Bateson centennial

[mspiler]

In honour of Gregory Bateson's life (May 9, 1904 to July 4, 1980) and the everlasting wisdom he offered for us to grapple with, I offer the following quote from his 1967 position paper for the Wenner-Gren Conference on Primitive Art, reprinted in Steps To An Ecology of Mind, 1972, as "Style, Grace and Information in Primitive Art" (pages 130-131). The intention is to stimulate a useful discussion about the "meaning" of "metaphor".

I do not want to use the transformation rules when discovered to undo the transformation or to "decode" the message. To translate the art object into mythology and then to examine the mythology would be only a neat way of dodging or negating the problem of "what is art?"

I ask, then, not about the meaning of the encoded message but rather about the meaning of the code chosen. But still that most slippery word "meaning" must be defined.

It will be convenient to define meaning in the most general possible way in the first instance.

"Meaning" may be regarded as an approximate synonym of pattern, redundancy, information and "restraint," within a paradigm of the following sort:

Any aggregate of events or objects (e.g., a sequence of phonemes, a painting, or a frog, or a culture) shall be said to contain "redundancy" or "pattern" if the aggregate can be divided in any way by a "slash mark," such that an observer perceiving only what is on one side of the slash mark can guess, with better than random success, what is on the other side of the slash mark. We may say that what is on one side of the slash contains information or has meaning about what is on the other side.

[JamesLawley]

I'd like to suggest that we include in this section on Gregory Bateson's ideas the work of Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela. I believe their ideas complement and extend those of Bateson.

For an excellent overview of Maturana and Varela's ideas and how they fit with those of Bateson I recommend:

Fritjof Capra's The Web of Life.

If you want to go to source, then Maturana and Varela's The Tree of Knowledge is their most accessible introduction.

As with Bateson, descriptions which attempt to remain congruent with a systemic perspective are not simple reading -- but well worth the effort.

James Lawley

[phil]

Good idea, James. I am enjoying the Tree of Knowledge in bursts at the moment - every few weeks I read a bit more then allow my brain to cool off for a period before reading more.

I am thinking of renaming this forum 'Bateson et al' as I am sure members will have a sense of the broad class of writers and thinkers with a systemic perspective that we are focusing on here.

Any other proposees?

[mspiler]

I am all for expanding the topic to other thinkers and writers with a systemic perspective. Already, the beginning posts suggest a wonderfully elegant metaphor for emerging patterns and how living things are connected as emphasized in systemic and autopoietic thinking, and the need to resist how phenomena get easily punctuated by language and perception.

[mspiler]

Upcoming events commemorating the Gregory Bateson Centennial, as related by Mary Catherine Bateson

Conferences

U.S.
A San Francisco organization, Integrated Strategies, is organizing a Bateson conference there in the fall of 2004.

The American Anthropological Association is meeting in San Francisco on Nov.17-21. There will be a session on Bateson and probably a film showing.

Croatia
Foundation 2020 has been sponsoring a series of conferences on the future of the Balkans. This year it will focus on the application of Bateson’s approach to systems theory to issues of international conflict and development. It will take place May 20-23, with a pre-meeting on May 19. Visit www.foundation2020.com

Italy
Conference sponsored by the "Circolo Bateson" on May 14-15. They are beginning an Italian website at www.gregorybateson.net.
Conference in Tuscany in early August, titled Middle East Imagination, which will honor GB and include his thinking on the cybernetics of peace and conflict. www.global-vision-consulting.com.

United Kingdom
An annual Bateson Memorial lecture was established last year at the University of East London. This year it will take place at the Tavistock Institute on May 17. Contact Berthe Krause, bkrause@tavi-port.nhs.uk for details and reservations.

Publications

Semiotics (U.S.)
Kybernetes (UK)
Cybernetics and Human Knowing (published in Sweden in English)
Family Process (U.S.).

Miscellaneous

Phil Cohen is organizing a new “Bateson Society” from the University of East London.

On-line access to Bateson’s Balinese and New Guinea photos along with Margaret Mead’s field notes is available through libraries subscribing to the Research Libraries Group.

[mspiler]

An update of Gregory Bateson related activities made available by Mary Catherine Bateson

1. The Institute for Intercultural Studies is already raising funds for conservation of Bateson’s film footage from Bali and New Guinea. However, many films in the Bateson archive at UC Santa Cruz (dealing with his post-war work) are in desperate condition, and need conservation urgently or they will have to be discarded. Discussions have started about the need to digitize other film footage and to clean up a number of GB’s taped lectures so they are usable and can be made accessible. For these and other expenses related to the centennial, please consider sending a donation (tax deductible in the U.S.) to the Institute for Intercultural Studies, 67A E. 77 St., New York, NY 10021.

2. The list serve initiated in Germany is in English. This Online Bateson Discussion Group is an English-language forum. To sign up, send an email to maiser@erzwiss.uni-hamburg.de and include the following text in the body of the message: sub Gregory_Bateson-List, but put nothing in the subject line. For more information, contact Monika Broecker, monika_broecker@t-online.de.

3. November 19-20 Berkeley, CA U.S.A. The Gregory Bateson: Multiple Versions of the World conference has changed location from UC Santa Clara to UC Berkeley. The conference’s website, www.batesonconference.org, will keep you updated on programs; confirmed speakers include Mary Catherine Bateson, Jerry Brown (mayor of Oakland), Tim Campbell (World Bank Institute), Peter Harries-Jones (York University), Jay Ogilvy (Global Business Network), Wendel Ray (Mental Research Institute), and Carol Wilder (New School University).

