Design, Art, and Technology Symposium 2008
University of North Carolina Greensboro
Or,
“The goal of contemplation is action.” —Aristotle
As I have been looking through Jerry’s notes, I’ve been challenged to process the conversation, to not let it drop by the wayside (the unfortunate fate of many a promising meeting I’ve attended in the 20+ years I’ve been working with the arts community), and to extract themes and threads that could form the basis of action.
My impulse was to recast the data (First Version) into a more readable list (Second Version) which I distributed to the email list a few months back. This Third Version attempts to shape it, taking into account all the items in the list, and keeping my commentary separate. Perhaps a Fourth Version will be more biased, highlighting points and drawing conclusions.
I'm not supposing that my comments are definitive. I think the issue is a creative one about process: how to make something out of our “collective wisdom”. I encourage other participants to do the same.
“…You haven’t got six thousand years this afternoon.”
“Half a minute of revelation is worth a million years of know nothing.”
“Who lives a million years?”
“A million people every twelve months.”
—Joyce Cary, The Horse’s Mouth (1944)
3 years captured in one moment. A pine tree’s branch held this year's seeds (2008), last year’s (middle) and the remnant’s from 2006 (left).
INTRODUCTION of OBJECTS
Or,
Crossroads: Looking backwards, looking forwards. This segment seems to reflect the idea of the “double gaze”, the point at which an individual (or society) holds two discontinuous things or events in the same frame in order to better understand them: past and present, order and chaos, simplicity and complexity.
Don't throw away the past.
Sustainability is economic development.
Insult to the eye — insult to the soul
We have it all here.
Thoughtful — passion filled — fun
Title “Graceland” — need for faith, mystery, openness
Hammer (framer's hammer) — learn to build, carpentry, new toy (21st century w/ one piece
Like a new football helmet not rusty & worn vs. who had the ugliest hammer?
Building houses, learning new skills.
Found something: symbol divided roles — melted green M&M's.
M&M: symbol of CHAOS of TWO LIVES (people in 30's/40's.
Society: multiple roles, juggling
Ear Rings: a knot Kids were learning to tie knots in a creative setting.
Educational technologies, epistemology of learning
Knots represented by an equation — equations + numbers = squiggles.
Objects to think with.
Travelling shoes metaphor. The pleasure, satisfaction, and practical benefits we enjoy from things that work and the implied inconvenience and displeasure we experience from the multitude of modern things that don’t.
Story: Do you know where this shoe has been?
These shoes are international travelers.
These “good shoes” have stories.
* Today cobblers make custom shoes: “Good Design.”
Design a custom stool that “fits” with premium price and high value
Get exactly what you need.
Family roots...
Lost husband and father-in-law: gift of a KEY to 'family' barn.
Catawba County “antiquated” vs urban/edgy design + store.
Until 100 years ago we had sustainable architecture.
Culture as a way of “salvation.”
Contradictions: mill hill vs precious hedge fund world
Keys past bridge to our future.
Simple steps towards empowerment. Oddly, how the modern incarnation of a rain barrel (heavy duty plastic, recycled) can save Greensboro from drought while engaging residents...
Sustainability: water restrictions save water.
RAIN BARREL actually bought, installed — DID IT MYSELF.
Astonished! How much water was collected.
News of rain barrel spreads quickly in a neighborhood.
'John Dewey' study = next steps, statistics of this ecological object.
City/county rebate: impervious water tax.
Past and present technology. The “understandableness” of mechanical devices and the mysteriousness of digital products. Weighing and measuring the cost of change...
Visual artist…“Goldie” camera.
Can hold it in the hand; all kinds of buttons.
Can understand how it works … is all mechanical … no electronics.
Have not computers … have been teaching myself.
'Stay' with comfort zone or learn new things.
'New' opens us up … takes commitment to learning.
Custom shops will roll film for you.
No darkroom because of water shortage: commit to digital.
How much toxicity happened at the digital factory?
Globalism’s symbols and impact...
Economic development in the Piedmont region
I don't know how many artists are creating new technologies.
How do you explain technology to people in late life?
A phone I can see, drop in mud, hear it, go under water.
'Free' phone because it does not have Blue Tooth.
Bic Pen Study: 25 Bic pens/person in South Africa: 6 pens = Ph.D. “jewelry symbol”
Significance of Bic pen: cast aways become international symbols.
We don't realize the arts & culture we are creating.
