The Thirteenth Tipping Point

Understandably, my eye is caught by any magazine cover with a chimp on it.

Now when a publication combines chimpanzee iconography with Malcolm Gladwell, well now you got required reading!

The core article of this issue of Mother Jones Magazine asks the same question that peaceniks and dyed-in-the-wool Goldwater Republicans alike shout into the stratosphere: "What is is going to take for us to survive?"

Dolphins, cockroaches, and vampire bats understand that cooperation is the key to survival. Why don't we?

From The Thirteenth Tipping Point by Julia Whitty

Science shows that we are born with powerful tools for overcoming our perilous complacency. We have the genetic smarts and the cultural smarts. We have the technological know-how. We even have the inclination. The truth is we can change with breathtaking speed, sculpting even "immutable" human nature. Forty years ago many people believed human nature required blacks and whites to live in segregation; 30 years ago human nature divided men and women into separate economies; 20 years ago human nature prevented us from defusing a global nuclear standoff. Nowadays we blame human nature for the insolvable hazards of global warming.

The 18th-century taxonomist Carolus Linnaeus named us Homo sapiens, from the Latin sapiens, meaning "prudent, wise." History shows we are not born with wisdom. We evolve into it.

Zoom Out

I was kindly invited to be a guest writer at GodbeyWorks this week. Here is the article...

In addition to our regular columnists, we offer other members of our community a chance to voice their thoughts as well. Now, when faced with your next Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG), remember to zoom out. Draw big. Map out relationships and connections. ~Rob Godbey

[Photo: 1917 SPAD XIIIc.I from the Owls Head Transportation Museum, http://www.ohtm.org]

Zoom Out
by Peter Durand

Imagine the experience of the first generation of pilots.

Wedged into those wacky machines belching greasy smoke, with wings of shellacked canvas, bound together by tension wires, straining poles and hope.

Ah, but the view!

As the elevation increased, the individual structures of barns and airplane hangers receded to reveal vast networks: canal systems, topographic complexity, patchworks of natural and artificial boundaries etched into the skin of the earth.

This, my friends, is the 20,000-foot view sited so often in boardrooms and consulting documents; it is the elevation that explodes the perception of “seperateness” and “silos” as mere texture in the rich tapestry of the earth.

Now, imagine being that early pilot coming back to earth. Imagine their frustration when explaining to the farmers and truck drivers and milkmaids the wonder of seeing all that connected complexity. (How easy and elegant it looked!) Then, those pilots had to walk home. Uphill. In the snow.

[photo: Peter Durand]

This is the experience that may be shared by many of us in our own work.

As individuals and small groups––with help from research, collaboration, imagination––we’ve caught a glimpse of that futurescape, the possible horizons, the beauty and complexity that knits all the manic activities together.

So, what is essential in sharing the vision with others, those farmers, trucker drivers, milk maids, executives, board members?

It is a map to go along with the story.

This requires a tiny bit of work and ingenuity. Mostly, it requires moving away from the linear and becoming comfortable with the non-linear, away from the bullet-point list and towards systems thinking.

As a graphically minded visual learner myself, I have to admit full-disclosure: I can’t work any other way now!

I mean, after those early flights, when the topography of the countryside was revealed to the pilots’ eyes, well, after that, there’s no going back.

Now, when faced with your next Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG), remember to zoom out. Draw big. Map out relationships and connections. Examine the whole topography of the situation.

Take that flight. And, this time, bring along some passengers.

References

You Are Here
by Katharine Harmon — Amazon

Else/Where: Mapping—New Cartographies of Networks and Territories
by Janet Abrams and Peter Hall — Amazon

The Mind Map Book
by Tony Buzan and Barry Buzan — Amazon

Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative
by Edward R. Tufte — Amazon

Peter Durand is a graphic facilitator who runs his business Alphachimp Studio, Inc. from Pittsburgh. You can learn more about Peter and his work, and find more of his writing on his Website.

[Photo: Team members map out issues. Credit: Peter Durand]

Jonathan Coulton's "Flickr"

Pop!Tech bard, Jonathan Coulton, combines the sweetest of melodies with bizarrely captivating lyrics inspired by random photos downloaded from Flickr.

