“CUBE” GRAFIC
PURPOSE, CONTEXT, BACKGROUND
Explanations and more details done for the
entry in the
The International Encyclopaedia of Systems and Cybernetics, 2nd edition at the Saur
Library
The
Blackbox Nature, “ECO-CUBE” or Rubik’s Cube of Ecology was developed in
1989-1990 first to structure Space/Time information for the TOPOGRAMM System development and later in for the GLOBAL
CHANGE exhibition for the German Chancellery in conjunction with the
WHITE HOUSE CONFERENCE on GLOBAL CHANGE.
The design allows not only a way to structure
and use, but share and discuss or negotiate information, immerse into data and
their contexts.
It needs to be seen as a “back-box” and
“white-box” ” (see International
Systems and Cybernetics Encyclopedia - for which this web-page was made), – as an opaque and transparent, illuminated
and immersible “space” or “space-scape. It is an information space which can be
combined with the physical space or terminology spaces like in a 3Space/Time
Cognitive Panorama (see Council of Europe – meta-paradigm paper) and the links
below, or what you can call embodied or extensional “information cartography or information
modelling ***more soon on modeling and the “General Model Theory plus “systematic
neo-pragmatism”. See Stachowiak at http://quergeist.net/Stachowiak
UPDATE: please see this Paper by Anthony Judge to put the Cube into context and
perspective:
Pointers to
possibilities: Ekistics, Dymaxion World and Eco-Cube
http://www.laetusinpraesens.org/docs10s/lifedisx.php#poin
See also: A
way to integrate spaces in a 3Space/Time Conceptual Superstructure: (A meta-paradigm) or A Paradigm Shift? Orchestrating Representations Like Knowledge Trees and
Knowledge Spaces, both
COUNCIL OF
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The design and construction of Heiner Benking
from 1987- now was recently published in an article for UN year of the Mountains (on in German)
or with INST. We recommend a trilogy in the
KNOWMAP Journal about “Spacial and Spatial” or earlier articles about Info about Information, Harmonisation or Access and Assimilation in GeoJournal
(KLUWER)
Earlier approaches or similar concepts in this
overall general direction can be seen in:
Sources or similar concept mind sets can be
seen not only in:
Constantinos A.
Doxiadis and his Ekistic Grid 1950/60ies see: Ekistics or Ekistic
Education
Howard
White and Belver Griffith, "intellectual space" (White and Griffith,
1982)
...
Below
you can find earlier writings and excerpts to help further explorations.
A
Systems View:
ISSS
1996 40th Anniversary session:
EMBODYING
SYNTHETIC SPACIAL MEANINGS AND SITUATIONS:
CHALLENGES
OF APPRESENTATION AND APPREHENSION
ISSS
WHOLENESS SEMINAR Part 1: A PANORAMA OF UNDERSTANDING - Being and
Feeling Part of Life and Nature
in a Panorama for
helping to find and share Orientation and Understanding
and Part 2: Towards a Panorama of Understanding
- Nature as a Blackbox;
ISSS
ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION & Creative
Catalytic Imagery and Metaphor
A HOUSE OF HORIZONS AND PERSPECTIVES - A cognitive deep openspace for positioning, comparing,
merging and morphing our metaphors, models, maps and views1
http://www.ceptualinstitute.com/genre/benking/edu/education.htm#"Inner
Eye"
SHOW, SCHAU, and MEDIA issues:
http://benking.de/show-schau-postscript.htm
more:
http://benking.de/ISSS/ or http://benking.de/culture/
THE FOLLOWING EXCERPTS might help to start into
the matter:
Proposing a Conceptual Superstructure
Work-Report of a
Vision to explore issue-scapes like virtual landscapes
by
making use of Surveyors' abilities and Views
http://benking.de/Global-Change/FIGXX-Melbourne-1994.htm
The papers outlines some
concepts behind the RIO 1992 EARTH
· transdisciplinary
panning and zooming with varying foci
· interaction
along and across hierachical scales
· documentation
and more transparency, and
· communication
within common frames of reference.
3.1 The VISION - Part A: The Imaginary
Theme-scape
The Concept
and Development of the Hyperlink ECO-CUBE
The author
has "borrowed" the definitions for the three axes of the Cube: TIME;
SCALE, and SUBJECT (diCastri, Hadley 1985-88) and has tested the universal
applicability during the last seven years (see also literature and chapter 4).