Farmers is Ghana plowing with oxen are on cell phones checking price of wheat.
The global citizen: how to achieve BALANCE.
Is globalism “fair”? Is it “good”?
19th century jobs reinvented as “high end” jobs.
19th century industries reinvented in 21st century (example: horses)
Has the technology caught up with you?
'Their terms' vs 'Your terms.'
We're trying to climb a mountain that they are creating.
Objects with other meanings — what do they mean? (Layers of meaning.)
Objects: 'personal meaning.'
My work and the person in my life who understands my work: my sister.
Piece of driftwood from Marin County. “Take this with you.”
How long it takes before people realize they have to do something.
Now: building houses (suburbs) vs your one acre of tobacco.
The right way vs the quick way: sustainability.
Knowing how to do the practical things for ourselves.
Past security, present discomforts...
Google the word FEUDALISM: medieval society structure associated w/ American south.
Landowners responsible for a group of people; people working land like … children, slaves, sharecroppers: one group, community,
Tower @ Cotton Mill Square was the daycare for kids while moms worked in the mill.
Cotton Mill Square was “Pomona” not 'Greensboro': street car stopped there A 'cradle to grave' community…21st century version of mill village, company town SAS.
High tech lab in Dublin: 'Entire campus in what was Guinness Brewery — 'dis—used' buildings.
'Good as long as you stayed healthy.'
One foot in the rural lifestyle — farming 'off season.
Cared for cradle to grave or exploited??
How we make decisions…we make them at a PERSONAL level.
Make you realize what's most important to you = personal objects.
At the heart of transformation: deeply personal.
How close to personal transformation today?
We do have a lot at stake in the region.
Managed economies: REDUCED SELF RELIANCE.
“Managed economies” (mills) don't work today.
Connecting in different ways.
My bed; 100 years old; great grandmother's: creaky, uncomfortable, love it, huge head/footboard.
Utopian escapes. I suppose an economist’s view of feudalism would hold that it was highly inefficient. I believe a similar judgment has been made about the American South’s system of slavery which delayed the region’s entrance into the modern era. Slavery, mill towns, and SAS are not the same, of course. I think part of our discussion was about the relationship we desire between ourselves and our employer or government, that is, an expectation that in exchange for our time and labor we would gain security and certainty. At least such a relationship existed after World War 2. But much of that social contract has whithered after decades of conservative attack. What will replace it?
Columbia in DC; Soul City in NC.
Utopias Amana: create city to create appliances; cooperative — we all own.
Secular monasticism: cathedrals part of 1000, 3 square meals, common goal = cathedrals; needed guilds (artists had skilled role) — 'SENSE OF SECURITY' (SAS = computer cathedral)
Furniture design: needs craftsmen,
Mass production from prototypes.
'One off' craftsman — making things by hand.
Art as a transformational act...
Example of TRANSFORMATION: has got to be fun, underlying passion with message.
“Graceland' album by Paul Simon: continues to REINVENT music.
When little, Christmas day in '60's: TOY SOLDIERS — rather expensive, are articulated.
GAMING WEBSITE — 'doing things with a product: needed a 'payoff' for advertising (coke) — ARCHER W/ ARROWS video game (first commercial animation).
Imagine this figure in your head: how you make a figure move; break it down—put it back together and then ANIMATE.
Personal miniature figures + toys: reality is replicated in a very small scale that can be MANIPULATED (understand/perceive/move)
Personal career built around CHILD—LIKE EXPOSURES.
Personal — the ABILITY TO IMAGINE THINGS —in head, on paper.
Historical references + appreciation allows me to 'roam around.'
Technology allows us to WORK AT HOME vs client 500 miles away.
ARTISTIC ABILITIES: flexes brain, keeps us out of the poor house.
Jump from physical model to computer, virtual, digital model.
Artistic/technical abilities — connection with early plan.
Computer modeling = SLIPPERY.
DRAWING is still THE SECRET.
'Compelling' 'out there' like candy' painful/comedic; recreating computer modeling…by hand.
RESPONSIVE DISCUSSION ONE (Related to all objects placed on the table.)
Or,
Transformation begins locally and personally
Don't throw away the past.
Sustainability is economic development.
Insult to the eye = insult to the soul.
WE HAVE IT ALL HERE.
THOUGHTFUL, PASSION FILLED, FUN.
“Graceland” — NEED for FAITH, MYSTERY, OPENNESS.
