Re-cognition of transformation in various domains

In Quest of a Dynamic Pattern of Transformations (Part #4)

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Following Alexander, the question is then how to identity the range of domains in which processes of transformation are recognized in some way -- especially those which are familiar and of personal significance. Alexander's approach can, for example, be used as a template to explore the applicability of his pattern language in selected other domains, as with the experimental 5-fold Pattern Language (1984):

• Template: This endeavours to describe the pattern in content-free terms as pure relationship. As such it is a guideline for the elaboration of patterns for other arenas.
• Physical environment: This is an adaptation of Alexander's own pattern description
• Socio-organizational environment: This describes the pattern as it applies to the organization of social groups, organizations and networks.
• Conceptual environment: This describes the pattern as it applies to the organization of a conceptual framework or a body of knowledge.
• Intra-personal environment: This describes the pattern as it applies to the organization of modes of awareness adopted by a person.

Again it needs to be stressed that that exploration focused on pattern in its static sense -- and not on the dynamics of a transformation, however much Alexander may have implied it through considering the manner in which design is engendered in practice (as in The Oregon Experiment, 1975). Any transformation process might well be recognized as a kind of standing wave, and the transformation might indeed be given a label for communication purposes. However such devices dissociate the person engaging in the process from the cognitive intimacy required by engagement in the dynamics of the transformation. A similar point can be made with respect to human values (Freedom, Democracy, Justice: isolated nouns or interwoven verbs? Illusory quest for qualities and principles dynamically disguised, 2011).

A set of domains could be identified in which "transformation" is variously recognized -- each domain being variously suggestive of insights into the elusive nature of the dynamics of the underlying generic pattern. The insights would seem to be associated with the manner in which the more readily recognized transformation processes are employed as metaphors. The elusive dynamic is effectively "sensed" in ways which permit its nature to be communicated to a degree through metaphor (cf. Metaphors as Transdisciplinary Vehicles of the Future, 1991).

The domains for consideration could then include the following, tentatively clustered for convenience:

1. Abstract / formalization
   • mathematics (as discussed below)
     
     
2. Fundamental, as in the preoccupations of fundamental physics, especially astrophysics (cf. Towards an Astrophysics of the Knowledge Universe from astronautics to noonautics? 2006):
   • light: the transformations of light are most notably enabled by optical systems, typically with the use of mirrors and lenses, or the manner in which light is affected by matter (reflection, inversion, etc) -- as well as the possibility of creating "illusions". These transformations readily understood metaphorically as epitomized by acquisition or loss of "focus" (cf. Circulation of the Light: essential metaphor of global sustainability? 2010). The argument has been developed separately (Patterning Archetypal Templates of Emergent Order: implications of diamond faceting for enlightening dialogue, 2002)
   • energy / matter: the transformations of energy, or matter, and of one into the other. These may well be valued and explored as metaphors (cf. Reframing Sustainable Sources of Energy for the Future: the vital role of psychosocial variants, 2006; Massive Elicitation of Psychosocial Energy: requisite technology for collective enlightenment, 2011)
   • information: recognition of the fundamental nature of information (matter as information, for example) and therefore the possibilities of transforming it (cf. Coherent Policy-making Beyond the Information Barrier: circumventing dependence on access, classification, penetration, dissemination, property, surveillance, interpretation, disinformation, and credibility, 1999)
     
     
3. Nature, as in recognition of the non-biological processes of the environment (most notably by the "natural sciences"), their widespread use as metaphors (the "winds of change", "tide of public opinion", for example), and the sense in which they can be understood as implying a form of fundamental cognitive integration and mirroring, as articulated by authors such as Gregory Bateson (Mind and Nature: a necessary unity, 1979), Henryk Skolimowski (The Participatory Mind: a new theory of knowledge and of the universe, 1994) and David Abram (The Spell of the Sensuous: perception and language in a more-than-human world, 1996), and separately discussed (Self-reflective Embodiment of Transdisciplinary Integration (SETI): the universal criterion of species maturity? 2008).
   
