Seeds of Change - Heiner Benking's Blog - quergeist.info
Welcome to the NewsLog or Blog of Heiner Benking. A kaleidoscope of insights and impulses collected first in the DaZiBao (Rio) process Seeds of Change Viewsletter of the Club of Budapest since 1995, continually updated ever since. Now available for broader distribution and comments in this blog - enjoy, and come again !
30 Jan 2015 @ 13:00
A college, Tom Atlee has send yesterday his new article: Gifting into a New World. Highly recommended, but I responded immediately that gifting was part of many cultures in the past, and nowadays its seems to be more fashionable to share, splitter into parts, rent and lease…
I often heard that we do a “gifting circle” but for me it was always an “open” gifting and surprising circle, that is why we called it 20 years ago “magic roundtables”. As some of you might already know our Magic Roundtables and the Spoons, Feathers, Beads, Sticks, … Sharing … You might want to check this out later.
Nowadays and very naturally the ego perspective is “on" or fashionable, it is the “me” and the “us” – ignoring the “others” and their perspectives and having only a very local, narrow and episodic view. It is very "normal" to care for yourself and your vicinity, as it is obvious that that your underwears are closer to you than your jacket, but it is not enough to live only with one "eye". Check Multiple Eyes and Senses in this blog.
What I am referring to here is to look with various viewpoints and views, developing not only “Microscopes”, but Meso- and Macroscopes, holding various multi-modal positions and perspectives instead of getting lost in an ego-maniac tunnel-vision "worms-eye". I recommend this about group and societal pathologies: [link] check also mindbugs and mindboogles at: [link]
The Club of Rome in 1972 in his fist diagramme in the Book Limits to growths [link] used a grid (Fig 1 - schema as above) [link] , to show the time-scale and special scale of considerations and definitely not only politicians (4 years), investors (1 year?), CEOs in public companies (3months) have their narrow awareness and attention span. (more? check: Pointers to Possibilities.) But what we need is a broader picture in shared frames of references, along view, big picture and how we cultivate the Commons and not the personal gains and turfs. This is again a long story…. Maybe start with the Synopsis of Elionor Ostroms work and vision done a month before the received the Nobel Prize in Oslo (PDF) and what I referred to as the need to develop antennas for time horizons and perplexing issues – maybe the Cognitive Panorama and Cognitive Spaces are good point of departure:
This week I attended a “BAR CAMP” – one of these very fashionable sessions where people present in 1 or 2 minutes their “pitch”. Fantastic, you get a broad array of proposals, ideas, solutions, … and it is much better than our conventional gatherings, where you sit and listen to a speech and a podium of invited speakers. In such a bar camp you can even add ad-hoc contributions, and in contrast to the conventional events, participants are active and can learn a lot, not only with whom to network !
One of the organizers was to explain it to a guest, by saying: “It is like an “Open Space”, but shorter!” and I had to follow-up with that guest, as it seemed like there is some reflection needed. I called it once: Citizens Sciences meets Armchair Sciences. What is done nowadays and is very fashionable is what is known in the Literature Worlds as “Poetry Slam”. You get your time-slot and get pushed from the stage. A modern form of ShowBizz. And to be clear, I liked that Bar Camp evening, it was rich and intensive, and people who would never had a chance to meet learned where others are and how they are “ticking”.
But in the end due to the time constraints, there is a cultivation and optimization of certain ideas, the winner takes it all, but isn't there more possible when the pitches have a chance to build connections, when the intentions, constraints, objectives are more clear and “pitchers” can see how ideas and projects can connect, and this potential is discussed in broader circles.
This is what I explained about what Open Spaces are, how they are done, why they establish a market space, and leisure time at the bar and pool, to give surprise and news a chance !! and come in a closing circle to agreements, commitments, action with follow-up. See the Open Space Technologies, this interview with Harrison-Owen, the Open-Forum - and maybe in this blog about "Peanuts Sharing and Eating"... and below some [more]: More >
13 Jan 2015 @ 16:07
Yesterday we introduced CAPS Info Day - the CAPS - Collective Awareness Platforms for Sustainability and Social Innovation CAPS Info Day on 12th January 2015 – for the first time in Berlin! Location: EU-Commission Representation at the Pariser Platz - Brandenburg Gate.
