Synthesis Synthetic
ron paul baum
Applications of Sustainable Change
Kate Davies M.A., D.Phil.
Antioch University Seattle
Center for Creative Change
Whole Systems Design
Fall Quarter December 12, 2013
Abstraction :
This paper offers a synopsis of learning experiences from fall 2009 through fall 2013 with AUS, CCC, WSD, the Belltown Tales Change Project and the formation of a personal praxis of social change. Initiation introduces the process of creating this paper using whole systems design thinking. Intuition, Intention, Interaction and Inspiration trace a path through a web of experiences which generates a change model and sets of co-created subjective objects. Iteration returns to Initiation and completes the paper. Specification lists links to references.
Initiation :
Your Intuition is probably that there will be a place of initiation and an end to this paper. And your Interaction may be so. And we probably both know that if you encounter Inspiration here and Intention follows, the experience will not be so orderly. So my Intention here is to also offer an alternative Interaction as an example of how my learning occurred for me and as a reflection of the reader's usual experience beyond a paper. An alternative place of Interaction for you with my experience of engaging AUS. A non-linear way of experiencing what is behind these words which has a beginning and only ends where you decide. And so it extends into the cloud Meadows (2008) beyond the boundary of this linear twenty five page paper. You will have the opportunity to experience the scale and detail of the learning of praxis. Practicing theory to theorize practice. Freire (1970) This alternative "feels" minutely better to me and as it is digital, even more of a synthetic synthesis. And a little more (synthetically) "real." Think of it as a step in the direction of creative chaos and cosmos. Like a good Change Project, you will be tempted in directions beyond a plan defined by a beginning and an end. Sources of Inspiration will tempt you to stray into the chaos as I did when I initially interacted with them. To tempt you. Somewhere there you may encounter my link to cosmopolitan Carl Sagan and cosmos(a word opposite of chaos as defined by ancient Greek philosophers). My Intuition is that you might even go beyond this paper before finishing and be compelled to never return. In that case, I may have succeeded. I would not want you to be stuck with only words when there is important work to be done helping others change a cosmos full of order in desperate need of change. In any case, when you leave, I hope something from here goes along with you there. Here now is your chance to enter the abyss of Synthesis Synthetic.
This paper has an implied beginning. And I have learned at AUS that a beginning is never a starting point isolated from the past or the future. It is only a point of intervention in a system. Meadows (2008). At the Center for Creative Change, I heard often that everything connects with everything else. Capra (1997) In a constant state of change, a starting point acts as one of the limits synthetically placed as necessary to define a system so that it may be rationally considered. And an end point may define the other limit. My Intuition is that a rational, understandable, description of an often irrational and emotional learning experience is a challenge. This paper follows a twisted path through life events. Chronologically that path was linear. And the process of experiencing was not. We carry the past with us and our thoughts of then effect the thoughts of now. So this paper jumps forward and back and right and left to pick up relevant Interaction. The editing of this paper was torturously so. As I write these words, I doubt they will stay put. It is a messy and creative process. A dynamic relationship exists between the Intention of specificity in this moment and the Intention of being widely inclusive while describing this personal learning. As another example, your Initiation into this paper may have been the reading of the previous Abstraction, not this Initiation, unless of course you, the reader had the Intention to skip that piece because you never read Abstracts. And our total Interaction may have only been the Abstraction if that was as far as you got. Such confusion is the usual state of affairs as a member within a complex adaptive system which constantly cycles between states of chaos and cosmos in the panarchy of nested adaptive cycles of change. Holling (2002)
As another example of the chaos out of which this creative writing emerges, the Initiation of this synthesis paper began with a momentary Interaction between the word synthetic and the word synthesis. I have no recollection of when and where it occurred. A natural, un-synthetic, unintentional, almost random, almost irrelevant event somewhere in the past. And for me it was an "Ah Ha" Boga, S. (2008), a moment of Inspiration when I felt that a few written words about a moment like that, is like a tale, a synthetic synthesis of a brief Interaction. And yet a serendipitous event, which by definition describes a beneficial change. A change recognized in me. And as soon as a human being becomes involved in process, the messiness begins Sawyer (2007) . As a synthetic and un-natural construction, these words can only be an incomplete account of the original event. I can never fully communicate now what happened to me then.
