Aesthetics as an Aid to Understanding Complex Systems and Decision Judgement in Operating Complex Systems

7/29/2019 Aesthetics as an Aid to Understanding Complex Systems and Decision Judgement in Operating Complex Systems

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32E:CO Vol. 6 Nos. 1-2 2004 pp. 32-39

Aesthetics as an aid to understanding complex systems and decision judgement in operatingcomplex systemsCarole McKenzie and Kim James

Psi International Ltd, UK

This paper argues that fundamental questions inrelation to organizations seen as complex, evolv-ing systems, operating in far-from-equilibriumconditions are not capable of being resolved bymensuration and, in the absence of this, that areliable decision procedure is capable of beingGHYHORSHGE\XVLQJDHVWKHWLFVDVGHìQHGE\+HQULLaborit in the foreword to Biologie et structure .A brief description is given of a methodologydeveloped by Psi International at the French In-stitute for training Public Services employees,

Dijon, France.

“Quality is practical, and factories and airlines and hospital labs must be practical. But it is also moral and aesthetic. And it is also perceptual and subjective. ”(Peters, 1989: 83)

We start with this quotation from Tom Petersfor several reasons. The entities which henames, factories, airlines and hospital labs

all function within a complex system - the environ-ment today. He draws attention to the human factorswhich underlie these organizations, he correctly links

the concept of quality with morals, aesthetics andperception and the subjectivity of the human beingwho operates within these organizations. For qualityto succeed these subjective and perceptual elementsmust be understood. We start by saying that Petersrepeats himself when he draws attention to aesthetics,perception and the subjectivity of the human being. Inour approach aesthetics is a perceptual phenomenonand it is necessarily subjective.

Complexity is a dominant phenomenon in therelations which make up our present mode of existence.Dominant in the Sense that we as humans have to un-

derstand the world we live in and, in an effort to main-tain our balanced state, we categorize some phenomenaas complex. Complexity is not merely complicated. WeDUHXVLQJDGHìQLWLRQRIFRPSOH[LW\ZKLFKFRUUHVSRQGVto that given in a sentence by Sir Arthur Eddington(Eddington, 1928: 275), namely that “a complex Systemis one which contains at least one element which isnot open to measurement.” A system in which all theelements can be measured and accorded a scale may becomplicated, but it should not be considered complex ina modern sense. We are, however, anchored in the past

Aesthetics as an aid to understanding complex systems and decision judgement in operating complex systemsE:CO Special Double Issue Vol. 6 Nos. 1-2 2004 pp. 32-39

in our thinking. Assuming that the ways that educationhas taught us are the only valid ways of understandinglead us into error if we are not careful. We have beenusing a cybernetic methodology since the late 1960s ina study of aesthetics as a ‘tool for thought’.

Systems theory is what it says; it is an attempt to discover what features are common to all systems,from atoms to the galaxies of the Universe. A usefulexample of a complex system is the operation of thehuman element of systems. Complex systems form a

sort of exoskeleton for humans as a species. Without these systems which we have developed we would bedefenceless in our environment. The unit you choosefor describing the organization of the environment depends on the level you choose to describe. Gibsondraws attention to the fact that there are no specialproper units in terms of which the environment can beanalyzed once and for all. Instead there are subordinateand super-ordinate units.

“There are forms within forms both up and down the scale... Units are nested within larger units. Things are components of other things. They would constitute a

hierarchy except that this hierarchy is not categorical but full of transitions and overlaps.” (Gibson, 1979: 9)

/LVVDFNULJKWO\FRPPHQWVWKDWq:KDWZHìQGwhen we search is a function of how we look” (Lissack,1996). As the problem becomes more complex, purelyin terms of how many small problems are concatenatedto produce the apparent overall, global, problem themore people and managers in particular tend to oper-ate on gut feeling to choose a solution. Increasing thealternatives reduces the tendency to compare alterna-tives, one by one, on their capacity to provide solutions,which might, or might not, add up to a solution to the

overall, and it increases the tendency to evaluate thealternatives as a whole: The tendency is to use intuitionWRìQGDVROXWLRQZKLFKZLOOEHDSSOLFDEOHLQDJHQHUDOL]ing fashion. If the thinking pattern of the manager is not DEOHWRRSHUDWHRQDULFKìWQHVVODQGVFDSHLWEHFRPHVDmatter of pure chance whether the solution chosen iscorrect or not. It is therefore necessary to educate theperceptual capacity of the manager to increase his orKHUDELOLW\WRSHUFHLYHDULFKìWQHVVODQGVFDSH,QWKLVFDVHLWLVQHFHVVDU\WRìQGDPHWKRGRILQFUHDVLQJWKHperceptual abilities of the manager.

