Hi, The hour and location of this presentation have changed. Here is the forwarded announcement of the change:
Due a large number of registrations, we have to move the talk "The Nature of Order" by Richard Gabriel to a larger room. Unfortunately, this was only possible by scheduling the talk one hour earlier. The updated location and time are: room G.1.023 from 13.00-16.00pm We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience, but we hope that this way, a larger number of people will be able to attend. Registration for "The Nature of Order" is still possible, but please reply as soon as possible. Kind Regards, Charlotte Herzeel On 4 Feb 2010, at 13:03, Pascal Costanza wrote: > Dear Patternites, > > > I forward the following announcement by Charlotte Herzeel to you. The event > is going to take place at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050 > Brussels, Belgium. > > ************ > > The Software Languages Lab cordially invites you to attend a lecture on > Patterns by Richard Gabriel, Distinguished Engineer at IBM Research, founding > member of the patterns community, and widely known for his work on Artificial > Intelligence, object-oriented programming and the OOPSLA conferences, Common > Lisp and the Common Lisp Object System, and his drive to push computer > science forward into radical new directions. > > Date: February 23rd 2010 (Tuesday), from 2-5 pm. > Location: Software Languages Lab, VUB, room 10F720. > > Attendance is free, however we kindly ask you to register by replying to this > email [email protected] (preferably before February 15th). > (mailto:[email protected] for questions) > > Please find the abstract and title of the talk below. > > ************ > > The Nature of Order > > Christopher Alexander is best known to computer scientists and software > engineers for his work on pattern languages. This work inspired the classic > "Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software," by Eric > Gamma, Richard Helm, Ralph Johnson, and John Vlissides, as well as the > software patterns community and its dozens if not hundreds of patterns books > and 5 conferences a year. > > Alexander is an architect whose real interest lies in understanding the > nature of beauty and its objective reality. This project has held his > attention for over 30 years and culminated in the publication of his > gargantuan 4-book essay called "The Nature of Order." In it he attempts > nothing short of proposing a new scientific method and cosmology to replace > the Cartesian / reductionist / mechanistic approach to science and the > neutral underlying space-time-matter view of the world; and while he's at it, > he proposes a *common sense* way to understand the incomprehensible > mathematics of quantum mechanics. (Along the way he also unifies science, > art, and the spiritual.) > > We once believed his ideas had something to do with how to design and build > software, and the metaphor of software creation and architecture & the > built-world is still strong. His ideas about centers, life, & wholeness; the > Fundamental Process; the 15 structure-preserving transformations; deep and > personal feeling as a valid scientific means of observation; sequences and > the process of unfolding; the fundamental unity of function and ornament; > patterns as generic centers; the subdued brilliance of color; the underlying > "ground," "plenum," Self, and "the I"; and his use of sadness to find beauty > are hard to understand without understanding all of his work - his many and > convoluted books, papers, and essays, and the buildings he's built - and even > the arc of his life. He is a maddeningly simplistic, complex, and frustrating > man, filled with a luminous beauty painted in grayed storm-swept colors. > > I have taken the time, over the past nearly 20 years, to (try to) understand > his work, and to a degree the man. This talk - not the talk itself but the > ideas in it - will leave you confused, profoundly smarter, reeling, in > despair, and suffused by joy about what is possible for us in software and > programming. Whenever I speak of Alexander and his work, I feel like a > shimmering bright and deceptive Prometheus. > > ************ > > Bio: Richard P. Gabriel is a Distinguished Engineer (sic re: the engineer > part at least) at IBM Research.http://dreamsongs.com or: > > "Black Out" > > A tavern in Old Europe. Late in the evening. Participants at a psychology > conference chat. > > Canadian: In fact I mostly go to computer science conferences. > American: Really, is there anything interesting to discuss? > C: Well, sometimes there is. I have high hopes for this conference called > "Onward!". > A: What is it about? > C: All kinds of things. It was started by Richard Gabriel, and he... > A: Who? > C: Gabriel. > A: You mean Richard Gabriel the *poet*??? > > Curtain. > > ************* > > Kind Regards, > > Charlotte Herzeel > lectu...@software Languages Lab > > -- > Pascal Costanza, mailto:[email protected], http://p-cos.net > Vrije Universiteit Brussel > Software Languages Lab > Pleinlaan 2, B-1050 Brussel, Belgium > > > > > > -- Pascal Costanza, mailto:[email protected], http://p-cos.net Vrije Universiteit Brussel Software Languages Lab Pleinlaan 2, B-1050 Brussel, Belgium _______________________________________________ patterns-discussion mailing list [email protected] http://lists.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/patterns-discussion