People are moving from all over to this area.
Low income housing: “not green” today. (economics)
Hammer: rebuilding our sustainable community.
“Old fashioned” today becoming “cutting edge”.
Travel enlarges us.
Bed: LEGACY of this region — uniqueness and continue to move ahead.
Lock: BEAUTY as an object; HAND MADE vs “insult to the eye.”
LOOKING BACK at BEAUTIFUL OBJECTS: We could have fewer things but of those we have make them beautiful, simplified — Shaker example.
Driftwood: reminds us that as a society we OVERUSED, CONSUMED, SPENT.
'RESIDUE' OF OVER USING — to get to a place of PERSONAL TRANSFORMATION.
Overspending or spending on the wrong things — HOW DO WE MAKE CHOICES?
Transformation must be personal. Personal transformation results from… Is one possible w/o the other?
Making 'not so great' choices.
Vulnerability to advertising and marketing: how are we aware of?
Educational context for the REGION … BRIDGES “LESS CONNECTED”.
WE ARE THE SYSTEM … WE CHANGE.
Going away/coming back — “YOUR EYE CHANGES”: 'sparkling of still water' vs 'walls of colored sugary liquid' — CHOICES.
1000's of choices: stressful, a waste of energy and time.
Our culture has evolved around 'EXPECTED COMMODITIES.
RESPONSIVE DISCUSSION TWO
Or,
How change can be encouraged
Potential for growing: small, large (feudalistically)
Feudalism slows down the economy—yet— SAS is a good place to work. (Both — and?)
TRIAD not TRIANGLE
It's easy to start a business in NC = “our key”.
Continuing with big companies vs small do—it— yourself models.
Big tax incentives to big companies vs smaller grants to smaller companies.
Object: technology = economic base/livelihood.
RESPONSIVE DISCUSSION THREE
Or,
Do citizens understand the practical importance of beauty?
“THE PRACTICE OF BEAUTY” in our culture vs PRACTICE OF REPRESSION: the cost of ugliness since 1945 — subversive — back to decorative.
BEAUTY vs VULGAR: How did we get to this place? How do we get out of it?
Where do people KNOW the difference?
WHERE do people VALUE beautiful buildings?
Beautiful buildings: the 'old ones.'
What do I look at everyday?
Convenient, less stressful, 'city of the arts' = where?
WHAT MAKES THIS A GOOD PLACE TO LIVE?
RESPONSIVE DISCUSSION FOUR
Or,
Is natural beauty a common denominator?
Nature is a good place to start.
Design/arts: a good “contributor” to economic development.
Acknowledge “OTHER” cultures: bridge.
Not comfortable with going to HISPANIC NIGHT in W.S. (A very different experience.) Continue to build relationships outside of our comfort zone.
How do the arts become visible? Should all arts converge? UNC Tomorrow plan: promise for economic viability (Arts will play a role in that.)
Center for Design Innovation: powerful dialogue, crossing boundaries.
Where can these ideas be FOSTERED?
Discussion IN academia, marketplace.
“THE BEAUTY OF WEEDS”
30 years of art in G.C. schools result in arts active in G.C. today.
ELITIST/TALKED DOWN TO: people don't like it. 'Package IT' so people like it.
“THEIR AESTHETIC”: nature based. marketing/advertising (subtle transformation)
A 'green, sustainable yard' is not a green lawn — “stream green”.
Is it a lawn or is it a MEADOW: aesthetics.
TEDS awards — SILOS (engineering/science to make Great Lakes viable.
MULTIDISCIPLINE , INTERACTIVE
Strong bonds only happen when we reach out or our comfort zones.
Social courage to claim the world we live in.
What they value: community, connections — lasting value.
IMAGINATION: what could be.
RESPONSIVE DISCUSSION FIVE
Or,
If artists are particularly imaginative and sensitive to beauty, nature, and visual phenomena, then perhaps they have an obligation to speak up and show the way. This follows the Ezra Pound quote that artists are society’s “antennae”, an avant garde that sends signals back to the main body about things to come, warning it of dangers and preparing it to change.
COMMON WISDOM
DIALOGUE
PCDF
WHAT DO WE VALUE? HOW DO WE IMAGINE IT?
HOW DO WE WANT TO LIVE?
WHY NOT?
IMAGINATION HAS NO TIME
Cameron Sinclair: Architect for Humanity_
