So I’ve been trying to find a way to explain applied chaos theory for some time.¬†I tried to write about it¬†some time ago here, chez The University of Openess, but I read that now and am not satisfied.

And yet, it’s fundamental to the way I think about things. Applied chaos theory is, very simply, a technique for getting to where you’re going by appearing to head in another direction entirely. It takes as read the complex nature of event chains and attempts to achieve a goal by making the smallest rather than the largest possible intervention in the system. Itsituations where you don’t know exactly what form your outcome could take it’s by far the best way to ensure you get the right one.

So when the School of Art and Business first met, we decided that instead of talking about what kind of school we wanted to start, we should just declare the school started. So we did. And it was. Fast-forward a couple of years and I’m sitting with some of the guys from the Institute for the Future of the Book, (who, I should mention, I discovered as an indirect result of meeting Paul and others in that school of acting as if. The School of Everything is also an indirect result of these meetings) and Adam Greenfield in a horrible “Irish” pub in Manhattan. Adam opens his mouth to say “I’ve been trying to start a school of acting…” and I finished his sentence for him “…as if”. And we practically started dancing on the spot.

There are lots of philosophical and ethical questions around the idea of making ‘acting as if’ a fundamental technique for engaging with and affecting reality. But the fact that a chain of coincidences like that could surprise two people as postmodern as myself and Adam is, to my mind, a wonderful vindication of applied chaos theory.