My Intuition is that the tale's container, this larger collection of accounts of Interaction, will also be a synthetic synthesis. An attempt to describe how I came to understand my learning from years of emotional events at Antioch University, Center for Creative Change, Whole Systems Design. How would I communicate, how would I define, such a tangled emergent process ? Holman (2010) And so as Sadru would also say : " this description will not be the described " Boga, S. (2002)
Our learning and Interaction here in the present is always inescapably real and natural. We spend many AUS hours face to face in small group work for this reason. We create and work best together. And to face each other, we need to face the paradox ridden field of group life. Sawyer(2007) The complexity of natural adaptive systems; your values, models and norms in Interaction with mine.
Now that you have been introduced to the orderliness and messiness (the chaos and the cosmos) of this work ,Smith and Berg(1997), here is another tough learning that I hope to communicate. This paper is (only sometimes) rational and needs to be (always) relational with the reader. And rational is always embedded deeply in the relational. Even the spelling of the word "rational" is entangled inside the spelling of the word "relational". I hope you can feel the irony, the paradox of cosmos being only a small part of a greater and more dominate chaos. I have learned in Belltown that this is at the heart of social change work.
The extra letters e + l that differ the word relational from the word rational could represent :
engaging + linking......enduring + liberating......essentials of life......essentials of love......and you can probably think of more.
Feeling comfortable with this paradox means there is always a healthy state of discomfort. Although rational order in our lives offers security, it is not enough to meet our profoundly irrational relational needs. Wheatley (2005). Secure and insecure. Well here we go again. If you are insecure, then you are aware of danger and if you are secure, you may feel ok and you may also be more insecure than the person who is aware of the danger. Ahl (1996)
Interaction ? How will we, you, the reader, and I together deal with our relational and the rational interactions ? How will we make our way through this mess. I suggest putting down this synthesis, giving me a call and we can get together and talk about it together. 206 632 7332. Paulo Friere and Myles Horton recorded a book together. "We Make the Road by Walking". Horton and Friere (1990) They knew it was the best way to work together. An evolving conversation. Creative moments captured in time. Through many CCC group projects, I have grown to appreciate the power of collaborative group work, best accomplished face to face. I feel a gulf of silence between us here at this moment. I await your call.
And how will you and I and our Interaction at this very personal micro scale iterate change in the macro scale ? Where to start ? Large complex adaptive systems usually change slowly. Starting with a very small change in the rules of the game of change. If we want to see social change, we need to change a rule, live by that change, and facilitate iteration of that change in others through our example, so that this looks like a good deal for others. I have an attraction to minimalist art and a very small change sounds very good to me.
Intuition, Intention, Interaction and Inspiration :
Intuition Personally, in this moment, I feel Intuition at the heart of change. Knowing where to start needs to come from within. I imagine we must all have this sensation. Every notion from our Intuition is a theory.
Until our Intention puts something into action through Interaction, it is only a notion. Through trying it out, we gain Inspiration and prepare Intuition for the next action. Reflection feeds and energizes and meditation eases the flow of Inspiration. This cycle is a powerful personal system for me.
“Man's task is to become conscious of the contents that press upward from the unconscious.” C.G. Jung
Intention is a seeking bit of Intuition, lost until an Interaction occurs. Intention is engaged with the Intention of others in a structural coupling. Maturana, H. R.,(1980) Humans are capable of understanding an Intention of another through the power of mirror neurons teamed with all the senses, emotionally constructing social consciousness. Jeffers, C. (2008)
"The well trodden path may be the obstacle to finding the shortest route to an unintended destination." anonymous (2013)
Interaction My point of beginning in the natural world. We are all born out of Interaction. Without Interaction, no Inspiration. Without Inspiration, no Intuition. A collective Intuition might also be described as collective consciousness. Collective Intuition is built of individual Inspiration out of collective Interaction.
Human social Interaction is a well structured, technologically updated ancient place of chaos and cosmos, pathos and ethos, mythos and logos. The perfect natural habitat for resilient human complex adaptive systems.Walker (2006). This is the state from which we emerge and where we are meant to merge and re-emerge. Paradox, in places, in things or relationships which holds two opposites is a fact of this place of human social Interaction. Holding and finding comfort with paradox means seeing and appreciating diverse polarities. Johnson (1996). Isolation at a point of polarity is risky for individual humans as adaptive systems. We are communal beings by nature. We suffer by degrees in isolation from each other. Paradoxically this includes even our polar opposites.The following two examples of leadership reveal the polarity of the social structures from which they emerge. The visible leader has been granted power by the group and may set rules which order the system of followers. The invisible leader believes that every member has leadership skills and works to allow self-organization of the system of group members who, if maintained in a state of praxis, are constantly resilient. Block(2008) In Whole Systems Design thinking, creative humans engage best with each other when projects are prototyped early in the process, trying them out and learning from the experience. Kelley(2001). Failure is reframed as design practice and learning gained to inform the next prototype. Failure due a reward, not a penalty. A process encouraging use of Intuition, Intention and Interaction among the members of a group. Prototyping objects means the failures are often junked to be recycled. And we on the planet have been prototyping our relationship with the environment for a long time. And so goes the planet as so goes we. Compare this with prototyping human relationships where failure is not due a reward, but usually a penalty. We have a very different relationship with other humans. If we quickly change a relationship, the other person may get hurt and in a ripple effect through the reactions of other humans and we may feel a wave of unintended consequences.