Academic



33McKenzie and James

In linear problem solving - the ‘fact analysis’domain-particularbeliefsandbehaviorsmayplaylittleornopartinthesolutionoftheproblem.Increasinglyascomplexity increases, as theproblembecomes a ques-tion of intuition (gut feeling) then the beliefs and be-havior of the person becomes increasingly important.Global solutionsdemand powerfulinputs of creativity.

DifferentcompanieshavedifferentcapacitiestoabsorbQHZLQIRUPDWLRQLQDFRQWLQXRXVíRZ7KHRQHVZKRVHstructureand organization have thecapacity to adjust rapidly to information in a pro-active fashion will bethose who prosper and survive. Paraphrasing Cohenand Levinthal (1990), “This ability depends upon theexpertise of thepeople who stand at theinterfacewiththeenvironmentandthosewhoactasfacilitatorsofthespread of knowledge across the boundaries betweensub-units within the organization. It is a prime roleand responsibility of these ‘gatekeepers’ to monitorthe environment and translate the information into aformunderstandable to thepeople within theorgani-

zation.”

“It is not easy to arrive at a conception of a whole which is constructed from parts belonging to different dimensions... This is due to the consecutive nature of the only methods available to us for conveying a clear three-dimensional concept (of the world) and results from the FG¼EKGPEKGUQHCVGORQTCNPCVWTGKPVJGURQMGPYQTF(QTYGNCEMVJGOGCPUQHFKUEWUUKPIKPKVUEQPUVKVWGPVRCTVUan image which possesses simultaneously a number of dimensions” (Klee, 1924: 17).

The cleavage between the aesthetic and the

non-aesthetic domain of experience, no less than that EHWZHHQWKH VFLHQWLìFDQG WKHH[WUDVFLHQWLìF LVWKHcleavage between the metrical and the non-metricalrather than that between the concrete and the tran-scendental (Eddington, 1928: 275).

Throughout history the greatvisionaries have been those who have known how to use this science-in-movement,whichisaesthetics.Einsteinwasguidedthroughout by a keen appreciation and reliance on therole of aestheticsin thediscovery of new structures of relations. How can aesthetics help the searcher whowants the best solution?

Judgementsmadeonmoralgroundsfrequent-ly lead to unsatisfactory results, whichcompound theproblem. What is needed are solutions which are the

bestfor everybody,all round- the elegant solution. Thescience of aestheticsis the science of providingelegant VROXWLRQV7KHGLFWLRQDU\GHìQLWLRQLVqWKHWKHRU\RI

beauty in general and of the feelings that it gives riseto in us, origin Greek CKUVJGVKMQU, that which has thefaculty of feeling” (The Concise Oxford Dictionary).

Thedevelopmentof aesthetics as a philosophi-calstudyoverthepasttwocenturieshasgivenrisetoaGHìQLWLRQRIDHVWKHWLFVDVWKHPDWHULDOSUHVHQWDWLRQRIWUXWKZKHUHEHDXW\LVWKHVLJQLìHURIWKLVWUXWK+HJHOGHìQHGEHDXW\DVWKHPDWHULDOPDQLIHVWDWLRQRIWKHLGHDFromthiswemovetotheclassicpositionthataesthetic

beauty is no more than the most successful expression

of ideas which have already been formulated by reli-gion,scienceorpolitics.SuccessfulaestheticexpressionDFFRUGLQJWRWKLVUHDVRQLQJLVDFRQìUPDWLRQRIFXUUHQWideas and a source of illusion.

,IZHXVH WKHVHGHìQLWLRQVRIDHVWKHWLFVZHare ledto a static position where art (any art, includingthe art of management) is a representation and any at-tempt to use it gives rise to a series of interpretationsof interpretations , a sterile criticism which is no morethan a projective test of the attitude of the author to-wards someideal form ofan idée reçue .Itcanundernocircumstances be used as a tool for thought.

2XUGHìQLWLRQRIDHVWKHWLFVFRUUHVSRQGVWRWKDWgivenbyHenriLaborit:“thesearchfornewstructures.”“Aesthetics (must be) … understood as a search forstructures, that is to say the set of relations existing

between the elements of the whole of our knowledge... the search for, discovery and the use of relationsPDNHVDFWLRQHIìFLHQWr/DERULW,IZHGLVFDUGthe old description of aesthetics as the standards of accepted established beauty and replace it with Henri/DERULWpVGHìQLWLRQZHKDYHDWUXO\FUHDWLYHWRROUDWKHUthan a cosmetic one. If we can learn to search for newstructures as a natural part of our ability to perceive

the information that is available to us, it can provideus with a tool for working in conditions where thereis a lack of clarity and only too much ambiguity. If wecan learn to use this collectively, wherewe build a col-lective reference which creates a rational frameworkwithitsownchecksandbalances,ourworkteams,bothformal and informal, will provide a fertile ground fora creative company. If we do this we will not miss theopportunity, but will see the signal in the noise andcreate new opportunities for action.

