The Jim Rutt Show

The Jim Rutt Show


EP30 Nora Bateson on Complexity & the Transcontextual

December 09, 2019

Nora Bateson talks with Jim about her recent book, her father & grandfather’s academic impact, thinking transcontextually, Game B, warm data labs, and much more...

Nora Bateson, award-winning filmmaker, writer, educator, and President of the International Bateson Institute talks with Jim about the work of the International Bateson Institute, her father (Gregory Bateson) & grandfather’s (William Bateson) academic histories & the impact they had on her work, complex systems, the dangers of mental monocropping, what it means to think transcontextually, cross-cultural collaboration & awareness, some of her observations on Swedish culture & the role of the state, conviviality in modern culture, the generational component of Game B, what’s emerging in her warm data labs, liminality, leadership as a Jazz solo, and much more.

Episode Transcript

Mentions & Recommendations

Nora’s book, Small Arcs of Larger Circles
Nora’s movie, An Ecology of Mind
David Graeber’s book, Bullshit Jobs

Nora Bateson is an award-winning filmmaker, writer and educator, as well as President of the International Bateson Institute, based in Sweden. Her work asks the question, “How we can improve our perception of the complexity we live within, so we may improve our interaction with the world?” An international lecturer, researcher and writer, Nora wrote, directed and produced the award-winning documentary, An Ecology of Mind, a portrait of her father, Gregory Bateson. Her work brings the fields of biology, cognition, art, anthropology, psychology, and information technology together into a study of the patterns in ecology of living systems. Her book, Small Arcs of Larger Circles, is a revolutionary personal approach to the study of systems and complexity.