"Knowledge emerges only through invention and re-invention, through the restless, impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry human beings pursue in the world, with the world, and with each other." Freire, P. (1970)p.72
Inspiration I feel the power of a reward system which drives Intention. Maybe a series of new neural connections which cascade as each new Inspiration seems to complete a linkage of thoughts creating the possibility for another. And as with mirror neurons that below the level of our perception, make connections emotionally and intentionally with others, Inspiration may connect with Intuition and only be revealed later.
Surprises like these cannot be purchased. And they cannot be planned. As part of a creative social change process, each member is continually rewarded for their efforts.
There is mystery as to when but not from where this model emerged. The model was clearly influenced by the Social Construction Model of CCC pedagogy. Comstock (2005). Holling's (2002) Adaptive Cycle was important in the formation. Independently I started "nesting" my more simple models and only recently discovered "Panarchy" nested adaptive cycles by Holling. In the"Theory U" model Scharmer (2007) proposes "Presensing" as a phase of his deep dive model to access collective Intuition. I can't help but connect the beginning and end of the letter "U" as "O" I also would like to connect the top and bottom of Spiral Dynamics. Beck,(1996). Using Whole Systems Design thinking, projects are prototyped early in the process to try them out and learn from the experience. As you will see later in Interaction, many experiences have enlightened my Intuition about this personal process, especially with subjective objects. The model describes the praxis process as defined by Freire (1970). The third chapter in Pedagogy of the Oppressed seems to me to be a detailed manual for the use of subjective objects and again, only discovered after the creation of the Parabox.
I am continually involved with the co-creation of personal and collective change model tools which I call subjective objects. Through experience, I have imagined Intuition informed through the cycle of Intention, Interaction and Inspiration. One example of subjective objects is a set of four coasters with questions about different subjects, each with a question which describes a phase of a cyclical process. "What was your Intuition about this place?", "What is your Intention in doing this here?", "What is your Interaction with this place?" and "What is your Inspiration from this place?" This cycle is just one iteration of a very simple universal metaphor. Boga, S. (2006) Other examples of metaphors and subjective objects are forthcoming.
“Art is a kind of innate drive that seizes a human being and makes him its instrument. The artist is not a person endowed with free will who seeks his own ends, but one who allows art to realize its purpose through him. As a human being he may have moods and a will and personal aims, but as an artist he is "man" in a higher sense— he is "collective man"— one who carries and shapes the unconscious, psychic forms of mankind.”
C.G. Jung
The following is my brief log of Interaction in the field of chaos and cosmos, pathos and ethos, mythos and logos related to AUS CCC WSD and the Belltown Tales Change Project. These create a complex web of nested adaptive cycles with points of Interaction leading to personal Inspiration .
AUS CCC WSD
Intuition...A personal artistic minimalist experience compelled me to reconsider my isolation as a minimalist artist.
Intention...Seek interactions with learned folks to share burning ideas and to try to understand meanings and sources.
Interaction... a dynamic, well planned, open learning community of students, instructors and resources.
Inspiration...the emergence of a personal praxis change model and the co- creation of subjective objects.
Sustainability...Sammamish Valley Heritage Garden
Intuition...Design a garden with meaningful connections to the past. Native cultures lived within and consumed the resources here. Their numbers were small and their effect on the natural systems were as well. They moved through the valley seasonally, but eventually abandoned the area as the environment was altered by new arrivals.
Intention...The garden should be full of history and relationships.
Interaction...Events and work parties bring people together as part of their normal schedule to encounter the natural environment form inside that system.
Inspiration...A place of enlightenment on many levels and in many ways. This is the point of view that the native cultures had when they consumed
the environment. Their cultural identity melded with their surroundings.