The origin of structures of relations

This paper is concerned with the ability to un-

derstand all complex systems. However, sincethehuman personin itsinteractions is themost complex systemic interaction known, by studyinghow human systems operate we shall be a fair way tounderstanding all complex systems. “Everything ismade of atoms. That is the key hypothesis. The most important hypothesis in all of biology, for example, isthat everything animals do, atoms do. In other words,there is nothing that living things do that cannot be un-derstood from the point of view that they are made of atoms acting according to the laws of physics” (original



34E:COVol. 6 Nos. 1-2 2004 pp. 32-39

italics) (Feynman, 1991).

A complex system is not a complicated ar-rangement of material elements. It is a complex set of interrelationships between elements which have at-tributes. Alteration ofonesubsetof relationships altersthe relations between all the elements. The relations

EHWZHHQWKHHOHPHQWVGHìQHWKHV\VWHP7KHG\QDPLFVof interactions andtransformations, of relations, thatasystemcanundergo,andstillremainthatsystem,areitsorganization. The organization of thesystem does not determine what the bits of the system must be madeof, it only lays down the relations that these bits must KDYHLQRUGHUIRULWWRH[LVWDVDVSHFLìFV\VWHP

A systems approach is concerned with therelationsbetweentheelementswhichmakeupthesys-tem, not to the elements and how they work, or what materials they are made of. The actual relations that are present between the components of a real system

in a real space are what we call its structure. “We areWKXVVD\LQJWKDWZKDWGHìQHVDPDFKLQHRUJDQL]DWLRQare relations, and hence that the organization of a ma-chine has no connection with materiality, that is withWKHSURSHUWLHVRIWKHFRPSRQHQWVWKDWGHìQHWKHPDVphysical entities” (Varela, 1979: 19). It is this whichallows us to study the systemic rules which governthings as distinct as an atom, a plant, an amoeba, ahedgehog, a car, an institution or a planetary system.&RPSOH[V\VWHPVDUHDGGLWLRQDOO\GLIìFXOWEHFDXVHthey are not end to end but nested.

The interweaving of the individual and

society produces contradictions“...there exist innumerable forces which interlace, aninfinite number of parallelograms of forces giving aresultant, the historical happening. This in its turncan be regarded as the outcome of a force acting as aYJQNGYKVJQWVEQPUEKQWUPGUUQTYKNN(QTVJCVYJKEJeach individual wishes separately, is hindered by all the others, and the general upshot is something which no one in particular has willed ” (Engels, 1941: 55).

I

nthemanagementofhumansocietythereisatrendto emphasize certain traits, modes of connection,which have proved, in part, to favor the mainte-

nance of stability. In thecourse of time these mannersofregulating affairsrestrict thedesires ofindividualstofunctiondifferently.Thesedesires are resistedby thosewhose own position feels threatened by any change.The individual exists in a bath of generalized aestheticwhich keeps a set of norms of behavior and ways of solving problems in a fairly stable condition aroundthe individual. In order for change to take place it hasto occur in a surrounding of non-change.

Each individual develops according to theirQHHGVDQGWKHVHQHHGVHYHQWXDOO\FRQíLFWZLWKWKHdominant paradigm. Because each person is an indi-vidual and hence unique it would be impossible forthere not to be acute contradictions, at some time, be-tweentheeffortsoftheindividualtosolvetheiruniqueproblemand theeffort of society to reward previously

tried and tested methods of so doing.

Itisthiscontradictionwhichprovidesthemo-torforsocialchange.Howwelltheindividualsolvestheproblem for his or her self is largely an aesthetic one. If problems were merely arithmetic exercises life would

be easy, one would feed the data into the computerandwaitfortheresultstoappear.Nothingissosimple.Every problem belongs to an individual with all theemotional investments which surround the problem.Ifthesearenottakenintoaccountthendisasteroccurs,probably sooner rather than later.

Aesthetic development concerns the way inwhich the very complicated feelings and emotions,which are bound up with all the variations of person-ality and character, can be adjusted to the objectiveworld. Aesthetic development concerns the precisionwith which these very complicated feelings and emo-tions are adjusted. In the absence of this complicatedadjustment, arbitrary systems of thoughtare imposed,in spite of the evident natural facts, to solve problemsof overwhelmingcomplexity.These arbitrary systemsare dogmatic and irrational in character, composed of simplistic logical and intellectual patterns. Recogni-tion of one’s own particular aesthetic is a tool which

HQDEOHVWKHSHUVRQWRPDNHWKHVHìQHDGMXVWPHQWVBecause aesthetics is a lived experience unique to eachindividual the use of aesthetics starts with knowledgeof Self and an understanding of one’s own aesthetic.