We invited to the CAPS Info Day which took place in Berlin on 12th January 2015.
Jan. 12
There you will be able to learn from and interact directly with officers of the European Commission about the next EU call for CAPS
“ICT 10-CAPS Net Innovation unit in DG CONNECT” - CAPS Info Day on 12th January 2015
– for the first time in Berlin! with better world movers and Shakers: EU ICT10-CAPS Net Innovation unit in DG CONNECT with the help of several online and local organizers we want to thank all here: Das Dock, Jolocom, Lauth Transmedia GmbH, LivingBridges Planet, Social Capital World Forum, Agora, TelematicsPro, CBS, IOTPeople, Positive Nett-Works Open-Forum & General Thinking, ArtLab4, ...u.a. [link] #CAPSSI
See the final programme, pitches, side-events, roundtable,...here
We as an alliance of NGOs not like ECOSOC globally - but GLocally foccussd on Europe and its diversity invited you to the CAPS Info Day which will take place in Berlin on 12th January 2015. There you will be able to learn from and interact directly with officers of the European Commission about the next EU call for CAPS
“ICT 10-CAPS Net Innovation unit in DG CONNECT” - (Collective Awareness Platforms for Sustainability and Social Innovation).
I have shared this Mission Statement: [link] and some other links from my ).)Thinkers and Doers) page: GeneralThinking.com/HEiner the copy of Stammtisch 3.0 - how to scale dialogues: ****
and look into another kind of voting and democracy: Influence Voting, Deep Drivers, and root causes which need to be deliberated as I outlined in the "pitch circle" ****
****
Mentioned dring the day in many ways we are experiencing here a broader Approach by trying to Bridge not only 3 pilars "Politics * Science + Newthink" which was the Motto für preparing COP 19, but consider Intersectorial so to have at least Politics, Ecomony, Science,Media, and even as an important additional sector Partner the CIVIL SOCIETY = the PEOPLE. Challenging and Thrillig Project thanks to the effort to bring incompatible mindsets, verbiage,organisational structures. A really important effort thanks to the relatively new, very small butvery mcuh needed CAP exercise and the activity of an alliance of Civil Society NGO Drivers. See the website and the movers and shakers involved. I recommend this Interview: LivingBridgesPlanet Talk with EU-Officer Fabrizio Sestini and Bert-Ola Bergstrand.
____________
here some fragments, more and a more complete Report later:
PNW & OPEN_ISLAND & OPEN FORUM Magic Roundtables
(Collective Awareness Platforms for Sustainability and Social Innovation).
but life is different - like 9/11 I feel we will remeber These days of Transition.
so let us see, Stoltenberg ante portas....
TODAY in Mahnwache !! and AEDES - really a challenge...
NOTES: Zusammenhang ...
9 Jan 2015 @ 18:00
Berlin is THE HUB - transmediale 2015 [link] CAPTURE ALL VORSPIEL [link]
"Vorspiel" is the act before the play/act - so expect a great action/acting, avantgarde performances, and come back ... rushing to the vernissage opening now...
CU, HEiner
On 9 January 2015, 19:00 the pre-festival programme Vorspiel of transmediale and CTM – Festival for Adventurous Music and Art opens at Z/KU - Center for Art and Urbanistics. Coordinated by transmediale’s all-year initiative reSource transmedial culture Berlin a series of Berlin based organisations, galleries, independent project spaces and other venues from the field of digital art and culture as well as experimental music and sound art react to the festival themes CAPTURE ALL and Un Tune until 1 February 2015.