Organizational Development...Pacific N W Organizational Development Network
Intuition...Find out what Joey and Mo are doing with this group on Mercer Island.
Intention...attend presentations
Interaction...engage attendees and participate in workshops.
Inspiration...Four players in an innovative team: " clarifier ideator producer implementer".
Chris Grivas Group Dynamics and Facilitation...Nautilus Group
Intuition...place a large piece of paper on a table where a facilitated groups might write notes.
Intention...facilitate an activity and have groups respond to the techniques used.
Interaction...groups unexpectedly transformed the blank sheet into group projects and presentations.
Inspiration...the blank paper creatively acted as a co-facilitator, allowing the groups to self-organize.
Methods for Sustainable Change... Intuition...reflection about self is egotistical Intention...look deeper into the reflection Interaction...reflect alone, with a group, with a community. Inspiration...reflection about self is selfless.
Creativity and Leadership group...
Intuition...a global mindshift video has a wombat humorously proclaiming globally, "all is one" convincingly using systems language.
Intention...demonstrate the power of creative diversity in a creative leadership group project.
Interaction...by letting go of the usual leader-like dominate tendencies, an open creative process emerged.
Inspiration...the wombat was reworked with a brainy group wombat proclaiming "all is many"
Communications... Intuition...minimalist art is everywhere.
Intention...a short speech about minimalist art without props means using the body as the art.
Interaction... performing brief interpretations of a simple metaphor, intimate to universal .
Inspiration...participatory, improvisational art freely available and inspirational to all.
Change Project... Intuition...engage largeness and witness systems at work. Intention...gently open the door to community Interaction...lightly touch diversity and observe the responses. Inspiration...the rational is embedded deeply in the relational
Applications of Sustainable Change... Intuition...no matter the consequences, an Instructor with a science
background would be perfect for my last class at AUS.
Intention....enter a Change Project with a commitment to openness, engagement and absence of preconceived outcomes.
Interaction...a very surprising and agreeable open assignment process and schedule allowed the project to unfold naturally in it's own time.
Inspiration...the ease of letting go of self and letting others enter the process of co-creation is a rewarding experience.
WSD Caucus...
Intuition...A regular meeting of systems thinkers would be a place of creative thinkers as well.
Intention...Attend and audit this resource as often as I can.
Interaction...The table reminds me of a large dinner table with table cloths, centerpiece and place settings of toys to mentally nibble. A continuous flow of systems thinking knowledge passes from the facilitator to the small group of students where it is enriched through their lives and experiences for all to share.
Inspiration...This small group process is an ancient form of education. It feels very comfortable and genuine. This should be a core process which extends to every WSD student, every WSD alum and every person working with systems theory.
Systems Design...Viaduct Group
Intuition...A diverse group of mature systems students should enjoy a really large problem like the viaduct replacement.
Intention...Allow other students to do what they do best and they will allow the same of me.
Interaction...There were too many options. Dividing the work was
divisive. There were no clear division of tasks. Leaders were scorned and silence was a powerful tool to hold ground. Time was a constraint. There was a rush to finish. Working quickly, quietly and creatively in isolation seems like the best plan.
Inspiration...Although the presentation was impressive, the creative process was not. The skill to design and implement a result is not enough. The end result needs to be rewarding, shared group work. It needs to excite team members to continue beyond an implied deadline.
Structures of Meaning Class...Power Inside Words Intuition...I have no idea what this class is about.
Intention...Try to figure this mess out mentally and look to my classmates for support.
Interaction...All of the theory came the first residency. Many were confused. We began to self organize to share the learning as best we could. We realized we were inside the words shifting meanings and changing the system hierarchy.
Inspiration...Our words of communication shape our rules. Humans live limited by hierarchies of rules which are self-defined. Change the words and you change the lives. I found poetry a useful form for playing with paradox.
Persistence and Change...Intelligent Life
Intuition...The actions of non-human life forms make useful metaphors to analyze human action.
Intention...Study the references and practice with metaphors.
Interaction...Theorizing beyond the examples in conversation with other students. Discovering Luca, an ancient archaea which may have been as large as all of the oceans and the original life form on the planet.
Inspiration...The original archaea's disintegrating diversification does not eliminate the possibility of our remnant oneness.
Innovation and Creativity Class...Improvising Models
Intuition...Personal practice as presented would be a rewarding and artistic experience.
Intention...Engage using models and metaphors to design systems.
Interaction...Sharing stories about models, innovating processes and interactions.