Sir Herbert Read describes aesthetics as an“objectivated enjoyment of Self, it is a mode of per-ception, it is Empathetic”. Empathetic - The powerof imaginatively projecting one’s own feelings intoanother, person or object, and in so doing understandthe object of contemplation only taking note of what wecandescribeinwordsorcalculate.Inthisperceptionthe observer discovers that elements of feeling arise

within his or her Self when examining concrete andobjective reality (Read, 1943: 2 4). The infant child’sLGHQWLìFDWLRQRISHUVRQDOLQGLYLGXDOVHOIZLWKH[WHUQDOREMHFWVLVWKHìUVWH[DPSOHRIWKHDFKLHYHPHQWRIWKHaesthetic judgement. In the infant this is categorized

by child psychoanalysts as the child’s internalizationof the ‘other’ as possessing attributes of a self.

“The concept of the object is, primarily, nothing else thanthe concept of another ego. Thus in childhood the infant conceives external objects as beings which act freely and




arbitrarily. That is why the idea of the object is usuallyborn out of the idea of another ego contraposed to one’sown” (Feuerbach, 1943: 56).

Inperceivinganobjectoraneventtheadult,indevelopment from the infant, keeps this projection of WKHLURZQLGHQWLW\RQWRWKHRXWVLGHZRUOGDQGLGHQWLìHV

this with his or her own sentiments. Sir Herbert Readgavethe example of thespectator who discovers spiri-tuality, aspiration and so on, in the spires and pointedarches of the Gothic cathedral and then contemplatesthese qualities in an objective or concrete form. Inthis way vaguely apprehended subjective feelings areVHHQDVGHìQLWHIRUPVDQGFRORUV5HDGZDVZULWLQJLQ1943 for a rather limited bourgeois audience, but weZRXOGVD\WKDWWKHVSHFWDFOHRIDFRXSOHRIìUVWFODVVfootball teams in a well played match is also a sourceRIREMHFWLìFDWLRQRIDHVWKHWLFYDOXHVEHDXW\KDUPRQ\V\PPHWU\UK\WKPìWQHVVIRUSXUSRVH2UDVQRRNHUFKDPSLRQVKLSRUGDQFHURXWLQHVRUDJRRGìOP7KH

resonance is an aesthetic one on the part of the matterDQGWKHVSHFWDWRU7KHUHLVLQIDFWSUDFWLFDOO\QRìHOGof human activity which does not affect our aestheticperception and yet it is ignored as a useful tool.

What is being responded to is the quality, theessence of the event or object. We are responding toMaturana’s pure relations,

“If a living system enters into a cognitive interactionits internal state is changed in a manner relevant toits maintenance, and it enters into a new interactionwithout loss of its identity... The nervous system enlarges

VJGFQOCKPQHKPVGTCEVKQPUQHVJGQTICPKUOD[OCMKPIKVUKPVGTPCNUVCVGUCNUQOQFK¼CDNGKPCTGNGXCPVOCPPGTby ‘pure relations’, not only by physical events. The UGPUQTUQHCPCPKOCNUC[CECVCTGOQFK¼GFD[NKIJVVJGCPKOCNKUOQFK¼GFD[CXKUKDNGGPVKV[CDKTF6JG

sensors change through physical interactions, the animal KUOQFK¼GFD[VJGKPVGTCEVKQPUYJKEJJQNFDGVYGGPVJGrelations between the activated sensors that absorbed the light quanta at the sensory surface... The nervous

system expands the cognitive domain of the living systemD[OCMKPIRQUUKDNGKPVGTCEVKQPUYKVJ´RWTGTGNCVKQPUµ ”(Maturana, 1972: 16).

We are perceiving meaning that is beyondmere verbal description. Eddington draws attentionto the crux ofthe matter;Aesthetics is our only way of dealing with that part of problems which is not opento measurement.

We tend to dismiss that which we can onlyfeel,as being inferiorto whatwe cantalk about. Indeedour education is so highly geared to only taking noteof what we candescribe in words or calculate, that wetend to ignore a whole domain of information as be-

ing ‘sloppy’, ‘soppy’, ‘childish’, and so forth. In actualfact this is a mark of the straight jacketed mind. It hasQHYHUEHHQGLVPLVVHGVROLJKWO\E\WRSíLJKWEXVLQHVVpeople, scientists and engineers.

