Accidental Vagrant

RSD9 is coming up soon. This is my first experience with an online conference. I expect it will be well worth any extra effort: http://rsd9.org

Chapter just published:  The Promise of Systemic Designing: Giving Form to Water  Learning, Design, and Technology pp 1-50 |  Cite as Harold G. Nelson (1) Email author ( nelson.group43@gmail.com )  1. Computer Science, University of Montana, , Missoula, USA  Abstract The world is understood to be more complex and dynamic than previously thought. Design is understood to be a deeper mystery than previously assumed. Design creates reality. Humans have engaged in design activities – designing – from the beginning of history, but little is known of its true nature or full potential. Familiar approaches to design and design education no longer match the real-world necessities and expectations of modern societies. Everything is connected, and it is difficult, or it seems often impossible, to determine what course of action is prudent when designing within such complexity. Systemic design is an emergent means for creating desired change that takes a broader ...

I am asked often for suggestions on readings for systemic design related topics. I also notice the lack of references in contemporary writing to watershed ideas and thinkers from just a few decades ago. As new generations of professionals and scholars begin exploring new or newish domains of interest such as design, design thinking, systems, systems approach, systems thinking et. al. it would be good to explore books and authors who have been left out of the canon of accepted texts for normative disciplines and professional fields. This article is a good reminder that there are books that need to be rediscovered even though they have been shunned by their own: Books that wouldn’t die https://lnkd.in/gtmGXuC

In the natural world, there are two ways to become an accidental vagrant. The first is to break from a normal migration route and strike off in an entirely new direction. The second is to be blown off course by a storm into strange new territory. In the world of human affairs the same is true. I found myself to be an accidental vagrant after deciding to head in the direction of graduate school—Berkeley in my case—rather than continue on my track as a practicing architect. While at Berkeley I was blown of the course I had set for myself, which was to study with the architect Christopher Alexander, by a squall I encountered in the form of a seminar held every Tuesday on campus and hosted by C. West Churchman, the Director of the Center for Research in Management Science in the Hass School of Business. At this seminar I experienced the academic version of a perfect storm. It was a combination of great ideas and great thinkers coming together because of their common interest in systems an...