To all Just a reminder that you can find my thesis @ https://www.academia.edu/3088806/Gramma_topology, which deals extensively with second-order cybernetics & design. Chapter 1: Contemporary design education in a complex, social world of constructed realities Chapter 3: Theories and other narratives: designerly knowledge production (including the article "A Natural Death is Announced" = "Cybernetics, being the perfectly circular method of investigation that it is, is constructivist to the extent that the feedback loops from the observation induces (and are used in) the constant reconstruction of meaning; it is reiterative in the sense of having no beginning and no end, and while it seems to return to the beginning of any design process, seen horizontally (as a flat circle), it moves away from that so-called beginning, seen vertically (as a rising spiral), because it is continually adding to itself and thus developing: as a methodology (not method) cybernetic design (cyberdesign) is evolutionary to the extent that it buries its old self as sediment in the (old) stock of knowledge, thus respecting previous boundaries, while invariably moving away in a processual movement of discovery, both of self and of what is not-self. A discipline very naturally dies in order to live.") Chapter 4: Gramma/topology: a new discourse of design knowing ("The first section presents cybernetics as a science of prediction, but not in the normal, hard sciences way of predetermination. Prediction can also mean projection, a proposal for research whose outcome is anything but a foregone conclusion, making cybernetics a science of purpose and bildung as opposed to causality. Design makes use of a second order observation technique, which means design cybernetics is the study of observing systems, and includes the observer in the study as an integral part.") This chapter includes the article "The Magic of Three", which I explained as "The following text came about through an effort to explain how cybernetic thinking morphs into design thinking, for action, via a better method of decision-making, and to show how the theory of cybernetics could influence and enhance our understanding of a theory of design." In this chapter I also dealt with: "'Perhaps that is what Bateson (2000) had in mind when he suggested (1972) “that an entirely new epistemology must come out of cybernetics and system theory, involving a new understanding of mind, self, human relationship, and power'. I do not pretend to have a definitive answer, but am convinced that a form of autopoietic cyberdesign can prompt, at least, some sense of what it means to be a truly observant system among other living systems." More importantly, I deal with both Spencer Brown's symbol system and Luhmann's theory of the making of distinctions: "I think we do need to reserve the right to adapt the most basic generative memes that can be sourced from a study of cybernetics, and the making of distinctions is what humans do best by dint of their nature as cognitive beings, and, however difficult it may be to help a student towards this space of seeing and being, I have to try, and the only stuff for thought that I can pass on is my own adaptations of what I find."(p.132) Chapter 5: Evolutionary form follows cybernetic function: A spacetime landscape (including an argument for abduction = cf. p. 267); ... and more ... I am particulary pleased to see Michael Hohl's chapter "Designing designing: Ecology, Systems Thinking,Designing and Second-Order Cybernetics" in this new book. Regards Johann > The Department of Art + Design and the School of Architecture at > Northeastern University cordially invite you to next week’s event: > > Cybernetics: State of the Art – book launch and conversation > with Liss C. Werner, Paul Pangaro, Kristian Kloeckl, Omar Khan > > December 14, 2017 > 4:00 pm – 5:30 pm > > Northeastern University > CAMD Interdisciplinary Research Lab > 171 Holmes Hall | (enter also through Meserve Hall) > > Please join us to celebrate the launch of Cybernetics: State of the Art. > The event will feature conversations with some of the book’s contributors: > Liss C. Werner, Technical University Berlin; Paul Pangaro, College for > Creative Studies in Detroit; Kristian Kloeckl, Northeastern University; and > Omar Khan, University of Buffalo. Each were participants in the Berlin > Conference that is the basis for the book, edited by Liss Werner. > > > For print and open-access digital copies of the book: > - https://depositonce.tu-berlin.de/handle/11303/6680 > - https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/books/detail/-/art/liss- > werner-cybernetics-state-of-the-art/hnum/7966651 > > 'Cybernetics: state of the art', published by Technical University Berlin > Press, is the first volume of the book-series 'CON-VERSATIONS, founded by > Liss C. Werner and Raoul Bunschoten. > ___ > > > -- Dr. Johann van der Merwe Independent Design Researcher ----------------------------------------------------------------- PhD-Design mailing list <[log in to unmask]> Discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design Subscribe or Unsubscribe at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/phd-design -----------------------------------------------------------------