Partners & Venues: .CHB – Collegium Hungaricum Berlin, ACUD Macht Neu, Agora Collective, Alexander von Humboldt Institut für Internet und Gesellschaft, Apartment Project Berlin, Art & Science Node, Art Laboratory Berlin, Bauhaus-Archiv, berlinerpool, DAM GALLERY, designtransfer / UdK, Ehemaliges Stummfilmkino Delphi, Schering Stiftung, Errant Bodies, Institut für Alles Mögliche, Kunsthalle/PLU41, La Plaque Tournante, Labor Neunzehn, Liebig12, LOOPHOLE, Martin Reiche / Green Hill Gallery, Multiversal, PANKE, schnellebuntebilder & kling klang klong, Simple Things Berlin, studio r°, Supermarkt, uqbar, Vilém Flusser Archive, Voces (Ulrike Gabriel und Udo Lindemann), Z/KU Center for Art and Urbanistics
Opening Event
From 9 January until 1 February 2015, transmediale and CTM Festival cooperate with the Berlin network of project spaces, galleries and independent cultural actors in the field of digital art & culture and experimental sound & music for a distributed programme of partner events. Over 30 project spaces, galleries and independent cultural actors have curated and organized a rich programme of exhibitions, workshops and performances. With a common opening event before both festivals, Vorspiel aims at strengthening the dialogue with the two festivals as well as fostering the network of cultural actors and institutions, which has been established over the last years. As part of transmediale/resource, it connects different genres and practices for creating opportunities of common exchange and reflection and for bringing together communities and individuals which are dealing with art, technology, politics and identity in a critical way.
ZK/U is pleased to host the opening of the Vorspiel 2015. On this occasion, many of the participating venues will introduce themselves in an informal, social context and communicate first-hand information about the upcoming programme.
The complete pre-festival programme is available online.
The special exhibition Sensing the Future - László Moholy-Nagy, the Media and the Arts at the Bauhaus-Archiv focuses on the artistic work of the avant-gardist and Bauhaus teacher László Moholy-Nagy (1895–1946). Moholy-Nagy’s many-faceted media art as well as works by contemporary artists such as Olafur Eliasson, Gottfried Jäger und Karl Martin Holzhäuser, Erika Lincoln or Guy Maddin are presented at the Bauhaus-Archiv until 2 February 2015 (open daily - except Tuesdays - from 10:00 until 17:00). The exhibition, curated by Oliver Botar of the School of Art at the University of Manitoba, Canada, has been prepared in collaboration with the Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art in Winnipeg, Canada, and has received financial support from the Hauptstadtkulturfonds Berlin, Art Mentor Foundation Lucerne and Salgo Trust for Education New York.
6 Jan 2015 @ 09:55
Before I went to bed I found the Editorial: Sustainable Development as a "New Epiphany" [link] in the January 2015 issue of Mother Pelican. [link]
Only after looking at the definition I got what was meant: a moment in which you suddenly see or understand something in a new or very clear way
and when checking further in WIKIPEDIA:
"An epiphany (from the ancient Greek ἐπιφάνεια, epiphaneia, "manifestation, striking appearance") is an experience of sudden and striking realization. Generally the term is used to describe scientific breakthrough, religious or philosophical discoveries, but it can apply in any situation in which an enlightening realization allows a problem or situation to be understood from a new and deeper perspective. Epiphanies are studied by psychologists[1][2] and other scholars, particularly those attempting to study the process of innovation.[3][4][5]
Epiphanies are relatively rare occurrences and generally follow a process of significant thought about a problem. Often they are triggered by a new and key piece of information, but importantly, a depth of prior knowledge is required to allow the leap of understanding.[3][4][6][7] Famous epiphanies include Archimedes's discovery of a method to determine the density of an object ("Eureka!") and Isaac Newton's realization that a falling apple and the orbiting moon are both pulled by the same force.[8][6][7] check WIKIPEDIA for the [footnotes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epiphany_(feeling) ].
For me it was before something supernatural and religious, but now I agree with Lois that there is a need for epiphanies for Sustainable Development - read the editorial and the journal ! [link]
and maybe in an earlier issue of Mother Pelican my "Ignorance or Compassion" [link] elegantly polished by Louis....
