Reflecting in/on practice
“You cannot understand a system until you try to change it.”
“There is nothing so practical as a good theory.”
Kurt Lewin’s aphorisms describe an integrated, embodied approach to activity and learning — work as intervention, engagement, and inquiry.
This type of work might be called transdisciplinary scholarship, action research, institutional entrepreneurship, social practice, or simply design. It’s for academics that like to mix it up, or business people that are serious about social purpose, or activists that aspire to systemic rigor.
Or maybe it’s just what we do — what we all do. “All men are designers,” wrote Victor Papanek. “Design is the conscious effort to impose meaningful order.”
I teach systems thinking in the Collaborative Design MFA program at Pacific Northwest College of Art, and on S4P I explore patterns of stasis and change.
Solving for Pattern is named after and inspired by the Wendell Berry essay. Here, I keep abreast of research and practice, dig into memetics and metanarratives, repost/rethink older stuff, and report from the local Portland scene. I seek to write critically-yet-appreciatively about a wide range of people and ideas, and I am always on the look out for relevant visual imagery. Views expressed on S4P are mine alone and do not represent past or present employers, partners, or clients.
I started S4P in May 2012 with “A draught of a draught.”
Posts that have generated discussion include:
e: howard AT solvingforpattern DOT org
t: @S4Pattern
More about me.
Original text, video, audio, and image items on S4P are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Republished or excerpted text, video, audio, and image items are licensed according to their respective sources’ licensing and/or documentation.