Inspiration...Engaging with another designer's process and co-creating is deep collaboration.
Design for Social Innovation Class...Creating the Future
Intuition...For thousands of years, stories have been helpful in understanding the past.
Intention...Listen and gather from the readings and practice story making with others.
Interaction...Improvisational mind experiment of being in the future and informing the past was good design practice.
Inspiration...Powerful stories will create the future. Applications in Human Systems...Paradigm Shifting
Intuition...systems thinking about a personal conceptual change model deserves attention.
Intention...examine the model through the writings of systems authors. Interaction...with the ideas of Meadows, Kahane and Gharajedaghi
Inspiration... “...... there is nothing physical or expensive or even slow in the process of paradigm change. In a single individual, it can happen in a
millisecond. All it takes is a click in the mind, a falling of scales from the eyes, a new way of seeing.” (Meadows 2008) pg. 163
AUS......Resources group Intuition...A large, experienced university has untapped resources. Intention...Make connections with resources.
Interaction...Communications with Chief Financial Officer, President, Alumni Council, Student Assembly, Academic Staff and Faculty members about accessing hidden institutional, community and human resources.
Inspiration...If you have your eye on the money to buy resources, you don't see the resources already available. Rational resources conceal relational resources.
Employment Coordinator Contacts... intuition : Unemployment or underemployment is a creative opportunity. Intention...Engage diverse groups about the possibilities.
Interaction...Communications with Chief Financial Officer, Academic Dean, Alumni Council, Student Assembly, Academic Staff and Faculty members about accessing institutional, community and human resources for employment purposes.
inspiration : A jobs coordinator would be a marketing agent who could organize students, alumni and staff to collect and make available data on job seekers, community jobs and student projects. Some of these could be arranged to extend projects started and facilitate job sharing.
Education/Psychology...C.G.Jung Group
Intuition...Know more about C.G.Jung's use of metaphor and storytelling. Intention...Join meetings of the C.G.Jung Group
Interaction...Occasional lunches with a diverse group of faculty, instructors and students who set the agenda for each meeting and do reflections on the topic.
Inspiration...Psychologists create and hold diversity in the consulting room. Learning for both extremes emerges through conversation.
AUS Alumni Council...
Intuition...An opportunity to meet and plan with graduates would be a learning experience.
Intention...Become a member and attend meetings regularly.
Interaction...As a student member I offered my experiences to the mix of talk about AUS recruiting, funding and programming.
Inspiration...My input as a student was vital to informing the council about AUS processes and functioning.
Pedagogy and Theatre Of the Oppressed...
Intuition...a Berkeley setting for social justice improvisational theatre should be rewarding
Intention...take the train and the parabox as tools to observe, engage and improvise.
Interaction...Deep encounters with many on the train including three separate experienced magicians who gathered around in the club car and included me as a fourth.
Inspiration...Improvisation is self rewarding through the surprises offered by collaborators.
Poetic JusticeTheatre Troupe...
Intuition...Spend a novice season with a social justice improvisational group to experience change.
Intention...Cherish this one day a week out of town, always be open and consider this a sacred experience.
Interaction...Working together as genuine human beings within the structure of relational improvisational art.
Inspiration...Experience eye to eye the power of mirror neurons teamed with all the senses to emotionally construct social consciousness.
Tale Talks...Facilitators Group Intuition...every person...a facilitator...
Intention...offer people the resources to facilitate a gathering of 6 friends or strangers...
for meaningful discussion about an important topic
Interaction...meet with six other facilitators on a Friday before and a Friday after your event...
share ideas and thoughts about the process....each facilitator designs an event for six guests at the art gallery...? a casual party ? a celebration ? a group performance ? ...foods ...drinks...talks...?
Inspiration...a diversity of facilitators and topics...communicate a wealth of socially constructed knowledge...contribute a short tale about your own experience as inspiration to others...
WINDOWS art gallery...Tale Talk
Intuition: at the beginning of 2013, attend a little party to talk about new year resolutions arranged by an AUS CCC WSD graduate. I knew that 2013 would be filled with diversity and challenges.
Intention... place myself where something worthwhile might happen. (Sadru) Be at the right place at the right time.
Interaction... the friends in that small group were instrumental in our decisions. We were sharing the song of our futures in silent ways.
Inspiration...choose practicing "openness" to what was to come. I don't know why I choose this Intention. Intuition comes from a place full of wonder.
Pararox...Easy as Team
Intuition...gift new CCC cohort members a Belltown neighborhood welcome gift.