Aesthetic development is an integral part of that perceptual faculty which we call intuition. The

ability to respond to that part of problem-solvingwhich is not yet open to measurement. Science looksfor the underlying feature across separate events. Art seeks the maximum number of ways to express thesingle object or event. The intelligent person uses thetwo approaches simultaneously. Theoriginof thewordart lies in the old Latin root ars which is linked to themaking of form. Art is found in anything to whichhumanshavegivenform,hencewecan,anddo,talkof the art of managing, the art of public speaking, the art of horsemanship. Meaning in all casesthat theactivity EULQJVDERXWDFHUWDLQIRUPZKLFKKDVDWWULEXWHVRIoìWpHOHJDQFHEDODQFHHIìFLHQF\DQGHFRQRP\RIHQHUJ\

In all cases of our appreciation of a work of art proper,whether in architecture or the elegant solution of acomplex problem ofhuman relations, it is theappealtooursenseswhichenablesustomakeavaluejudgement.There is no genuine work of art, whether in businessstructure and procedure, or a painting by Rembrandt,which does not primarily appeal to our senses - ourphysical organs of perception.

The feature which distinguishes aestheticconsciousness is imagination, found most evidentlyin art. Imagination is the common factor in all thesubjective aspects of art and the factor that reconciles

diverse subjective aspects with the invariable laws of beauty: balance, harmony, symmetry, and rhythms.Composition is the sum total of all these propertieswhose purpose is to organize the physical elementswhich make up a coherent pattern.

“Imagination reveals itself in: the balance or reconcilement of opposite or discordant qualities; of sameness withdifference; the individual with the representative; the

sense of novelty; freshness with old and familiar objects,a more than usual state of emotion than usual order, LWFIGOGPV GXGT CYCMG UVGCF[ UGNHÞRQUUGUUKQP YKVJenthusiasm, feelings profound or vehement.”

The above list is the work of the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, (in Read, 1943) it could not

be better put. Attemptsto fully comprehend complex-ity andcomplex systems are impossible without theseattributes. Imagination links the “more than usualstates ofemotion with morethan usual order.” It is theimaginative faculty which ensures that our minds areQRWVDWLVìHGZLWKFLUFXPVFULEHGDFWLYLW\EXWHQVXUHVthatwedesiretocreateandgobeyondthegiven.Imagi-nation is theestablishing of new relations betweenthe



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elements which have accumulated in our memory,our past experience. This is the predictive capacity inits human form. It consists in structuring in advancethe world of tomorrow, and conforming our behaviorto the bringing about of this new structure. It is thisfaculty which enabled Gibson to propose his theoryof Direct Perception thirty years before the physical

evidence was available. It gave Einstein the approachwhichenabledhimtoformulatethetheoriesofrelativ-ity.

“In Einstein’s article of 1905 he said that all energy noOCVVGTYJCVJCUCOCUU$WVKVVQQMJKOCPQVJGTVYQ[GCTUQHYQTMVQTGCNK\GVJCVVJGEQPXGTUGCNVJQWIJCU-tonishing, was equally true: all mass, no matter what,must consist of energy. It was aesthetic reasons which led JKOVQVJKUEQPENWUKQP9J[UJQWNFQPGOCMGCFKUVKPE -tion between the object which has mass and that which it loses when energy is liberated? That would be to imagine without any real reason, two sorts of mass where one

CNQPGYQWNFUWH¼EG5WEJCFKUVKPEVKQPYQWNFDGKPDCFtaste and indefensible in logic ” (Hoffmann, 1972).

Imagining entails visioning and symbolizing,developing heightened perception and intuition. It enables self-discipline andeffectiveteam development as it reaches,and makes available, nonverbal processes.Such a technique is a powerful tool for the future.“There is (further) reason for optimismin thepeculiarfact that progress in physics is often guided by judge-mentsthatcanonlybecalledaesthetic.Thisisveryodd.

Whyshoulda physicist’s sense that one theory is more EHDXWLIXO WKDQDQRWKHUEH DXVHIXOJXLGHLQ VFLHQWLìF

research?Thereare several possible reasonsfor this, but one of them is special to elementary particle physics:thebeautyinourpresenttheoriesmaybe‘butadream’RIWKHNLQGRIEHDXW\WKDWDZDLWVXVLQWKHìQDOWKHRU\r(Weinberg, 1994: 12).

The appeal of the imaginative solution is avery subtle process, taking place below the level of QRUPDOFRQVFLRXVOLIH:HDUHVRDZDUHRIWKHGLIìFXOW\of using words to describe a new idea that we use thewords ‘imagine’, ‘visualize’ and ‘intuition’ when weseek to articulate such newness. When we speak of visualizing or imagining or using our intuition we are

speaking aboutactivities whichare not verbal. We talkof ‘calling up’ images from the depths of our minds.Theseareformsofknowledgewhicharetheprecursorsof verbal knowledge There is a deep level of cognitionwhere the images which we call up are formed in ourpreconscious. They are dependent upon our direct perceptionof the meaningfulness ofourenvironment,the ‘affordances’, to use Gibson’s term.