Describing the System Earth in the Global Change touring exhibition for the
German Chancellery, Lange, Benking, et.al. (1990) used this three dimensional
scheme and called the subject dimension (bio)diversity. In this way the
dimensions could be named Complexity, Differentiation, and Dynamics. As we
learned recently the Australian geographer R.G. Cant had already used a similar
Cube concept with the dimensions: Phenomenon, Position and Time in 1969! The
particular terms or labels for the dimensions are of little importance as long
as they are meaningful, simple and universal; what is critical is the
orthogonal design with "normalised" entities and the usage of the
concept beyond words.
Creative
catalytic imagery and the communication bandwidth are decisive if we are to
arrive at other qualities by using our "Inner Eye". One positive
effect of using an "agreed upon" framework: views and positions can
be located, better communicated, and repeated.
Given the
volume and heterogeneity of highly differentiated and ambiguous information, a
new concept merging human and machine power seems appropriate. But we must keep
in mind that man, being the threshold to creativity and imagination, makes use
of number-crunching and visual volume processing only as a supportive action rather
than what is critical for the overall concept.
Architects
and geographers, as well as town and state planners, are used to organising and
structuring data and to looking for a synthesis in complex, heterogeneous and
voluminous issues. The planner Doxiades for example, with the Ekistic grid,
made use of visual recognition according to a comprehensive structuring system.
Visual inspection and differentiation is one of the key elements in the chain
of methods proposed. Using as an example the representation of the Ekistics was
therefore the logical step. Projecting the Ekistic grid into the third
dimension Time was also already anticipated. For more information and how
content can be displayed in one graph, instead of key-words or abstracts,
presenting context and qualitative information, see Doxiades (1968).
Besides the
organisation and classification schemes of Ekistics, there are various schemes
introduced to structure available subjects in a congruent and systematic way.
Best are systems which are close to the inherent structures of the real world
and which allow the combining of knowledge beyond the collections and terms, or
jargon of specific disciplines or groups. Only a few organisation schemes allow
for the presention of relations between the main categories in visual form.
One such
practical universal system, even broader than the Ekistik classification, has
been developed as the Information Coding Classification System (ICC) during the
last 20 years by Dahlberg (1994 and Annex) . Such a system can be easily
translated into other schemes and referenced to other more detailed discipline
oriented classification systems. It is important to note that such systems can
coexist and can be linked with modern hyperlink technology, and can help
flexibly structure the critical non-linear terminological axis in the twined
three-dimensional reference system combination proposed in Part C.
Matrix-cell combinations and flexible
categories to structure information visually
Our eye can
identify information and structures easily. The use of a grid to structure
information helps to organise information according to the dimensions and
scales selected. Using a grid is actually a trick to better utilise human
capabilities. By properly structuring and positioning the information, later
processing can be made much easier.
The basic
grid of the first box has 3x3x3 cells. If we use 5x5x5 cells, we can already
structure and detail very complex situations and see "at a glance"
areas of concern or interest. The 5 cell cube shows for example a working area
of towns and regions in the natural and social context studying settlements
before Christ and the disciplines involved in the research. This image can show
where a colleague is working, and might be the search key for an indexing and
graphical retrieval system.
The Rubik's
Cube of Ecology has just 3 categories for each side: Inanimate-, animated
Nature, and Culture; Micro-, meso-, macro-scale; past, present, and future.
Ekistics have used much more detailed systems with 5 categories: Nature, Man,
Society, Infrastructure, Structure (Shell). The Blackbox Nature has 7
categories: Theoretical Natural Sciences, Applied Natural Sciences, Geo-,
Life-, Economic-, Social- and Cultural- Sciences or the ICC (Dahlberg 1994).
Ekistics,
as a science, structures the impact of human activities. Main categories are:
economic, social, political, administrative and technical sciences and art.
This organising and classification scheme is used, for example, to classify
articles in the Ekistics Journal visually and thereby help readers to identify
topics of concern at a glance, by just browsing through the pages and looking
at the grid at the top of the page. This example shows the potential of
information, classified and organised in a meaningful way, in an easily
accessible layout. In the field of urban planning, individual and community
requirements cover large volumes of complex and interdependent data. The
science of the broad and complex field of "human settlements" is
called Ekistics, derived from the
Greek word oikos. The Cube is just a
concept across scales, holding similar structures and rules at all orders of
magnitude, for example, planet, country town, house, plant..., The actual axis
description is of secondary importance. It may be a logarithmic scale which
covers larger quantities or periods, or other flexible categories which can
provide a reference into another system.
The Dimensions - A Grid projected in time
Each
Category has many sub-categories; they are structured in a hierarchical way,
called a thesaurus in technical or linguistic applications. In each science we
have general thesauri to differentiate fields or topics down to the finest
detail. Precision in each discipline must be considered as an advantage of
specialisation. But there is a disadvantage, the lack of overview and exchange
with neighbouring fields. Therefore, a growing demand is building up to develop
"wild" cross-disciplinary relationships and look at them in a holistic
way. Bridging disciplines and hierarchical levels or horizons and interacting
along and across scales is required for people studying the multi-disciplinary
field of Ecology. This does not only apply to Ecology, but to the exchange
between experts of different disciplines in general.
