Hibernated with work for most of January, with more activity towards the end of month with warmer termperatures.
Toronto, Ontario
Scarborough Hospital Birchmount Emergency Room: HKI fell backwards on the top of the up escalator, on top of DY. Her side hurt, so five hours in the ER uptown for X-rays, plus a CT scan of her head. Released after blood pressure came down from a spike, to a higher-than-normal level. Got a doctor’s certificate to take a few days off, but she’s determined to go to work tomorrow. (Scarborough Hospital Emergency Room, Birchmount Road, Scarborough, Ontario) 20240101Architecture and Design Gallery: In lower level of building, Asinnajaq + Tiffany Shaw (2022) Nuna is printed fabric draped over maple dowels in a structure like a home with fewer walls, so that the occupant could read a book or watch a screen, and the sunshine and brush of wind aren’t blocked. A steel hearth Asinnajaq + Ludovic Boney + Tiffany Shaw (2022) Qulliqu has a neon flame. In the background, larger than life projection of aboriginal women in conversations. (Architecture and Design Gallery, Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landsccape and Design, University of Toronto, Spadina Circle, Toronto, Ontario) 20240110The Royal Chinese Restaurant: Interior view of neon lobster and fish in front window is reflected in the side mirror, below typical strips promoting Chinese menu specialties. The darkness of early evening outside, into the parking lot of the strip plaza, doesn’t reveal the rush hour traffic beyond. Lanterns hanging from the ceiling more reflect a diaspora consistent with a restaurant with 40-year heritage, not of contemporary immigration. (The Royal Chinese Restaurant, Sheppard Avenue East, Scarborough, Ontario) 20240124The Royal Chinese Restaurant: Steam rising off a grouper tofu casserole, minutes after pork belly had arrived. Chinese restautant is further west than Agincourt proper, in a strip mall with fast food options of Japanese, Indian and Mexican cuisines. A 4:30pm dinner is early even for seniors, but after completing appointments and errands, stopping by the apartment would have just led to winter undressing and redressing. (The Royal Chinese Restaurant, Sheppard Avenue East, Scarborough, Ontario) 20240124The Sidekick: Talkback following premiere of @gaston_poon (2024) short film Sunshine Kitchen, at #FullHausProductions monthly community Living Room Sessions. Ten minutes with three characters left the audience wanting to continue to the next chapter. Inspired by frequently observing a Asian man in his neighbourhood, and then surmising him as precariously-housed, with a richer back story. (The Sidekick, Queen Street East, Toronto, Ontario) 20240125C’est What: Casual social gathering of the Systems Thinking TO group led by @DerailleurAgile with pre-pandemic meetings, complemented by Systems Changes Learning Circle members. Updates on learning since 2019 on rhythms, textures and propensity, and how ideas might be expressed for audiences in augle development. Some appreciators of varieties of beers, with non-drinkers scattered within. (C’est What, Front Street East, Toronto, Ontario) 20240126Stackt Market: Walls labelled by @franceshilaryhahn (2024) This Side, That Side with two classic beach identical beach chairs for @DesignTOFest. Designed as interactive, the difference comes from the person expressing a preference. Somehow feels wrong to sit on an art object as fragile as summer furniture. (Stackt Market, Bathurst Street, Toronto, Ontariio) 20240127Stackt Market: Exiting market complex of shipping containers, the 120-foot Tunnel of Lights is on the south edge by the railway tracks. Looking eastward, the CN Tower was illuminated at dusk. Feature was installed for the Christmas season, not yet removed at the quieter time in January. (Stackt Market, Bathurst Street, Toronto, Ontario) 20240127Circular Living Lab: Waste wood can be converted to biochar, and used to increase soil heath, while sequestering carbon to mitigate climate change. Otherwise salvaged 40,000 board feet of old growth lumber in deconstruction of 9 bedroom, 31 room, 9850 sq ft house in Erin Ontario. Exhibition in downtown Toronto is on the site of a planned material reuse project of the former Wellington Destructor, a century-old garbage incinerator that will become a community space. (Circular Living Lab, Niagara Street, Toronto, Ontario) 20240128
The Bentway: Skating trail busy on Sunday afternoon, ice seems firm at 3 degrees Celsius. Couples and individuals weaving around parents guiding children with skate aids. Colourful green, blue, violet, and magenta paracord of Yi Zhou and Carlos Portillo (2023) The Gateway installation may better evoke the Northern Lights after the sun goes down. (The Bentway, Fort York Boulevard, Toronto, Ontario) 20240128
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 ›
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 […]
