Transformation by Fire

A couple of months ago there was a fire in the foothills near my home. It scorched one of my favorite walking trails. Two weeks ago I finally managed to get out there and explore. What I saw wasn't my familiar trail, but a changed landscape. The area was so rocky. The fire had burned the tall softly flowing grasses that hid the rocks. Those unusual stumps and decaying logs were left as piles of ashes. I could now see how the trail wound up and around the mountain slopes. With the grass and some of the trees burnt to cinders I had a clear view into the distance.

I thought to lament the loss of my favorite trail and the feelings I associated with traveling it. But then I realized I was fortunate to be given a perspective that was unique. A view into the underbelly of this area. This rawness, realness, not dressed up and served on silver was this piece of earth I thought I new but had only bothered to glimpse it at the surface. Things were different one level deeper but I hadn't seen it.













I experienced the process of the transformation of an artist to be like this fire. Things are painful. They are stripped away. You're left raw and vulnerable but there is something real, new and elemental about what's left. It the essence of who you are.
This wasn't something to grieve or bemoan, but a place to begin anew, refreshed. Once I learned to re contextualize my experience, I could see the path in front of me more clearly. I could begin to grow again.

Eco Conscious Design

Eco friendly design.

Is the role of an eco conscious designer solely limited to the products they use and provide for clients?

Eco design begins with the cultural understanding of a product and its context?

Bringing awareness into our business practice of ways of living in respect to others, other environments, businesses, cultures..etc is a key component in operating a sustainable business. Although profit is major, creating a platform of sustainable practice is no longer an option in today's business environment. Wal-Mart once reviled for its business practices involving employee treatment and resource usage, is now leading the industry in implementing energy reduction methods. Scale has a lot to do with Wal-Mart's new position. Simply changing all their lighting to compact fluorescence bulbs has saved them millions and garnered them new respect for leading the way. What brought about this transformation? Public pressure and economic pressures related to rising energy costs.

Eco conscious design is more a question of either choosing a reactionary business strategy or being a leader in the business world by creating a viable business model demonstrating the effectiveness of sustainability and eco consciousness that does not value profit over people.

Inauguration 2009 : A Suspension of Cynicism

This year has been one of extremes where belief, collective and individual has figured prominently.
As an artist belief is a word I am intimately familiar with on both sides of the spectrum. I am often given to letting the neutrinos, dust, universe, energy...etc do their work in the absence of immediate inspiration.
Question: when has immediate anything especially inspiration ever become a reasonable expectation?
Segue to politics of today Tuesday January 20th 2009.
Something has happened today through collective belief, thought, intention, that puts life in perspective, on the knife edge of meaning.
Barak Obama as President of the United States is the result of intention and belief in ( insert your ideas here) through out the population, individual and mass.
I feel proud, once again, as if I was somehow responsible just because of my belief.
For today at least may we suspend cynicism.

Goodbye 2008

I was listening to Geoff Nunberg at NPR talking about
the word of the year.
He chose "Joe".
He went through the history of the use of Joe, the common man, GI Joe, good ole Joe, Say it ain't so Joe, Joe six pack, Joe blow... Fascinating.
So I asked myself what would be my word of the year?


epistemology?
integration?
heterodoxy?
infrastructure?
all these words surfaced because of investigations into my thesis topic. But one particular word came to mind in the latter part of this year that speaks more powerfully to me than any other:

re.lief –noun

1.	alleviation, ease, or deliverance through the removal of pain, distress, oppression, etc.

2.	a means or thing that relieves pain, distress, anxiety, etc.

3.	money, food, or other help given to those in poverty or need.

4.	something affording a pleasing change, as from monotony.

5.	release from a post of duty, as by the arrival of a substitute or replacement.

6.	the person or persons acting as replacement.

7.	the rescue of a besieged town, fort, etc., from an attacking force.

8.	the freeing of a closed space, as a tank or boiler, from more than a desirable amount of pressure or vacuum.

9.	Feudal Law. a fine or composition which the heir of a feudal tenant paid to the lord for the privilege of succeeding to the estate.

10.	Literature. a. a distinct or abrupt change in mood, scene, action, etc., resulting in a reduction of intensity, as in a play or novel.

