Seeds of Change - Heiner Benking's Blog - quergeist.info

Eulogy: Ernest Callenbach: Ecotopia and Ecumenopolis

Sat, 12 May 2012 21:57:53 GMT

Ernest Callenbach pasted away - and I was shakened - a last "call" ? as some reviewers and messengers put out ?
Tom Engelhardt writes

EARNEST Ernst wrote the earnest and highly recommended "Epistle to the Ecotopians" which was found like a testament just on his computer. We should not only study his last words carefullys, but live it together and help others towards it!! I I encouage you to check the meaning of the word EPISTLE carefully: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epistle
This piece is typically for our late Earnest - Ernest - Ernst: calling for deeping thinking, sermon, articaulate wording, and shared reflection and action! Read Ernst's 10 Commandments: http://www.ernestcallenbach.com/Earth%27s%2010%20Commandments.html

I learned only this morning the sad truth that Ernest Callenbach is not with us any longer, he passed away April 16, but has left us a message which was found on his computer maybe as an auto-eulogy?: His Epistle to the Ecotopians. See the link above.

I was a fan of him when I met him first in Berkeley in the early 70ies, his Ecotopia musing still "in the air", and you know how long it took to get "on air", and every since. In the late 90ies we had some more time together in Bremen at a conference, together with Rdiger Lutz and Uwe Mller, SG of the Club of Rome, we shared a panel on the Concretion of Humane, Ecological Futures/Utopias and Community Building.

Why I mention ECUMENOPOLIS? We talked about it, as it defines a shared schema, maybe an invisible repeatable, explorable "grid". See Anthony Judge on the matter in his "Pointers to Possibilities"
In my view and understanding Callenbach and Doxiadis where of the same calibre, but definitely can not be compared, as they were on sharing common realms and concerns. Technologies, cultures, regions, and mind-sets were naturally very different as far as I can see.

Ernest has left a very nice paper, and epistle for us which I can only recommend strongly.
Here some headline-chapters: HOPE, MUTUAL SUPPORT, PRACTICAL SKILLS, How to ORGANIZE and LEARN TO LIVE WITH CONTRADICTIONS, IT IS NEVER EASY OR SIMPLE.
He writes about an America in Decline ..... see [More] more >

2052: Shaping our Futures - Apocalypse now? - Who is in Charge?

Tue, 8 May 2012 18:10:39 GMT

To get started I recommend: "SIX GOALS of Shaping the Future" and the videos online.

The Warnings and Goals of the Club of Rome? - all agreed upon ! But what next and how? The late Donnella Meadows and prinicipal author of the report from 1972 spoke about "leverage points! - where to intervene in systems". Before I go deeper even until in November in Hannover the VOLKSWAGEN FOUNDATION will "commemorate" / "celebrate" ? their contributions and maybe how and in which context the report came about. I will cover some backgrounds and contexts around these days in the late 60ies and early 70ies and what this could mean for possible, desired futures in these interviews for EUROPEsWORLD so let us be brief here and come direct to my concerns and points of necessary action.

To say the Apocalypse is on the horizon is not enough ! It is definitely closer now than 40 years ago - or 20 years at the times of the Earth Summit Rio 1992 preparations.

So what are the leverage points Donella Meadows requested? In the lecture of Randers, reports and summaries I saw so far, I only see the common policy plastic words, intangible meaningless, dumbing-down nominalistic terms. See : Humane Information Society 1998

When I glance at the book and start with Chapter 1: "Worries about the Future"

I am getting very concerned. See:[More]
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Titanic Syndrom: Technological, imaging, imagination, & communication challenges

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 15:51:17 GMT

100 years ago the Titanic hit the iceberg because many things "went wrong". They were also ignoring the invisible and "circumstances" connected in the deep, trying to break records.
In terminology research we say: Ambiguity and vagueness in our terms, our subject-areas are worse than fog. If you have no sight you drive slower, but believing you know when we do not, or believing you can fully manage or control technological risks is a sure ticket to chaos, destruction. Fights and suffering are on the way ...
But let us talk now about how to make a difference! How to take the issue as a challenge to make a paradigm change, think different, even puposefully ex-zentric eccentric. I later care about positions around and beyond the center, maybe even in other schemas and cultures, so watch my metaphor is not the plate or the table, but something highly complex and multi-dimensional. (You want an idea what I mean? check the paper on metaphors and interface design and viewpoint transportation systems from 1994. http://www.laetusinpraesens.org/docs/spatialm.php
So how do we comprehend and present such complex issues?
see [More] http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v396/__show_article/_a000396-000157.htm
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Wikipedia, Wikimedia, Wikidata, .... is Wikicontext next?

