Family time, empty nest, short trip to conference nearby, friends at home.
Toronto, Ontario; Waterloo, Ontario.
TIFF Bell Lightbox: Post-show hilmaafklint_thefilm Q-A with HalinaDyrschka, Viewed film as guest of @KellyOkamura, arriving on bike just before lights went down. Story of legitimation of Swedish abstract artist from 1906, predating Kandinski. Works were willed to her family after her passing, with conditions to keep secret for 20 years, and not sell. (Bell Lightbox, King Street West, Toronto, Ontario) 20190503Janes Walk, Front Street East at Parliament Street: Past and present @JanesWalkTO led by @JohnLorinc “A Meandering History of the Lower Don”. Site of first parliament for Upper Canada, burned down in 1813 by American nail forces. Reconstructed but then disastrous fire in 1824, derelict until the 1838 third York jail in 1838. Building demolished in 1887, became gasification works with a rail spur for the Consumer Gas Company, until the early 1960s. Today, the historic location is a car wash and car rental parking lot, pending redevelopment. (Front Street East at Parliament Street, Toronto, Ontario) 20190504Janes Walk, Distillery Lane: On land @JanesWalkTO led by @JohnLorinc “A Meandering History of the Lower Don” that was Ashbridges Bay Marsh before landfill. Cherry Street would have been part of the Don River delta, before the waterway was channelled further east, with an unnatural 90-degree turn as the Keating Channel in the late 1890s. The combination of industrial waste and human excrement combined into public health hazard, corrected with conversion into a massive industrial district from 1912-1922. Today, the Gooderham and Worts site has been redeveloped into the Distillery District. (Distillery Lane, Distillery District, Toronto, Ontario) 20190504Janes Walk, Cherry Street Lift Bridge: Crossing over @JanesWalkTO led by @JohnLorinc “A Meandering History of the Lower Don” smaller bascule lift bridge spanning the canalized mouth of the Don River flowing westward. Down the pier, dredging cranes are clearing the sediment in the Keating Channel, preempting potential river backups and flooding. The industrial precinct to the south will be transformed over the next 20 years, as the river will be naturalized. (Cherry Street Lift Bridge, Port Lands, Toronto, Ontario) 20190504Janes Walk, Villiers Street at Don Roadway: Wet grass @JanesWalkTO led by @JohnLorinc “A Meandering History of the Lower Don” on land that will become a new shallower southbound channel emptying into wetland. Keating Channel will remain as the deeper westbound channel, with new promenades at water’s edge, while the Gardiner Expressway is moved further north. The Don River was never straight lines, these engineering projects aim to renaturalize the landscape to preempt flooding. (Distillery Lane, Distillery District, Toronto, Ontario) 20190504Cineplex Yonge Dundas: Family viewing of #AvengersEndgame in IMAX 3D, in a full showing, 9 days after its opening. We normally prefer IMAX 2D in a full-size screen, but reserved seats were sold out. The movie seemed shorter than its 3h01m running time, tying up the 21-episode series that we’ve followed for some years. (Cineplex Yonge Dundas, Dundas Street East, Toronto, Ontario) 20190504Sushi Style: After movie, indulged in late night sushi party tray. We were the only guests dining in, a steady stream of pickups and delivery people coming through the door. The assortment of fish was fresh and traditional, without fusion creativity that wouldn’t be seen in Japan. We chose to not partake before the 3h01m film that tests bladder capacity. (Sushi Style, Dundas Street East, Toronto, Ontario) 20190504CSI Spadina: Gathering as #SystemsThinking Peer Circle @climatecsi @csiTO, working out yet another approach in the Systems Changes program. Providing a one-page map helps connecting ideas that don’t always follow linearly. Challenging balance between theoretical validity, plain language understanding and resonance. The groups is open, with the curious and the immersed. (Climate Ventures, Centre for Social Innovation, Spadina Avenue, Toronto, Ontario) 20190506AGO: Step-up pedestal @agoToronto @jkarah (2018) “Slipper progress, Low tide”, part of “Water in two colours” show. Made of brass elevator panel, silver-plated tube, aluminum duct, concrete, and LED. Found objects transformed with new spatial and narrative connections. Heard many foreign languages spoken in the gallery, spring weather drawing tourists. (Art Gallery of Ontario, Dundas Street West, Toronto, Ontario) 20190508Pearson Terminal 3: Smiles and excitement for sons #4, 3, and 2, on pending departure for flight to Hong Kong, where they’ll intercept son #1 for connection to Bangkok. The flight from Toronto is now leaving late, within 5 minutes of scheduled flight from San Francisco. My guess is that the HKG-BKK flight will be delayed to arrive after midnight, or Cathay Pacific will be paying for hotel rooms overnight due to missed connection. Empty