Recalling "maimeutics" by my friend and mentor Helmut Krauch [link] one of the very few special and fine people I have met, I wonder how can make such rare "super"natural heurica "normal" as we need special help and guidance not only on holidays like today, but to adress the malaise and problematique [link] not only of "Sustainable Development". more about addressing this you can find at the 21stCentury Agora website... [link] I recommend Quickstorming[link] by Hans Morawa, The New Renaissance https://www.scimednet.org/content/towards-new-renaissance-3-harmonising-spirituality-nature-and-health events by the SMN [link] (check Marilyn Wilhelm [link] - Her Wilhelm Scholê [link] and my slides [link]) and The Book of Synergy by Achmed Khamas [link] (see how Klaus Töpfer recommends it !) Both recommendations might provide some learning about what is already there and how to engage it ! Another recommendation needed? Grand Challenges in Environmental Sciences (2001) [link] check the evaluation process and find out which GRAND CHALLENGES have been taken already and which were ignored/forgotten...
Besides: New Year I decided to bring the central stories or paradigms I work on and feel should be brought together onto the STORIES [link] page of GlobalThinkers. Enjoy as I feel there are there well situated in a more terse and appropriate environment than this overfloodding blog!
1 Jan 2015 @ 22:42
After my "Sharing piece" and the"Eight Eyes" last week I decided to bring in a series of short articles some of what I call „The Difference“ onto the paper – into the web. I becomes more and more clear that I have describe the critical elements – but also explain in a video-clip - and present learning and applications.
I confess it is old and new, so it is very critical to present what is meant by certain terms.
For example I often quote: Ohne Zusammenhang kein Zusammenhalt? but I never really tried to explain what this entails. Below under [more] I copy what the dictionary proposes – and again: it is right and helpful but also misleading and wrong in view of how I use it.
We know with Terms like Gestaltung, Corpus, Body, …. a lot is meant by different people.... so let me explain as this is central to understand my „Cognitive Panorama“ [link] and [link] and my „blackbox / whitebox nature or how I called it in 1990 „Rubik'S Cube of Ecology. [link]
It has much to do with what we can understand under the terms Holism and Wholeness – check here our Wholeness Seminar and some early publications:
Ohne Zusammenhang kein Zusammenhalt?www.benking.de/verweigerung.html When I wrote an invited essay 15 years ago for Culture of Refusal / Culture of Saying „No“ !
I had to learn that that title was already used 200 years earlier by Friedrich Fichte in his Address to the German Nation“ - „Rede an die Deutsche Nation“ Fichte did not used my second title but I feel we are very close here as I am not addressing the individual or meso-scale, but other scales or other eyes - see the 8-eyes spider article above.
Ritter Humboldt [link] check frames: and hyperframes and Using Maps and Models, SuperSigns and SuperStructures see CODATA-MIST 2005: [link] and boundaries: [link]
We first need to differentiate between: closer – or broader meanings, specific – versus general meanings – wider or narrower contexts/meanings/applications.
31 Dec 2014 @ 16:13
OLD YEARS - NEW YEARS
thanks to this outstanding TV-Documentary on ARTE: [link]
20 years ago someone told me after my contribution "CONCEPTUAL SUPERSTRUCTURE - [link] - COMMON FRAMES" [link] : "There is knowledge in there, why do you hide it".
Maybe I felt long ago that I have time - maybe all needs to be implemented and tested - but "WE" have no time ! I looked over "papers" I did the last 30 years and realized, yes, I do not dare to overwhelm people and more hide in vague or new terms and with lots of imagination and curiosity needed. But I also realize that the texts where ok, need some editing and polish, can improve by presenting them in a Corpus, and not in pieces, as I mention Parts and Pieces hiding bigger pictures and potentialC in the entry above about SHARING.
I feel it needs showing and sharing and doing what I mean. Me ? 3 eyed? a Cyborg in the picture?
A lot was written about multi-modal, for example in "House of "Eyes" [link] always used the Eyes of the Mantis - Gottesanbeterin or check my admiration of the Chameleons [link] - friends/pets in my/the house over years in the 70ies .... But today, me, memerized, seeing in TV the ( eyes of spiders ) [link] and even some can see with infrared...
