2012-12-06

Ranulph Glanville agreed to allow his slides from the presentation to be shared with Systems Thinking Ontario.

[view/download presentation slides as PDF] (10.8 MB)

The original announcement appears below.

Thursday, December 6 is NOT a regular meeting for Systems Thinking Ontario.  It is serendipity that, on this Thursday in December, OCADU is hosting a visitor from the UK, and we can share in the event.  This event is a public lecture, a format different from the more discussion-oriented events that will be held on third Thursdays beginning 2013.

When?  Thursday, December 6, 2012, 6:15 p.m.

Where? OCAD University, 100 McCaul Street, room 190 (i.e. from the main doors, the main auditorium is to the left).  The directions to the Lambert Lounge -- a few steps further -- may be helpful.

Ranulph Glanville, "On Cybernetics and Creativity"

Ranulph Glanville (see Wikipedia entry) is visiting at OCAD University for the first week of December.  He is currently president of the American Society for Cybernetics. On the officers' page on the ASC web site, his interests are described as follows:

Ranulph Glanville has a particular interest in circular systems and the consequences of taking them seriously. As a result, he has developed a particular enjoyment of the Black Box as a model that requires the participation of the observer in building descriptions of the behaviour of systems, leading to an understanding of knowing as based on profound ignorance. He has developed a Theory of Objects - those things about which we can (as a result of their self-referential qualities) behave as if we see the same thing when each observer observes differently, from which he developed a temporal logic. His work is largely philosophical in intent, but has a deep connection with design and research.

As a plenary speaker at the International Institute of Informatics and Systemics Summer 2012 conference, Glanville gave a talk on "Reflecting Between Understanding and Action".  He was introduced as a Professor of Architecture and Cybernetics at The Bartlett, University College London; a Professor of Research in Industrial Design Engineering at the Royal College of Art in London; and an Adjunct Professor of Design Research at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Australia.

At the 2012 conference of the American Society for Cybernetics, Glanville presented on a similar theme.

We live by a model that tells us we should understand in order to act. Yet babies do the opposite: they act in order to understand. This is the key lesson that Piaget taught us. In a more recent cybernetic interpretation, acting and understanding form a mutually dependant circularity. What is important is what happens between them (their interaction) within the mind of the agent who acts and understands. I argue this is powered by reflection, i.e., deep, contemplative thinking. I will explore how this relates to Behaviours in my own Theory of Objects; von Foerster’s recursive eigen forms; and Schoen’s reflection in action. Finally, I will bring these ideas towards Umpleby’s account of Soros’ reflexive economics.

Pre-registration for this December public lecture is not necessary.

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