11. on relief, receiving financial assistance from a municipal, state, or federal government because of poverty or need.

A Visit to the Denver MCA

Practices of Design had their final meeting at the Denver MCA
(Mu of Contemp Art).
I brought my camera and couldn't contain myself at all the opportunities of reflections and planes.

I went snap happy.

David Adjaye, the architect created a delightful play of light, shadow, and shape not diminished in the least for its lack of acute angles.

The museum reminds me of ones in Europe, understated hiding among the urban landscape.

Revealing their secrets only when you stumble upon them.
It messes with your perceptions of what you think you know about this urban landscape.

MCA is a Leeds Certified building which adds to its aura.

Sustainability, renewable resources and a conscious business approach are championed by this building.

Its their poster child in a community that is saying to the rest of the world: "Yes we know and we are acting on it."

Oh, the art inside, on the walls is great. Easy to look at, to contemplate with room to breathe.

As much as I'm not a great fan of Damian Hirst...
I must admit his piece Saint Sebastian was most memorable and striking.

The Aftermath

For all my cynicism about certain prescribed holidays and the commercialism surrounding them I really did enjoy mine. Thanks giving that is.





















My favorite art piece was the brilliant yellow orange, stand-in for potato mash, butternut squash. A colorful alternate to tradition.













A visual delight, food as art, where I imagine the origin of color resides. In times past to be an artist required an intimate relationship with the offerings of nature and the secret of her colors.
Can butternut squash be the new purple of today?
Ernest the rooster might know.

Motion Graphics

Here some cool motion effects from vail

In Good We Trust, Denver Biennial 2010

In Good We Trust is an idea that deliberately points to the friction between the image of the US and its efforts in the world over the last 10 years and the actual acts of good occurring all over the country. The focus is away from the negative to the positive intentions of those actions and getting the words out. Bruce Mau, Massive Change a well known designer/artist came to Denver a couple of weeks ago to present his ideas for a biennial event planned here in 2010. Initiated by Mayor Hickenlooper, local Denver artists including Seth Goldenberg instructor at UCD, are working towards developing a vision and the tools needed for this event. Mau's vision includes very interactive exhibits, "We want people to change the way they think." Sustainability and reproduction over production are some of the topics under discussion. They hope to expose people, open their minds to the creative possibility to change the world. Sounds like talk about infrastructure to me:) What do designers and artists have to do with infrastructure? (see my previous post).
Main idea: What would happen when you bring science and art and business together to create intuitive, inventive ways of changing existing processes and dynamics. They intend to build an experience in the Denver Biennial where you can walk into that vision and come away with motivation and ideas for changing the possibilities they see needing it in their world.

Infrastructure

In his book "The World is Flat" Thomas Friedman talks about how culture and infrastructure affect how countries grow their economies in today's global environment. This is the crux of the job issue in the US today.

I visited India somewhat alarmed about the imminent takeover of the US by India and China after reading Friedman's book. What I found there surprised me. Their infrastructure was horrible. The poverty endemic. I couldn't imagine how a country with such overwhelming issues could possibly overtake anyone. What I did notice was, despite this, India is pushing ahead with high quality education and technological development. The business sector is tasked with creating patches of reliable infrastructure where it is most needed. These modern city island sectors are spread out all over the country like Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Chennai and Delhi

Barak Obama's book "The Audacity of Hope" talks in depth about the importance of infrastructure redevelopment in the US. Like in the past when the Steel Belt turned into the Rust belt key sectors of our economy need a realignment. What does this have to do with design? Design is an important element to any reworking of processes in regards to conceptualization, communication and incorporation.

61 Trees Per Person

Npr - article

Nalini Nadkarni a professor of Ecology at Evergreen State college in Washington appeared on NPR revealing some interesting info: "Some of the finest forest ecology studies being carried out today are the result of NASA-funded multi-disciplinary collaborations." She noticed that trees give off specific light reflection signatures allowing her to estimate their numbers through out the world.

In 2005 there were some 400,246,300,201 trees on the world, with 6,456,789,877 people in the world that comes out to 61 trees per person.

As a designer alone I must use up close to my allotment of trees in a couple of years. Good thing they are renewable resources.

Wangari Maathai 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winner, is helping the world's people to increase their individual tree allotment.