Toronto, Ontario.
Nathan Phillips Square: Afternoon traffic jam amongst skaters on the rink, while roads are empty and most businesses closed for New Year’s Day. Pedestrian volume high in the Eaton Centre across the street, more browsers than buyers enjoying an indoor stroll. Temperature above freezing and sun encouraged bicycle ride, bundled up with winter wear. (Nathan Phillips Square, Queen Street West, Toronto, Ontario) 20170101Roberts Library: When the e-version isn’t available, a quick trip to the library stacks works. University is still quiet after holiday season, yet there’s still some people on computer terminals after 9 p.m. When I was an undergrad, I visited this section frequently. (Robarts Library, 11th floor, St. George Street, University of Toronto, Ontario) 20170103Toronto Public Library, Queen Saulter Branch: Neighbourhood walk to pick up book and DVD, chest cold having discouraged leaving the house in a week. Neo-classical building was designed by E.J. Lennox, serving as Postal Station G from 1914 to 1975. Renovated in 1979, the library and community centre is a landmark in South Riverdale. (Toronto Public Library, Queen Saulter Branch, 765 Queen Street East, Riverside district, Toronto) 20170114OCADU: Systems Thinking Ontario first meeting of New Year discussing some topics looking forward, reviewing the format of sessions in history. Repeated contextual presentation from 2012 including the map of ignorance, postnormal science, and the design in inquiring systems. (Lambert Lounge, OCADU, McCaul Street, Toronto, Ontario) 20170118India Paan: Sugar cane and grilled corn outside, but server inside on grey above-freezing January Sunday. Pedestrian traffic light, with a few families coming out after lunches. (India Paan, Gerrard Street East, Toronto, Ontario) 20170122
Helsinki; Finland; London, England; Dublin, Ireland; Toronto, Ontario; Fairfield, Iowa
Mei Lin: Lunch to catch up on news with Satu in advance of teaching class at Metropolia tomorrow. Students are mid-career professionals interested in practical international experiences, as tighter university budgets mean fewer lecturers from abroad. Industrial Management program will move from historic Bulevardi building out to Leppävaara campus in 2018. Chinese cuisine from Chongqing region included cumin lamb, unusual. (Mei Lin, Lönnrotinkatu, Helsinki, Finland) 20161201Juttutupa: Meetup with some 2nd year students from the Systems Thinking 2 February class, and a few more from the 1st year of the master’s program in Creative Sustainability. Glad to hear that knowledge they gained was useful in subsequent studies, as they then explain concepts to other group team members who didn’t take this session of the intensive course. This restaurant a quieter place to talk, until an excellent band started playing after 8 p.m.. (Juttutupa, Säästöpankinranta, Helsinki, Finland) 20161201Metropolia U., Bulevardi campus: Lectured in Industrial Management master’s program, collaborating on generative pattern language writing for an hour, after 90 minutes of lecture. Students are mostly working professionals with practical experience, so we jointly felt our way through using the format for service systems thinking. We’ve come a long way since the program was initiated in 2006. (Metropolia University of Applied Sciences, Bulevardi, Helsinki, Finland) 20161202Kiasma: Brian Eno (1999) Memory Flowers is 16 speakers facing upwards on stems, playing ambient music. First shown in 2000 in a solo show, brought out of storage for Kiasma Collection Exhibition. Emmi and J.P. came in late afternoon for the first Friday of the month free admission, well-timed to avoid the 5 pm crush at the coat check. (Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Mannerheiminaukio, Helsinki, Finland) 20161202Vanha Kauppahalli: Buying salmon in the same way that Finns have since 1889 when the Old Market Hall opened. Also bought little fried vendace at the next stall, to be used in an appetizer. Saturday afternoon sees a lot of tourist visitors, many eating salmon soup facing out from the renovated stalls to become part of the scenery (Kalakauppa E. Eriksson, Vanha Kauppahalli, Eteläranta, Helsinki, Finland) 20161203Lapinlahdenkatu: Dinner with all Finnish ingredients (unless the salmon came from Norway). Discussed 2016 as a transitional year with lots of change, released now positively towards 2017. Missu the cat hid for most of the dinner, either not enjoying the streaming jazz, or suspicious that the catsitter would take him away. (Lapinlahdenkatu, Helsinki, Finland) 20161203Moomin Shop, Helsinki Airport T2: Looked at plush toy, saw “Design from Finland” but no country of manufacture. Phoned to wake up DY at 4 a.m. Toronto time to ask if 15cm 100% polyester figure was worth the money, she said no. Suggested Moomin shopping bags hanging outside, with tags saying Made in PRC, DY declined. On walk back to T1, noticed Moomin troll toys also available in the duty free shop. Not a motivated shopper today. (Moomin Store, Gates 26-27, Terminal 2, Helsinki Vantaa Airport) 20161205Niven’s: From online The Ecology of Systems Thinking group to meeting in person, PJ came for a coffee, talking while watching me eat a full English breakfast. Worked through jams of orange marmalade vanilla, raspberry rose, blood orange marmalade, pear. Discussed history of science within the systems thinking community and the variety of notable figures, up to current day theoreticians and practitioners. (Niven’s, King Cross Road, London, England) 20161206
Markham, Ontario; Toronto, Ontario; Scarborough, Ontario; London, Ontario; Montreal, Quebec; Brussels, Belgium; Woluwe Saint Pierre, Belgium; Amersfoort, Netherlands; Hameenlinna, Finland
Hilton Markham: Have apps do more work, says @gail_murphy #ibmcascon by designing more for episodic memory (e.g. recent items) than semantic memory (i.e. search). People work in episodes with many context task shifts. Different roles should get different tools, but share a team context in synchronized views. Context is the situation in which something happens. (Hilton Toronto/Markham Conference Centre, Markham, Ontario) 20161101Factory Theatre: Masterful preview of “Acquiesce” @FuGenTheatre production @FactoryToronto David Yee playwright and lead actor. Wide ranges of characters performed by John Ng, Richard Lee and Rosie Simon. Non-linear script, inventive stage design and evocative sound design. Unexpected points of levity. Expect this play to be recognized with positive reviews in days to come. (Factory Theatre Mainstage, Adelaide Street West, Toronto, Ontario) 20161101Logan Ave. At Queen St. E.: New fence by laneway at the top of our street as former drug store and church will soon be demolished to put in 7 storey condominium. Leslieville Historical Society had represented community interests, plans seemed to have passed through city hall. (875-887 Queen Street East, Toronto, Ontario) 20161103Riverdale Park West: Playing field lights on, but cool temperatures see only dogs off leash running across the grass. Early evening before Canada switches off daylight savings time, the sunset time will read differently tomorrow. (Riverdale Park West, Toronto, Ontario) 20161105Mashion Bakery: Ample supply of Chinese sweet buns and savory pastries even in the dark early evening, on the Sunday we turned the clocks back to Standard Time. Racks of more in the back of the store, with clerks moving more up to the front. Friendly service, in and out. (Mashion Bakery, Spadina Chinatown, Toronto, Ontario) 20161106Bulk Barn Front Street: Gluten-free pizza crust mix based on rice flour for tonight’s dinner. Dough was hard to shape, so added oatmeal flour to deal with stickiness. Baking resulted in cracker-like thin crust. Topped with pide lahmacun ground beef was dry, would have been better with a pizza tomato sauce. (Bulk Barn, Front Street, Toronto, Ontario) 20161107Factory Theatre: Powerful story, nuanced performance of “The Enchanted Loom” @FactoryTheatre @CahootsTheatre @MagicalMudge director. Brain surgery, memory and mind, real and not real, family and war, survival and love. Bea Pizano, Asha Vijayasingham, Zorana Sadiq, Sam Kalilieh, Kawa Ada, Peter Bailey. Theatre-almost-in-the-round with audience on both sides of stage. Reminiscent of Shakespearean plays in impact. (Factory Theatre, Adelaide Street West, Toronto, Ontario) 20161108
