"We are such stuff as dreams are made of"

ACTIVITIES Meta & More
#1

Within the context of Donella Meadows ‘Places to intervene in a system’

I want to explore the key leverage points within the current global linear economic system to which OSCEdays is offering positive disruption.

Donella meadows talks about 12 places to intervene - to change a system

(In increasing order of effectiveness)

  1. Constants, parameters, numbers (such as subsidies, taxes, standards).
  2. The sizes of buffers and other stabilizing stocks, relative to their flows.
  3. The structure of material stocks and flows (such as transport networks, population age structures).
  4. The lengths of delays, relative to the rate of system change.
  5. The strength of negative feedback loops, relative to the impacts they are trying to correct against.
  6. The gain around driving positive feedback loops.
  7. The structure of information flows (who does and does not have access to information).
  8. The rules of the system (such as incentives, punishments, constraints).
  9. The power to add, change, evolve, or self-organize system structure.
  10. The goals of the system.
  11. The mindset or paradigm out of which the system — its goals, structure, rules, delays, parameters — arises.
    1.** The power to transcend paradigms.**

I have emboldened the bottom one as ultimately this leverage point is the most potent - one we might associate with a collective shift in human consciousness. One that naturally seems a little too transcendent and other worldly.

My background is in the arts - and I can’t help but feel that it has often been the story tellers/ artists/ imagineers (intuitively OS advocates!!) who help society to see beyond the veil of their core narratives, to transcend the societal regimes.

I am keen to keep a channel open within this forum that honors the dreamers, weavers, paradigm shifters, actors, artists, writers - all of whom behave as vehicles for the flow of creativity which of course is open source.

Material flows/ information flows- can be seen as analogous to living systems and great artists have recognized this through the ages.

As we work on optimizing products through OS technology (e.g. durability, hypermodularity and flexibility of OS washing machines ( see Lars’ post as response to Circular economy washing machine) We share an understanding that value has the capacity to be extracted and generated continuously -

In the same way that one of William Shakespeare’s plays can continuously be performed ( his plays were all 'open source) - through the ages - value is continuously extracted from them and we are mere stewards here and now, then gone - but able to generate as much value as we can from all materials, information and ourselves whilst here.

As Shakespeare said -

“We are all such stuff as dreams are made of, and our little life is rounded with a sleep”

So although we will pass, the value we can accrue, steward and share through OSCEdays will endure!

http://www.opensourceshakespeare.org/views/plays/play_view.php?WorkID=tempest&Act=4&Scene=1&Scope=scene

2 Likes
#2

That Donella Meadows article is great, thanks for the link!

When you say:

I am keen to keep a channel open within this forum that honors the dreamers, weavers, paradigm shifters, actors, artists, writers

What do you mean in practical terms, and how can others join in or help you?

#3

Glad you like the Donella Meadows article, it is fantastic.

Regarding channel open -

OSCEdays is already full of experts, artists and imagineers – who are exchanging ideas globally around products, designs and systems etc.

From a practical perspective, I was imagining a sort of ‘reciprocity lens’; a specific place in the platform – where those within the OSCE community (as it continues to grow) with less experience or background in the more technical side of things (e.g. product design/ redesign/ innovation) can feel of value by sharing their less technical but nonetheless valuable perspectives on creativity, society, systems shifts - exploring how it feels/ might look to transcend current mainstream cultural narratives from an arts based perspective towards a more fully OSCE world.

I imagine a sort of feedback loop of ideas- where artists, musicians, animators, story tellers can share their insights within a designated place in the OSCEdays platform that may provide inspiration to those who design, make, do. In turn the makers and the doers will equally inspire the storytellers, artists and dreamers by way of what they are innovating, creating, designing that strengthens the shift to an OSCE.

Being really practical, I think it would be great to categorize a space within the platform that is open to the non techie types but whose inspirations may stimulate, feed and sustain new and current ideas.

It may be that I have completely missed that such a space already exists! In which case a gentle pointer will suffice

#4

As far as I’m aware, such a space doesn’t exist yet. A starting point could be as simple as a “Questions & Challenges > Arts” subcategory. The next step would be posing the right questions and finding ways to engage people with more artistic interests in this idea, and in this community.

In August I will be starting a process to collaboratively create a short open source animation about OSCE which can be adapted to different cultures and contexts, and we’ll certainly need a space on the forum for that - it seems to fit under the umbrella you’re suggesting, though it also crosses over into both Education and Global Communication.

Adding subcategories is always a difficult choice - @Lars2i has a good overview of it though - do you think an ‘Arts’ sub would be useful?