  2 Feb 2007 @ 05:26, by Heiner Benking
What does realy matter? how can we see not jsut fragement but things as a whole and in perspective? how can we get orienting generalisations play-like, not as serious but making sense and fun?
The articel introduces the work of Cop MacDonald and should start with his Wisdom Series, but all is hard to fit into a frame, even very large frame as this blog entry.
Nearly every day now I am discussion with others the topic of what really matters and is relevant from a broader perspective, and how we can get there and make a difference.
I know this was covered to some degree already in this BLOG, for example in 2005: [link] and [link] but maybe I was not clear and simple enough in what I mean and want to achieve. So here is another try:
We showed in the book MATTERS OF CONSEQUENCES, that it is not enough to be in one field, but have in mind many aspects, sectores and fields, even when we are focussing onto one issue, application or project, for a long time - or at a certain moment.
We showed in the "Wheel" [link] a very simplistic display of where action is needed.
Such a layout, grid or schema is possible when you step back and try to make up a simple overview outline or a bigger picture. The dangers of overclaims and oversimplifications are great, [link] so we need to work with image or sign schemas which help us discuss the frame of mind, neigbouring themes, overlaps, commons, maybe in common patterns that connect.
Such an "Orienting Generalisations" [link] as presented with the IPA "International Play" in 2005 have to do with the Human Capability to step out of the maze, call it "excentric positionality" of Hellmuth Plessner or say we we are "MODEL-MAKING ANIMALS" http://www.google.de/search?hl=de&q="model making animals" benking&meta= (UNESCO 1964), so we can develop simple, coherent, and complete "constructions" or maps/models which can help us communicate about "realities", just the same way as we are used to negotiate the physical or material world.
Beside the physical "real" world of tangible reality, there is more to doday day as humans have endeavoured to step out of their meso-cosmos and inflict upon broader regimes, scales, cultures, ... by for example using new means and ways like: nano-technologies, manipulate genes, use radioactivity, fly planes, invade Cyberculture, .... and so create impacts humanity is naturally not equipped for and has no senses or "antennas" as Gregory Bateson called a sensorium to get a feel and touch for other dimensions.
The proposal is to build models, or order spaces to help us share and discuss "situations" http://www.google.com/custom?hl=de&cof=&domains=benking.de&q="situation rooms" benking "situation spaces"&btnG=Suche&sitesearch= "along and across scales". http://www.google.com/custom?hl=de&cof=&domains=benking.de&q="situation rooms" benking "situation spaces"&btnG=Suche&sitesearch= in what we call a "COGNITIVE PANORAMA": [link]
All this goes back to what a system and model is used for, and how we can continue like in out childhood, to play in a sandbox: imagine, create/build, improve and change.
When building such a cognitive space in 1990 for the GLOBAL CHANGE exhibition to show and share intangible issues humanity is confronted with, nearly all who were to listen to the "Challenges to Science and Politics" http://www.google.de/search?hl=de&q="challenges to science and politics" benking&meta= closed their eyes and ears, neglected and ignored, as it is too difficult for a specialist to step back and be curious. This is typical as we all too often try to ignore all we do not understand or can not control !
This is typical and a survival trick: humans filter out and ignore/spress the noise or anything "strange". This was okey in the pasat, but is not creative, not good enough to tackle challenges, and confront the dangers ahead.
It is even very DANGEROUS if people in power, may they be in science, media, politic, advisory councils... ignore what was done on high levels to tackle new challenges.
Examples are these new cognitive spaces we have build for the GLOBAL-CHANGE exhibition in the German Chancellery, or for the COUNCIL of EUROPE where with lots of preparation we were searching for NEW SPACES and NEW IDEAS for Culture and Society, [link] and [link] in times when the sciences were still struggling with the issue if "mental models" exist or not [more] or ignored the new media and multi-perspectivism.
What we are talking here about is very simple, are we "model makers" and communicators - social/cultural beings and can we take on historic and ethical perspectives? - or not ?? and freze whenever we see a dilemma?
The Proposal is to combine: MODEL THINKING - CO-CREATION - LEARN & PLAY (with pragmatics plus ethics)
It took the author already 17 years by now to check and understand what he proposes and consideres so natural - but so hard to get by shying away "educated people".
It is first of all the dogma of SPACE as being intangible, can not be questioned and changed/moved, and being "empty" - being a "a-priori" - and the neglect/ avoidance or use of the term Model just as an abstract "plactic-words" [link] and [link] word&btnG=Suche&sitesearch=benking.de as we build models in "new" or other spaces it is important to did here deeper: Ther German Herbert Stachowiak [link] created in the late 60ies a General Model Theory [link], presented it with UNESCO in 1974 and used it as a prerequisit for being able to shed new light on pragmatics, aesthetics, and ethics. The author worked with him in the last years before he died, with focus on making his work available, maybe even reprint and put to the internet, but not build on this work on models and pragmatics to show how new models can be build and how the combination of models, the linking of "realities" can be used to get a better broader, deeper, wider, ... a different "picture" of what MATTERS! (see the book above).
It might be helpful check out Stachowiaks internal and external models, and levels or orders of communciation ( see: [link] ), as a lot harm was done by neglecting synthetic and transdisciplinary sciences and using only analysis and attempting diagnosis, without really sharing commons or realities. See: "GLOBAL COVENANT". [link] an the urge for COMMON FRAMES OF REFERENCES in the RIO EARTH SUMMIT process: [link]
So what we are doing here is creating orientation and negotiation spaces to be able to share scales and issues beyond the direct reach. Stanley Krippner has called this with refererence to Baars "externally related" workplaces of the mind [link] or in the scheme of models of Stachowiak: a combination technical, graphical, kognitive, extern and sign models, ... into a new fabric or combination pattern which invites construction and exploration, and goes into a new pattern language. Stachowiak gives the Braille Alphabet as an example for 3rd order communication systems, or Dennis Wood speaks about maps (models) as Supersigns. In this presentation on the SCIENCE ivory-tower ICSU (CODATA, the International Council of Scientific Unions , the topic in combination with the future of MULTI-MEDIA is covered in greater detail: [link] or see the SLIDES: [link]
Focus and Summary:
We need Orientation, there is even a basic human right not just to be restricted to have information, but information in their specific context. Focussing means panning and zooming and not getting lost in detail, or getting lost by knowing more and more about less and less.
Such a cognitive focussing is part of the human imagination powers. If we include all senses and intelligences, we might be able to leave the box, try paradigm mapping [more], and come to more truth, fideltity and relevance in our communications.
This is in a nutshell what I do to tackle MATTERS and make them more REAL and closer to us humans.
Obove again was more that a BLIB - the typical soundbite of the media. I tried to keep the contributions of this block to up to one page. I did not manage this time, but we can not make new issues simpler than simple.
New Subjects need to be tested and applied, improved, explored and negotiated, and played with by PLAYING for LIFE ! [link]
As too much is fragmented nowadays, and people are stuck in the post-modern trap without pragmatic spins, I feel sometimes also that an outline and overview is needed, even order and orientation!, worldview compositions [link], concreteness [link] and "Schau" in an age of "Show". [link]
As too often the critic is just mentioning what was left out or is not "covered" I can only mention that another dialog and decision culture is needed, that we need more compassion and maybe an art of governance. About all that is written elsewhere in this BLOG, and lots is missing again, so it is high time to shut-up, subsume and resonnate.
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