Today I am relieved to have completed a piece of writing (about the past and future of design methods) that has taken two weeks and threatened to continue without limit in successive versions. But now i've accepted the latest version as final, though it's still mobile in my thoughts and linking itself to other writings and especially to xdm - a fiction of expanded design methods on an earth free of organisations as we know them and thus able to resolve the global problem - but the fiction is not yet online).

The ornamental canal is empty of water and its bed is covered by a thick layer of leaves. As l walk along its bank i pass tall beech trees on one of which is carved LUDWIG but the D is obscured by light green moss.

I cross by an elegant bridge made of steel and thick planks that make a hollow sound as one walks over it - the planks are supported by steel girders bent into a circular arc. It invites one to cross the empty canal even if one has no reason to.

A man walks by with a big dog that resembles a bear with thick furry legs but it looks exceptionally tame and obedient.

I am looking now across a spacious lawn at the mansion or castle that looks out on it - the building and the lawn seem to complement each other. No doubt they were designed as a unity, artificial but complete, making life seem an occasion. Anyone who walks across the lawn, or on the encircling path where i am sitting, becomes a part of the picture - or 'social sculpture' as Joseph Beuys might have perceived it - though i wonder if he would include this classical yet picturesque scene in his new creative category. Yes...i think he would.

(these pages are designed to be read with the window set to two-thirds of the screen width)

atlas

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