André SC

I am André S Clements, born 1973 in Pretoria, South Africa. The S is not short for a middle name, though in a sense it does ’stand’ for something. I had my name changed to include it when I married a wonderful woman in 2003.

Like the ‘S’ in my name, this site is something of an unnecessary personal indulgence.

Unlike the beautiful ‘S’, which is one of the most elegant ligatures in western typography with its clarity of flow, structure and impeccable balance, much of the content of this site might not be very coherent. While I appreciate the reasons for as well as the value of many of the conventions of contemporary social networked media, the objective with this site is not primarily to build a huge or even loyal audience. I appreciate, even crave, meaningful interaction and discourse but am not interested in comments and links for their own sake or that of Search Engine Optimization. Rather, this is a space where I try to develop my ideas, gather and formulate my thoughts, questions and theories. Theories in particular interest me. It seems I have something of inductive bias – I am most comfortable in the realms of the abstract.

Windows on the more practical aspects of my humble existence can be found via my Google Profile

Some of the things that fascinate, excite and/or intrigues me most include:

• Salutogenesis – its Sense of Coherence (SOC) model and how that may be transposed, translated and applied in fields other than narrowly defined phisio/psychosocial health promotion
• General Systems Theory and especially Sociotechnical Systems Theory – again on its own terms as well as in a much broader context
• Technology - in the deeper or more sophisticated sense of the word than the generally associations with gadgets and ICT, something like the conscious movement or development of enabling methods and devices
• Creativity - which for me means pursuing, finding, developing and sustaining new relationships between previously un-, or otherwisely related elements
• Aesthetics - which if I could write a succinct convincing statement on would negate much of my need for this site

I hope you feel welcome here, that something in here in some way offers you some value or pleasure and I wish you the very best for your own journey.

…for in and out, above, about, below,
’tis nothing more than a Magic Shadow-show,
playing in a box which’s candle is the sun,
’round which, we phantom spirits come and go.

(Paraphrased from FitzGerald’s translation of Omar Khayyam’s ‘Rubaiyat’ circa 1100)