nesters at home expecting quiet for 2 weeks. (Toronto Pearson Airport) 20190510Mount Pleasant Cemetery: Bright sunny day for tomb sweeping honouring grandmother and grandfather, spades to clear accumulated debris and trowels to plant new flowers. Schedule of intercepts, coming from other commitments, followed by other gatherings. Appreciated vegetarian options from the usual barbeque meat-heavy choices. (Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Toronto, Ontario) 20190519Pine Hills Cemetery: Lowkong Society gathering at the Ng Wu Ing Eng monument for annual honouring of relatives who immigrated from China. Clear weather on the Victoria Day weekend. (Pine Hills Cemetery, Birchmount Road, Scarborough, Ontario) 20190519Adelaide Courtyard: Installation #StaceySpiegel (1991) Synthetic Eden, in courtyard hidden behind One Financial Place at Yonge Street and Adelaide Street, large decal looming above on 20 Victoria Street. Discovered on leisurely bike exploration on Victoria Day Monday, when both business people and tourists were not prowling the sidewalks. Art isn’t obvious from Adelaide Street, behind a maze of frosted glass walls. Location is not to be confused with the Richmond-Adelaide Square Courtyard, a few blocks further west on the other side of Bay Street. (Adelaide Courtyard, 87 Yonge Street and 20 Victoria Street, Toronto, Ontario) 20190520Former Seagram Museum: Friendly security guard escorted us to view decorative barrels now empty, historical architecture formerly housing CIGI 2003-2014. Door with Seagram crest says established 1857, predating this distillery building from 1878. The Centre for International Governance Innovation has moved to a modernist campus next door, and Shopify Plus moved in. I had been in some academic events in the great hall, it’s now rows of desks with computers. (Former Seagram Museum, Erb Street, Waterloo, Ontario) 20180522CANSEE 2019: Learning from @ktkish and son Logan @CANSEE_org covering @DaveMallery varying #DrSeuss on “Oh, The Things You CAN’T Think” on how #EcologicalEconomics could learn from a deeper appreciation of SystemsTheory. Citing #HowardTOdum, #KennethBoulding, #NicholasGeorgescuRoegen and #IlyaProgogine sparked recollections from @DavidLHawk who had met three of the four. While much of #EcologicalEconomics has swung towards the nonmaterial, #IndustrialEcology is largely material. (Canadian Society for Ecological Economics 2019 meeting, Centre for International Governance Innovation campus, Erb Street, Waterloo, Ontario) 20190523CANSEE 2019: Workshop with @davidlhawk @CANSEE_org on Systems Changes, Environmental Deterioration. Two position presentations, attendees introduced selves, then had open discussion aiming to synthesize the ideas. Leisurely pace encouraging us to think together, as compared to the time-constrained agendas in other sessions. Notetaker will produce summary in a few weeks. (Canadian Society for Ecological Economic, CIGI Campus, Erb Street, Waterloo, Ontario) 20190524Riverside neighbourhood: Brunch extending into afternoon with @davidlhawk #SystemsThinking discussion in back yard with wonderful weather. Mutual sensemaking on negotiated order applied to building 4-storey house without architectural drawings near Salina, Iowa. Steered discussion towards 40th anniversary of publication of Regulation of Environmental Deterioration, towards new chapter on It’s Too Early, It’s Too Late, Now What. Looking forward to some continuing the discussion when we might convene on a midwest road trip. (Riverside neighbourhood, Toronto, Ontario) 20190526Buddhas Restaurant: Extended family dinner celebrating nephew’s acceptance as visiting scholar at Cambridge U. in the fall, before he departs on summer of international conferences and visiting home. Discussion migrated from sharing recent news, towards “what is history and philosophy of science”, and its relevance to today’s world. Wide variety of vegan dishes, better shared as a group. (Buddha’s Restaurant, Dundas Street West, Toronto, Ontario) 20190526SystemsThinkingTO: Selecting #PatternLanguage cards at #SystemsThinkingTO, first @GroupWorksDeck then #LiberatingVoices, each followed by generative conversation. Artifacts decentered discussion on good/bad meetings and loving/hating our cities, leading to deeper learning about acquaintances. Games night tries alternative ways of learning about #SystemsThinking. (SystemsThinkingTO, LoyaltyOne, King Street East, Toronto, Ontario) 20190529
Lower Don Trail: Alongside path, @DuaneLinklater (2017) Monsters for Beauty, Permanence and Individuality installation, 14 cast concrete gargoyles replicating those found on Toronto buildings. A little further along, found the Middle Mill plaque, marking location of paper factory for news publishers 1939-1989. Climbed out of valley on steep grade on Beechwood Drive, needed a pause for a rest at the top. (Lower Don Trail, Toronto, Ontario) 20190530
Enjoying summer in Toronto, getting to know the city better.
