Calgary, Alberta; Vancouver, BC; Toronto, Ontario; Montreal, Quebec.
YYC baggage wildlife. Hippopotamus in baggage carousel at Calgary international airport. Arrivals promotion of local zoo, then other attraction at other carousels. Something to look at, while waiting for luggage, it’s creative use of public space (Calgary) 20120306 1453Kota Ezawa 2008 Hand Vote. Installation illuminated at night, at Vancouver Art Gallery Outside, Hand Vote (2008) by Kota Ezawa. On Georgia Street, a main stream, between two towers, could be easy to miss if not on foot. (Vancouver) 20120308 1910Tracks west from Commercial Drive. Downtown Vancouver in the distance, late on a rainy afternoon. North of East Broadway, south of Grandview Highway, rail is the faster way into the city centre. Coming on the Skytrain eastbound, it was a long way from the previous station, and the route turned south before continuing east (Vancouver) 20120309 1724Riverdale Cemetery, Parkway, Park. View eastward on warm late winter from Toronto Necropolis, overlooks Don Valley Parkway, and Riverdale Park East in the distance with apartment towards Danforth Avenue. Can see through the trees, but leaves will obscure the view in a few weeks (Toronto) 20120311 1714YUL mini marche. Convenience store at Montreal airport offers selection of wine and beer. Alcohol may be a part of everyday life in the French-heritage province, but in the next province west in Ontario, the retail channel is government-owned stores. My local colleague and American visitor shrugged their shoulders at my noticing the everyday (Montreal) 20120313 1011European Meat leaving Kensington Market. Neighbourhood institution of 53 years, will close business on April 7 in favour of Etobicoke store. I have shopped there since the 1970s, most recently bicycling cross town for quality foods. I’ll have to start looking elsewhere. (Toronto) 20120317 1641MOCCA sculpture. On top of pole, swirling steel bands, Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art courtyard. Bright spring day on Queen Street West (Toronto) 20120321 1748Jasper by John Clement in Vancouver. Loops of tubular steel, orange paint stands out on a cloudy March Vancouver midday. Part of the Vancouver Biennale 2009-2011 temporary public art exhibition. Titled Jasper, by John Clement, web site at Firehouse Studio. Installed at corner of Robson Street and Jervis Street (Vancouver) 20120326 1436Trees sculpture, Stephen Ave. Ten stainless steel 20-plus-metre sculptures, built on concrete caissons that extend to almost the same depth underground. On the Stephen Avenue (8th Ave. SW) pedestrian mall at 3rd St. SW in downtown Calgary. Donated by Trizec Hahn Office Properties to the city in 2000, with Cohos Evamy Partners Architect, directed by Jablonsky, Ast And Partners, fabricated by Empire Iron Works (Calgary, Alberta) 20120328 1750
YYC digging. Mounds of earth on the far side of the tarmac at Calgary International Airport. From the runway extension? Construction diversion confused my driving on last trip so that I missed my flight; chose taxi this time (Calgary) 20120329 1236
I was invited to the 2010 IFSR Conversation at Pernegg, Austria. The closest major airport was in Vienna, where I had never been, so I flew in a few days earlier to work off some jet lag. Directions from the Vienna Airport to the city centre via the City Airport Train was relatively straightforward, to the Wien Mitte station. Appreciating the sunny spring day to adjust my body clock, I decided the walk west and north wasn’t too far to to drag luggage. This path routed me over a canal section of the Wien River.
Vancouver, BC; Toronto, Ontario.
Dunleavy Ave at Railroad St. Mission to Seafarers historic Heritage Home, with cargo cranes of Port of Vancouver in the background. Self-guided walking tour around Powell Street and Oppenheimer Park, discovering original Skid Row. Still a tough neighbourhood. On the periphery of Chinatown, and streets from DY’s childhood (Vancouver) 20120202 1655Fog On Burrard Inlet. Not a ghost ship, just a freighter off the Port of Vancouver, as seen from the Seabus. Heavy low fog has obscured the mountains earlier in the day. Bright sunshine cleared mist by later in the day. (Vancouver) 20120203 0936Bagel Samples, King at Bay. Free bagels at temporary hut in financial centre, for people leaving the office at 5 pm, from Dempster Bakery. Everyone loves a freebie, still lining up at temperature near freezing. Off camera to right, people were spreading toppings on their bagels (Toronto) 20120215 145906
Maple Leaf Lounge Toronto. Tokyo-bound, sons waiting for toast in the international departures Maple Leaf Lounge, Toronto. Last time I travelled with these two, they were about 6 and 4 years old. Service is too early for alcohol, bottle racks are locked off (Toronto) 20120216 105433
Toronto, Ontario; Montreal, Quebec; Jacksonville, Florida.
