Right ring finger in splint discouraged activities, yet last week of month saw flying through Vienna to an intensive research visit to Kaunas University of Technology in Lithuania.
Toronto, Ontario; Vienna, Austria; Kaunus, Lithuania
Woodbine Beach: Eastmost #WinterStations installation of #NovakDjogo#DanielJoshuaVanderhorst (2023) Conrad, honoring #DeadRaccoonTO on July 9, 2015, when a dead animal rested at the Yonge-Church Street intersection for 11 hours, before being picked up by the city. Strolled westward via the boardwalk, many dogs enjoying the sunny day with their owners. Spontaneous date for us as a couple. (Woodbine Beach, Lake Shore Boulevard East, Toronto, Ontario) 20230307Leslie Grove Gallery: Acrylic on canvas #EricaChan#ak971022.ec (2023) The Secret Life of Jellyfish @ArtistsNetwork1 exploring ideas of Decomposition for @CentennialEDU . The Turritopsis dohrnii, known as the immortal jellyfish, is one of the few species that can individually revert from an sexually mature state to an immature polyp. Other artists interpreted the theme as decay, political commentary, environmental issues, or loss of identity. (Leslie Grove Gallery, Queen Street East, Toronto, Ontario) 20220323Justina M. Barnicke Gallery: Ceremonial garment #HelloEudoro (2021) Manto No 5 represents the body facing God on Judgment Day. A closer look reveals found objects including buttons, coins, necklaces, a boot, and other paraphernalia. Part of The Counter/Self exhibition, where artists create and embody alternate egos,. (Justina M. Barnicke Gallery, University of Toronto) 20220324Austrian Airlines HON Circle Lounge Schengen, Vienna: On loan from @Leopold_Museum to @_austrian , #EgonSchiele (1912) Portrait of Wally Neuzil, his lover and muse (1911-1915). The short biography on the wall doesn’t say that Egon decided to “marry advantageously, not Wally”, so she left him and eventually became a nurse. Leisurely connection time in Vienna, the corridors are a maze. (Austrian Airlines HON Circle Lounge Schengen, Vienna, Austria) 20230328
St Michaels the Archangels Church: Late afternoon stroll by the 19th century church originally Lithuanian Orthodox, wasn’t expecting to find Hare Krishna chanting on the plaza, and then down the Laisvės alėja pedestrian street westward. Many couples and families enjoying the clear weather, but they haven’t put away the winter gear, yet. Most businesses closed on Sunday. (St. Michael’s the Archangel’s Church, Laisvės alėja, Kaunas, Lithuania) 20230326
Old Town, Kaunas: Walking west along the pedestrian mall from New Town, the road turned left onto a cobblestone lowrise medieval neighbourhood. Pedestrians seem to be on a stroll, rather on hanging out in the early spring afternoon. Prior news stories about road construction in the distrct wasn’t apparent. (Laisvės alėja 90, Old Town, Kaunas, Lithuania) 20230326
Kaunas Town Hall Square: Approaching westbound from main street Laisvės alėja, the twin towers of the Maironis Museum of Lithuanian Literature appeared further ahead. To the right, the town square fronted Town Hall, first constructed as a one-storey building in 1542. Today, the building may be most visited for the marriage registration office, and photo opportunities as a wedding hall. (Kaunus Town Hall Square, Rotušės alėja, Kaunas, Lithuania) 20230326
Ramybės Park (Old Cemetery): Monument We Died for the Fatherland first unveiled by the first president of Lithuania in 1930, demolished in 1956-1956 by Soviets, reconstructed by #RobertasAntinis in 1994, after restoration the country’s independence in 1990. Noticed enclosed candles in the front that won’t blow out with the wind. The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 led to the Soviets converting the cemetery established in 1847 into a park, after giving families a few months to rebury their relatives. (Ramybės Park (Old Cemetery)), Kaunas, Lithuania) 20230327Chacapuri Akropolis: Georgian cuisine for research team converging in Kaunas from Spain, USA, France, Canada and Switzerland, especially enjoying Khachapuri cheese bread and Khinkali dumpling stuffed with mushrooms and tarragon. Top-of-mind were travel tribulations rerouting around transportation strike in Germany. Experienced contemporary Lithuania on the third floor or a large shopping, a short walk south from St. Michael the Archangel Church. (Chacapuri, Akropolis Shopping Mall, Kaunas, Lithuania) 20230327Kaunas Technological University, School of Economics and Business: Starting a colocated week with @snousala + @garysmetcalf to plan and outline an academic book on the transition from Industry 4.0 to 5.0. Publication for an EU project to be completed by end of 2023, with selected international authors. University building has Baltic decor, in the style familiar to me north of the sea. (Kaunas Technological University, School of Economics and Business, Lithuania) 20230328Kiemo Galerija Courtyard Gallery: Sidestepping northward through the parking lots between apartments, we found the 3-dimensional pink elephant sculpture repurposed from a shopping centre in Vilnius, installed in 2019 by #VytenisJakas. Situated on a warehouse too, the 4 metre high, 6 metre long, 200 kg artwork is much larger than the pink elephant 2-dimensional wall drawing named Deimūras, first installed in 2014. Residents living in the surrounding buildings appeared to be patient with tourists inspecting the variety of drawings and photographs outside their homes. (Kiemo Galerija Courtyard