Involve Me. And I Will Understand.

I first came across the proverb, - Tell me something. And I will forget. Show me something. And I can remember. Involve me. And I will understand - thanks to a BMW ad.

Though I am not one to push brands, the BMW ad was genius. Much like the sun leaves an after effect once you close your eyes, a flash was used to burn an image of the logo into viewers heads. The video urges you to close your eyes and imagine your dream. When you do "BMW" fades in as an after image.

Whether or not BMW should be equated to your ultimate goal in life is another story but the technique itself is very cool.

The original is:

不闻不若闻之，闻之不若见之，见之不若知之，知之不若行之；学至于行之而止矣。

(pinyin: Bù wén bù ruò wén zhī, wén zhī bù ruò jiàn zhī, jiàn zhī bù ruò zhīzhī, zhīzhī bù ruò xíng zhī; xué zhìyú xíng zhī ér zhǐ yǐ.)

• Literally: I hear and I forget; I see and I remember; I do and I understand.
• Moral: You can only understand something by trying it yourself.
• Revised: Tell me and I [will] forget. Show me and I [will] remember. Involve me and I [will] understand.
• Also: You can't understand until you walk a mile in someone else's shoes.
• Originally by Xun Zi.

Of course there is a generally accepted interpretation. The revised proverb has a general application that is less didactic and has been applied to teaching.

I like the revised version because it is inclusive and encourages interaction as opposed to an individual struggle for perfection.

One Day and Several Carpe Diems Later

I complained when I was in search of work so I will bite my tongue and say that now I am off for the holidays. The significant other is miles away enjoying the tastes and sights of Italy. In other words I have plenty of free time. Staycation or not, I decided to make the most of it. The following is a rundown of my first tease of freedom.

11:00 Wake up for the first time in months after 6am.

Time filled with slowly milling about before getting out the door.

2:00 Running out the door. About to buy a replacement metropass off a craigslist post. (Lost two in the past two weeks, both out of my pocket.)

3:00 Metropass secured. Back in the tube with a mission in mind.

3:30 Distracted. Buying red leather gloves.

3:55 Mission back on - gifting strangers. Head over to dollar store and scour the isles for goods I would actually want for myself.

4:30 One slinky, two dreamcatchers, scrapbook gems, snowflake candles and some sweets later I began packing the mini gift bags. Insert cards as well.

The cards catered to the gifts and read something like this:

Dear Stranger,

Here is a gift and a poem I really like:

"We are the music makers, And we are the dreamers of dreams,Wandering by lone sea-breakers,And sitting by desolate streams;— World-losers and world-forsakers, On whom the pale moon gleams: Yet we are the movers and shakers Of the world for ever, it seems." -Arthur O'Shaughnessy

Love,

Your Fellow Human

4:45 Friend and I proceed to hand out gifts. First encounter unsuccessful; we are lectured on aiding and abetting Christmas - whatever that means.

4:47 People are being gifted. Smiles all around.

5:15 The guy on the street who paints for a living is given a mini canvas with a mini easel. He's a little surprised. Mostly amused. Task accomplished.

6:00 It is freezing. Can't feel fingers. One more gift to go. Dreamcatcher goes to lonely girl.

Food intermission with other friend. Spoil self with four cheese risotto at Vivoli.

10:00 Proceed to yet another friend's festive birthday party. Fire crackling, mulled wine and dated sweaters. Indulge in wistful chat of travel.

12:30 Depart after making plans to host a "dress up day" - an excuse to put those one time purchases to good use. Nod to the blue silk pants.

12:45 Arrive on King. Enter club. Meet the girls and dance the night away.

3:45 Arrive back home. Surprisingly not tired. Very satisfied.

Tomorrow will hopefully include more blogging, reading and doing what ever strikes me as worth doing. I plan to squeeze as much life out of these two weeks as I can.

Waterlution's Canadian Water Innovation Lab 2010

Last weekend I had the absolute pleasure to be a participant in the Canadian Water Innovation Lab 2010, organized by Waterlution.

This photo captures all 250 participants from across Canada, and the 50 or so facilitators, all of whom helped shape one of the most inspiring, thought provoking and insightful unconferences I have ever been to. The purpose of the event was to provide the tools and connections necissary for future water leaders to protect and preserve water resources. In upcoming posts I'll explain why.

In case you haven't heard the term before, an unconference is a participant driven event. Rather than staying in hotel rooms, or sitting through presentation after presentation, we were free to guide discussion and interact with one another. Not costumed in suites and business attire, situated in a camp setting surrounded by forest, an instant sense of ease was created. With barriers down, ideas and knowledge flowed freely.

I had the chance to participate in experiential learning activities, field tours, interactive dialogue sessions, and to meet water experts in various fields.

