Dear colleagues,

I should attempt a composite response to the systems-related posts in the last week.

Picking up on the post by Michael Biggs(1^st October), I think that divergence is a key strategy during transformational times.  Thus the introduction of new technologies usually generates ‘creative spaces’, quickly populated by a  plethora of new products which tend to converge after time towards those which best meet market needs.  On a larger scale, emergence of the Information Age is generating huge ‘creative spaces’ across most(all?) areas of human endeavour which again seem likely to be filled initially by many alternatives that will diminish as societies chose the more effective(other things being equal).  I suspect that some at least of the diversity of attitudes on this list is due to the very different worldviews of its membership; this diversity is essential in uncertain times, and those seeking to contain it do themselves and others a disservice.  Trying too hard to find a ‘Common Ground’ may be inappropriate.

Geoff Matthews(2^nd October) delightfully described the process of emergence in design, following periods of turbulence and seeming chaos.

Cameron Tonkinwise(2^nd October) provided a critical commentary on aspects of the terminology and conceptualization of evolutionary systems thinking.  Although directed at the Luhmannian school, as elaborated earlier by Wolfgang Jonas(1^st October), his concerns have wider implications.  It is fortunate(for me) that Cameron, in his alter ego, is a few doors away from me and we shall be discussing his concerns over (I suspect several) coffee(s) in an attempt to clarify them.  We shall make a joint post to Wolfgang and the list when this is done.

David Sless(2^nd October) expressed irritation at an ongoing tendency to abstraction on the list.  He sought some ‘concrete’ statements regarding earlier observations I had made, here they are:

·                    Engineering certainly preceded the rise of reductionist science; some might advise on architecture, which may well also have been established professionally by then.  How reductionist thinking affected the worldviews of one or both of these professions would be interesting to know

·                    My comments on what seems to me a surprisingly slow response by the design community to the “sciences of complexity” are based on the paucity of papers on this emerging scientific view given at conferences/published in design journals, and the scarcity of subjects on such matters in design programs(to me, that translates into ‘many’!).  I am happy to wager David that both of my “abstract” concerns will look very different indeed(very 'concrete') by decade’s end; by then, the sciences of complexity will be firmly embedded, perhaps pre-eminent, in design practice, education and theory!!

Others provided thoughtful counterviews to David’s(Erik Stolteman/Ken Friedman/ Lubomir Popovic, all 3^rd October).  I concur with both viewpoints in this debate(!).  Sometimes specifics will illuminate a matter; other times they are not available or unhelpful.  I do not feel that polar positions are particularly helpful(see also Michael Biggs, 6^th October); it remains, as ever, ‘horses for courses’!  Acceptance of this simple point would engender more tolerance on this list.

Russell Marshall(3^rd October) again reminded us that systems-talk tends to be interpreted by those unfamiliar with the field as hard-systems talk.  He also comments on difficulties with the increasingly specialized language of the systems community.  These observations, to me, point increasingly to the need for initiatives in design education by those who firmly believe in the relevance of complex systems thinking to design practice.

I haven’t read the references given by David Sless(8^th October) yet, but will do so.  I too believe that we are “about to make another radical shift”(and have written several papers to that effect), I too deplore the slowness with which bureaucracies generally(universities as well as governments!) respond to the gathering stormclouds, and I too see discussion of these matters as a vital concern of this list.  I am fatalistic in that I believe much of the old edifice(of design education, theory and practice) will disappear as it is overlaid by the new.

Kind regards,

John

John Broadbent,

Senior Lecturer,

Faculty of Design, Architecture & Building,

University of Technology, Sydney,

Australia.