Uploaded September 2021 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
As Gregory Bateson put it, "The major problems in the world are the result of the difference between how nature works and the way people think." Presentation by Christopher Chase on July 8, 2021 for the 65th Annual Meeting of the International Society of the Systems Sciences (via Zoom, from Fukuoka, Japan) with English captions (best viewed in HD).
Based on my experiences creating visual media online, as well as teaching systems thinking to young people in the U.S. and Japan over the past 25 years, I talked about the role of art, imagination and systems science in helping people develop coherent understandings about the complex and interdependent nature of reality.
With examples ranging from Van Gogh's paintings, Indigenous cultures and Grateful Dead concerts to the ideas of Donella Meadows, Gregory Bateson, Martin Luther King, Jr., Thich Nhat Hanh, David Bohm, Einstein & Da Vinci, this presentation looks at how the arts and sciences (combined together) provide a powerful tool for visually communicating the structures and dynamics of social, cultural, ecological and cosmic systems as they exist in our universe.
Unfortunately, modern mainstream cultures are rooted in rather compartmentalized and disconnected understandings about the world that surround us. Civilization's schools, the media and sciences have divided the universe into parts and teach knowledge that way to our children, thereby making systems thinking difficult. Many of our "wicked problems" (such as war, racism, environmental destruction, sexism, consumerism, social inequality, poverty, crime) appear to be rooted in mainstream ignorance about how EVERYTHING in reality is actually connected as unified wholes.
Links to some topics discussed in the presentation:
Creativity, Imagination & Systems Thinking - replica of a course developed in 2020 for Japanese University students (Christopher Chase) creativesystemsthinking.wordpress.com/2021/02/19/creativity-imagination-systems-thinking
International Society for the Systems Sciences (homepage)
isss.org/home
How the Arts Transform Consciousness (Christopher Chase) creativesystemsthinking.wordpress.com/2015/11/18/how-the-arts-transform-consciousness
Life's Universal Design Principles (Michelle Holiday) slideshare.net/mholliday/lifes-universal-design-principles-2021
All Systems Go! Developing a Generation of “Systems-Smart” Kids (Linda B. Sweeney) lindaboothsweeney.net/SOW17_chap12_systems-thinking.pdf
You are Made from Star-dust! — a Cosmology for Regenerative Cultures - (Daniel Christian Wahl) hackernoon.com/where-do-we-come-from-where-are-we-heading-bbd54eb154fd
You are the Universe (Alan Watts)
youtube.com/watch?v=8zFJtPxKLRM
Learning Science Through Systems (Len Troncale)
youtube.com/watch?v=XrryMeFoH6E&t=318s
Cosmic Evolution- From Big Bang to Humankind (Eric Chaisson, Harvard University) https://lweb.cfa.harvard.edu/~ejchaisson/cosmic_evolution/docs/splash.html
Cosmic Evolution: The Rise of Complexity in Nature (Eric Chaisson)
https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674009875&
War is Obsolete, All Life Interrelated - Martin Luther King, Jr.
youtube.com/watch?v=-zD0qHUAiwo&t=131s
Getting Started for New Systems Thinkers (Cabrera Research Lab)
help.cabreraresearch.org/getting-started-for-new-systems-thinkers
Warm Data Lab (Nora Bateson)
warmdatalab.net/warm-data
Peter Senge Introduction to Systems Thinking
youtube.com/watch?v=eXdzKBWDraM
Oursness (Bob Randall, Aboriginal elder)
youtube.com/watch?v=a8zAh3irMYo&t=25s
How We Learn to Compartmentalize (Christopher Chase) creativesystemsthinking.wordpress.com/2019/06/08/how-we-learn-to-compartmentalize
Developmental Systems Theory: An Integrative Approach (Donald Ford & Richard Lerner) amazon.com/Developmental-Systems-Theory-Integrative-Approach/dp/0803946619
Motivating Humans (Martin Ford) amazon.com/Motivating-Humans-Emotions-Personal-Beliefs/dp/0803945299
Paradigms are Made for Shifting (Christopher Chase)
creativesystemsthinking.wordpress.com/2015/10/19/paradigms-are-made-for-shifting
As Gregory Bateson put it, "The major problems in the world are the result of the difference between how nature works and the way people think." Presentation by Christopher Chase on July 8, 2021 for the 65th Annual Meeting of the International Society of the Systems Sciences (via Zoom, from Fukuoka, Japan) with English captions (best viewed in HD).
