Jessie Henshaw: Difference between revisions
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|interests=(devl) ISSS SIG Chair, Natural Systems Design Sci. | |interests=(devl) ISSS SIG Chair, Natural Systems Design Sci. | ||
|degrees= BS Physics, M.Arch, 40 years of fieldwork | |degrees= BS Physics, M.Arch, 40 years of fieldwork | ||
|fields= A | |fields= A form of physics, a "New Physics," for studying the material designs of natural systems in-context. | ||
|universities= St. Lawrence, Stoney Brook, Columbia, Univ. Pa. | |universities= St. Lawrence, Stoney Brook, Columbia, Univ. Pa. | ||
|specializations= fieldwork and teaching | |specializations= fieldwork and teaching | ||
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''Jessie Lydia Henshaw'' | ''Jessie Lydia Henshaw'' | ||
Today, Jessie is an empirical systems scientist and consultant. She uses her physics | Today, Jessie is an empirical systems scientist and consultant. She uses her physics to help illuminate the designs of nature in context, opening a viable path for science to begin studying self-animating systems of nature as physical subjects in context, i.e., "natural systems." Early on, she noticed that theory and data might get it all wrong, but that contrast could also illuminate the world of natural system designs too. After all, it is reading nature’s signals of design and change that we rely on to get along today, too, as humans did throughout our long evolution. | ||
Emerging systems | She relies on developing a sensitivity to change in environmental contexts and learning to expand on the readily observable signals of change as the weather changes, as relationships and cultures change, and as nature changes. Watching Emerging systems helps one find what signals of change in their worlds determine how they will steer their paths and transform. You see in the smoke rising above the candle a system of flow that is very organized and can abruptly become very disorganized. The tipping points for these kinds of transformations are often quite similar, so understanding one helps one understand many others. | ||
[[File:GrowthSysIntegral.jpg|thumb|center|alt=Stages of system organizationan|A guide to the normal sequence of tipping points | Emerging systems all capture energy and resources to multiply their starting designs. So, how they fit or don't fit that model is the first step into real science. That burst of growth may either just fail by itself or, as an exploratory system, it may adapt to keep finding new and bigger resources. That will, of course, collide with new contexts that don't support that, but one also observes some systems that sense the approach of their limits and respond before disruptively hitting them. It's a common trait of self-organizing systems in general. | ||
That is also what seems to be going on inside the systems that display the ubiquitous “S” curve growth path, from energetic take-off to reorganizing to achieve a smooth landing at the practical new scald for the context. The study of such behaviors draws you into a holistic awareness of their whole world behaving almost like one. | |||
[[File:GrowthSysIntegral.jpg|thumb|center|alt=Stages of system self-organizationan|A guide to the normal sequence of tipping points, stages of growth and adaptation that punctuate emergence]] | |||
Growth is an organizational, not numerical, process that begins with a “germination event” as contextual factors couple and start to reproduce. It is sometimes noticeable, like when a new game, project, or friendship takes off, but they are always implied where there’s evidence of regular proportional change: growth. | Growth is an organizational, not numerical, process that begins with a “germination event” as contextual factors couple and start to reproduce. It is sometimes noticeable, like when a new game, project, or friendship takes off, but they are always implied where there’s evidence of regular proportional change: growth. | ||
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==Academia and Career== | ==Academia and Career== | ||
Public school in the small town of Hamilton, New York; Studying physics, math, Russian, sports, art, and theater at St Lawrence University; three years based in Brooklyn with post-college friends connected with a farm in Tennessee, group travel and experiments, and redeveloping the 1892 Earlville Opera house as rural arts and culture center, while trying out new academic and employment options. For grad school, she put physics aside, looking for something creative, and found an inspirational three years at the University of Pennsylvania Architecture and Landscape Design School, where one of the first genius voices of modern architecture, Louis I. Kahn, led the school. After graduating in a recession, she decided to travel, visiting friends and running out of money in Denver, taking work as a carpenter, then contracting some. Sharing a house gave her resources and time to do the microclimate field work that changed her life. In the '80s, she started her architectural career, paying dues for years and advancing to work on prestige jobs with fine firms: Beyer Blinder Belle, Gwathmey Siegel, Rockwell, KPF, H3., continuing new systems science at nights and weekends when the architecture wasn't taking nights and weekends. | Public school in the small town of Hamilton, New York; Studying physics, math, Russian, sports, art, and theater at St Lawrence University; three years based in Brooklyn with post-college friends connected with a farm in Tennessee, group travel and experiments, and redeveloping the 1892 Earlville Opera house as rural arts and culture center, while trying out new academic and employment options. For grad school, she put physics aside, looking for something creative, and found an inspirational three years at the University of Pennsylvania Architecture and Landscape Design School, where one of the first genius voices of modern architecture, Louis I. Kahn, led the school. After graduating in a recession, she decided to travel, visiting friends and running out of money in Denver, taking work as a carpenter, then contracting some. Sharing a house gave her resources and time to do the microclimate field work that changed her life. In the '80s, she started her architectural career, paying dues for years and advancing to work on prestige jobs with fine firms: Beyer Blinder Belle, Gwathmey Siegel, Rockwell, KPF, H3., continuing new systems science at nights and weekends when the architecture wasn't taking nights and weekends. | ||
==Awards== | |||
Jessie has been honored with the 2026 (70 Years Anniversary) ISSS Active Wisdom Award, which recognizes elder practitioners whose lifelong engagement, systemic insight, civic imagination, and continued service have enriched communities and expanded the practical relevance of systems thinking beyond formal academic settings. | |||
==Current== | ==Current== | ||
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==Selected Publications== | ==Selected Publications== | ||
At the top of the [https://www.synapse9.com/jlhpub.htm List of papers and reports] are services, email, citations, ID, and Site links. | |||
[[Category: Members]] | [[Category: Members]] | ||