The art of systems: the cognitive-aesthetic culture of portal cities and the development of meta-cultural advanced knowledge economies

Knowledge economies are the most powerful economies in the world. What makes them possible? This article discusses the origin of knowledge in pattern thinking and the source of pattern thinking in aesthetic forms. In addition, the author notes the concentration of knowledge economies in specific geographic zones-in portal city regions. These various phenomena are confluent. The art cultures of portal cities, and their intense concentrations of designing intelligence, contribute to the long-term accumulation of knowledge in these places. There is a strong parallelism between aesthetic culture and the demands of long-distance portal economies. Aesthetic form lends itself to the management of uncertainty - it facilitates the discovery of pattern in the midst of chaos. At the same time, powerful economies arise out of the same kind of ability to manage high levels of contingency and risk. The city is the most potent point of intersection of these various capacities. Arts-and-science cities, also normally portal cities, self-organize through mimetic aesthetic forms to meet these challenges. Portal cities, characterized by high levels of import and export, are among the most proficient users of pattern forms to manage data flows. Firms and organizations, where the management of knowledge occurs, mirror this. Successful firms and organizations deal with the continuous influx of information generated by contingency. They use pattern thinking and designing intelligence to make sense of those information flows and to obviate the risks inherent in operating in environments that are characterized by high levels of uncertainty and rapid shifts in direction