Yesterday I also saw interview with Mickail Gorbachew - he said he speaks up after 18 month of silence .... When MG introduced with "us" - THE Club of Budapest in Frankfurt 18 years ago !!? "The New Thinking" - Das Neue Denken" I liked it, but was skeptical - is it meant to unit or bring together opposites, bring down walls between enemies or extremes? or there more needed?
How could we make it real, beyond words? as words like icons fade, as stories and metaphors need to be grounded.
I have only recently found the series by Sir David Attenborough. He always presents unique solutions in Nature, like the spider eyes above, or my very favourite animal: A Chamaeleon. I had some in the late 70ies and have build a "Terrarium" to study or better observe them over longer periods. Sir Davids presentation is one of the highlights oftelevision for me. He answered many of the questions I still had and I am very thankful as I realized what I do with my multi-modal, multi-sensoral "Kunstgriff" is an approach of the raw model as Nature shows us with the Chamaeleon. 3 D cognitive models, high-tech, changing and changieren (still searching for a translation into English).
With Sir David also John Firn comes to mind who helped us around the Geotechnica 1991. [link] Well I need to revist the Global Change 1990 and the Geoechnica.. Lots to be learned !
stellt in dieser Dokureihe zwei Tiere gegenüber, die eine erstaunliche Eigenschaft gemeinsam haben. Um einige Tiere rankten sich schon bald nach ihrer Entdeckung wahre Schauermärchen. In dieser Folge betrachtet David Attenborough zwei Spezies, die dieses Schicksal miteinander teilen: den Gorilla und die Vampirfledermaus.
BATESON: New Antennas for extra dimensions and dynamics
ORWELL - stachowiak - spectrum **** !!!
Nairobi 1995 - Robust Paths ****
20 Dec 2014 @ 11:54
UNFORTUNATELY I could not get back to Berlin yesterday for the Innovation Cirle (Innovations Kreis) even when this was in my calender since long !
Collegues were inviting for the "end of the year" event where they again announce "time sharing" as one of the formats they wanted to introduce to the group.
I mentioned this effort some time ago in this blog and featured their "peanut sharing" not understanding the power of giving and encouragement for co-creation. One of the moderators even told me this with the units is anyway "rubbish" - "I moderate the group and they can eat the peanuts" - proving that they did not get the idea of true sharing in a "gift" (commons) economy-ecudomy ! You can read my sentiments here: [link]
On the way I came across an interesting advertisement by WorldVision [link] - Future for Children: Sharing is getting a new meaning, its original meaning ! mein-patenportal.de #wirklichsozial
But lets not discuss something "new" as how can the "original" be new, but take it as a sign of a deep loss of social cohaesion and meaning of central order in our socio-cultural fabric.
So let us see what is the „true meaning“ for WorldVision, is it giving freely and unconditionally?, or just tending it for some time, rotating something?
18 Dec 2014 @ 15:01
Presently attending:
A Universal Declaration of Rights of Nature ? - OSI GENEVA ...
A presentation of Existing and Emerging Projects incorporating Rights of Nature and a Panel offering Tools to Reflect and Decide.
[link]
Objective-Sciences-International.org (OSI)
OSI is doing great work around RECHERCHE PARTICIPATIVE and EARLY SCIENCE EDUCATION -check out OSI and phantastique projects with the youth: info@osi-ngo.org
https://www.causedirect.org/en/project/geneva-forum
Animator : Thomas EGLI, President of the NGO Objectif Sciences International
The public session yesterday about Global Capacties to be put on the "road" was very rewarding ! [more] soon ! More >
18 Dec 2014 @ 09:43
In the Federal Foreign Office in Berlin December 16-17, the topic is European Commemoration. [link] But how to commemorate WORLD WAR 1 when only looking at European States and not the impacts and effects this WW1 had on other regions of the world? A question **** raised in the opening session Tuesday evening before the screening of***** Episode 1
Are there common historical points of reference? and is it enough to look with the eyes of historians?