If each
body of knowledge is represented in the crystal cell framework, it is easy to
highlight trans-disciplinary subjects in one reference frame. Visual
inspection, alongside a computer-based visualisation, can help to illuminate issues
and their scope. Proposing a three-dimensional badge, like an ISBN numbers, was
the next logical step for portraying bodies of knowledge in their context.
Instead of sketching with a few lines and symbols a complex situation and
having others guess what it means, we can describe subjects by just locating
"crystal" cells in the Cube. Consequently, effects of neighbourhood
or directions then come "automatically" or more associatively into
view . With the focus on time and change in many sciences and applications, not
only in Economy and Ecology, we have a much more complex multi-dimensional
"scene". But how do we see, understand, and "envision" it?
- Why not create a scene, as a composer creates a mental picture of his piece
of music before he goes to the piano, or the architect sees his design and
understands the spaces and rooms and functions, even before the building is
erected? A design of Nature includes more dimensions than just the physical
dimensions x, y, and z.
Due to the
fact that we can only visualise three dimensions in a single picture, it was
necessary to select three arbitrary axis descriptions. The definition of
Ecology, which requires interaction along and across disciplines, magnitudes
and time scales, was selected as being the most comprehensive and meaningful.
How did the "Blackbox Nature" evolve?
The ECOCUBE to present and communiate complex
subjects and issues
************************
CONCEPT
AND CONTEXT MAPPING -
TOWARDS
COMMON FRAMES OF REFERENCE
TKE '96
Terminology and Knowledge Engineering, Section 1: Terminology and Philosophy of
Science, 1996
http://www.ceptualinstitute.com/genre/benking/term/terminology.htm
Fig.3: Four views of a conceptual crystal cell
framework designed to search for patterns and to go beyond thinking in
positions, slots, or pigeon holes only.
The
subject axis of the Cube in the lower left is based on the Ekistic (c) grid, as
conceived by DOXIADES (1968) for planning sciences. Ekistic is derived from
term „oikos". We can search not only for words, but for „areas" of
data in a fast and efficient way, possibly supported by new ways of
presentation and access management . Maybe we can see faster than we can think.
Visual
access, in particular in a crystal cell framework, is a fast and secure way to
overcome barriers between coded- and non-coded data, look „through"
positions, and maybe train spacial conceptions. The above crystal-cell
framework helps to see issues, may they be physical or imaginary. It allows to
communicate and conceptualize scales, relation, and proportions by exploring
and outlining situations and issues like regiones..
The word-scape or term- /theme-scape
(semantic space)
The semantic space was first very vaguely defined. It was originally based on
the rough categories: in-animate, animate nature, culture, and the system of
Ekistics (c) see also (DOXIADES 1968 - Fig. 3) which was developed for the art
of planning and had a strong retrieval component.
After research into universal thesauri and classification and coding systems,
one system was identified in the field of library reference systems that
matched the original internal structure and was applicable to the favoured
spacial storage and retrieval. This scheme or global index is called the
Information Coding and Classification System (ICC (c)) (DAHLBERG 1980-96) . The
matrix of global subjects and general form concepts, and a depth dimension
(specific facets or categories) is a semantic explora-tory navigation space,
which allows storage without redundancies as well as access and permuta-tions
within underlying structures and patterns, and provides clues to the logical
processes governing conceptual structuring (MASSIMILIANO/NEGRINI 1994). For „Functional
Classification" as partially based on the ICC, see in particular (JUDGE
1973, UIA/JUDGE 1905-96) and on the „hot" debate on data overload and
confusion due the inflation of terms in specific domains, for example in the
social sciences, see (Dahlberg 1996).
Many schools in the field of classification and retrieval sciences insist on
„open design" and open layouts. They refuse any kind of outline or
boundary and use the model of living, growing systems. They want to extend at
the edges of lattices and use this concept of extendible frameworks for
external or quantitative grows of the reference scheme. This design favours for
universal systems internal extensions equivalent to qualitative and
quantitative growth. Grids or scaffoldings help to find locations and places,
but they should be seen as geographic co-ordinates, abstract and immaterial,
arbitrary but very useful, available everywhere, providing reference if needed.
More at http://benking.de/Global-Change/ or around the International Encyclopedia of
Systems and Cybernetics, see also this
series., or outlooks into past
and future encyclopedias and atlases....