Under normal circumstances people analyzeand deducefrom data. If wedon’t haveall the data we

goandgetwhatappearstobenecessaryonthebasisof WKDWZKLFKZHDOUHDG\KDYH:HDGGXSWKHìJXUHVDQGSURGXFHDQDQVZHUZKLFKVDWLVìHVXV7KLVLVWKHDUHDof ‘facts’. Unfortunately we do not have to look veryfar before we are confronted with problems that arenot capable of being solved by linear logical sequentialcalculation. Nonlinear equations are the order of the

day in a world which functions on discontinuities.

Inordertocopewiththerapidityofchangeanduncertainty of theinformation which is being receivedit is necessary to create as broad a range of perceptual extero-receptors attheinterfacewiththeenvironment interface and proprio-ceptors within the organizationto ensure the capacity for internal adaptation to meet the requirements of the environment/organizationsteady state. Theobvious choicefor thisrole of provid-ingacentralnervoussystemfortheorganizationistheHuman Resources departmentofthecompany. It is thepeople who drive a company forward or drag it down

into decay. It is not the structure of the organization;people make the structure, and change it or defend it,in the latter case often blindly to the destruction of their ownfuturerather than change. Human Resourcedepartments have evolved within the company to re-solve the internal contradictions between people andstructures. They now have to make the evolutionaryleap to become the perceptual organs and the centralnervous system of the companies.

“In the beginning was the word”

L

inear, logical and sequential words, dominateour education. Words are vital, spoken, writ-

ten or conveyed in various symbolic shorthand. Words dominate our reasoning. The dominant com-munication process takes place through the spokenword. Words form our attitude to our world. Wordshave to be learnt and the rules have to be conformedto in order for us to convey meaning. The conformityof learning language brings acceptance of thesymbolsas being reality.

This is why an ‘aesthetic approach’ and thedevelopment of an aesthetic attitude is essential forall genuine understanding of complexity. It allows usto be ‘tuned in’, to be in a state of ‘information’ where

we can pick up what works, what makes sense, what is a ‘good’ solution, an appropriate intervention. It isperceptual, functioning at the level of Gibson’s Direct Perception of Meaning .

Complexity cannot be understood outsidea relativist culture where we can tolerate ambiguity,creativity(bothinourselvesandothers,sincethisisthesource of much of the ambiguity), and where we canseek out structures in a continually changing environ-ment.Inoureffortstounderstandthecomplexitiesofa




chaotic world we admire intuition and imagination inproblem solving.We admire creativity andwe stronglydesire to be creative ourselves.

About thirty years ago we were confrontedwith the problem of understanding the complexityof human interactions, a process which took us from

the Royal College of Art, through the study of brainstructure and function in the Department of AppliedBiology at Brunel andon, most fruitfully, through theCybernetics Division at Brunel under Gordon Pask.2XUìHOGRIVWXG\DWWKDWWLPHZDVWKHH[DPLQDWLRQRIthe use of art in psychotherapeutic treatments withinthe British National Health Service. We presentedWKHìUVWUHVXOWVRIWKLVLQLWLDOVWXG\DWWKHV\PSRVLXP5GNHÞ5VGGTKPICPF%QIPKVKQPKP%QORNGZ5[UVGOUat the

Vrije Universiteit, Brussels, Belgium, in May 1987 in apaper we called the “Art of Self-Steering”. By using aprocesswhichcansimulatethecomplexityofmanage-ment experientially we have succeeded in creating a

self-steering mechanism forthe participants. Contraryto the simulations used in operations research andgame theory, the exercise does not have as an aim theformulationby an observer of rules to apply to passivesubjects, but the discovery by the participants them-selves of a new paradigmfor their thoughts.

Thetrainingdevelopedonthebasisofthisref-erential methodology aimsat the introductionand useof aesthetics as a predictive and investigative capacity.Thisallowsaneweffectivethoughtprocessinmanage-ment which liberates and uses imagination, intuitionand the power which arises from emotion. In a sup-

portive framework, where all the elements of day today reality can be simulated, the Graphic ReferencingTechnique(GRT-detailscanbefoundathttp://www.psy.co.uk/grt.html) allows the use of elements previ-ously considered as negative such as confrontation,FRQíLFWDPELJXLW\LQGHFLVLRQDQGHUURUWREHXVHGDVdynamic values.

