[Subject line inserted by your host. I think Andrew forgot to write one.]
I had a straight choice this morning. To listen to the birds sing into the
dawn or read this digest. And the preceding digest by Sajeela and At, both
replying to the same person.
This morning nobirds sang.
NobirdsinNospace AKA Learning-org.
"According to Alexander, everything has "wholeness", but some things have
more of it than others do. All such things have noticeable centers, which
are themselves made up recursively of other centers. The Nature of Order
presents a unifying model of design for unfolding "wholeness" by a process
of intensifying centers. A "good" center will reinforce the other centers
around it. Existing centers may be augmented by adding adjacent centers,
or by augmenting its adjacent centers, or the centers contained within it.
The final result is a collection of recursive and hierarchical centers
which are integrated at all levels of scale and which reinforce one
another. One starts with basic, essential centers and then recursively
unfolds the design to elaborate more centers without destroying the
existing ones. An example stated by Alexander is that cells divide, and
then differentiate themselves to reinforce existing centers. Centers may
occur at any scale but the relative scale of centers within centers is
significant. Patterns, then, are regional points or invariant in the
design which exhibit deeper centers; they are configurations of centers
that serve some cultural context which is germane to that particular
culture. Whereas patterns have "names" and are only a point in the
namespace of the system, centers are truly nameless and deal with deep
structures in the human psyche and beyond. The "good space" in a design
space is where explicitly recognized, common configurations of centers
reside. This material in The Nature of Order is many times more general
than patterns."
(From a paper presented in Chigago)
Ah! to Become nameless in goodspace and then lost on the weft and weave
somewhere between bird and man.
"A thought like an image is boundless." Arendt.
Love and Thankyou
Andrew
[Host's Note: By "Alexander" I presume Andrew refers to Christopher
Alexander, whose book _The Timeless Way of Building_ is both a classic
text in architecture and the starting point for the very important idea of
"Patterns." ..Rick]
--Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <Richard@Karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>
"Learning-org" and the format of our message identifiers (LO1234, etc.) are trademarks of Richard Karash.