4. The American Journal of Semiotics web link has been corrected, www.ssa-semiotic.org A December 2004 special issue, “Gregory Bateson: A Sign,” is in the works.

5. Global Vision’s Middle East Imagination Seminar slated for July in Italy is apparently on hold. An update will be posted if that changes.

6. May 15 Rome, Italy. A PDF version of the Circolo Bateson Roma’s program I Cent’Anni Di Un Pensiero Vivente is now available at http://www.interculturalstudies.org/...ts.html#events

7. May 17 London, U.K. The Tavistock Institute and the University of East London present the Second Annual Gregory Bateson Memorial Lecture. Mary Catherine Bateson will be speaking on “Learning in Layers: Pathology and Liberation. There is no charge to attend, but places are limited and you must reserve. Please email events@tavi-port.org for more information.

8. June 5 Easthampton, MA, U.S.A. The Center for Dialogic Studies presents a Bateson Centennial Event organized by Lynn Hoffman with Marcelo Pakman and Mary Catherine Bateson. There is a charge and places are limited. Registration by May 1; contact Lynn Hoffman at 413-529-2102, or lhoffman2101@charter.net.

9. November 2 Genoa, Italy. The week-long European Festival of Science in Genoa, Oct 28-Nov 8, will include a program called “Gregory Bateson: A New Way of Thinking About Science,” including Mary Catherine Bateson’s public lecture and a panel. Further details will be available in early summer at www.festivalscienza.it and http://www.interculturalstudies.org.

10. November 2-6 Barcelona, Spain. The Centro del Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB) presents Impacte Bateson, a multi-day seminar planned as multiple dialogues among participants examining the significance of Bateson’s contributions to various fields. Participants include Mary Catherine Bateson, William Irwin Thompson, Alberto Munari, Lynn Margulis, Silvano Tagliagambe, Josep Lluís Linares, Ricardo Ramos and Enric Massip-Bosch. More details to come. Contact Enric Massip-Bosch at emba@coac.net.

11. November 18 San Francisco, CA U.S.A. A series of invitational sessions focusing on Bateson and his work are planned for Thursday, Nov. 18 at the 2004 American Anthropological Association meetings (which run Nov.17-21, with the overall theme of “Magic, Science and Religion.”) AAA scheduling is still incomplete but details will be available on the AAA website http://www.aaanet.org/ by mid-summer. As sessions become “official” the paper titles and speakers will be posted at http://www.interculturalstudies.org/IIS/index.html Presidential Session: “Gregory Bateson and the Science of Mind and Pattern”; Anthropology & Environment section: “Bateson and Ecological Aesthetics: Challenging Postmodernism”; Culture and Personality section: “Once and Future Theory: Next Steps Towards Gregory Bateson’s Ecology of Mind”; and films by Bateson will be shown at the end of the afternoon.

PUBLICATIONS

1. The March 2004 (Vol 4, #1) issue of the online journal SEED (Semiotics, Evolution, Energy and Development) honors the work and life of Gregory Bateson. http://www.library.utoronto.ca/see/p...20library.html.

2. The American Journal of Semiotics’s December 2004 special issue, “Gregory Bateson: A Sign,” will include contributions from James A. Anderson & Janet Colvin, Corey Anton, Deborah Eicher-Catt, Peter Harries-Jones, Alexander Kozin, Klaus Krippendorf, Yair Neuman, and Marian Zielinski. More detailed information on this issue is available at http://www.interculturalstudies.org/IIS/index.html or by sending an email to Richard Lanigan, rlanigan@siu.edu.

3. Cybernetics and Human Knowing, a quarterly international multi- and interdisciplinary journal on second order cybernetics, autopoiesis and cybersemiotics, will publish a Bateson issue, organized by Frederick Steier (fsteier@luna.cas.usf.edu) and the journal’s editor Søren Brier (sbr.lpf@cbs.dk).

4. Kybernetes will publish a special memorial issue in Fall 2005. If you are interested in contributing to this Gregory Bateson issue, please email monika_broecker@t-online.de. All initial ideas or papers should be sent to her. Author guidelines can be found at the Kybernetes website. Due date for article submission is October 31, 2004. http://taddeo.emeraldinsight.com/vl=...reparation.htm.

5. Giovanni Madonna’s new book on Bateson, La psicoterapia attraverso Bateson verso un’estetica della cura (Bollati Boringhieri) is reviewed on the Italian website “Change” (www.counselling.it). For more information, please visit http://www.terapiasistemica.info/lar...ri/madonna.htm.

[phil]

Thanks for this mario - I will enjoy exploring these links.

I would like also to include in this section George Lakoff and Mark Johnson. james was telling me today that their re-issue of Metaphors We Live By has a new and thought-provoking Afterword which reports on research that indicates that the brain may be actually hard-wired for metaphor...

Phil

[Monika]

Hello all,
Please find the new call for papers for the Gregory Bateson issue of Kybernetes here:
http://www.univie.ac.at/constructivi...son/index.html
Please contact me if you are interested in contributing. My new email address is monikaDOTbroeckerATpaconsultingDOTcom
Thanks, Monika