A freight train passes
Someone’s grandma owns a gun
A dog with glasses
A strange balloon man has too much fun
Thumbs up for Slurpees
If you’re receiving then you’re not gay
A case of herpes
As it turns out the eyepatch is A-OK

Watch the video of Coulton's "Flickr" music video to make sense of these wackaddodle images. Stick with it as the song slowly slips from sickly sweet into subversively surreal.

IFVP 2006

Below is a final list of posts capturing much of the conten from The International Forum of Visual Practitioner’s Conference 2006 in Lake Tahoe.

You can see the originals at the blog, The Center for Graphic Facilitation: http://www.graphicfacilitation.com

Special thanks goes out to all the organizers and lecturers who volunteered their time and energy to make this year a rich and rewarding experience for newbies and old-timers.

Perhaps a special recognition goes out to the group of US Coast Guard members who spent the weekend becoming comfortable with using pastels to defend the nation!

The decision isn't final, but things are looking good for next year's conference to be held in beautiful Santa Fe, New Mexico!

If you are interested in learning more about the IFVP or becoming a member, visit http://www.ifvp.org

IVFP 2006: Photogallery

There is a whole lotta learning going on in Lake Tahoe!

In one room, we have Newbies who are learning the basics of graphic capture.

In the other room we have a group of "experienced" graphic professionals who are having their minds blown by the possibilities of emerging technologies.

Click below to check out photos of the action...

• PHOTOS
• SLIDESHOW

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IFVP 2006: Evolution from Scribe to Strategy Partners

Peter Durand of Alphachimp Studio Inc. presented a list of free (and almost free) tools for managing the business of the business of being a scribe.

The main messages:

1. Success is dependent upon proving value to your client and their stakeholders.
2. Mastering technology is a key differentiator.
3. As small businesses, we need to improve the level of service and increase the efficiency of our back office processes.

Click link below for a list of the services and products reviewed...

Continue reading "IFVP 2006: Evolution from Scribe to Strategy Partners" »

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Adkins' Calligraphy Pens

Jan Adkins' workshop on letterforms introduced us to a fantastic set of calligraphy pens: Copic Markers.

They are refillable and affordable. Perfectly made for the human hand to hold super steady and produce large-scale letterforms.

Wide Set 12C
Price: $166.8

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Folk Art Letter Forms

As graphic facilitators and illustrators, the history of lettering is a vast museum there for us to pillage. The front door is unlocked and the rewards are infinite!

Here are a couple of examples of letter-looters and the whimsical results of their creative process:

Ray Fenwick is an illustrator, artist, letterer and letterpress printer living in Halifax, Nova Scotia. His full-time day job is as manager for a soon-to-be-open letterpress printshop, so he wakes up early to work on Hall of Best Knowledge, an award-winning typographic comic. He makes all kinds of things, but to be honest, most of them include lettering in some way. His work has appeared in numerous exhibitions, and will soon be seen in Steven Heller's Old Type/new Type.

Yee-Haw Industries has been covering America with unique, art-like products since 1996. Partners Kevin Bradley & Julie Belcher opened up shop from a back-40 barn in Corbin, Kentucky, with salvaged, antique equipment previously put to rust. Their vibrant, folk art, wood cut prints of country music's classic stars, such as Hank Williams, Sr. and Loretta Lynn, caught eyes and told stories. Handmade posters featured stranger-than-fiction characters, like ass-whooping grocer Cas Walker and daredevil icon Evel Kenevil. Soon, modern music acts, including Steve Earle, Buddy Guy, Trey Anastasio, Lucinda Williams and Southern Culture on the Skids began commissioning promotional posters and album art.

In the early 1990s, renowned graphic designer Paula Scher began painting small, opinionated maps—colorful depictions of continents and regions, covered from top to bottom by a scrawl of words. Within a few years, the maps grew larger and more elaborate. “I began painting these things sort of in a silly way,” Scher, a partner at the Pentagram design firm, said in a recent conversation. “And I think at one point I realized they would be amazing big. And I wondered if I could even do it. If I could actually paint these things on such a grand scale, what would happen?”

See a beautiful video by Flash innovator, Hillman Curtis, of Scher describing her creative process and love of letter forms.

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IFVP 2006: Jan Adkins on Symbols

In order to bring your work to life, there are essential skills to creating and capturing ideas through icons, symbols and letterforms. Jan Adkins, professional illustrator and educator, demonstrated the evolution of signs and symbols from human experience.

Adkins says, "Our modern letter forms evolved from the symbols created by our ancestors, who drew meaning from natural forms."

