Notebooks of Matt Taylor
 
C H R O N O L O G Y
 
 
In January of 2004 I decided to put my handwritten Notebooks on this web sit. At the time I created an Index starting with the 9/11 Series Notebooks which were in progress at the time. This Index is extensively annotated. It has grown, now, to provide links to older Notebooks as well as those which have followed the 9/11 series. If you click on the picture below you will be directed to this original Index.
 
 
Journal making is one of my most favorite and I believe important activities. The tactile nature of it facilitates a different thought process than electronic media. In Janes’ terms, this output becomes feedback on the process of self-awareness.
 
 
As a consequence of the original layout, the Index has now become somewhat convoluted. I am reorganizing it however the annotations as they were written have value and, as is consistent with the spirit of this web site, I am going to let the document stand mostly as it is.
 
This C H R O N O L O G Y will provide easier access as it proceeds from June 15, 1975 to the present and then into the future. This Chronology will be ordered by the starting dates of each Notebook many of which overlap in time and were finished at different times. Each Notebook listed in this Index will be linked to a page-by-page Index which provides links to a larger size view of each page for easier reading. These expanded pages in turn will link to each other chronologically - forward and back - and also to other pages outside their series. In addition to this organization, Notebooks starting in 2005, which are organized by subject, will also be presented in a cross-subject page-by-page chronological order as this reveals insights which otherwise would be lost.
 
There is one other aspect of this Index which is different from the original one. There will be some material indexed here that is not handwritten and drawn. As example the first computer Notebook from the 1980s will be scanned and included as the files are now long gone. In addition, other materials such as the Renascence Reports and various workbooks will be indexed here. The criteria will be material which essentially served me as a “notebook” at the time. The objective is to document the evolution of my thinking and subsequent work as accurately as possible.
 
As always is this caveat: this is the work of years and the of posting falls behind my present daily production of Notebook entries let alone my accomplishing the task of getting older work scanned and online. My criteria remains the same which is to scan and post as much as I can always with a focus on that material I am actively engaging in “reuse” [future link]. By doing so in this chronology, even more information is added to the record.
renascence
RENASCENCE @ Kansas City Years

NOTEBOOK
Conversations With Myself

1975 - still active

SKETCHBOOK
“...The Vision With Which One Started

1975 - still active

PROJECT BOOK
Steinmeyer Residence

1975 - still active

Almost a breakthrough...
A work still not done.

The Redesigning the Future Course was the result of two years of reading and thinking about the future. It established the basic premise that fuels MG Taylor to this day: that Humanity is carelessly backing into its future and needs to create a future “by design not default.” Doing this as an emergent, collaborative process is our present focus.

l-5 interview
Architecture Aesthetics
and Space Habitats

1977

A seminal statement on a future architecture...

Renascence Reports was a newsletter. For me, it was my journal during this important period of my life. The Renascence Project failed to accomplish its goals - it did establish an agenda that has occupied me for a generation. Not bad if you think of it - how often does a set of ideas have this long a ride?
This workbook was developed for the first course that Gail and I taught for teachers at the University of Missouri at Kansas City. This course was later expanded and given at Kansas University and Lewis and Clarke. The work book expanded to become the basis for our SolutionBox Workshops, 1980-1982 in Boulder.

MANUSCRIPT
Designing Creative Futures

1979

The was commissioned by Peace Press and after approving several drafts they decided not to publish the book. I have decided to post it on line with annotations from a perspective of 30 years.

SCENARIO
To the 21st Century

1977

Scenarios are MODELS of the future. They, like any model are built on assumptions and crafted for certain purposes. This Scenario was drafted to support Gail’s and my Basic Education for the 21st Century courses and also for use in the Designing Creative Futures book.

This was a “push-pull” scenario. It identified trends that were well documented in the 70s and projected them in the most optimistic compressed time frame to a highly beneficial outcome. This is why it is titled To the 21st Century. So far things have come about in a far more darker way yet the trends remain and the outcome is still feasible.

 
 
These Notebooks, workbooks, newsletters, scenario and manuscript comprehensively document my thinking and work in Kansas City 1971 through 1979.There is one small Notebook missing (hopefully buried in the archives somewhere) which documented my design for a lightweight hybrid car. The kansas City Renascence experience was a period of fundamental reassessment of my prior work - it was also period of experiment, intellectually, as well as in design and entrepreneurial efforts. While refined, most of the our work today started here as will much of the work that is yet to come. The Development of MG Taylor was a direct consequence to the questions raised by the Renascence Project and Gail’s experience with the Learning exchange. Many of the design solutions captured in these pages have come full cycle and are even more relevant and critical today as then. This work defined an agenda for the last quarter of the 20th Century. It was, largely, not followed. Most of the issues we, as a society, now face surfaced in the 1970s and were well defined by a few yet ignored by the many. Our present challenges would be materially different if they had not been brushed aside. My work from this period, now a generation old, cannot be simply transcribed to the opportunities and challenges of today - it must be recreated. The work is still relevant and more urgent than when I first brought it out. Much of it still speaks with a strong voice and I expect many of these ideas and project will find their way to built projects in the years to come.
 
 
Matt Taylor
Elsewhere
April 18, 2008
 

 

SolutionBox voice of this document:
INSIGHT • POLICY • PROGRAM

 

 

posted: April 18, 2004

revised: May 17, 2008

20080418.701109.mt • 20080517.451100.mt •

(note: this document is about 5% finished)

Copyright© Matt Taylor 1975, 1976, 1977, 2008

 
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