Strategies of Innovation | Cinematic Production Design
Working the World: Innovations and Revelations, the Future Reclaimed I N N O V A T I O N C H A N N E L S Working in varying parts of the world, depending on the culture, your relationships there invariably offer to show you the newest and the coolest in town. Being the contrarian, I'd rather go for the oldest. But one does get around to studying what's emerging in the newest art / theater and productions / architectural / industrial design / lighting, electronics, cp goods / interiors and...
STRATEGIES OF NAMING
The Naming of Things THE MYSTICAL ROOTS OF THE GATHERING OF NAMES. An ancient principle of voice struggles in the subjective empowerment of words -- as vessels for improvised ideas -- and the named premise of ideals. I've written in the past about the idea of the thing. The very name: thing, is something that speaks to a depth of meaning. Centuries back, thing was the matter of a meeting, a deliberation -- an entity being discussed. Earlier -- it was about time; and it might even relate to the...
SEND HELP
WHAT LANGUAGE: YOUR MESSAGE? WHAT CALL: YOUR PLEA? WHAT TONE: YOUR HOPE? HOW LOUD: YOUR REACH? Sometimes I'm asking for help. But I'm not asking for help in the right way. One calls out, but the call falls on deafness. The point might be that the call is incorrect, it's the wrong language. Or, the idea of that plea might be framed in a manner that isn't rightly conveyed. A call is one thing; a shout, another. A scream -- still another; a whisper another. I can recall, working with children,...
LOOK(ING) OUT
Studying the nature of surveillance | the lookout, the sentinel, the scout (and the brand). S E N T I N E L F O R T H E B R A N D Looking out: over the shifting world, there is what is flowing out -- the push; and what is flowing in -- the pull. The question might be, do you look out, in the nature of seeing what's happening in the marketplace, and what that might mean in the evolution of strategy? These days, I'm on the road, it feels, more than I'm in Seattle -- jumping from project to...
POWERPOLE
L E A D E R S H I P M A G N E T I S M In the modeling of a group of people, there is invariably a "power pole." Working with people, I look for that energized place of energy. Who's there? In the clustering of people, there is the layering of the rings of connections, in any organization, there is a person that is the center-point of that energy -- others gather round, and link into that vibration. People are connected to others with a kind of energy. There are types of magnetism -- some,...
ABRACADABRA | Alphabet Amulets
I got a note from some friends at the Oxford English Dictionary. It was about this word, "abracadabra" -- and perhaps you've got the same one, since you might have friends there too. Earlier in my life, studying the history of the word, the real key is linking historical references, the actual "use" of the word to form connections -- for one collective approach to studying language. But you can dig far deeper, looking into the etymological references of words that might range back thousands of...
Sometimes, in our attempts to process and organize, we forget the beauty of the chaotic milieu -- where things aren't really as nicely laid out as we might have imagined. Projects seem to drift off into a differing continuum -- there are challenges in getting our "formats" to align with others, and our sense of approach is limited to the channels that we hold dear in the forum of past experiences. I've found (myself) lately thinking about, and studying, the idea of listening even more quietly,...
KNOTWORK
(Girvin) Himalayan mountain protective talisman THE TALISMANIC STRING Coming into the office in Seattle, on one wall there is a string of talismans; they're arranged -- as a threading, running from the front of the office, the opening door, to the entry point, the first nexus. (Girvin) These amulets are reaches to protection -- collected, over decades: Arabic, Sanskrit, Hebrew; and they call from people of Egypt, India, Israel, Turkey and Afghanistan, among other places, other people. They...
DUST
The scent of dust. The perfume of the journey. The spice of the road. I am sorting through a collection of delicate, sacred books. They come from many places, but like a bundled sanctum, they are all together -- near by each other, in the darkness of a room that rarely sees light of any kind. That dark, keeps care, well kept, held in the quiet cover of a room that sees rest, some prayer, some sanctity. These books are very tiny -- some, bound with the skin of leather; and another, worn and...
PEOPLE THAT INSPIRE ME: The 5 steps of mentorship
GOING BACK, I realize those that inspire me, those that have taught me all -- brought me into their fold. In where I am, I make real what I learned from them. Being here, now -- I am what I am. Listening to the filtration of time, the strata of learning -- I go back. One mentor: Jack Lenor Larsen at his apartment, 55 Park, NYC There are influencers in life — people that connect with you, and connect you with others, that are profound change agents in your experience. I can recount a number of...