I shared the ideas of connecting positions and perspectives/views, frames, .... to bring them into context and make this concrete in models. I shared The PETERS SYNCHRONOPTIC WORLD HISTORY and gave it as an example of only presenting "flat" on paper (2 dimensionsional) but also adding further dimensions. Maybe check EARTH FOCUS FOUNDATION [link] and their Global Youth Conference GYC 2011 presentation [link] and the 9-D [link] Cognitive Panorama [link] - and received after speaking from the floor and later around the receptions.
In 2014 there have been several scientific conferences to commemorate the Centennial of the First World War. The conference European Commemoration will reflect this year's commemoration projects and bring together over one hundred leading scholars, artists, education experts, and professionals, from a broad range of fields. This multi-faceted, international conference will discuss different aims, topics and perceptions of national, non-governmental and border-crossing concepts of commemoration in Europe. It highlights the coexistence as well as the exchange and the controversies occurring in the context of commemoration.
The conference's goal is, in cooperation with the participants, to shed light on the opportunities and limitations of a European culture of memory. The particular background of each participant will help shape the understanding of the multitude of perspectives on the memory of the European war with its singularities and its commonalities.
Over the course of two days presenters from the disciplines of science, culture, and education will share their insights on how the First World War has been and is remembered in Europe. The conference will feature three workshop sessions across four different sectors: Science, education, society, and culture. In each sector participants will be able to discuss the conference theme through three central questions: The first one regards the significance and aims of remembrance for societies. What are the necessities for societies to 'remember'? How do past and present interrelate? The second panel will discuss dividing lines of European memories. It will cover national narratives on war experiences and how these narratives influence their remembrance but also look at generational or social dividing lines. The last panel will deal with the potential of joined European narratives. More >
This is Heiner Benking's News Log, a private-public diary presenting events, symposia and happenings in Berlin and elsewhere - my farings, foci, issues and concerns.
PLEASE CONSIDER THIS PERSONAL BLOG an ARTISTIC and PERFORMATIVE MEDIA INTERVENTION !
The Log links to my work and interests and presents issues and special concern of maybe a very small group of "concerned, engaged generalist" - a Global Interest Group (GIG). This needs to be seen in contrast to the ubiquitous Specialized Interest Groups (SIGs), the "scientific" approach to organize subject areas and specialization and standardization and harmonization! of means, nomenclatures, and modes of thinking. My favorite stories in the WHOLENESS SEMINAR include:
BELA BANATHY: "GENESIS
OF GENERAL SYSTEMS THEORY" and "IVAN HAVEL: Longing for Unified Knowledge" where a "specialist" runs into the founding session of the early foundations General Systems, mumbling "this is not my field" or where Ivan M. Havel expresses his search for other kinds of knowledge.
As a starter I also recommend to check my MINDPRINT site, where we add the need for HANDPRINTS and MINDPRINTS, as FOOTPRINTS are good to visualize and communicate numbers, densities or consumption per area, but are not sufficient to negotiate and "harmonize" across domains and communicate gains in different cultures, technologies, times,... in short: incompatible but relevant information and our work on dialog, peace, policy-making, and multi-modal, faceted issues and consequences.
What am I? This is a "well-packed" question for which I have not the or a single answer. Some called me an in-betweener, go-getter, facilitator, hub, marvel-hero, trim-tab, bricoleur, bricoleers??? - career designeer, .... Some even "hank" which I disliked or Story which I liked very much !!
I have no single answer as I feel we need to walk the talk and sing and dance Life ! in spectra and fields in multiple embodied spaces.
To nebulous an answer? I am sorry but I do not go for overclaims and oversimplifications, under-complex and over-simplistic approaches with clan-think mindsets about real issues in clear contexts!
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30 Jan 2015 @ 13:00
13 Jan 2015 @ 16:07
9 Jan 2015 @ 18:00
6 Jan 2015 @ 09:55
1 Jan 2015 @ 22:42
31 Dec 2014 @ 16:13
20 Dec 2014 @ 11:54
18 Dec 2014 @ 15:01
18 Dec 2014 @ 09:43