Toronto, Ontario; Richmond Hill, Ontario; Don Mills, Ontario; San Francisco, California; Oakland, California; Berkeley, California; San Jose, California; Mountain View, California; Las Vegas, Nevada; Los Gatos, California
David Crombie Park: Two hours before @nuitblancheTO starts, still preparing for public art installation at many locations across the city. Set up and teardown for outdoor venues are easier in daylight, with most visitors attracted in the darkness of night. (Nuit Blanche Toronto, David Crombie Park, The Esplanade, Toronto, Ontario) 20161001
Kevin Cooley 2016 Fallen Water – Niagara Escarpment:
Video installation @BrookfieldPLTO @nuitblancheTO Kevin Cooley 2016 “Fallen Water – Niagara Escarpment” closing tonight. Biking around downtown at dusk, an hour before official start of the event after night falls. (Allen Lambert Galleria, Brookfield Place, Financial District, Toronto, Ontario) 20161001
2 St. Clair Avenue West: View northward on Yonge Street from shows trees of Mount Pleasant Cemetery, and the towers along Eglinton Avenue and beyond. Before 1973, the subway only ran to Eglinton Avenue, called North Toronto, and Rosedale up to St. Clair Avenue was the affluent residential area. This intersection isn’t the destination that it used to be. (2. St. Clair Avenue West, Deer Park, Toronto, Ontario) 20161005Darling Building: Fireside @TorontoJS with @mhartington @devgirlFL @macdonst @tazsingh hosted by @cfndrs has large screen version of flames. Answered questions on Ionic and Phonegap/Cordova, much of the audience was new to mobile development. Session started with attendees rearranging the room from computer working spaces to a seats facing the stage. (Ci. Strategy+Design, Darling Building, 96 Spadina Avenue, Toronto, Ontario) 20161005Premiere Banquet Centre: Not a banquet, instead reservation of dinner for 12 in the extended family calling for a larger table. West coast visitors and rest of family were uptown, so opportunity for a leisurely dinner to catch up on news. Our children have moved away, so we’re bridging information across ties. (Premier Banquet Centre, Leslie Street, Richmond Hill, Ontario) 20161009UToronto iSchool: Exploring polydisciplinary interests @ischool_TO @prof_lyons @duffwm @snousala, @daviding, with @jpovaska behind the lens. Lots of coincidental threads that could be tied together from Toronto to Shanghai and Europe. (University of Toronto Faculty of Information, St. George Street, Toronto, Ontario) 20161012OCADU RSD5: Workshop @RSDSymposium @OCAD U Toronto led by @snousala on Design X and Systemic Design precedes Emerging Practices meeting at Tongji U Shanghai by only a day, can’t be in two places at one time. Organic approach to discussing led to five groups with different perspectives on the future of design. Further digesting into findings is taking more time offline. (Relating Systems Thinking and Design Symposium, OCAD U, Toronto, Ontario) 20161013
Toronto, Ontario (all images within bicycling distance of home)
Craigleigh Gardens: West gate into city park donated by benefactor in 1926 A.D. Bicycling around residential streets of Rosedale is a good way to see huge houses at a reasonable speed. Many curved roads and ravines of Park Drive and Rosedale Valley confused me on the way to the Evergreen Brickworks. (Craigleith Gardens, South Drive, Rosedale, Toronto, Ontario) 20160903Art Gallery of Ontario: The reality of the north @AGOToronto is Lawren Harris is part of The Group of Seven collection, so lining up for The Idea of North special exhibition repatriated from California has some irony. Outside the roped-off area, some of the larger canvases include Mount Robson from the South-East (1929); Mountain Sketch LXV (1929); Mount Lefroy (1929); and Brazeau Snowfield, Jasper Park (1924). (Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Ontario) 20160907
Art Gallery of Ontario:
Visitors freely participating @AGOToronto “How to Build a House Museum” installation. Large screen video of “House Heads Liberation Training”, with disco-ball-like “Houseberg” inside the “Progress Palace”. Immersive work by American artist Theaster Gates fills the 5th floor of the building. (Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Ontario) 20160907