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 19:30:39 GMT

Exciting days in Berlin about the Future of Knowledge Sharing Wikimedia Conference 2012 Major step we were hoping for already more than 20 years ago: bridging repositories in different languages and reducing redundancies, avoiding confusion and wrong or varying statements.
We tried with meta-information and meta-data since the late 80ies: -- UNEP_HEM harmonization - (pls. check also: Multi-lingual access refs ) and http://benking.de/ceptualinstitute/access-assimilation.html, and the topics make me recall the work of John O'Connor and What is going on in Information Processing? Worldbank 1994, where the question was what approaches were "in the air" for a World Press Center or for worldwide data harmonization.
I fee the approach towards Wikidata is "right-on" - what I feel missing is Wikicontexts, shared '''context''' and '''shared global embodied Covenants'''. http://benking.de/covenant/ (maybe check superframes/signs and frames of references/cognitive panorama. http://benking.de/systems/encyclopedia/newterms/
I will mingle tomorrow to see what is happening at the BarCamp and who is ready and open to listen and co-create. So come-back later

PS: I tried with NEW ENCYCOPEDISTS http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v396/__show_article/_a000396-000052.htm recalling the call of Robert Jungk some time ago. Maybe start with Anthony Judge an his "Kairos" page: http://kairos.laetusinpraesens.org/lifedisx_1_h_8 or the Systems Encyclopedia links above.

For me teh linkage between concepts / data and their context is essential and we need to explore it ! - negotiating meaning. Data like values are on the edge to be meaningless when out of context! - So you see this are my 5 Cents for '''Wikicontext''' !!
For more see [More] below.
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Pixel Revolution II - Painting and Dancing in /with ? our mind/brain/thoughts ??

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 16:31:54 GMT

Brain Painting - next week Brain Dancing is on ! I already covered "Pingo Ergo Sum" last week, so please scroll down to Febr. 1st. http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v396/__show_day/_w2012-02-01
At the weekend we had the opening of the exhibition and new and old ideas & realizations came up like a dj vu.

Questions were not only about imagination and images and models, but who paints and sets the frames? Who creates and shares frames of references?, and why? What is outside of the ego-tunnel? and are there "others, us and they" having also "ego-tunnels" or share commons? See delibertation of shared "messes".

- See basic questions in the age imaging technologies and scopic media, radical constructivism and discussions of the virtual in colaborative environments and maybe some old theses and questions: 9 Points for Discussion.

I took with me an old booklet, 25 years old: "The Pixel Revolution. How the Computer Creates Graphics". http://www.zvab.com/displayBookDetails.do?itemId=2964039&b=1
It is from an Encyclopedia of Information Processing. I will add more on the Encyclopedia of IBM, the author Professor Rdiger Hartwig and early days of vector and raster graphics further down.... check [More]:
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Language and being “Quiet” - and a late Eulogy for John Warfield

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 19:46:23 GMT

UNESCO - strengthening languages in education
http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/HQ/ED/pdf/IMLD2012.pdf

DRAFT IN PROGRESS ..

Today is a special day for me, we looked not only into terminology research and preserving languages, diversity of terms (see knowledge organisation) but also cultural and natural diversity.
But this was not enough today, it was being approached by young interviewers with a simple question: Are you whatever? I asked now?, in the morning? As I am in-between, and it always depends, not only on my and others times and contexts, but often also on who is asking and his/her assumptions and objectives. So I refused to answer: YES or NO which they insisted upon.
I left by telling them: Meaning is a spectrum in shades or a spectrum of in-between word, lines, situations,

Why this long introduction?
I feel we are pressed into nominalistic thinking into opposites and labels and their respective frames or boxes. And the work of Warfield has much to do with going beyond words and definitions we cherish but nobody has a clue.....

And I was pulled into this recently by the agony of the Introverts versus the Extroverts, or the creatives in the group by the creatives insisting on their space and solitude to be a well or source.

Here this about this new book: http://www.thepowerofintroverts.com/
we have to discuss her NEW GROUPTHING further down.... see [More]
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'art in service': interrogating social practice - BERLIN special invitation

Fri, 3 Feb 2012 14:04:18 GMT

As a side event after the RADIUS OF ART symposium we have just finalized this Public Event on Friday next week in coop with the Open-Forum of PNW at the HomeBaseLAB in Berlin.