   There is an unfortunate tendency to focus on "order" in nature as a static attribute thereby reducing recognition of the degree to which that order emerges from dynamic processes. This semblance is the case with the comprehensive overview offered by Christopher Alexander (The Nature of Order: an essay on the art of building and the nature of the universe, 2003-4). [see clarification below]
   
   
4. Biology, as in current recognition, through biomimetics and biomimicry, of process-related insights of relevance to the human condition. As with the apparent static focus of Alexander, the dynamic from which forms emerge is however less evident -- even in the remarkable review by Keith Critchlow (The Hidden Geometry of Flowers: living rhythms, form and number, 2012). By contrast, as might be expected, particular attention to dynamics is currently given to the complexity of swarm behaviour and collective animal behaviour.
   
   
5. Verbally-related interaction, involving variously familiar processes dependent on inter-personal skills:
   • conversation / dialogue: understanding of conversation as involving processes of transformation, as separately discussed (Transforming the Art of Conversation: conversing as the transformative science of development, 2012). These can be reframed in proprioceptive terms, as articulated by Steven M. Rosen (Practicing Proprioceptive Dialogue).
   • persuasion / interrogation: understood in terms of the extensively explored processes by which resistance is transformed through persuasion into conversion, including the devices of brainwashing, propaganda and public relations. These may of course vary to a degree according to whether the intention is framed (and perceived) as friendly, therapeutic, ideological, commercial, or otherwise (cf. Roger Fisher, et. al, Getting to Yes: negotiating agreement without giving in, 1981)
   • humour: understood in terms of the widely explored processes which enable the humour of a situation to become apparent and for a joke to "work" (cf. Recognized Role of Humour -- in politics, leadership, religion and creativity, 2005; Matthew M. Hurley, et al., Inside Jokes: using humor to reverse-engineer the mind, 2011)
   • game-playing, as well-recognized amongst those mobilized in support of any collective project, as is typical amongst those within any institution, between its departments, or in any process of inter-institutional, inter-disciplinary or inter-faith "collaboration". In interpersonal relations the processes have been extensively explored through the transactional analysis instigated by Eric Berne (Games People Play, 1964). A "game" is then understood as a series of transactions that is complementary (reciprocal), ulterior, and proceeds towards a predictable outcome. These may be characterized by a switch in roles of players towards the end of the process. Many such games have been identified, with each game tending towards a very similar pattern in terms of the number of players or roles, the rules of the game, and its goals.
     
     
6. Credibility and creditworthiness, involving variously familiar processes through which either may be manipulated and transformed:
• reputation / respect, as considered of fundamental importance in social relationships, with the consequently attentive recognition of the processes through which it may be enhanced or undermined in sustaining an image. This applies as much to public figures and organizations -- hence the preoccupations of public relations -- as to individuals in their private lives.
• confidence / credibility, as made so dramatically evident in relation to preoccupations with rebuilding confidence in the financial community and in authorities considered complicit in the current global financial crisis (cf. Varieties of Confidence Essential to Sustainability: surrogates and tokens obscuring the existential "gold standard", 2009; Abuse of Faith in Governance, 2009).
  
  Represented by monetary tokens, the complex processes of finance also offer insights into transformation (cf. George Soros, The Alchemy of Finance: reading the mind of the market, 1988; The Economist, The Alchemists of Finance, 17 May 2007; Luigi Zingales, Europe's Financial Alchemy, Project Syndicate, 23 December 2010; Tom Braithwaite, Banks turn to financial alchemy in search for capital, Financial Times, 24 October 2011; Carl Wennerlind, How Alchemists Invented Modern Finance, Bloomberg, 8 March 2012). The mysterious nature of these processes is also evident in the much challenged confidence-building efforts in relation to "nation-building" in Afghanistan.
  