Intention...a heroes journey into the community for each new student.
Interaction...The Easy as Team co-created parabox, pararox, stories and heroes journey map.
Inspiration...Team members and a parabowl endure as a creative team with A Full Bowl...
Parabox...Travelers Intuition...mystery is enticing.
Intention...facilitators engage with other spectactors by sharing the contents of the Parabox.
Interaction...spectactors discover ancient and co-create new knowledge.
Inspiration..."Knowledge emerges only through invention and re- invention, through the restless, impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry human beings pursue in the world, with the world, and with each other."
Paulo Friere .1970
A Full Bowl...
Intuition : People around the globe, already experienced with living in very diverse environments, are the designers and implementers most capable of solving their world food issues.
Intention :Empower individuals, families, small groups and organizations to self-organize with useful tools at self-identified points of intervention in local food systems.
Interaction : Local service agencies cooperating with local contacts and global communication companies could provide the tools needed by people to build local food networks.
Inspiration : Encourage a scaled replicable process to allow individuals to identify and disseminate knowledge and implement alternative cooperative food related systems.
Intuition :People around the globe, already experienced with living in very diverse environments, are the designers and implementers most capable of solving their world food issues.
Belltown Tales Change Project
Intuition......Continue development of a personal praxis of social change based on a simple metaphor by engaging people within their dynamic community of 12,000.
Intention......Observe community, interact personally and authentically and respond using processes learned at AUS, CCC, WSD to encourage positive social change.
Interaction......Build connections between individuals, groups and organizations to encourage collaborative design and implementation of new community projects.
Inspiration......Creative change processes iterate into new subjective/
object based methods to support global cooperative systems springing forth with social change.
Peoples Belltown Republic Intuition...a group of people who name themselves PBR after a low end beer and meet at the Rabbit Hole are creative people...
Intention...find out what they are up to...
Interaction...Help them clean up Saturday night street trash on the Belltown Riviera on Sunday morning before congregating at the bar. Follow and help as needed at the Belltown Night Out and the Belltown Pageant.
Inspiration...Friendship is of value for human beings...Norms control actions and isolate emotions...Humans are emotional creatures protecting their friendships...often by collectively breaking the norms...
Emmaus Road Church...
Intuition...a small destination inner city church with homeless and suburban families must be a place of spirituality.
Intention...experience this place and people with spirit in mind...
Interaction...regular meetings with the community organizer/musician/ pastor of this church and his friends and coworkers generate potential projects, strategies and personal relationships.
Inspiration...although this is a place of genuine heartfelt spirituality... connecting with the diversely needy community outside is a very, very slow process. The art of music is a powerful force breaking the isolationism inhibiting the sharing of this spirit.
Cafes and Bars... Intuition...gathering places foster new relationships...
Intention...spend time, observe and communicate...
Interaction...Some people happily isolate themselves in quiet, not too crowded cafes with digital devices or reading. Some isolate themselves in the company of friends in overly loud and crowded bars. Some use these places to communicate and organize, sharing food and drinks and ideas and plans.
Inspiration...New relationships start mostly through friends people meet and workers they know. An open behavior is risky and is also usually rewarded. These are memorable places designed for enjoyment. Places to celebrate different kinds of groups of people in a community.
Belltown Community Council...
Intuition...as a group authorized by the city to represent the whole community, this group should be a place to observe power structure.
Intention...to observe and contribute service to the community.
Interaction...Observe public events and meetings, open up to a diversity of participants.
Inspiration...the rational is embedded deeply in the relational... Vulnerability, when shared, is a strength at any level of power. Relational work is well rewarded and usually not with rational rewards.
Belltown Business Association... Intuition...Business is an efficiently bounded and ruled system.
Intention...Be open to observe inside the system and find points of engagement.
Interaction...Observe regular meetings and get togethers. Engage members about their work and community projects. Make connections to elsewhere in the community as they arise. Share personal interests.
Inspiration...Collaboration with art is a point of engagement for diverse community interests.
Belltown Art...
Intuition...Collaboration with art is a point of engagement for diverse community interests.
Intention...Help generate subjective/objects, participatory multipurpose art capable of building community.
Interaction...Through time spent in personal relational work, rational art projects addressing the relational, emerge from diverse sources, fostering communication and understanding.
Inspiration... Community Coasters...
Intuition...What did you think about Belltown before arriving ? Intention...Of all the places to be...why do you spend time in Belltown ?