One of the tours was of the LEED Certified Ralph Klein Park in Calgary, both an environmental education centre and a stormwater mangement site. The 200-hectare man made wetland habitat is not merely an aesthetic addition. Much like a naturally occurring wetland, the bioengineered site will use natural vegetation to treat stormwater before it is discharged into the Bow River. Stormwater is typically managed to control flooding and erosion, prevent runoff and pollutants from entering surface water or groundwater resources in addition to other reasons.

One of the highlights was a presentation by Sans Facon, composed of artist Tristan Surtees and architect Charles Blanc, on the role and place art has in the consideration of a city's water infrastructure. Their Watershed+ project is brilliant. Not only are they achieving public mindfulness of often invisible water infrastructure, but they are doing so while allowing for people to engage with the art/infrastructure on their own terms. Rather than commanding a particular interpretation or creating an abstract vacuum, the team succeeded by appealing to one's curiosity. They trigger an innate desire to explore one's personal connection to the built and natural aspects of their watershed.*

Exposure. Appreciation. Engagement.

I loved it.

*Watershed. Not a shed for storing water but rather a natural drainage basin. The area drains all precipitation as runoff or base flow (groundwater sources) into a common body of water such as a lake or river. It is important because water quality concerns apply over multiple political boundaries e.g. land-use decisions in one town effect another in the same watershed. So, a watershed approach requires cooperative efforts for mutual wellbeing.

**If you come across a better graphic then feel free to share it.

Update

My appologies for dissapearing for some time.

The week prior to last consisted of an interview on Tuesday, being hired on Wednesday, leaving for a conference on water with highly energetic people as passionate as myself on Thursday, coming back Sunday, starting work on Monday.

I need sleep.

So while I have been employed in the slightly more than 9-5, I have been mindful of the many posts that are clamouring to be translated from my mind to screen.

Here goes....

The Soft Water Path: A Solution to Aging Infrastructure

Background

When infrastructure ages, pipe leakage contributes to approximately 30% of municipal water use – aggravating the existing strains on water management. The demands of a growing urban population combined with an increase of paved areas exacerbate the issue. In the near future, climate change will likely affect Toronto's water quality, water supply, and wastewater infrastructure, particularly due to combined sewer overflows caused by frequent high intensity rainfalls.

The Soft Path Approach

Reducing water demand provides the cheapest source of "new" water. It can also be implemented more quickly and is less environmentally damaging than any supply alternative. Most current demands can be met with far less water -- and with water of lower quality -- than is currently used.

Brooks (2005) defines the core principles of the soft path concept as: 1) Treat water as a service rather than an end in itself 2) Make ecological sustainability a fundamental criterion 3) Match the quality of water delivered to that needed by the end use 4) Plan from the future, back to the present.[1]

The soft path builds on typical water demand management, but also incorporates distinctly different conservation measures including changes in water use habits, institutional reforms and alteration of economic and population growth patterns. One of the key conceptual differences between a water soft path and demand management is that a soft path requires an analysis of the ways in which water demand can be reduced to more accurately reflect the local availability of water.

The Portland Oregon Sustainable Infrastructure Case Study

The City of Portland’s Sustainable Stormwater program has been tremendously successful. Cost-effective on-site capture of 80-95% of stormwater runoff, significant sewer overflow reductions and pollutant removal are the result of 10 years of green infrastructure policy and techniques (Centre for Neighborhood Technology 2007).

In addition to conservation measures, Portland has adopted an economic component which helps finance the management of stormwater runoff while providing an incentive for property owners to increase their permeable surface area. The Clean River Rewards Program allows stormwater utility ratepayers to offset up to 35% of their charge by registering on site rainwater retention or filtration practices (Centre for Neighborhood Technology 2007).

Basement flooding, the initial concern leading to stormwater management programs, is being remedied by an onsite green-tech project designed at 60% of infrastructure expansion costs (Centre for Neighborhood Technology 2007). The success of this program can be attributed to harmonization with municipal development policies, longevity and economic stimulus.

Further Reading

Thinking Beyond Pipes and Pumps: Top 10 Ways Communities Can Save Water and Money

10. Fix the leaks! – Reduce waste

9. Stop flushing the future

8. Make managing demand part of daily business

7. Link conservation to development

6. Price it right

5. Plan for sustainability

4. Look to the sky – Rainwater as the source

3. Close the urban water loop

2. Design communities for conservation

1. Educate, educate, educate

The Soft Path for Water in a Nutshell

· discusses the potential for this innovative approach to develop water sustainability in Canada

Book: Making the Most of the Water We Have

'The book provides a timely review of how political economies worldwide have been introducing soft path approaches. It is immensely strengthened by authors who introduced the idea to the water sector’- Dr. David Suzuki, Professor Emeritus, University of British Columbia, author, broadcaster

---

[1] Brooks. D.B. (2005) Beyond greater efficiency: the concept of soft paths, Canadian

Water Resources Journal 30-1 (Spring 2005). Pp. 1-10.