Prairie Drive Park: Music @LidoPimienta @bike_music_fest #artsintheparksTO, free voice with beats and minimal sequences. Electronics powered by team of cyclists on mobile generators under the next tent. (Prairie Drive Park, Oakridge neighbourhood, Toronto, Ontario) 20160919
Prairie Drive Park: Singing a capella into the wind @LidoPimienta @bike_music_fest #artsintheparksTO. Bicyclists scattered on inclined lawn, most having ridden the PanAm Trail north from the Evergreen Brickworks. City streets were more direct for me. (Prairie Drive Park)
Prairie Drive Park: Crew generating electricity @bike_music_fest #artsintheparksTO to power amplifiers and electric instruments. Casual afternoon entertainment for a Saturday afternoon. (Prairie Drive Park, Oakridge neighbourhood, Toronto, Ontario) 20160919
Prairie Drive Park: B-boys @bike_music_fest #artsintheparksTO breaking tie of 6 points each. Surprised to see a head spin on the concrete surface. Deejay music powered by a single cyclist putting energy into a portable battery (Prairie Drive Park, Oakridge neighbourhood, Toronto, Ontario) 20160919
Sky Dragon Resto: Invited friends for Harvest Moon Festival dinner with the family at the Lowkong Society. Bigger turnout than last year, people understanding English now outnumber the people speaking Toisanese. (Sky Dragon Chinese Restaurant, Chinatown, Dundas Street East at Spadina Avenue, Toronto, Ontario) 20160911
Washington, Iowa; Fairfield, Iowa; Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Toronto, Ontario
HyVee Washington: Golden maple planted 2 years ago on farm not doing well, clerk advised more fertiizer. New tree half price, so DLH decided to get the last one there, barely fits into minivan. Main purpose of trip was for a haircut, went to 5 barbers and stylists, and none were willing to give service without at least an hour wait. (HyVee, Washington, Iowa) 20160804Dairy Bar: Hadn’t left the farm for a few days, so ice cream is a good excuse for a break. Picnic table is new, since the last time we were here. Still looking for better vegan options. (Dairy Bar. Fairfield, Iowa) 20160808Eastern Iowa Airport: Wooden blinds in skylight providing shade to sunny Iowa heat. Drive to airport routed past fields of tall corn, alongside the gravel road, the two-lane blacktop, and then divided highway. Returning home after 18 days in the U.S. of conference, then isolated writing and reviews, seems like a European tour, but the jet lag will be minimal. (Eastern Iowa Airport, Cedar Rapids, Iowa) 20160810Cassels Park: Ravine with steep rise north towards Gerrard Street East could be close to lost Tomlin Creek, water flowing underground south towards Ashbridges Bay. Large grassy area with playgrounds surrounded by residential buildings. City consultation in June convened citizens to resolve a swamp issue, towards developing a rain garden. (Cassels Park, Upper Beaches, Toronto) 20160815Cineplex Eglinton Town Centre: Still routing to movie theatres for 2D Star Trek Beyond, the big screen without 3D glasses is entertainment enough. Tuesday discount draws crowd for late afternoon show,. As we left, the ticket queues were really long for the evening show. Summertime somehow matches blockbuster movies. (Cineplex Odeon Eglinton Town Centre Cinemas, Toronto, Ontario) 20160816Hubbard Park: Staircase railings leading up to Old Don Jail building bright on late summer afternoon. Grounds were renamed in 2014, with the Bridgepoint Health hospital and research centre complex. (Hubbard Park, Riverdale, Toronto, Ontario) 20160817
Twice As Nice 5 Concrete Edition:
B-boy 2 vs. 2 footwork battle @JimmySimpsonRC, concrete floor of the skating rink on warm summer evening. Children and families observing the action. (Twice as Nice 5 Concrete Edition, Jimmy Simpson Recreation Centre, Riverside, Toronto, Ontario) 201610819
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 […]
Rhythm and pitch are primordial to language. Susan Rogers, after a career becoming Prince's recording engineer, turned to complete a PhD in psychology focused on music cognition and psychoacoustics.Read more ›
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 ›
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 […]
