SYTEMATICS

from Anthony Blake's UK Site

Systematics is the study and application of multi-term systems. About forty years ago, it was defined as a discipline by John Bennett in his major work The Dramatic Universe. In a multi-term system, in contrast with the more commonly known 'system' of systems thinking, the number of terms or self-autonomous components of the system determines the attribute of the whole system as well as the character of its terms. Both the sense of 'whole' and 'part' were given new significance and attention in systematics. Bennett's approach coalesced ideas from the Pythagorean tradition with contemporary explorations of practical systems of work and twenieth century philosophies of wholeness and organism.

The work of Bennett and his colleagues on systematics led to innovations in communication and education. He developed a method of learning interaction called structural communication that simulated the quality of the small group tutorial but had wide-ranging implications and applications. This later evolved into what is generally known as logovisual thinking.

Background material and illustrations can be found at a special site devoted to systematics.

The following links take you to introductory articles on systematics, structural communication and logovisual thinking.

Documents on Systematics

Structural Communication

Logovisual Technology

There is a special site devoted to structural communication.