Joseph Cornell: Worlds Within a Box

I've had a fascination with beautiful trinkets since childhood. In addition to collecting scraps of ribbon, beautiful prints, and other objects with a nostalgic quality - I would also acquire tiny boxes in which to house my treasures. So when I stumbled upon the artist Joseph Cornell's collection of boxed assemblages, made of the very discarded fragments of once precious objects, a feeling of familiarity and childish delight took hold. I felt as though I had chanced upon a fraction of the world once known to an innocent imagination, locked away until now.

Untitled (Hotel Eden) c.1945

The self-taught Cornell was best known for his "shadow boxes" or "poetic theaters". His arrangement of photographs or Victorian bric-à-brac, were linked to Surrealism and possess an aesthetic similar to today's revival of French country design and the trend of re-purposing reclaimed material.

Untitled (Soap Bubble Set) c.1936

The artist is described time and again as: a wistful collector of shells, broken clocks, and antiquated postcards; a friend to ballerinas; and a shy man dedicated to his spirituality and care for his younger brother.

Untitled (Marine Fantasy with Tamara Toumanova) c. 1940

His art, the pastiche of many familiar and loved themes, inspires me to create. I can only hope that the magic of his pieces may have stirred something in you as well. If I've succeeded at peaking your interest then this interactive online museum allows you to view more of his work.

Cycles of Time

Das Rad (English title: Rocks), a German animated film written and directed by Chris Stenner, Arvid Uibel and Heidi Wittlinger, is amongst my favourite video clips to share.

The film tracks the passing of time as perceived by two rocks on a hillside, alternating between high speed, representing geologic time, to real time and the relative obscurity our greatest inventions have in relation to the scale of Earth's history.




The short brings to mind a Charles Dickens poem, The Ivy Green. In particular:

Whole ages have fled and their works decayed,
And nations have scattered been;
But the stout old Ivy shall never fade,
From its hale and hearty green.
The brave old plant in its lonely days,
Shall fatten upon the past:
For the stateliest building man can raise,
Is the Ivy`s food at last.
Creeping on, where time has been,
A rare old plant is the Ivy green.

Deep time, a concept our minds rarely skim over, renders humanity a mere blink in the context of the Earth's past and likely it's future - that is unless you believe our species, by one means or another, will continue to flourish for at least a few million years.

One is neither a doomsayer nor a fatalist for understanding that a natural cycle of growth, decay and entropy exists. We have become so fixated with the boons of linear growth, ever expanding progress, that we fail to notice that this notion is flawed for the same reason why a perpetual motion machine can not exist. From ideas to civilizations human history depicts the existence of such cycles. My very life is an example, as is yours. The planet from carbon to water operates in cycles as well.

It is not tragic, but merely a fact of existence. Ever notice the reoccurance of spirals etched or painted on earthen pots belonging to neolithic peoples? Our ancestors did not have the luxury to ignore the natural flux of seasons or migration as their diets and very survival depended upon tunning into these cycles. They weren't spiritually enlightened as much as practical. With our built environments and growing ability to shelter ourselves from the "wild" we have created an imaginery bubble that reinforces our outdated 20th century systems, based off of 19th century thinkers, and 18th century concepts.

So whatever happens in terms of climate change, the planet will continue to exist albeit under conditions less favourable for life. Though extinction is an inevitability in the long run, it can be postponed for a significant period of time if our economic, political and social systems are readjusted to operate in tune with the rate of recharge (e.g. groundwater) or decay (e.g. greenhouse gases) of the resources we exploit.

La vida es corta pero es ancha

So, I've graduated from university with a very multifaceted degree but am for the most part unemployed, save a job not intended to be a career in the least.

Recently I picked up, "You Majored in What?: Mapping Your Path from Chaos to Career" by Katherine Brooks, a career guru. What initially caught my eye was the word chaos as I am very interested in complexity science. Most of you have probably heard of the butterfly effect, a metaphor that encapsulates the interdependency of dynamic systems by showing how a small initial action like the flap of a butterfly's wings can produce a greater event long term, i.e. Tornado.

Well, the book deconstructs the notion that one's major implies a linear path to a career. That is, it stresses the importance of unpredictable events in shaping our career paths i.e. networking events or meeting a friend of a friend. As these circumstances can not be forecast long in advance, Brooks coaches the reader on becoming a "Wise Wanderer" - a person who is not clueless in their job hunt but rather open-minded to the unexpected opportunities that await.