  
7. Performance art, widely familiar processes, to whatever extent they are appreciated and understood:
   • music / song, in which comprehension and appreciation of harmonic transformations and transpositions of key is instinctive if not innate, encouraging use of "harmony" as an aspiration for relations between groups and states (Clues to patterns of dialogue from song, 2011; A Singable Earth Charter, EU Constitution or Global Ethic? 2006; Structuring Mnemonic Encoding of Development Plans and Ethical Charters using Musical Leitmotivs, 2001).
   • dance, namely the manner in which transformation processes can be understood as variously embodied in patterns of dance, or encoded by them -- and so recognized in metaphor. It is now remarkable the extent to which the range of these patterns has been embodied in libraries of animations readily accessible over the web (or under development). Of particular interest is the schematic approach (with music) used by Dance Animations. Of relevance, given his more general concern with morphogenesis, are the reflections of Rene Thom (La Danse comme Sémiurgie, In: Apologie du Logos, 1990) and the related work of Giulia Ceriani (Du Dispositif Rythmique: arguments pour une sémio-physique, 2000).
   • poetry, as a significant preoccupation of some leaders -- from statesmen, through tyrants, to warlords -- suggesting a degree of correspondence between the transformation processes in poetic associations and those in strategic design (cf. Poetry-making and Policy-making: arranging a Marriage between Beauty and the Beast, 1993; Poetic Engagement with Afghanistan, Caucasus and Iran an unexplored strategic opportunity? 2009; Strategic Jousting through Poetic Wrestling: aesthetic reframing of the clash of civilizations, 2009)
   • drama, as through the insights offered by the systematic analysis of dramatic plots of various kinds, understood as transformations of relationships, such as that of Georges Polti (The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations, 1916) who endeavoured to categorize every dramatic situation that might occur in a story or performance -- building on the earlier work of Carlo Gozzi (see separate discussion of Taxonomies of dramatic situations, 2009).
     
     
   These are possibly to be seen as a valuable feature of governance of the future (cf. Aesthetics of Governance in the Year 2490, 1990)
   
   
8. Physical interaction, widely familiar processes for which skills in transformation typically require kinesthetic intelligence, as noted above (Maxine Sheets-Johnstone, The Primacy of Movement, 2011; Mark Johnson, The Meaning of the Body: aesthetics of human understanding, 2008):
   • games / sport: following recognition of biomimicry (and, by extension, technomimicry), insights into ball sports in particular could be extended in the light of "ludomimicry" -- following the critical arguments of Roger Caillois (The Definition of Play and the Classification of Games, 2006) regarding those of Johan Huizinga (Homo Ludens: a study of the play-element in culture, 1950), as discussed by Andrew Brown (Agon, Alea, Mimicry and Ilinx, Embodied Knowers).
     
     As might be expected, a degree of mathematical insight has been brought to bear on team building and the effective operation of teams. This is most evident in the analysis of passing patterns in ball games, possibly to be understood in terms of forms of transformation.
   • "aerobatics", highlighting in each case the range of distinct transformations with which a practitioner is familiar, perhaps to the point of naming them, or aspiring to perform them:
     • gymnastics, diving and skydiving
     • vehicle aerobatics:
       • aircraft maneuvers, namely flight paths putting aircraft in unusual attitudes, enumerated in the Aresti Catalog. Most of these can be entered either erect or inverted, flown backwards or have extra rolls added.
       • other vehicles, namely the use of a variety of technologies enabling aerobatics to be variously performed: skateboarding, motorbike aerobatics, bicycle aerobatics (bike acrobatics)
         
         
9. Strategy, in which transformation processes ("moves") are skillfully employed, using surprise and deception (preferably with elegance) to achieve competitive advantage:
   • strategy games, including various board games and online interactive games
   • military strategy, as long explored and widely understood (cf. (Sun Tzu, The Art of War)
   • business and marketing strategy, as notably inspired by military strategy.
   • lifestyle strategy, implying a comprehension of a pattern of transformation processes essential to viability (cf. Mary Catherine Bateson, Composing a Life, 1990, Composing a Further Life: the Age of Active Wisdom, 2010; Duane Elgin, Voluntary Simplicity: toward a way of life that is outwardly simple, inwardly rich, 2010)
     
