Toronto, Ontario
Riverdale Farm: Lamb looking off into the woods, meditating, while the rest of the crowd is busy grazing. In the pen, the mature sheep are wearing thick coats, due for shearing. The farm is still closed for the pandemic shutdown, only a view visitors outside on a sunny morning. (Riverdale Farm, Carlton Street, Toronto, Ontario) 20200601Commerce Court: Bronzes cast by #DerrickStephanHudson (2002) Tembo, Mother of Elephants, on loan from collection of #LouOdette. The life-sized cow, trailed by two calves, was scaled up the smaller statues originally collected from Florida. In the mixture of a 1931 Beaux Arts north tower, the three 1983 towers west east and south by I.M. Pei have the wildlife headed for the pond and fountain. (Commerce Court, Bay Street, Toronto, Ontario) 20210602Laneway, Leslieville: Project by @lanewayproject seems complete, with stripe replacing drab pavement, south of Queen Street East, from Logan Avenue eastbound towards Morse Street. Proposed as the “Leslieville Laneway Park-Ing”, did I miss an official launch, or are we awaiting pandemic reopening? This byway is not yet named, while the next block west is Louis Kesten Lane. (Laneway south of Queen Street East, from Logan Avenue east to Morse Street, Leslieville, Toronto, Ontario) 20200604391 Yonge Street: Not an art installation, but three concrete piers with rebar in a gravel field, for reuse from the prior building? From the 1950s to 1970s, Bassel’s Restaurant was a classy pre-theatre diner, taking up 3 storefronts on Yonge Street. Hoardings now block the view of 3 Gerrard Street East, as the YSL (Yonge Street Living) Residences site as been abandoned, and Cresford Development is in receivership. From O’Keefe Lane, the open pit construction deepens to the south, frozen in time. (391 Yonge Street, 3 Gerrard Street East, Toronto, Ontario) 20210605Lower Don Recreation Trail: Bike path partially obstructed by construction crew working in a small trench extending south under Lakeshore Boulevard East under steel plates, into the Port Lands proper. Gardiner Extension still looms overhead. (Lower Don Recreation Trail, East Harbour, Toronto, Ontario) 20200607Jeff’s No Frills: Second jab of AstraZeneca vaccine, in the same grocery store pharmacy as the first immunization 12 weeks ago. In the 15-minute observation period, I could feel my pulse rising, and slight headache starting. Appointment was punctual, with no other patients before or after me. Taking 2 days off work, in case of side effects. (Loblaws Pharmacy at Jeff’s No Frills, Carlaw Avenue, Riverdale, Toronto, Ontario) 20210609Toronto Coach Terminal: Morning sunshine streams through skylights of the platform bays in the intercity bus terminal built in the Art Deco style in 1931. Greyhound service ceased in May 2020, and the lease on the building expires in July 2021. Peeking in front windows, the waiting room was vacant, with just one security guard in the unlit space. (Toronto Coach Terminal, Bay Street, Toronto, Ontario) 20210611Dufferin Grove Park: Variety of cobblestones on the figure-eight #JennaMorrison Memorial Reflexology Foot Path, installed in 2014. Handrails around each loop allow walkers to maintain balance while getting feet massaged, but toddlers and children don’t seem to need them. Park is cool and shady on a hot day early in summer. (Dufferin Grove Park, Dufferin Street, Toronto, Ontario) 20210612Distillery District: Spring Stations exhibition by #JackLeather + #CharlieLeather (2021) From Small Beginnings had white pine saplings on lower shelves, that visitors must have taken home for replanting. When the installation ends, the wood slats will be reused for something else. Competition winners originally were to be shown for Winter Stations at Woodbine Beach, deferred with the pandemic shutdown. (Gristmill Lane, Distillery District, Toronto, Ontario) 20210615Riverside neighbourhood: Saturday afternoon family garage band, as sons asked what I wanted to do pre-Father’s Day. Nephew has been convening Wednesday night jam band in nearby studio, so we took the opportunity to play in daylight, with pizza for dinner. Since son #3 has taken over bass I haven’t played in over 35 years, I’ve indulged in getting a red Roland Go Keys GO-61K, and am learning songs popular post year 2000. (Riverdale neighbourhood, Toronto, Ontario) 20200619 Photo by DY.138 D’Arcy Street: Spadina Chinatown #CommunityFridge @cf___to woefully empty, as it was in a visit a few weeks ago. Arrival on bicycle today had group of elderly Chinese ladies coming out, even before I could open the cabinet door. Cross-town commute is extra exercise, passing over the 348 Pape Avenue location where the fridge has sadly been removed. (138 D’Arcy Street, Toronto, Ontario) 20200620RendezViews: Morning calm @RendezViewsTO patio converted from parking lot designed by @CollectiveBrew, view south to CN Tower, southwest to glass towers of Simcoe Place and Festival Tower. By late afternoon, crowds seeking beverages and camaraderie will fill the gated area. Surrounding streets are blocked with road construction encourage pedestrians. (RendezViews, Richmond Street West, Toronto, Ontario) 20210622
