August 13, 2009
The Frank Lloyd Wright exhibit “From Within Outward” at the Guggenheim Museum in NYC celebrates his unmistakable mark on American architecture. In honor of its fiftieth anniversary of his capstone creation, the museum has on display 64 of his projects represented by drawings, videos and models. Another architect, the Swiss architect Le Corbusier also left a profound mark on modern architecture. The video in link below gives a lens into daily life within the integrated design of the Cité Radieuse an apartment complex (also a protected historical monument) in Marseille, in southern France.
More on Frank Lloyd Wright exhibit:
www.guggenheim.org
Le Corbusier Video:
http://bit.ly/JKJhp
Le Corbusier Art:
http://bit.ly/33eyQY
July 30, 2009
Last month, I attended 2009 Global Forum of the Business as an Agent for World Benefit at Case Western Reserve University. The conference centered around 3 themes: management as design; massive innovation; along with design education practices. Design is an interesting concept: painters contend with two-dimensional design, sculptors with three-dimensional design and architects with the virtual design of space. So in this series I thought I would explore different approaches to design: topics covered at the conference as well as from other sources. A recent column written about golf spurred me to begin this series–that’s right, golf. NY Times columnist Tom Friedman wrote in “59 Is the New 30″ about Tom Watson’s historic performance at the British Open at age 59 who tied for lead for four rounds in a playoff to 36-year old Stewart Cink but ultimately lost unable to par on the last hole. What does it have to do with design? Well, Friedman notes how baseball, basketball and football are all played on flat surfaces designed to give true bounces. Not so with golf. The uneven surfaces instead pack surprises which Friedman likens to life. But it also likens to art and design. I am suspicious of artists or designers who “control” their process from start to finish and inhibit that “bounce” from entering their work. That is where the rubber meets the road on how well you can think on your feet, persevere, be surprised, be flexible, seize an opportunity, and see until now, “unseen” worlds. Watson was rueful afterward on the hard lesson of learning from defeat not victory. But as Friedman concluded, Watson gave all who watched an “incredible lesson in possibilities” and that is the mark not only of a gentleman golfer but a true artist-designer. Read Friedman’s column: http://bit.ly/XTJXL
July 6, 2009
We have been hit with nonstop coverage of the recent deaths of celebrities Farah Fawcett, Ed McMahon and especially Michael Jackson. The fascination owes to perhaps more layers then we are even aware: celebrity the most obvious, but perhaps the role of the artist and his/her connection to inspiration, genius, beauty, truth, etc. Notably, Thomas Berry (1914-2009), Passionist priest and internationally recognized historian of cultures, died on June 1st, 2009. Berry extended our understanding of the human-cosmic dimensions from
his base at the Riverdale Center for Religious Research that he inaugurated in 1970. Conferences sponsored by the center explored such themes as Energy: Its Cosmic-Human Dimensions; The Future: Technological Society Man’s Covenant; New York as Sacred City; and The Ecological Age. Current discussions on sustainability should include Berry’s important work that drew scholars and thinkers from all over the world. These activities culminated in the 1998 founding of the Thomas Berry Foundation, an integral part of the Yale-based international Forum on Religion and Ecology (FORE), directed by Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim of Yale University. For more information see
http://www.thepassionists.org/Thomas_Berry.html;http://www.religionandecology.org/
June 25, 2009
On the road quite a bit today so I got to listen to several public radio programs. Two seemingly unrelated programs came closer to being aligned then I ever thought possible. One was reporting on the findings from a recent study in South Africa with very disturbing findings: violent behavior as well as rapes are up in number and not just against women, but also men and boys. More troubling is that the numbers of boys and young men as perpetrators is on the rise. There was also discussion about Jacob Zuma who in his recent sexual escapades blamed the “culture.” He has since apologized and taken responsibility. Almost back to back with the S. African report was the subject of Mark Sanford and his shocking announcement yesterday about a having year-long affair with an Argentine woman. Individuals who see themselves as powerful, or feel the need to exert that power over others, or abuse what they think is their right to power do so at the expense of another human being often females. Although I initially felt that the South African story was far removed from American society–a more evolved democracy than Africa–I started seeing that there may not be such a wide gap as I one would like to think. As one commenter (male), an expert crisis management, pointed out a positive step in this case may be the fact that Mrs. Sanford let Gov. Sanford hang out there alone making his apology–no more stoic woman “standing by her man.”
