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Archive for Technology – Page 11

Belissimo Felissimo

One of my bibliophile friends frequents his local library’s infamous monthly book sales and distributes the inexpensive treasures he finds there as ‘prizes’ for our families’ regular Wizard games. The other night I received (for 4th place, no less) a gorgeous book that appeared to have been produced by an international group I’d not yet heard of, Felissimo.

I was initially enchanted by the beauty of the book’s design and
imagery, but almost immediately I became equally intrigued by the text,
which was presented in both English and Japanese. Here is an excerpt from the
introduction:

"All life is interdependent. No matter how proud we are of our
intellect, no matter how wonderful the civilizations we create, human
beings simply cannot live alone. Nature is the thread that binds all
lives together… we know many things. But what truly makes us happy?
At Felissimo, we have devoted ourselves to unraveling this paradox and
we have come to the conclusion that "love" is the answer. This does not
mean, simply, to love another person, but rather to embrace all life
with a deep, abiding respect."

Apparently Felissimo (which is made of two Latin words that mean
‘bliss’, & ‘with emphasis’) is a design company devoted to a ‘whole new
way of doing business’. They have a philanthropic arm, or perhaps it is more accurate to say they are an entirely philanthropically-motivated business, which supports a whole slew of creative and environmentally positive projects in an activation of their basic philosophy, which is to make a better world through applied creativity.

Bravo, Felissimo!

Message from the Goddess

Christmas

The other night I was sitting in circle with my women’s group, listening to each other’s news: a serious illness to face; an engagement and grandchild to celebrate; all the ongoing weave of joy and heartbreak, inspiration and disillusion.

One of us* read a note that had been left to her in a dream by ‘the Goddess’ and I thought you’d like to hear it as well, since I think it was a Solstice blessing for all:

"Be happy; for if not now, when?
Trust in me again, and again and again
For I, the Goddess, have declared it your duty,
To always find your way back to beauty."

*(Thank you, Diane)

Design ala Pink

According to Daniel Pink’s A Whole New Mind, “Design is a classic whole-minded aptitude” and “… as more people develop a design sensibility, we’ll increasingly be able to deploy design for it’s ultimate purpose: changing the world.”

Daniel Pink’s A Whole New Mind heralds a whole new day, when the right brain skills and traits join the traditional dominion of the right brain perspective to produce a truly integrated psyche, and a healthier more balanced future. Moreover, he says this shift is imminent for a number of perfectly logical reasons.

Design is the first of six right brain skill or ‘senses’ Pink profiles in his book as important to our emerging collective future, and he seems to look at the design mind-set as a kind of super-aptitude that encompasses all the others in interesting ways. 

"Design is a classic whole-minded aptitude", Pink asserts, and "… as more people develop a design sensibility, we’ll increasingly be able to deploy design for it’s ultimate purpose: changing the world."

One of the justifications for Pink’s assertion is the inter-disciplinary skills that are essential to good design. The ability to think ‘out of the box’ and see the ‘big picture’, the ability to put yourself in other’s shoes, create meaning, and be a little whimsical that are the essence of the other right brain skills he mentions are all necessary prerequisites to the designer’s art. If you add beauty, the aesthetic aspect of design, you have an extraordinarily valuable skill that has uses far beyond the popular idea of design as decoration.

Aesthetics matter. This is becoming more and more clear. But Pink is exploring just how much they matter in a number of important settings. He quotes furniture designer Anna Castelli Ferrieri "It’s not true that what is useful is beautiful. It is what is beautiful that is useful. Beauty can improve people’s way of life and thinking", and goes on to give statistics and examples of the ways in which attention to beauty and good design can help patients get better faster, improve student test scores in public schools, change the atmosphere of fear and despair in public housing, decrease environmental pollution and effect national elections.

"To be a designer is to be an agent of change", indeed.

Transformative Fiction

What I’m beginning to see with more clarity is the awakening of a new medium… as I go deeper into this new erotic electronic world which gives me my work, I am seeing new horizons. The realization begins to emerge that all things are possible …

Standing on the edge of the hill, looking out over the city across the bay; more and more lights coming on as the sun sets, the light in the sky darkens and the colors deepen…

Tam

There s a screech owl in a branch immediately above my head, calling to
a mate in a nearby tree. A sudden flurry of sinew and air as he flies
across my path to her. In this moment, all my senses are alive with the magic of the place and time. I don’t want to move, though it’s cold and getting colder.

Stay with me in this place, and hear my words.

I’ve been thinking about something lately… cooking it like a long simmering stew. The meat isn’t falling tenderly off the bones yet, but the flavor is distinct enough to share a taste & the fragrance is intoxicating. It has something to do with a new kind of creative expression, a new genre. Something I’ve been imagining for many years is beginning to take form in me, although the form it’s taking is nothing like I imagined when I first heard the call as a child, knowing I wanted to be a writer when I grew up.

For a while now I’ve identified this new genre I want to produce as ‘transformative fiction’. In a way that term doesn’t work to describe something ‘new’, since fiction has been working its transformative magic on readers since the earliest alchemical touch between marker and mark … but now the possibilities of form have expanded and the transformation we can envision has itself been transformed. Nothing less than a collective leap in consciousness is required; a practical grasp of the unity that underlies all things; a way to reach the world’s heart and open our minds to the gift of humanity and the natural world, to the light that suffuses all life.

What I’m beginning to see with more clarity is the awakening of a new medium. I’ve been honing words, visualizing images… Previously I imagined I would write and paint this vision of mine, but as I go deeper into this new erotic electronic world which gives me my livelihood, I am seeing new horizons. The realization begins to emerge that all things are possible within a creative medium that lends itself to the total recreation of reality and allows multiple senses to enter into a narrative chorus of sight, sound and story.

In Second Life, they talk about the social & pscyhological implications of creating the “world we dream of” before it manifests in the “real” world. The ‘transformative fiction’ I’m envisioning works with this same set of ideas and creative principles… I’m looking at the possibility of linking the mind and the body in new ways, of opening new views in our collective neurostructure … making space for transformation – the "great turning" or paradigm shift that many people feel is crucial for humanity’s continued survival.