FORGERY LEAGUE

Wednesday 1 November 2006

Human spaces: Hallowe’en, a new office, and a book or two

This summer we moved to a house just north of the Danforth, near Chester station. It’s a cozy neighbourhood, an old “streetcar suburb” from the early years of the 20th century, fairly well off, mostly single-family homes on snug little lots. And holy geez do they do Hallowe’en. It was a lovely mild night last night, and the sidewalks were absolutely crammed with parents and kids. Every other house seemed to have elaborate decorations. It really felt like a celebration, a time for neighbours to mingle, chat, try to outdo one another, and generally have fun. As a non-parent, I was very much an outsider, but it was still cool to see.

I really love it when the sound of people drowns out the sound of traffic, especially on a warm night. I strolled down Baldwin early this past summer, on the first “patio” weekend, as the sound of clinking glasses and cutlery and soft conversation drifted across the road. Between that and the lights on the trees (for some reason I love the sight of artificial light filtering through tree branches at night) it was really magical.

In other news, we looked at a great new potential office space today, near Queen and Broadview. Many cool possibilities. The hot water’s already partly solar heated, and there’s talk of a green roof, solar and wind power, and other initiatives; we’d have a lot of freedom to shape the space; they’re planning to rent out other parts of the building to other like-minded initiatives (architects, artists, and ‘green’ companies). It would be really cool to work on building a community of little workplaces there, both socially and physically, in the built/landscaped environment.

So I’ve been raving about Christopher Alexander‘s A Pattern Language, which talks about the sort of ‘building’ I mean. It’s an approach quite at odds with modern development practices, one that seeks to create spaces that have a real, genuine life, that instill a sense of wholeness, wellness, humanness, and do so at all scales, from regions to streets to rooms to windowsills. We can only do this, Alexander has argued, by allowing people to shape their own spaces in a real and direct way. I can barely do it justice in a short entry. Go read his books - they completely deserve the term “classic”.

Speaking of books, I ordered a copy of Worldchanging, the book for the office, and it arrived today. It’s a hefty little compendium of ideas and resources for making human civilization more sustainable, filed under Stuff, Shelter, Cities, Community, Business, Politics and Planet. I’ve heard it compared to the venerable Whole Earth Catalog series, and it’s not a bad comparison - page after page of useful and inspiring stuff from all over, aimed at bettering the world. Go buy it now.

(And it just so happened that when I opened it at random, the first page I came upon was the one about “Place-Making” - complete with a discussion of A Pattern Language...)

Saturday 21 January 2006

On optimism

From WorldChanging: a neat article by Nicole-Anne Boyer that starts with a discussion of global conflicts and segues into an examination of optimism and pessimism.

The word “optimism” or phrase “positive thinking” is problematic with too much baggage… I prefer how the Chinese have defined optimism with two related but different words. The first word is more akin to the English definition; it’s a naive hope for a better future regardless of the reality of the situation. The second word means looking at the reality of a situation as clearly as possible, and even if it is grim, and still be hopeful and open to possibilities. It’s this that we need more of.

Studies on what makes individuals “resilient” confirms the merit of the second Chinese definition of optimism. Resilient people tend to have three things in common: they have a strong value system and ability to make meaning out of life; they are excellent improvisors and adaptors given life’s events; and they are good are perceiving the reality accurately, for better or worse, in any given situation.

Tuesday 30 August 2005

Info avalanche

I’m discovering far too many cool blogs to keep up with. RSS doesn’t help - it just seems to make it all even more overwhelming. When will I ever have time to read all this stuff?

WorldChanging is an environmental blog with a futurist stripe.

We’re up against some heavy, heavy challenges, and it’s understandable that some people feel paralyzed by despair (heaven knows I get that way sometimes) or want to turn back the clock to some idealized vision of the past. But those aren’t terribly useful. If we’re going to make it through all this while saving something of this planet, it’s going to take effort on every front. WorldChanging’s got reports on ecosystems and innovations from around the world, and occasionally a personal piece or two, like A Love Note To New Orleans.

(I’ll have to jot down more of my thoughts on the environment some time.)

The Spacing Wire is from the people who bring us the excellent Spacing magazine - thoughts on public space, urban living and Toronto.

The Toronto Psychogeography Society blog is along similar lines (and shares some contributors, such as Matt Blackett). It’s more about the experience of the city; the Spacing Wire is more about issues.

CBC Unplugged has news and podcasts from the locked-out employees of the CBC, nationwide. I haven’t had a functioning TV or radio in quite a while, but when I did, I listened to the CBC almost exclusively. Now employees in several cities are turning to the web as an outlet.

The first English-language community radio station in Canada was formed by idealistic, disgruntled volunteers from Radio Waterloo, the University of Waterloo’s cable station, after RW was closed down by the student federation and reluctantly re-opened with a quarter of its original budget. I’m not expecting massive revolution at the CBC - it’s not going away - but still… this could get interesting.