Interaction...What is of most importance...happening for you in Belltown ?
Inspiration...How have you changed...since coming to Belltown ? Community Round Tables...
Intuition...Getting everyone together around the table is a good thing for community.
Intention...Organize an event to build community.
Interaction...Groups already meet regularly and separately in a well structured community.
Inspiration...Reframe the separate meetings in cafes, bars, halls, parks, offices, on the monorail, as "Round Tables" and share the process and
results between locations. Belltown Street Murals...
Intuition...Murals in busy urban intersections would unite Bell Street Park into a Pedestrian Boulevard.
Intention...Permanent Locations for "WEARABLE ART" a media which wears way over time with use, allowing dynamic creative involvement to reappear regularly.
Interaction... Themes and content are allowed to change with the neighborhood. Opportunities to engage new artists on a regular basis to renew the messages with new artists, themes and content.
Inspiration... The collaborative effort would bring together artists, involve them with the Belltown Community and build relationships which will build community.
Parking Lot Murals...
Intuition...A project to cover up graffiti to inhibit drug related activity on three walls of a parking lot might be a point of intervention into other systems.
Intention...Work with the needs of the potential participants to turn problems into opportunities.
Interaction...Collaborate with the BCC president to formulate sketches and engage the owner. The visions of a mixed use public/private space with a wide assortment of art and market related possibilities match the owner's needs for the space as an event center.
Inspiration...The sketches were an opening for future opportunity. A followup chance encounter with the owner also led to a discussion with his close friend about the Big Belltown Bell and the West Bell Boulevard. Because this chance encounter was much less formal, it was also more
rewarding. Belltown Big Bell...
Intuition...I had seen this big bell, silent on the ground in front of the fire station. I thought at the time that I would like to hear it ring. It could be heard for ten miles.
Intention...I had none. I never considered all the possibilities.
Interaction...This idea re-emerged while observing and researching a place and meeting a group business people interested in creating the next big art that would compare and compete with the biggest art in the Seattle area. Two of the business people knew I had a gallery and so they brought up this idea as we sat together in a bar one evening.
Inspiration...Although it comes from a place of competition, the strength of this particular project could be the collaborative nature of sharing the metaphor of bells in diverse ways among diverse populations in Belltown. Diversity is at the heart of the Belltown Bell proposal which would let freedom ring from a large restored historic fire bell and an associated assortment of public and corporate bells all over Belltown. Ringing out to international visitors, tourists and informing neighbors about the traditions of Belltown.
West Belltown Boulevard...
Intuition...what potential lay in the path of the rebuilt bell street west of first to the waterfront ?
Intention...Keep an open mind and listen for potential uses.
Interaction...After a BBA meeting I talked with a Real Estate Agency owner as he walked back to his office overlooking the waterfront. Outside his window is a giant umbrella art piece which he helped negotiate. We talked briefly about the Big Bell. But more importantly, he mentioned his
effort to remodel buildings for more usable commercial space.
Inspiration...Bell beyond First drops about five stories to the waterfront. As a commercial pedestrian street, it could be a multi-leveled park offering more useable public access to shops and services. A level walkway leads to an elevated public view point with elevator at the cruise ship terminal where the Big Belltown Bell rings ceremoniously to announce Belltown.
Art Institutions...
Intuition...Major art centers border Belltown. They should be active in the community.
...Contact their community representatives.
Interaction...Although efforts were made to engage representatives, they were either recently eliminated, vacant or very overworked and in positions not responsive regarding possibilities in a world of real active projects needing to be maintained.
Inspiration...Large institutions in conservation stage have limits to growth. Generative community art blooms much easier closer to the ground.
BMX Bandits...
Intuition...Duglas Stewert and his BMX Bandits band should play in Belltown near the EMP and the documentary about him should be shown at AUS. After 25 years as an Indy Pop non-sensation, it was time.
Intention...Engage the Belltown Music scene and convince them or EMP and AUS to host events.
Interaction...By chance I learned about Duglas T Stewart and the BMX Bandits from a neighbor and Scot who went to school with Duglas and meets with him occasionally in Scotland. She knows of his heartbreaks and short lived successes. He has been supported by other musicians and fans who deeply appreciate his light cheerful music which he creates out of his pain to relieve the pain of others. He has no agent. I have talked to Elizabeth, Belltown Community Council President and members of the Antioch Community who are interested in seeing that a documentary about him be seen and that Duglas be able to perform in Seattle.