Gallery, Kiemo Galerija Courtyard Gallery, E. Ožeškienės gatvė, Kaunas, Lithuania) 20230328Kaunas Technological University, School of Economics and Business: Convened @ktuin4act researchers for rapid collective authoring of book on Industry 5.0 edited by @snousala + @garysmetcalf. Short deadline for completion within 2023 focuses on the present, without the literature review and distractions of the recent pandemic years. Aiming for a book that is not a series of academic articles, but instead chapters that a technical-managerial audience might want to read. (Kaunas Technological University, School of Economics and Business, Lithuania) 20230329Restaurant Bokstas: Social evening for @ktuin4act faculty, many convened for research evalution exercise, others for Industry 5.0 book project. Relaxed conversation with many members travelling from other EU universities, comparing careers and living across in different cities. Menu listed choice of scorpionfish, known as a most dangeroous meal due to poisonous spines, subsequently changed to a whitefish indigenous to the Baltics. (Restaurant Bokstas, Kęstučio gatvė, Kaunas, Lithuania) 20220329M.K. Ciurlionis Museum of Art: Hanging on the wall in the Lithuania Folk Art collection, the Shaft Bow is a part of a single horse harness that attaches to the shafts of the cart, joining the shafts high above the neck of the horse. To be strong, yet light, the bows were made of willow, elm or bird cherry wood. This design was brought from the Mongols via the Russian Old Believers to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, a state that ended in 1795. (M.K. Ciurlionis Museum of Art, V. Putvinskio gatve, Kaunas, Lithuania) 20230330M.K. Ciurlionis Museum of Art: Hanging on the wall in the Lithuania Folk Art collection, the Shaft Bow is a part of a single horse harness that attaches to the shafts of the cart, joining the shafts high above the neck of the horse. To be strong, yet light, the bows were made of willow, elm or bird cherry wood. This design was brought from the Mongols via the Russian Old Believers to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, a state that ended in 1795. (M.K. Ciurlionis Museum of Art, V. Putvinskio gatve, Kaunas, Lithuania) 20230330Kaunas Picture Gallery: Entered #TatakoSaito (2002) Manomano Theatre Waiting-Room No. X, originally created for her companion #GeorgeMaciunas, a famous #Flexus artist, in the You + Me Theatre exhibition. The room is a closed area, with one part of the wall and ceiling splashed with red, symbolizing occupied, and another part in green, as free. Tiny tables and chairs glued above are complemented by small mirrors on the walls and ceiling, so that visitors might not only study the contents, but also view other participants in the room. (Kaunas Picture Gallery, K. Donelaičio gatve, Kaunas, Lithuania) 20230331
Kaunas Picture Gallery: Iron stand at adult eye level for #ChristianRaduta (2022) Doiphin (Acrobat) made of resin. Part of #SweetDreamsFoundation exhibition, in an call by the #NidaArtGallery to artists showing the current state of uncertainty dealing with the war in Ukraine. (Kaunas Picture Gallery, K. Donelaičio gatve, Kaunas, Lithuania) 20230331
Within the Systems Thinking Ontario community, we were fortunate to have Nenad Rava step up to explain how the Sustainable Development Goals came to be, and relate them to systems change. This May session of Systems Thinking Ontario was a quick follow-on for the March edition on Ecological Limits to Development: Living with the SDGs. […]
The book Ecological Limits to Development: Living with the Sustainable Development Goals, published in 2002 by Routledge, was released as open access in 2023 by Taylor-Francis for readers who don’t have access to a university library. For the March edition of Systems Thinking Ontario, we were honoured to celebrate the release with editor-coauthors Kaitlin Kish […]
A special issue on “Sustainable, Smart and Systemic Design Post-Anthropocene: Through a Transdisciplinary Lens” in the Journal of Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics edited by Marie Davidová, Susu Nousala, and Thomas J. Marlowe has been released. In that issue, the journey of the Systems Changes Learning Circle from 2019 through 2022 is reviewed. The editorial team, […]
In the ISSS 2022 Plenary talk, the first 25 minutes were a blast through (a) the rising interest in system(s) change(s); (b) appreciative systems (Vickers); (c1) the philosophy of architectural design; (c2) the philosophy of ecological anthropology; (c3) the philosophy of Classical Chinese Medicine; (c4) the philosophy of rhythms; and (d) methods of multiparadigm inquiry, […]
The theme for the February online meeting of Systems Thinking Ontario was sparked from the discussion from the January session on Root Metaphor and World Hypotheses. What does it mean to have a theory? How does sensemaking contribute to this? Gary Metcalf volunteered to guide a conversation on these topics. Two prereadings were to serve […]
Philosophy underlies the distinction in the three volumes of the Tavistock Anthology: founded on the World Hypotheses of Stephen C. Pepper, the Socio-Psychological Systems Perspective and the Socio-Technical Systems Perspectives are based on Organicism, while the Socio-Ecological Systems Perspective is based on Contextualism. This thread on contextualism can be traced from the association between E.C. […]
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 […]