Toronto, Ontario; Waterloo, Ontario
Heliconian Hall: Quintet @Soren_Nissen @TorontoJazzFest performs music inspired by months living in India, composed after return to Toronto. Closing evening of the festival, some exterior signs have already been removed. (Heliconian Hall, Hazelton Avenue, Yorkville, Toronto, Ontario) 20180701 Willowdale: Browsing new family generations photo book, routed from Houston to Los Angeles to Toronto. Quiet summer day with Canada Day observance, since July 1 fell on a Sunday. (Willowdale, North York, Ontario) 20180702UWaterloo Env3: Two days @CANSEE Graduate Student Research Symposium, serving as discussant on early stage projects. Invited as a systems sciences lurker in the ecological economics community. (University of Waterloo, Environment 3, Waterloo, Ontario) 20180705 Vari Centre: Internet bots talk @gtalug by Don Tai at a leisurely pace. Venue moved to huge lecture theatre, audience actually sitting close to the front. Informed participants contributing comments interactively. (GTA Linux User Group, George Vari Engineering and Computer Centre, Ryerson University, Toronto, Ontario) 20180710 Balmoral Park: Leisurely dinner at home of friends since UToronto B.Comm. days. Agreed that we’ve lived through some good decades, as the world has gotten tougher for later generations. Options of 2000 Bordeaux and Iranian cuisine worth falling off strict diets as small indulgences. Early summer evening, with insects cooperating in the back yard. (Balmoral Park neighbourhood, North York, Ontario) 20180714 Hart House: Map Room is a shady lounge, a rest stop on the way back from bicycling across the city, on a hot summer Sunday. An convenient destination for an alumnus, I didn’t hang out here when I was a student, because I lived so close to campus. Teens playing sports on the fields outside. (Hart House, University of Toronto) 20180715Visual Analytics Lab: Synthesis maps @OCADU_SFI graduate students for Systems Thinking Ontario monthly meeting. Big screen of the Visual Analytics Lab a special affordance not usually available to us, with a long conference table instead of sitting in a circle. (OCADU, 205 Richmond Street West, Toronto, Ontario) 20180716 CSI Regent Park: Henna art @csiTO by Bibi Noor, during Party on the Patio, top floor of the Daniels Spectrum building. An opportunity to bridge the three buildings across the city, and meet members with their families in a relaxed time. (Centre for Social Innovation, Regent Park, Dundas Street East, Toronto, Ontario) 20180719Woodbine Park: Cloudy @BeachesJazz @LailaBiali @Larnell_Lewis @RossMacIntyre William Sperandei show mixing jazz and reinterpreted pop music, with Canadian references. Break from morning rain left muddy field, sun is losing against grey. (Beaches Jazz Festival, Woodbine Park, Toronto, Ontario) 20180722 CSI 215: Playshop @csiTO @kcscooper @CycleToronto @anika__ Al Chick on #designthinking prototyping for youth and adults on cycling safety. Not related to, but coincident with City of Toronto deadline for #VisionZero applications, towards reducing collisions of pedestrians, cyclists, transit users and motorists. (Centre for Social Innovation, 215 Spadina Avenue, Toronto, Ontario) 20180726
Harbourfront: Glass studio @HarbourfrontTO quiet inside, new glass to melt at 2050°F or 1220°C. Contrast to the web side of the building, full of visitors and music playing on a summer Sunday. Quick tour of the galleries, I haven’t seen the exhibitions in a few months. (Harbourfront Centre, Queen Quay West, Toronto, Ontario) 20180729
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 […]