Based on my experiences creating visual media online, as well as teaching systems thinking to young people in the U.S. and Japan over the past 25 years, I talked about the role of art, imagination and systems science in helping people develop coherent understandings about the complex and interdependent nature of reality.
With examples ranging from Van Gogh's paintings, Indigenous cultures and Grateful Dead concerts to the ideas of Donella Meadows, Gregory Bateson, Martin Luther King, Jr., Thich Nhat Hanh, David Bohm, Einstein & Da Vinci, this presentation looks at how the arts and sciences (combined together) provide a powerful tool for visually communicating the structures and dynamics of social, cultural, ecological and cosmic systems as they exist in our universe.
Unfortunately, modern mainstream cultures are rooted in rather compartmentalized and disconnected understandings about the world that surround us. Civilization's schools, the media and sciences have divided the universe into parts and teach knowledge that way to our children, thereby making systems thinking difficult. Many of our "wicked problems" (such as war, racism, environmental destruction, sexism, consumerism, social inequality, poverty, crime) appear to be rooted in mainstream ignorance about how EVERYTHING in reality is actually connected as unified wholes.
Links to some topics discussed in the presentation:
Creativity, Imagination & Systems Thinking - replica of a course developed in 2020 for Japanese University students (Christopher Chase) creativesystemsthinking.wordpress.com/2021/02/19/creativity-imagination-systems-thinking
International Society for the Systems Sciences (homepage)
isss.org/home
How the Arts Transform Consciousness (Christopher Chase) creativesystemsthinking.wordpress.com/2015/11/18/how-the-arts-transform-consciousness
Life's Universal Design Principles (Michelle Holiday) slideshare.net/mholliday/lifes-universal-design-principles-2021
All Systems Go! Developing a Generation of “Systems-Smart” Kids (Linda B. Sweeney) lindaboothsweeney.net/SOW17_chap12_systems-thinking.pdf
You are Made from Star-dust! — a Cosmology for Regenerative Cultures - (Daniel Christian Wahl) hackernoon.com/where-do-we-come-from-where-are-we-heading-bbd54eb154fd
You are the Universe (Alan Watts)
youtube.com/watch?v=8zFJtPxKLRM
Learning Science Through Systems (Len Troncale)
youtube.com/watch?v=XrryMeFoH6E&t=318s
Cosmic Evolution- From Big Bang to Humankind (Eric Chaisson, Harvard University) https://lweb.cfa.harvard.edu/~ejchaisson/cosmic_evolution/docs/splash.html
Cosmic Evolution: The Rise of Complexity in Nature (Eric Chaisson)
https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674009875&
War is Obsolete, All Life Interrelated - Martin Luther King, Jr.
youtube.com/watch?v=-zD0qHUAiwo&t=131s
Getting Started for New Systems Thinkers (Cabrera Research Lab)
help.cabreraresearch.org/getting-started-for-new-systems-thinkers
Warm Data Lab (Nora Bateson)
warmdatalab.net/warm-data
Peter Senge Introduction to Systems Thinking
youtube.com/watch?v=eXdzKBWDraM
Oursness (Bob Randall, Aboriginal elder)
youtube.com/watch?v=a8zAh3irMYo&t=25s
How We Learn to Compartmentalize (Christopher Chase) creativesystemsthinking.wordpress.com/2019/06/08/how-we-learn-to-compartmentalize
Developmental Systems Theory: An Integrative Approach (Donald Ford & Richard Lerner) amazon.com/Developmental-Systems-Theory-Integrative-Approach/dp/0803946619
Motivating Humans (Martin Ford) amazon.com/Motivating-Humans-Emotions-Personal-Beliefs/dp/0803945299
Paradigms are Made for Shifting (Christopher Chase)
creativesystemsthinking.wordpress.com/2015/10/19/paradigms-are-made-for-shifting