For example, Apis the Bull => letter A

But he also laments, "Our cultural symbols have become more and more meaningful... and less and less meaningful. Mostly because the power and resonance has been lost over the years."

Over the course of two hours, Jan walked the group through the history of type from the Babylonians, Romans, Holy Roman Empire and Guttenburg.

So what is the key difference between icons and symbols?

• An icon is a graphic device that represents some object or action, the graphic device being ascribed symbolic meaning(s) beyond the object represented.
• A symbol has only the meanings abscribed to itself, representing only a concept and not recognizable as a particular object.

Read more for links, images and references to more on the history of images and lettering.

Continue reading "IFVP 2006: Jan Adkins on Symbols" »

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IFVP 2006: Keith Bendis, Basic Drawing

Many of us were crippled in Middle School when teachers began to teach that maturity means not drawing any more! At the IFVP 2006 conference, accomplish illustrator Keith Bendis, from Upstate New York, led a session for those fearful of drawing (especially in public!).

Participants rediscovered the freedom of marking marks without intention, creating images on demand, and creating stories from the resulting collage of images.

As Keith points out, "It is a lot easier with kids. Because they don't judge themselves so harshly."

Visit Keith's site: www.keithbendis.com

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IFVP 2006: Jan Adkins, Illustrator

KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Jan Adkins is an illustrator, museum designer, educator and expert in the profession as an artist.

For nine years he was the associate art director at National Geographic Magazine, explaining the space shuttle, lasers, submarines, Soviet rockets, satellites, nuclear physics, marine archaeology, forest fires, volcanoes and the voyages of Christopher Columbus. Directing a team of researchers and doing original field research himself, he unraveled some of the most interesting topics ever addressed by Geographic during its golden age. Jan's job, according to his editor-in-chief Bill Garrett, "was like getting a doctorate every third month."

He has written scripts and treatments for the Discovery Channel, NOVA, and the BBC, and narrative voiceover for interactive corporate training programs. He taught editorial illustration at the Rhode Island School of Design for several years, and taught illustration and graphic design at Maryland Institute, College of Art, in Baltimore. He’s associated with several exhibit design firms and frequently consults on exhibits for zoos, art museums, science and natural history museums.

Continue reading "IFVP 2006: Jan Adkins, Illustrator" »

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IFVP 2006: Spiral Dynamics

Download spiral_dynamics.pdf

Graphic facilitator, Brandy Agerbeck of Loosetooth.com, presented the basics of Integral Theory. This theory arises out of the body of work generated by philospher Ken Wilbur.

Continue reading "IFVP 2006: Spiral Dynamics" »

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The Great IFVP Tech Debate: When and What to Use

The Tech Group at the IVFP 2006 conference is wrestling with technology. Within the group, there are folks who blog daily, are well-versed in digital photography, build PowerPoint presentations and live-or-die on the web.

Then there are those who are experts in the magic that happens when people gather together in person to tell strories and create large-scale maps and drawings.

Continue reading "The Great IFVP Tech Debate: When and What to Use" »

Pop!Tech X Concludes

One opera house, 3 days, 500 participants, hundreds of "dangerous" ideas... this was Pop!Tech X.

As official Pop!Tech artist, I built out a mobile paint studio, perched up in the loge box above the opera house stage.

I managed to crank out 36 paintings totalling 43,200 square inches of art to give form to the ideas propogated by the superstar speakers.

PHOTO: Pop!Tech curator Andrew Zolli with members of the Sinikithemba Choir.
Credit: Asa Mathat

The amazing roster included musician Brian Eno, futurist Kevin Kelly, science fiction writer Bruce Sterling, military strategist Tom Barnett, historian Juan Enriquez, culinary scientist Homaro Cantu and the longtailed Chris Anderson.

The original works (all 30" x 40" acrylic paintings on archival posterboard) are up for auction to raise money for the Pop!Tech Scholarship Fund. This will enable more students, women and minorities from other parts of the country and the world to attend this amazing event held each year in Camden, Maine.

My favorite presentations:

Sinikithemba Choir,
an HIV-positive singing group from Durbin South Africa, spreading the
word about AIDS and medication around the world: "If you're negative,
stay negative! If you're positive, think positive!"

The presentation by the creator of Ask A Ninja.