These values then become the creative po-tential for a new paradigm where the complexities of situations and chaos become opportunities to obtaina higher perceptual ability in decision making. Boththe necessity to pay attention to the least little detail

and the consequences for the original ideal vision are brought intoplay.Aesthetics,whose subjects are Truth,Duality Values, Techniqueand Expression, is a general-izing function whichcorresponds to theneed to workat the same time of the details and on the global plan.Participants achieve theirown aesthetic and recognizethe expression of their own values in the activity of managing. Through this they have an experiencewhich assists management, both collectively andindividually, to increase their perception of the totalorganization and advance the power and well-being

of any company.

The use of Graphic Referencing TechniquesHQDEOHVWKHLQWHUDFWLRQRI DJURXSRISHRSOHWRìQGcreative solutions through the unrestricted exercise of imagination and the correlation of disparate elements.In essence GRT is a deep learning experience which

enables managers to increase their potential by usingtheenvironmentof change andchaos. Change, withallits ambiguities and possibilities is thelot of managers.TheGRTexperienceteachesthemtousetheambiguityand insecurity of change and turn it into a source forpositive decision making.

Graphic reference: Basis and structure

Thenature ofintuitionis verybadlyunderstood.

Weagree that it exists, but what it is, is less wellagreed. It is well described in the literature of

the history of science as playing an important part inthe great discoveries of mathematics and physics. It is

certain that it is strongly linked to imagination and vi-sioning. Mankindis a creativeanimal butmost creativethinking hasto be acquired and maintained in spite of and against academic instruction

7KHVWDUWRIFUHDWLYLW\LVWKHFKLOGpVìUVWVFULE- ble. Making marks and leaving traces is the earliest human activity in all countries, all races, all religionssince mankind began

)LUVWWKLQJVVKRXOGFRPH¿UVW

The importance of the spoken word cannot bedenied.But the very actof learning to speak ef-

ìFLHQWO\LVDQDFWRIOHDUQLQJWRGRDVVRPHRQHelse considers to be correct. In acquiring language weacquireknowledge at second-hand in thevery act itself.

We place no real importance on the learning to learnexperienceactivityofthegraphicact.YetinthisactivityIURPLWVYHU\VWDUWZHWHDFKRXUVHOYHVDWìUVWKDQG

A trace is a change in the surface of an area asWKHUHVXOWRIDQHYHQWDQGZKLFKVLJQLìHVWKDWHYHQW7KHìQHYLHZZKLFKZHDGPLUHFDUULHVWKHWUDFHVRIthemultitudeofeventswhichbroughtitintobeing.ToWKHH\HRIWKHJHRORJLVWLWVLJQLìHVWKHYROFDQRHVHDUWKmovements, glaciations, soil erosions,to the historian

LWVLJQLìHVGLIIHUHQWW\SHVRIDJULFXOWXUHRYHUKLVWRU\VHWWOHPHQWVDQGEDWWOHìHOGVIURQWLHUVDQGPRYHPHQWVof people and their activities. The traces left by eventsin time alsoindicatethe possibilities off urther events.To thetown planner thetracesindicate wherehis newGHYHORSPHQWLVOLNHO\WRìWLQPRVWVXFFHVVIXOO\

Tracesarenestedoneonanother,thelargetrac-es ofthe landscape contain smaller changes. The traceswhich took place aeons ago contain those of historicaltime, thehistoricaltime containsthe ploughed furrows



38E:COVol. 6 Nos. 1-2 2004 pp. 32-39

of last autumn and the hoof-prints of this morning’srider, each trace is made in time on the surface alteredpreviously. The horse at a gallop leaves a trace in itshoof-print which differs from the same horseat a trot or a walk. The burglar is caught, at least in detectiveVWRULHVE\WKHSULQWRIKLVVKRHLQWKHíRZHUEHG7KHmeaning ofthe wholecontainsa multitudeof meanings

nested one within the other.

The graphic trace

A graphic trace is a change in the surface layout of anarea made by a human with an instrument such as acrayon, chalk, pencil, engraving tool, pen or a cursor.Theessenceoftheactionofbringingagraphictraceintoexistence is that it generates permanent informationfor the event. The sequence of trace making generatesthe pictorial event.

“ A single drawing ... is in effect an operating systemTGIWNCVGFD[HGGFDCEM VJGENGCTN[UGSWGPVKCNCPF

cumulative nature of the traces, and the fact that aterminal product results, set drawings apart as a prime example of a regulated system in operation” (Beitel,1970).

The trace constitutes perceptual informationfor the observer. All traces have a cause, and causalityis registered in the change of the texture of the surfaceDWDVSHFLìFSODFHDVEHLQJRIDGLIIHUHQWTXDOLW\WRWKHoverall. Change is registered in the trace.The trace is aVLJQLìHURIGLIIHUHQFH:HFDQPDNHWUDFHVZKLFKDUHfull of information for us without our being able toimmediately put this into words. We can recognize

the information in traces easily and then put the de-scription into words. We have a tool for discoveringmeaning in our world and our part in this world at alevel which eludes us if we try to logically ‘reason it out’.