'art in service': interrogating social practice - INVITATION see also the (Anna-Lindh-Network) announcement.
with Todd Lester, our special guest on FRIDAY 10th in the evening in BERLIN. Todd is Executive Director for Global Arts Corps. - Facebook

Global Arts Corps' mission is to offer innovative strategies for communities in conflict to process the past in order to thrive in the future. The Corps brings together world-class artists from opposite sides of civil, religious, and racial conflict, who, together, create theatrical productions that tour the world's conflict zones to advance the cause of reconciliation.

See also THEATER WITHOUT BORDERS: and check-out Todds background:
TODD LESTER founded freeDimensional (fD) and Creative Resistance Fund (CRFund) which work with residencies in over 80 countries to host culture workers in dire situations. Currently, he serves on the boards of residencies in India, Germany, and Mexico and recently wrote desk studies for FREEMUSE/SIDA and Res Artis/Fonds BKVB on the residency sectors in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkey, West Africa, North Africa, Middle East, Central America and South America. This Winter, he is convening a workshop for the Heinrich Boell Stiftung on 'Conditions that put Artists in Danger' for its February 2012 Radius of Art conference and for TPAM Yokohama giving a keynote talk on residency and new forms of sharing in the wake of the 2011 earthquake in March.
He recently assumed the role of Executive Director for Global Arts Corps. Before that, he consulted for the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, Fonds BKVB, Lambent Foundation, Arts Collaboratory, and the Astraea Lesbian Justice Foundation. Todd holds a Masters of Public Administration from Rutgers University and is a graduate of the Refugee Studies Centre's Summer School in Forced Migration at Oxford University. Todd received the Peace Corps Fund Award for his work starting freeDimensional; was named 'Architect of the Future' by the Waldzell Institute in 2008; and serves as a Senior Fellow at the World Policy Institute where he is the focal point on issues of art and policy. more >

Pingo ergo sum - The Painting drops out of the Head

Wed, 1 Feb 2012 10:49:36 GMT

Please read and support this crowd-funding initiative:
To get started here a good description of the project http://www.pingo-ergo-sum.com/

I just learned about Angela Jansen doing a very special project bridging arts and communication with very special needs and gifts.
Angela is a good friend and a very special artist working now on mental mobility and artistic expressions. Please see if you like the project, maybe even can can support it via StartNext !
Here you find a keynote of Angela in Turin: (Slides and video clips) and this is her new website:

Pingo ergo sum - The Picture out of my head NEW WEBSITE The paintings drop out of the head
Please check also the new StartNext project
see more at my Facebook account:

The Place of the Political in a Digital Mediaworld - 50 years DLF

Fri, 6 Jan 2012 21:25:16 GMT

50 years celebrations of public media: DEUTSCHLANDFUNK - The Place of the Political in a Digital Mediaworld

German Radio celebrates 50th anniverary, teaming up with the bpb soon celebrating its 60th. So a "seasoned" exercise with lots of "expertiose" around and with a very timely theme !! - The Place of the Political in a Digital Mediaworld

But, too bad, heavy storm over Germany and no way to get this morning early 6+ hours to Cologne. Instead I hope to get most out of the Podcasts and Radio deliveries, check the tweets, and instead of F2F link to some people later. So please excuse my "2nd hand reporting" this time - but I feel that not only the title is soo exciting, but the topic as this was dear to me already long ago, so here a little "expertise" to check from where I am speaking: and some details at [More] below: more >

100 years Alfred Wegener - ways/means for integrating the

Thu, 5 Jan 2012 20:27:48 GMT

Friday Jan 6th, exactly 100 years ago Alfred Wegener broke those days scientific porcelain in Frankfurt by what we call today a paradigm shift, a view which basically changed the way to see the world (years later). In this case the view of what we consider Planet Earth. He did so by combining the knowledge from all fields and not getting stuck in the old fixed and narrow picture sciences. The name of his theory? Continental drift (Kontinentalverschiebung) proposing 40 years before its general acceptance that continents were slowly drifting around the Earth. If you consider how long it takes to reach the people revisit the story Al Gore tells in his film about the Inconvenient Truth that his teacher in the 60th was not ahead of the times.... Well there are many more "inconvenient truths" - not only these days...

I feel we will have to dig right there in our "house of science" this year. I can only recommend to check out also: Wilhelm Ripl in this blog last May who sees us focussing on selected compartment or limited fields of science when we do Climate Sciences, and this impulse for an Institute for Internet and Society where we were try (keeping in mind Humboldt and Ritter) to go beyond pigeonholing and fencing not only of living things, but ideas !
Cousteau remembered he never encountered walls in nature, but in the minds of some people. Proposed here are virtual grids and frames, think about a "meridian" or latitudes, something to find your way even in "vague" areas, think about data-noise and -"fog". See [More] below:
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