HP was one of the corporate sponsors and a team of writers and designers were on-site to compile a 300+ full-color book incorporating photos, artwork, scibbles, post-its, wiki posts, blog posts and random submissions. The book is currently printing and will reach each of the 500+ participants at their homes within 3 days of the event's conclusion!

I used our new web-based tool for capturing events, MissingLink, to publish the results in almost real time.

See results: http://alphachimp.missinglink.biz/poptech/poptech-2006-dangerous-ideas

Live at Pop!Tech 10

Today is the first day of Pop!Tech, a three-day conference featuring the most creative, innovative and dangerous thinkers on the planet.

Yahoo has a giant satellite truck out front of the quaint Opera House here in Camden, Maine. They are beaming the audio and video of the presentations and musical performances directly to Houston, parsing the files and streaming to viewers on-line in real-time.

This morning you can listen presentations for free by such luminaries as musicisn Brian Eno, the inventor of SimCity Will Wright, columnist Tom Freidman and futurist Kevin Kelly.

To listen in and to contribute to the conversation, visit http://live.poptech.org/

I'll be inside the Opera House, with a mobile paint studio set up way up in the loge seats producing large graffiti works for each speaker. All paintings created during the conference can be seen on MissingLink at: http://alphachimp.missinglink.biz/poptech/poptech-2006-dangerous-ideas

You can see the results from past years at
http://www.alphachimp.com/poptech/simpleviewer2005/

Click below to see the schedule of speakers, with times listed being US Eastern Standard. Hope you catch some of the show!

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POP!TECH SCHEDULE
=====================

Thursday, October 19
-------------------
9:00 AM Emergence with Brian Eno and Will Wright
10:30 AM Break
11:00 AM Technology's Embrace with Kevin Kelly,
Marianne Weems, and Hasan Elahi
12:30 PM Lunch Break
2:00 PM GreenShift with Tom Friedman, Steward Brand,
Lester Brown, and Robert Freling
4:00 PM Break
4:30 PM Fabricating the Future with Bruce Sterling,
Blaine Brownell, and Alex Steffen
6:30 PM Free time for dinner and friends
9:00 PM Three-Minute Miracles: Open Mic Night

Friday, October 20
-------------------
9:00 AM Taking on Superpowers with Juan Enriquez,
Tom Barnett, and The Yes Men
10:30 AM Break
11:00 AM Identity Reframed with Ayaan Hirsi Ali
and Kwame Anthony Appiah
12:30 PM Lunch Break
2:00 PM On Faith with Martin Marty and Richard Dawkins
3:00 PM
3:30 PM Pop!Tech Social
4:30 PM The Edge of Learning with Education Fellows,
Erin McKean, and Losang Rabgey

Saturday, October 21
-------------------
9:00 AM Tails and Tales with Chris Anderson, Kent Nichols, and Ze Frank
10:30 AM Break
11:00 AM Community Cures with Victoria Hale, Neema Mgana, and Zinhle Thabethe
12:30 PM Lunch Break
2:00 PM Artful Invention with Clifford Ross and Homaro Cantu
3:30 PM The Neo-Futurists
4:00 PM Break
4:30 PM Risk and Revolution with Roger Brent and Craig Venter
5:30 PM Wrap-up with Bob Metcalfe and John Sculley

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Monkey on the Move

From Jarrell McAlister:

Robot Vacuum + Animatronic Chimp = Sheer Terror

Some experiements should never see the light of day!

From YouTube. Where else?

Tri-Dave & Operation Caterpillar

Life in the Middle East is no bowl of cherries for the US military. But that doesn't mean that a life without access to wine, women, water, trees, bathrooms, shopping malls or ice cream parlors needs to be boring.

Just witness the results of the moustache-growing competition (code named Operation Caterpillar) launched by the comrades of our good friend and Navy SeeBee, Tri-Dave.

Other extreme sports experienced by the crew: catching up on LOST episodes on DVD, watching a broadcast football game in the middle of the night, and betting on another soldier's attempt to eat an entire block of cheese for $50.

Get more of an insight into life at http://www.tridave.blogspot.com/:

Overall the base has everything you could ask for and in some instances the amenities are better than most stateside bases. I live in a PCB (Pre-Constructed Building) in the “1400 Block” neighborhood. It is like a “suburb” of tract housing with a bunch of buildings, all exactly the same, for berthing. Each one holds up to 50+ people so the troops are really packed in. As an Officer, we have more room and I even get a corner since I am the senior person in my building. There are bunk beds galore and a bunk of wall lockers that I was able to use for privacy screening. I created a little pod and even put my Seabee Flag over the entry for a little more privacy. All the lights are on one switch so you have to get used to sleeping with lights on or getting ready in the dark, but it should not be too terrible.