As a kid, I spent a lot of time thinking about perspective and got excited when I realized that our perception of reality is contingent upon our proximity to what we experience. I pictured someone standing right up against a painting. Nose almost touching. If asked they would describe the texture of that small area within their view, the colours, and the jumbled patterns. I pictured another person standing so far away that all they could make out was the basic form of the entire painting. I then realized that an optimal distance is required to see the entire painting and went on to apply it to social contexts and what not. Now, I apply this painting allegory to my quest to find the right career.

Brooks mentions abductive reasoning which also stresses looking at the overall picture rather than basing decisions off of single factors. When life seems chaotic we may just be too close to our problems to realize the underlying order - just like in my painting observation! By finding patterns, and connections between interests and your qualifications you can pay attention to and take advandage of those unpredicted opportunities mentioned earlier.

My next step is drafting up a "wandering map" which connects the dots between my experiences, knowledge and interests.

I'll let you know how that goes.

Dreamwalking: Nuit Blanche

Nuit Blanche was a jolt of life to an otherwise frigid night. Some did opt out in favour of a traditional Saturday night but others took the opportunity to witness Toronto awaken to itself, to the people and creativity otherwise segmented indoors.

"For it to be art it needs soul," I overheard a passerby say. We were looking at one of my favourite pieces of the night, the Auto Lamp by Kim Adams. The rotating van, riddled with holes of varying size through which light poured out in a kaleidoscope fashion, mesmerized the crowds on Yonge Street. The street closed in favour of foot traffic, and the architecture illuminated by dazzling moving light could only mean one thing - or so I thought. Surely it was an homage on behalf of the van, ordinarily the dominant occupant of the street, to the enduring patrons of the city, those artful buildings of delightfully varied style. Their facades now alight to eyes habitually drawn alongst the narrow confines of a zipping lane.

To my dismay the piece was meant to toy with the idea of automobiles as mobile lighthouses.



Looking back, I suppose I expected a more practical and inspiring message. Something which was less of an observation and more of a statement. Regardless, as the photo can attest, it was beautiful.

Later we were miffed by Wait Until You See This, the black curtains prompting a long line up of curious roamers. It was not so much the wait and subsequent exit into an alley but rather the explanation that rendered the whole affair wanting. A child of our irony laden apathetic culture, this installation bit the very hand that granted it exposure. The lineup was the spectacle, a jab at the overcrowding common to all but the first Nuit Blanche in Toronto. In a way, it was a taunt. The masses searching to consume nocturnal culture, to experience art usually out of reach to all but the financially endowed, were instead mocked for their curiosity. It was hard to see it as much more than the self-indulgent art crowd teasing those they entice.

That is, until further reflection. The artists drew attention to the lack of value we pay to "static time." Given the notion of borrowed time, we think our wait ought to barter a satisfying outcome and so we fail to acknowledge suspended time as ours. A self-induced illusion arises, in which meaning is relinquished to another party to whom we are indebted.

Though it is tempting to dismiss artists producing abstract explanations as safely hiding their lack of tangible ideas. The act of deferring interpretation upon the viewer is one of empowerment. Dialogue as opposed to dictation is the result. Either way, each artist has their own reason for their creations however egocentric or magnanimous.



While we wandered our city in a prolonged state of falling asleep, each one of us felt more alert walking streets teeming with visible signs of life.

Sweetness

For the longest time I considered honey to be a sweet, forever liquidy golden treat.

Ever since Dad started beekeeping I've awoke to the wonder that is unpasteurized honey. The first time I witnessed it condense I was grossed out, believing that the honey had now somehow expired - since I've learned that honey has been discovered not only edible but still liquid and nearly retaining its scent in the tombs of ancient Egyptians. It is the only food that does not spoil.

Unpasturized means that it has not gone through the process of heating, let alone receiving additives. Though this raw honey will crystallize sooner rather than later it contains all the health properties that have led to its time-old medicinal use. Processing removes many of the phytonutrients (anti-bacterial, anti-viral, anti-fungal stuff) used in healing wounds to ailing soar throats.

Honey is sweet in more ways than one but the bees are more than just a cute yellow and black Halloween costume. According to the US Department of Agriculture, approx. one third of our diet comes from insect pollinated plants and honeybess are responsible for more than 80% of that pollination. Now that's just in anthropocentric terms. Unfortunately due to a reason not quite yet understood the honey bee population is declining rapidly.

More detailed info on the plight of the bees.

Beginnings

After scribbled notes, papers and thoughts being committed to oblivion I have finally decided to escape the trappings of my notebook in favour of this screen which is equal parts mine and yours.

From here on in my entries will vary from daily musings, the ramblings of an idealist, links I find worth exploring, pictures that make me smile and something or other to do with either Toronto or the environment.