flew in a few days earlier to work off some jet lag. Directions from the Vienna Airport to the city centre via the City Airport Train was relatively straightforward, to the Wien Mitte station. Appreciating the sunny spring day to adjust my body clock, I decided the walk west and north wasn’t too far to to drag luggage. This path routed me over a canal section of the Wien River.
For those who haven’t read the 1965 Emery and Trist article, its seems as though my colleague Doug McDavid was foresighted enough to blog a summary in 2016! His words have always welcomed here, as Doug was a cofounder of this web site. At the time of writing, the target audience for this piece was […]
In the famous 1965 Emery and Trist article, the terms “causal texture” and “contextual environment” haven’t been entirely clear to me. With specific meanings in the systems thinking literature, looking up definitions in the dictionary generally isn’t helpful. Diving into the history of the uses of the words provides some insight. 1. Causal texture 2. […]
Towards appreciating “action learning”, the history of open systems thinking and pioneering work in organization science, the influence of Action Learning Group — in the Faculty of Environment Studies founded in 1968 at York University (Toronto) — deserves to be resurfaced. 1. Trist in Canada 2. Environmental studies, and contextualism in organizational-change 3. Action learning, […]
The news that Doug McDavid — my friend, colleague, and one of the original cofounders of the Coevolving Innovations web site in 2006 — had passed, first came through mutual IBM contacts. More details subsequently showed up on LinkedIn from Mike McClintock. Doug left us on May 9, while working at his desk, likely in […]
One of the challenges with the development of pattern languages is the cross-appropriation of approaches of techniques from one domain (i.e. built physical environments) into others (e.g. software development, social change). The distinction between pattern language and form language is made by Nikos Salingaros. Design in architecture and urbanism is guided by two distinct complementary […]
The 1995 article by Spinosa, Flores & Dreyfus on “Disclosing New Worlds” was assigned reading preceding the fourth of four lectures for the Systemic Design course in the Master’s program in Strategic Foresight and Innovation at OCAD University. In previous years, this topic was a detail practically undiscussed, as digging into social theory and the phenomenology […]
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 ›
Social ecology and environmental psychology described @dstokols @Social_Ecology , interviewed by @katiepatrick . References #WilliamsJames on attention. Book on Social Ecology in the Digital Age released in 2018.Read more ›
Concerns on #personaldata should be reframed as interpersonal, says @sheldrake , less the nodes and more the edge connections. “I want to take back control” superficial, @hartzog says control doesn’t scale. Agency is about negotiation in the world, more rhizomatic…Read more ›
Doing science should be wayfinding (pathfinding), says #TimIngold , gaining grounding in the art of paying attention, towards research as the pursuit of truth. Truth is more than objective facts, where science and art are embraced with materials, so that we can see the quality inside the natural world as it forms, rather than as […]
We should be more vigourous, says @MazzucatoM , in debating differences between value extraction and value creation, and between profits and rents. Lecture at Blavatnik School of Government, Oxford U., January 2019Read more ›
Proponents of #SystemsThinking often espouse holism to counter over-emphasis on reductionism. Reading some definitions from an encyclopedia positions one in the context of the other (François 2004).
Saying “it doesn’t matter” or “it matters” is a common expression in everyday English. For scholarly work, I want to “keep using that word“, while ensuring it means what I want it to mean. The Oxford English Dictionary (third edition, March 2001) has three entries for “matter”. The first two entries for a noun. The […]
It's been challenging to find sources that specifically define two-word phrases -- i.e. "systemic change", "systematic change", "systems change" -- as opposed to loosely inferring reductively from one-word definitions in recombination. MartinReynolds @OpenUniversity clarifies uses of the phrases, with a critical eye into motives for choosing a specific label, as well as associated risks and […]
The term "environmental" can be mixed up with "ecological", when the meanings are different. We can look at the encyclopedia definitions (François 2004), and then compare the two in terms of applied science (i.e. engineering with (#TimothyFHAllen @MarioGiampietro and #AmandaMLittle, 2003).
While many outside of the field of architecture like the #ChristopherAlexander #PatternLanguage approach, it's not so well accepted by his peers. A summary of criticisms by #MichaelJDawes and #MichaelJOstwald @UNSWBuiltEnv is helpful in appreciating when the use of pattern language might be appropriate or not appropriate.
Systems thinking should include not only thinking about the system, but also its environment. Using the term "field" as the system of interest plus its influences leaves a lot of the world uncovered. From the multiple definitions in the International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics , there is variety of ways of understanding "field".