June 8, 2009
Business as an Agent for World Benefit took place at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland this past week. The theme was “massive innovation” and how design can contribute to a new vision for the future. B-school deans and professors, and leading designers such as William McDonough, Peter Coughlin, IDEO, Bruce Mau were among the keynotes. Will be posting summaries in the coming week.
May 19, 2009
Today’s NPR Talk of the Nation program examined whether the Financial Press missed the meltdown? David Wessel defended, economics director, defended the Wall Street Journal by saying it covered some of the signs just not enough. The reason, Wessel says that it was all so complex that everyone missed it. What is interesting is one of the reasons he gave: “a failure of the imagination” (and possibly diligence). We have heard the phrase “failure of the imagination” before and that was in the Report produced by the 9/11 Commission. The findings noted that it was not a lack of data but a failure in connecting the dots of troubling reports. When asked-and a lot these days–why we didn’t see this coming, Peter Coy economics editor for Business Week magazine replies “If everything we had said and written came true then we might have expected some of this to have happen,” Coy said. “But I think there was a failure of imagination among economists, policymakers, as well as journalists.” Going forward, some soul searching questions will need to be answered on missed cues that have resulted in enormous consequences.
Visit NPR for the audio and article at http://bit.ly/kb7nO
May 18, 2009
As world economies reel from the US financial meltdown, there is one country impervious to the current downturn–Norway. Business schools are scrambling to invigorate their curricula with lessons learned and new models of entrepreneurship to infuse innovation (a healthy dose of morals and ethics could help as well) and produce better leaders for tomorrow. So what are the lessons from Norway? According to a NY Times article today, Norway’s Socialist finance minister, Kristin Havorsen’s free market skepticism was on the mark. Second, Norway maintained a healthy attitude of sustainability–those who get have a responsibility to give back. Anders Aslund, an expert on Scandinavia, identifies this virtue in the Norwegians whereas the US and UK have no sense of guilt and lack virtue. While the chasm between the rich and poor has grown ever wider globally, Norway has the second highest GDP per person at $52,000 behind only Luxembourg among industrial democracies. Norwegians acknowledge its favorite son, Henrik Ibsen, for its iconoclastic consensus to his famous line “The strongest man is he who stands alone in the world.” Yet the exact line from his play “An Enemy of the People” is “…when a man stands for truth, he stands alone.” For more on Norway see today’s NYTimes: http://bit.ly/lbKun
May 3, 2009
Back in 2004 I was struck by a comment made in an interview by new trustees on the board of the NY Historical Society who came from the private sector.We can’t impose our ideas on them by fiat—what we’re doing that maybe hasn’t been done before is to maybe broaden the scope. Americans are ready for this now. We are financial people, and we have a nose for what the market wants*. The reason I bring this up is that the recent groundswell for a conversation on torture is in my mind a step toward healthier economy. The financial meltdown did not result just from greed, but also excessive competition, selfish individualism that are symptoms of hopelessness. Charles Handy, London Business School, made this observation when he was at the Drucker Institute in Claremont, CA. Which brings one to the question of why a civilized people such as Americans would resort to torture as a means of national security? Could it also be an eroded optimism and good faith that made torture the only option for America’s pursuit of happiness? A national conversation on values might go a long way in clarifying where we stand as a people and in the long run get our collapsed economy up and running. As Charles Handy observed
(pre-meltdown, I might add) that America will regain its stature in the world only if it regains a new mood of optimism as well as its high moral ground and recovers its traditional American values. A super-sized slice of humble pie may not hurt either.
See Handy web interview: http://www.amanet.org/editorial/webcast/2008/charles-handy.htm?CMP=EMC-ftaf
*Richard Gilder, referring to his combined leadership role with Lewis E. Lehrman as trustees for the New York Historical Society, July 2004.
April 13, 2009
A New York Times headline shouts “With Finance Disgraced, Which Career Will Be King?” California coughs in the Iowa’s dust as it recognizes gay marriage first. Record number Students are enrolling in community organizing classes. Finance majors consider Teach for America. Everything is shook up and that is a good thing because then the real change can begin! As Richard Freeman, director of Labor Studies Program National Bureau of Economic Research put it “We have a great experiment before us.”
