Werner Ulrich's Home Page:  Picture of the Month

 Now "Ulrich's Bimonthly"

June 2005

Lugano Paradiso  Isn't it marvelous to live in a part of town called Paradise? Well, this is perfectly possible for the Luganesi, the people of Lugano. "Lugano Paradiso" is not just a happy phrase invented by some advertising agency to describe the beauty of Lugano's landscape and vegetation. Lugano Paradiso really exists on the map; it is the southwestern part of the city situated between Monte San Salvatore and Lake Lugano. It is also the name of Paradiso's ship station, from where you can take a 5 minutes boat ride back to the city center (Lugano Centro).

For a hyperlinked overview of all issues of "Ulrich's Bimonthly" and the previous "Picture of the Month" series, see the site map

At the time when this page goes on-line, the Lugano Summer School is once again taking place at the University of Italian Switzerland in Lugano. As the director and organizer of the School, I am a rather busy boy these days and hence, hardly find time to add much to what I said on the Summer School and on the Canton of Ticino in last month's page. I therefore decided to leave these contents basically unchanged. I have reformulated them a bit, though, and have prepared a new picture that takes up the theme of Lugano Paradiso.

LSS 2005  For the first time, this year's Lugano Summer School is held as a Doctoral Summer School. Its focus is no longer just on introducing contemporary systems approaches but rather, on working towards their integration. The learning goal now is to overcome the frequent opposition of "hard," "soft" and "critical" systems thinking as (supposedly) incompatible approaches. Reflective professional practice is the main aim. With a view to this aim, participants will be expected to design their individual frameworks for integrating the "soft" and "critical" systems perspectives into their future research and professional practice. LSS 2005 is insofar a challenging learning experiment; whether it will succeed, depends on what the participants, together with the two instructors (Professor Peter Checkland and myself), will make of it.

Lugano  Although the administrative capital of Ticino is Bellinzona, Lugano is its secret real capital, its tourist, commercial, and financial center. Its elegance and Mediterranean ambience, along with the radiating beauty of its lake and of its rich subtropical vegetation, provide a rather perfect setting for a Summer School. To all participants of LSS 2005, I wish a wonderful, memorable stay in Lugano!

This month's picture: a glimpse of paradise  When I was recently searching for accommodation offers in Lugano, I run into the site of an international travel agent dedicated to Italian Switzerland. The advertisement's title was: "In the front garden of paradise." To be sure, it's just an advertisement ... nevertheless, I could not help but think of a picture that I took during one of the past Lugano Summer Schools from the village of Monte Brè, high above lake Lugano. As it happens, I had it on my list of candidate pictures for future "pictures of the month," and had tentatively titled it "A glimpse of paradise"! Here it is.

Technical data  Computer painted watercolor based on two analogue photographs taken on 29 June 2003, during the Lugano Summer School 2003, in the village of Monte Brè high above Lugano. The pictures were taken on a hot summer afternoon with 24x36 negative film (ISO 200), focal length 35 mm (no further technical data available). Current resolution 1354 x 533 pixels, compressed to 83 KB.

„In the front garden of paradise”

(Title of a travel agent's publicity for Ticino)

Notepad for capturing personal thoughts  »

Last updated 6 Dec 2009 (layout) and 1 June 2005 (text, first published 28 May 2005)
http://wulrich.com/picture_june2005.html