[The outside temperature this August: 120 degrees Fahrenheit]

D.I.R.T.: The Art and Science of Bioremediation

Few experiences top the drive from Northern Indiana into South Chicago. First, you are hit by the noxious exhalations from putrescent organic matter; this is the massive methane-belching dump. [photo by trailerafire]

Then the Skyway takes you and your vehicle a hundred feet in the air, affording an exhilerating view of Gary, Indiana: deserted mills, refineries sending flames into the night sky, expanses of industrial miasma, abandoned by the knowledge economy.

Take the route through Northern New Jersey that flies by the car window of Tony Soprano, and you too may feel a drop in your gut and an exhileration in your chest. There are few sights more disheartening or inspiring than driving through America's industrial wastelands.

It was here that landscape architect and vanguard of the bioremediation movement, Julie Bargmann, grew up -- cruising through the New Jersey Turnpike, under powerlines, past the oil refineries and through America's dumping ground, The Meadowlands.

According to Wikipedia, Bioremediation can be defined as any process that uses microorganisms, fungi, green plants or their enzymes to return the environment altered by contaminants to its original condition. Bioremediation may be employed to attack specific soil contaminants, such as chlorinated hydrocarbons that are degraded by bacteria, or a more general approach may be taken, such as oil spills that are broken down by multiple techniques including the addition of nitrate and/or sulfate fertilizers to facilitate the decomposition of crude oil by indigenous or exogenous bacteria.

Archinect writer and landscape architect Heather Ring, interviews Bargmann who is collaborating with others to reclaim some of the millions of acres in America currently considered industrial blight. [read interview]

Now she dedicates her research and practice, D.I.R.T. (Dump It Right There) Studio, to taking on abandoned railyards, closed quarries and landfills, disused factories and former coal mines. And with more than half a million contaminated sites in the US alone, there's a strong argument for remediating what's been used, rather than sprawling out and building new. Her practice is a critical one, which means there's no erasing the evidence. Instead, she works to transform the waste produced by a century of manufacturing and consumption into something culturally and ecologically productive. She's got a pink hard-hat and a quick wit, and a willingness to get her hands dirty and talk about things like "beauty," in a way that redefines it for us all.

From University of Virginia faculty profile:

Julie Bargmann is internationally recognized as an innovative designer in building regenerative landscapes and with interdisciplinary design education. Her on-going design research Project D.I.R.T. (Design Investigations Reclaiming Terrain) continues to excavate the creative potential of disturbed landscapes.

Design research infuses projects at the D.I.R.T. studio (Dump It Right There) where past and present industrial along with urban processes lay the groundwork for ecological systems, cultural constructs and emerging technologies. From closed quarries to abandoned coal mines, fallow factories and urban railyards, Bargmann joins teams of architects, artists, engineers, historians and scientists to imagine the next evolution of these working landscapes.

From Worldchanging, Sarah Rich writes on the nature of transformation (from nature to industry to art):

"That experience of profound beauty amidst industrial decay encapsulates our changing perception of land. It's unmistakable in contemporary art such as Ed Burtynsky's Manufactured Landscapes or The Canary Project's photos of altered geographies, which portray places we'd once have concealed from public view, and surely never granted status as art."

Harvest Art in Massachusetts

From graphic facilitator Kelvy Bird:

"Come enjoy the harvest!"

RECEPTION Friday, October 13, from 6-9 PM
Gallery at 38 Cameron, with Beth Galston and Lou Jones
38 Cameron Avenue, Cambridge, MA
Through December 29: Tues and Wed 12-5 or by appointment 617-492-2848

Preview | Exhibit | Map

Sacred Sense at The Nave Gallery
Clarendon Hill Presbyterian Church, 155 Powderhouse Blvd., Somerville MA
Through October 15: Fri 5-8, Sat 1-5, Sun 1-3

Preview | Exhibit | Map

Malden Contemporary at the Gallery at Elm Street
First Parish in Malden - 2 Elm Street, Malden MA
Through November 12: Tues and Fri 10am-1pm, Sat 10am-2pm, Sun 10am-1pm

Preview | Exhibit | Map