Creative thinking is dependent upon a para-digmwhichiscreative.Aparadigmisaworldview.Itisformed in experience andcannot be taught by didacticmethods. It is the necessity to devise such a methodwhich has brought about the Graphic Referencing7HFKQLTXHDVWKHPRVWHIìFLHQWZD\RIHQDEOLQJSHRSOHto achieve a new paradigm.

The Technique is a practical activity whichsimulates all the complex interactions found in socialorganizations of all types. It can show slow build-upprogressions whichsuddenly break into newforms. It shows possibilities and probabilities. It demonstratesthe buildup of aggregations of power and shows how‘mergers’ and ‘takeovers’ happen.

This can be done at the individual and thegroup level, or the two levels of interaction can be

merged.The techniquegives thepossibility of analyz-ing past interactions and altering sets of possibilities.In the exercise of Graphic referencing the participant learns through their own practical activity how eachfact is enfolded within a network of other facts, andonly an approach which is geared to recognizing theessential ambiguity that this creates is going to be ef-

ìFLHQW7KLVPHWKRGHQDEOHVDFRPSOH[DFWLYLW\WREHunderstood in a practical application. The practitionerachieves a self-referential reorganization of his or herWKRXJKWWRZDUGDKHLJKWHQHGHIìFLHQF\RIMXGJHPHQWin complex situations.

ReferencesBeitel, F. (1970). “Sketches toward a psychology of learning

in art,” in G. Pappas (ed.), %QPEGRVUKPCTVCPFGFWECVKQP ,London, UK: Macmillan.

Cohen, W. and Levinthal, D. (1990). “Absorptive capacity:A new perspective on learning and innovation,” #FOKPKUVTCVKXG5EKGPEG3WCTVGTN[ , (March): 128-52.

Eddington, A. S. (1928). The nature of the physical world ,

Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Engels, F. (1941) in G. V. Plekhanov, (ed.), (WPFCOGPVCN

pr ob le ms of Ma r xi sm , London, UK: Lawrence & Wishart .

Feuerbach, L . (1941). 9GTMG8QN++in G. V. Plekhanov,(ed.), (WPFCOGPVCNRTQDNGOUQH/CTZKUO, London, UK:Lawrence & Wishart.

Feynman,R. P. (1991). “Atoms in motion,” in T. Ferris (ed.),The world treasury of physics, astronomy and mathematics,Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Company, pp. 3-17.

Gibson, J. J. (1979). The ecological approach to visual perception%RVWRQ0$+RXJKWRQ0LIíLQ

Hoffman, B. (1972). #NDGTV'KPUVGKP%TGCVQTCPFTGDGN ,VikingPress.

Klee, P. (1964). Theorie de l’art moderne , Editions Gonthier.Bale.Laborit, H. (1968). $KQNQIKGGV5VTWEVWTG , Paris: Gallimard.Lissack, M. (1996). “Chaos and complexity: Knowledge

management?” http://www.leader-values.com/Content/detail.asp?ContentDetailID=47.

Maturana. H . (1972). “The neurophysiology of cognition,”unpublished research paper, Biological Computerlaboratories University of Illinois.

Peters, T. (1989). Thriving on chaos, London, UK: PanBooks.

Read, H. G. (1943). Education through art , London, UK:Faber.

Varela, F. J. (1979). Principles of biological autonomy, NorthHolland : Elsevier.

Weinberg, S. (1994). &TGCOUQHC¼PCNVJGQT[6JGUEKGPVKUVµU search for the ultimate laws of nature, Viking Press.

Carole McKenzie has an honours degree in Fine Art and a doctorate in Cybernetics. She is a trained fam-ily therapist and has a deep interest in the systemictheories ofChinese TraditionalMedicine.She foundedPsi International Limited in 1984 to apply cyberneticstudies to industrial management. She devised theGraphic Referencing Technique to enable managersto understand complexity theories in practical appli-




cation. For the past twenty years she has worked as aconsultant to Directors andSenior Managers in theI Tindustry. She has a deep interest in social enterpriseprojectsindeprivedareasintheUKandisaconsultant to the Scarman Trust.

Kim James had a successful career as a sculptor in

the 1950s and 1960s before turning to studying thepsychology of creativity and obtaining a doctorate in&\EHUQHWLFV+HZRUNHGIRUìIWHHQ\HDUVDVDFRQVXOWDQWtotheFrench National Institute forTraining PsychiatricPersonnel in Dijon, France. Since 2000 he has beenworking on the psychology of military motivationamong ordinary soldiers.

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