Inspiration...The producer of the film is Jim Burns, who had never picked up a camera before discovering the music of the Bandits during a period of very heavy depression in his own life. In the film, Jim really opens up, describing a time when he was ‘emotionally numb’, he couldn’t feel anything good or bad. Yet somehow, the music of the BMX Bandits broke through the ‘numbness’ and reached him. Kurt Cobain and his band Nirvana were the antithesis of the BMX Bandits. They and especially Kurt were always playing painful music that kept on hurting. At one point Kurt was asked, if he could be in any band in the world, which one would it be. He said the BMX Bandits and often wore one of their Tee Shirts. He never did and never will.
AUS and Community... Intuition...AUS should be engaged in the community.
Intention...engage the community and send contacts to AUS. Encourage personal participation by AUS staff, students, and administration.
Interaction...I worked with my predecessor, John regularly and he was always responsive to meetings in the community. Anne and Shawna, two other students, worked successfully for one quarter in Belltown and we had a good outcome with the Community Round Tables proposal. Also an AUS Education student worked on a school related project.
Inspiration...Institutional involvement in a community works if it is deeply relational, collaborative, cooperative and co-creative.
Iteration :
Initiation returns, as we are at the end of this paper and our point in time to enter cycles of change work elsewhere. I am grateful to be able to write about this kind of an experience as part of an academic paper. I know this kind of writing crosses the subjective/object line separating rational and relational. The system of learning at AUS CCC is designed to allow such a paper (I hope). And through my experience, there are many times and places when the system of learning about and experiencing Intuition, spirituality and emotions is inhibited by a rational system of education and finance and power.
Observing the Belltown Tales process as a whole led to Inspiration for iterative work in other large scale cooperative complex adaptive systems. To have face to face interactions with a broad range of people and organizations, I would start to interact with people using a simple and deep set of questions about their relational values to their community. The evolving set of answers would help me understand my role in this process.
This idea of sharing and synthesizing tales has grown to be part of a personal theory of social change. Art is a durable conversation. Access to metaphor allows meaningful sharing, iteration and replication over time. A metaphor can be persistent and an Inspiration for change. Intuition, Intention, Interaction, Inspiration is only one subset of a collection of metaphorical images which generate stories as part of "tale of the tiles". The tiles are the contents of the "parabox" (everything outside the box is in the box). I feel like I am now in a self initiated expansive mode into creative chaos and that I am supported in that effort by my learning and my associations made during my AUS learning experience. As I begin to put some of this personal change into practice, there are subtle differences in the states of my intra-personal Intuition and inter-personal Interaction. In general I would describe this change as " openness "
Wide open and ahead the A Full Bowl project promises to be a collaborative cooperative effort to work at a global scale with very large,
dynamic partners and many groups of people who have similar positive global change goals. A small group of AUS graduates with diverse interests are working collectively to play on a global scale with a least difficult business model and a most challenging focus of world hunger and urban food insecurity. (34 Elkington )
Writing this synthesis has been a small part of a disorderly transition to a transforming life. Things have changed. Many of the same places now feel different. Intention is strong. Interaction active and engaged. Chaos now a bit more orderly. Everyday events are now places to play with process. Creativity is collaborative. Reflection spawns Inspiration.
From my point of view, our Interaction has failed. I am writing this paper. We are not writing this paper. We shared these words separately without creative collaboration. And yet without the Interaction of we, I would have had nothing to write. This was my personal theory of social change. You were silent. We had no heart to heart talk. I have no idea how you feel about what you have read. No Inspiration gained. And how was it for you? What is your personal theory of social change? I have no way of knowing your Intention. And we are together in this place of chaos and cosmos, pathos and ethos, mythos and logos. Surprise me. Call now or go out and do something wonderful that I will hear about soon. A faint Iteration of CCC learning will be my reward for spending all this time here alone moving around words that shift from chaos to cosmos to chaos.
This objective paper is meant to not be an artful subjective object. And I hope to have failed to make it so. Writing on a blank wall maintains the usefulness of the wall. I offer no wall. Writing on a sheet of paper might still allow the usefulness of wrapping fish. Digitally, well, it is durable through replication. My Intuition is that the words on this page are durable. And they will not endure. Take the tales and metaphors with you and share them. Throw away the rest. As durable as they are, they will not last.
Intuition...of nothingness Intention...we come spinning out Interaction...scattering stars Inspiration...like dust Rumi (13th century Persian poet)
Specification : Every thought in this paper has been co-created with another human being.
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