Queen Street East at Logan Avenue: Overhead wires have been at this city intersection since the 1880s, presumable replaced many times over. Second truck parked across the street was detaching cables, the poles further east have neater braids. This tough urban streetscape might be improved by burying underground, but one block south used to be a marsh, suggesting geological as well as economic practicalities. (Queen Street East at Logan Avenue, Riverside neighbourhood, Toronto, Ontario) 20210628
Two years after submitting an academic manuscript and responding to double-blind reviews, “Rethinking work, with the pandemic disruption” has now been published in the International Journal of Organization Theory and Behavior (IJOTB) as earlycite. The article has a DOI (Document Object Identifier), and should be streamed with an official volume and issue number soon. The […]
The 128th meeting of Systems Thinking Ontario was convened in person. The classroom was filled with current students, alumni, our regular participants, and a few curious newcomers. Moderated by Zaid Khan, the conversation was sparked by Stephen Davies and myself (David Ing) on the evolving styles in learning systems thinking. Stephen has been leading SFIN-6011 […]
The “Understanding Systems” SFIN-6011 course is a requirement in the master’s program in Strategic Foresight and Innovation at OCADU. For winter 2025, the class is now led by Stephen Davies, breaking the incremental evolving of content since 2008. While still on faculty at OCADU, the original course designer Peter H. Jones is now a Distinguished […]
In the 1970s, five ways of knowing were established by C. West Churchman in The Design of Inquiring Systtems. In the 1990s, his student Ian Mitroff carried on the tradition and extended that work in The Unbounded Mind. Now in the 2020s, the technology of Generative AI opens up opportunties to query or request responses […]
For readers with an interest deeper than the 15-minute presentation given in August, the Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Socio-Technical Perspectives in Information Systems (STPIS 2024) have now been formally publishied. The invited paper on “Reifying Socio-Technical and Socio-Ecological Perspectives for Systems Changes: From rearranging objects to repacing rhythms” was reviewed by the […]
The 125th meeting of Systems Thinking Ontario coincided with the closing day for the RSD13-RSDX online program. As a regular systems convening group, we’ve had monthly meetings since January 2013. Zaid Khan moderated a discussion including me (David Ing), Tim Lloyd, Allenna Leonard, and Kelly Okamura. We recollected starting as a spinoff from Design with […]
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 ›
In 2024, WordPress Studio was released, making installation on a local computer simpler. The instructions were modified from MacOS to Ubuntu Linux, by Daniel Kossmann, “How to install WordPress Studio in Ubuntu Linux” | Jun 15, 2024 at https://www.danielkossmann.com/how-to-install-wordpress-studio-ubuntu-linux/ I already had NVM installed, but in Terminal, with the result “command not found”. In the […]
The appreciation of change is different in Western philosophy than in classical Chinese philosophy. JeeLoo Lin published a concise contrast on differences. Let me parse the Introduction to the journal article, that is so clearly written. The Chinese theory of time is built into a language that is tenseless. The Yijing (Book of Changes) there […]
In trying to place the World Hypotheses work of Stephen C. Pepper (with multiple root metaphors), Nicholas Rescher provides a helpful positioning. — begin paste — Philosophical perspectivism maintains that substantive philosophical positions can be maintained only from a “perspective” of some sort. But what sort? Clearly different sorts of perspectives can be conceived of, […]
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 […]