YTZ ferry. Landside terminal view of ferry to Billy Bishop Airport on Toronto Island. Runs every 15 minutes. This is my first time outbound from YTZ, as Air Canada only flies to Montreal from here. Porter Airlines dominates the terminal as its hubs. Free cafe in terminal is not Maple Leaf Lounge, but it’s more democratic. (Toronto) 20120103 1324Montreal Chinatown Gate Mural. Snowy January morning on Rene Levesque Blvd. Chinatown Gate with mural across the street, at St. Laurent entry (Montreal) 20120105 0845Rooftop pool in Montreal winter. Steaming indoor-outdoor pool at Hilton Bonaventure, in an early Montreal morning with temperature well below freezing. I probably haven’t been in this pool since the early 1990s, and then not with snow around it. No time on this trip for swimming. (Montreal, Quebec) 20120116 0928Jacksonville Landing on St. John’s River. Late afternoon January in northern Florida, with blue skies. Rock music playing, just a few tourists walking by with children. Welcome relief from winter, great weather offsets rebooked flight and leaving home early in the dark. Expect most of weekend indoors in meetings (Jacksonville, FL) 20120120 1650Florida Theatre, Gordon Lightfoot. In Jacksonville, FL, Gordon Lightfoot on tour for 13 days of 15. I was coincidentally in town for a conference, and snagged row 5 tickets with JMW 2 hours before show. Last time I saw Lightfoot was in Massey Hall in Toronto in the mid-1970s. Songs familiar, performance now performance of a 73-year old is different. Hard to find anyone in audience under age 40. (Jacksonville, FL) 20120122 2041JAX Art by Joe Segal. Sculptures of wood and aluminum mounted on wall of Jacksonville Airport art gallery, created by northern Florida artist Joe Segal. Displayed together as a collection, but actually tagged as independent pieces for sale. Gallery is located landside in airport, so non-travelers can view, but would have viewed longer with flight delay if venue was airside. (Jacksonville, FL) 20120123 1540Guaranteed Pure Milk bottle, Montreal. Rooftop art deco 1930s installation restored in 2009, 10 metres high, 6 tonnes of steel. Viewed from 11th floor window of the Cite du Commerce Electronique to the north. Preservation of whimsy demonstrates that Montreal doesn’t always take itself seriously (Montreal, Quebec) 20120125 0853Yael Bensoussan duo, Segal Centre. Vocals in French, plus guitar. Said she learned songs sung by her mother washing dishes. Introduced with alternate career as a second year medical student at U. of Montreal. Part of the Women of the World series at the Segal Centre, opening for Coral Egan (Montreal) 20120126 2007
Coral Egan, Segal Centre. Preview of “The Year He Drove Me Crazy” album for spring release, 3 years in making. New band, intimate venue with audience of about 150. Coral Egan performing as part of the Women of the World series at the Segal Centre (Montreal) 20120126 2052
I’ve been in Tokyo for over a week every year since 2007, so I know the city sights well. This 2010 trip saw me serving as a tour guide for Roy (who came on the same plane as me from Toronto), as well the many of the other visiting researchers. On the first night, Sunday, the group convened at the usual hotel near Tamachi station. We randomly chose a pub, where we puzzled through a Japanese menu and ended up ordering a hotpot from a waiter who spoke no English.
Early Monday morning, we took the train over to the Tsukiji market. Coming by a different route than before, we encountered a temple where businessmen were making offerings.
In mid-morning, some of the tuna were still in recognizable forms, with fishmongers rapidly creating portions with saws and knives.
On this visit, I discovered the reason that some tuna are called yellowfin. These had a yellow fin smaller than a thumbnail.
While at a meeting in Tempe, Arizona, I discovered that Arizona State University has a strong contemporary American art collection. An 1987 “Untitled Group” by Viola Frey was almost life size. Frey passed away in 2004. While I was seeing this in Arizona, a larger collection of Frey’s work was touring New York.
The back side of the work is as detailed as the front.
The Ceramics Research Center at ASU is an open storage area in a plaza across the street from the more famous main gallery.
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 […]
