ABOUT THE BOOK

Invisible Cities: A Metaphorical Complex Adaptive System is the first book by artist and scientist Chloé E. Atreya. (Festina Lente Press, soft cover, 8 x 8, 172 pp , 50 original illustrations, book design by Ahree Lee, ISBN 0-9754347-0-5).

Invisible Cities: A Metaphorical Complex Adaptive System is a work of creative non-fiction that uses the content and unusual narrative structure of novelist Italo Calvino's book, Invisible Cities as a starting point for an exploration of the principles of complex adaptive systems (cas).

A cas is a system, such as an ecosystem or economy, which exhibits coherence in the face of change as a product of its ability to adapt. The capacity for adaptation is intrinsic to a cas, and it occurs in the absence of central control.

Although the text, Invisible Cities, does not physically adapt, its structure and content provide a model of a cas (a "metaphorical cas") remarkable for its simplicity, in the way E=mc² is simple: a succinct and extremely clever packaging of enormous underlying complexity. Furthermore, as a product of a cas (Calvino's mind), Invisible Cities acts as an agent that stimulates new interconnections in the mind of the reader.

Invisible Cities: A Metaphorical Complex Adaptive System mirrors the nine chapter format of Invisible Cities to discuss nine principles of cas, adapted from computer scientist, complexity expert, and MacArthur Fellow, John Holland's "seven basics" shared by all cas. In place of Marco Polo's accounts of cities found in Calvino's work, Invisible Cities: A Metaphorical Complex Adaptive System gives examples of the principles of cas drawn from the physical and biological sciences, the arts, philosophy, and games.

A beautiful book, expertly designed by Ahree Lee, Invisible Cities: A Metaphorical Complex Adaptive System is distinctive for its narrative structure and because it gives equal weight to Invisible Cities and complex adaptive systems: arts and sciences. The goal of the book is to provide a novel means of contextualizing existing knowledge within an interdisciplinary framework, and to demonstrate how art and science inform each other.

"I've completed my first reading and it was a delightful experience. As you know, I love broad syntheses, and you have carried that off in superb fashion. The result is, for me, a mature and thought-provoking exploration. It's particularly satisfying that the illustrations have an integral role, rather than being decoration-- not typical. This is a work in the grand tradition of Douglas Hofstadter's Godel, Escher, Bach."

-John H. Holland, author of Hidden Order: How Adaptation Builds Complexity and Emergence