Gregory Bateson, Designer

Howard Silvermanwww.solvingforpattern.org

for Jeff Bloom’s NAU class on “An Ecology of Mind”16OCT14

Design is...

“planning and patterning”(Victor Papanek, 1971)

“creat[ing] possibilities” (Klaus Krippendorff, 2007)

“devis[ing] courses of action aimed at changing existing situations into preferred ones”

(Herbert Simon, 1969)

cc adapted from: https://www.flickr.com/photos/gebala/524803905

We design any time we try out new ways.

“It is inculcated by our great universities … that the world is made of separable items of knowledge. ...

And the first point I want to get over to you is that the world is not like that at all. ... 

Or, let us be more polite -- the world in which I live in is not like that at all.

And as for you, it's your business to live in whatever world you want to.”

Gregory Basteson, from the film “An Ecology of Mind”http://www.anecologyofmind.com

image: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thinking_outside_the_box

“Thinking outside the box”Example: the nine dots puzzle

Can you connect the nine dots with four straight lines, without lifting your pen from the paper?

“Thinking outside the box”Example: the object visualization puzzleHow can these two drawings both be correct?

What does this object look like? Describe or draw it.

Front elevation Side elevation

Bateson’s “boot” puzzleIn what ways is Bateson’s “boot” puzzle similar or not to the “thinking outside the box” puzzles?

As described in the film “An Ecology of Mind” and in Bateson, G. 1979. Mind and Nature. pp.47-49.

The blind people and the elephantThere was a city where all the inhabitants were blind. A king arrived with his huge entourage, including an elephant. As the people did not know what an elephant was, they groped sightlessly, gathering information through their hands.

Each could feel a part of the elephant, and each thought s/he had learned about elephants.

The one who had touched an ear said, “An elephant is flat, wide, and broad, like a rug.” And the one who had felt a leg said, “An elephant is round and firm, like a pillar.”

Each had touched one part out of many. And each had taken the part to represent the whole.

Print by Hanabusa Itchō (1652–1724). Image: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

Blind_men_and_an_elephantAdapted from: Meadows, D. 2008. Thinking in Systems. p.7.

The boot and the elephantIn what ways is the “boot” puzzle

similar or not to the elephant puzzle encountered by the blind

people in the famous story?