Walking rather than bicycling in a colder winter this year, travel out of the neighbourhood by car.
Toronto, Ontario
Riverdale Park East: The young at heart enjoying the bright winter day, riding sleds west of Broadview Avenue, down into the Don Valley ravine. No manmade aids to return to the top, lots of parents pulling young children back uphill. Completely natural snow, unlike the Winter Olympics in progress a continent away. (Riverdale Park East, Broadview Avenue, Toronto, Ontario) 20220205401 Richmond Street West: Centre courtyard in arts-and-culture hub is a quiet spot in the Queen Street West district, slightly barren during the winter cold. Industrial structure originally dating back to 1899 is in contrast to the condo apartment tower to the east built in 2000. Travel crosstown took especially long on a Saturday afternoon, with police routing traffic around the Queens Park siege. (401 Richmond Street West, Toronto, Ontario) 20220212Abbozzo Gallery: Oxygen-producing bioart, @VladimirKanic (2021) Book of Waves, Part 6 is about a foot square, mounted on the wall alongside others in the series. Sculpture is made from biodegradable bioplastics, algae lives with the carbon dioxide in the air expelled by visitors. The show lights up the front window of the gallery, slight pump sounds are audible inside when close to the piece. (Abbozzo Gallery, 401 Richmond Street West, Toronto, Ontario) 20220212Waterfront Trail: Urban mural by @flipsbsc (2020) #torontoswirls on hoarding series @StART_Toronto Honouring Our Water endures second winter. Single day temperature swing encouraged first bike ride in many weeks. Snowbanks not completely melted, asphalt pavement shows heaving. (Waterfront Trail, Lakeshore Boulevard East, west of Coxwell Avenue, Toronto, Ontario) 20220216Marina Quay West: Couples stroll along water’s edge, from Bathurst Street past HTO Park to Harbourfront Centre. Surface between slips in the marina iced over, with mysterious melted gaps in rectilinear intervals. Further east, ducks paddling around in open water. (Marina Quay West, Central Waterfront, Toronto, Ontario) 20220219
The Power Plant Gallery: Exhibition “You Name It” #SashaHuber (2009) Strange Fruit Bowl inspired by poem by Abel Meenopol, later recorded by Billie Holiday. Three balls made of hemp ropes as used to make nooses, in a bowl covered with staples. In background Huber and #PetriSaarikko (2015) Prototype, a scaled geometric outline of Agassizhorn, fronting large screen projection of video (2008) Rentyhorn, protesting scientific racism of #LouisAgassiz, in favour or renaming Congolese-born Renty who was enslaved on a plantation in early 1800s South Carolina. (The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Queen’s Quay West, Toronto, Ontario) 20220219
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 […]
For the January 2024 Systems Thinking Ontario session, educational game designer Scott DeJong and innovation designer Geoff Evamy Hill joined a conversation moderated by Zaid Khan. Mutual interests in the new field of educational design and games were at the core of the discussion. This was an opportunity for systems thinkers to expand their knowledge on […]
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 ›
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) […]
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 […]