     
   It could be argued that so-called "wicked problems" are effectively engaged in strategic games with the initiatives of governance (cf. Nassim Nicholas Taleb, The Black Swan: the impact of the highly improbable, 2007)
   
   
10. Environmental interaction / technology (I), with which there has long been widespread familiarity:
    • gardening: for which the transforming and sustaining processes are widely understood and explored. The transformational preoccupations of permaculture are of particular relevance.
    • cooking: this involves a set of transformational processes which are widely understood and explored through recipes. Metaphorical use is made of these processes as in the accounting phrase: "cooking the books"
    • beverage-making: as with cooking, this involves a set of transformational processes which are widely understood and explored, most notably with respect to beer-making and wine-making. Metaphorical use is made of "old wine into new bottles" and "new wine into old bottles"
    • clothes-making: of special interest as the origin of "pattern", and the process by which raw materials are transformed into what can be worn and considered attractive
    • arts and crafts: most notably the processes whereby raw materials are transformed into desirable artefacts (ceramics, jewelry, paintings, etc).
      
      
11. Environmental interaction / technology (II), using transformation processes arising, most notably, from the industrial revolution:
    • energy transformation (water, wind, wave, solar, wood, coal, nuclear)
    • manufacture of artefacts, especially including the transformation of materials through chemical processes
    • electricity and electronics (discussed below)
      
      
12. Psycho-biological transformations:
    • courtship and sexual intercourse, of whose dynamics there is widespread awareness (notably those articulated in terms of feeling), and especially their characteristic transformation processes, all of which are extensively explored in the media and literature;
    • unconscious biochemical processes within the human body, of which everyone necessarily has special, and deep-seated, understanding :
      • digestion, widely used as a metaphor with regard to digesting new circumstances and information
      • respiration / circulation, notably used as a metaphor, in the case of "inspiration", with regard to new insight
      • health / disease: involving transformative processes readily used as metaphors with regard to collectives and information (cf. Cognitive Implications of Lifestyle Diseases of Rich and Poor: transforming personal entanglement with the natural environment, 2010; Remedies to Global Crisis: "Allopathic" or "Homeopathic"? Metaphorical complementarity of "conventional" and "alternative" models, 2009; Memetic and Information Diseases in a Knowledge Society: speculations towards the development of cures and preventive measures, 2008)
      • metabolic pathways, namely the extensively studied transformation processes at the cellular level.
    • emotional transformation, namely shifting moods, most notably evident in relation to bipolar disorder, perhaps best understood through emotional intelligence, as noted above (Daniel Goleman, Emotional Intelligence: why it can matter more than IQ, 1996).
    • development:
      • biological, as most remarkably explored by D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson (On Growth and Form, 1917), and more generally by Rene Thom (Structural Stability and Morphogenesis: an outline of a general theory of models, 1972). The latter is especially relevant in endeavouring to extend its insights to semiotic possibilities (Esquisse d'une Sémiophysique: physique aristotélicienne et théorie des catastrophes, 1989). Some have explored the fundamental psychosocial implications of invagination (cf. Engendering Invagination and Gastrulation of Globalization: reconstructive insights from the sciences and the humanities, 2010)
      • psycho-spiritual, as notably explored in the various works of Carl Jung.

Each domain may be understood as offering a potential metaphor of the other -- but with each potentially offering a different kind of cognitive engagement -- and with every probability of each not being credible, meaningful or relevant to another.

With respect to any underlying pattern of transformation, there is a "cognitive egality" to the domains as experienced, contrasting with any "cognitive elitism" (or "pecking order") which may endeavour to rank one domain as superior (or more fundamental) than another. This is consistent with the insights of any general systems approach (noted above). It is also fundamental to the arguments of Paul Feyerabend (Against Method: outline of an anarchistic theory of knowledge, 1975; Conquest of Abundance: a tale of abstraction versus the richness of being, 1999). These insights might be explored to clarify how such domains emerge and get distinguished.

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