One of my very favorite talks of TEDGlobal 2010. And it does make one wonder why we insist on conventional methods of education when it comes to that very unconventional (almost fantastic) thing we call a human mind.
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(Tóxico is part of the TED Senior Fellows crew. Mmm.)
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No se trata de encontrar una voz. Se trata, si se trata de algo, de producir una escritura ajena, otra, improbable
-Cristina Rivera Garza-
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I have thought a thinking many times: about what type of place this would be if instead of figuring out the ‘averages’ and the ‘normalities’, instead of going through a watered-down process of deciding on where to draw the line between the pathological and the poetical, instead of fitting and tailoring to tyrannical  standards, we could instead build micro-climates where our quirks and ideosyncracies could live more happily and fantastically and freely– a shifting world that takes our shape.
TED just posted a talk by Temple Grandin, who spoke a few weeks ago at Long Beach and had us all in the audience on our feet clapping away madly, thoroughly moved. Diagnosed with autism (“a disorder of neural development characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior”) she herself  implodes easy dichotomies with a gracious slap: a person with autism on stage, in front of 1,000 peopled audience, communicating not only with clarity but with a strange type of undeniable force.
Yes. Yes. The world needs all kinds of minds.
And, I would say, minds need many types of worlds.
Ajá. Flying towards TED as you read this, preparing the head.
And so I leave you with one of TED’s most loved talks; Sir Ken will be at TED again this year, and I am looking forward to hearing what he has to say.
(Next post from Long Beach, and twitter: @ToxicoCultura)
It was a great pleasure to see Stefan Sagmeister–renowned graphic designer– on stage again at TED, a few months ago: this time it was all about sabbaticals and creativity.
(His Tóxico workshop and Tóxico conference still resonate deep in the head. And he was our first international guest and, so, he is almost like a padrino.)
“I give all I have to give, voluntarily, and take as much as I can possibly ingest. I am a prince and a pirate at the same time. I find that there is plenty of room in the world for everybody–great interspatial depths, great ego universes, great islands of repair, for whoever attains to individuality. On the surface, where the historical battles rage, where everything is interpreted in terms of money and power, there may be crowding, but life only begins when one drops below the surface…”
DLF.tv is a celebration of consciousness, creativity and bliss.
It looks like Mr. Lynch had enough of his weather reports and started a whole television network. Visit DLF.tv for Lynch wisdom and meditation techniques, plus interviews with many artists, live concerts and much more.
A very inspiring TED talk about creativity and genius by Elizabeth Gilbert.
“It’s about the struggle between individuals with jagged passion in their work and today’s faceless corporate committees, which claim to understand the needs of the mass audience, and are removing the idiosyncrasies, polishing the jags, creating a thought-free, passion-free, cultural mush that will not be hated nor loved by anyone. By now, virtually all media, architecture, product and graphic design have been freed from ideas, individual passion, and have been relegated to a role of corporate servitude, carrying out corporate strategies and increasing stock prices. Creative people are now working for the bottom line. Magazine editors have lost their editorial independence, and work for committees of publisher (who work for committees of advertisers). TV scripts are vetted by producers, advertisers, lawyers, research specialists, layers and layers of paid executives who determine whether the scripts are dumb enough to amuse what they call the’lowest common denominator’. Film studios put films in front of focus groups to determine whether an ending will please target audiences. All cars look the same. Architectural decisions are made by accountants. Ads are stupid. Theater is dead. Corporations have become the sole arbiters of cultural ideas and taste in America. Our culture is corporate culture. Culture used to be the opposite of commerce, not a fast track to ‘content’-derived riches. Not so long ago captains of industry (no angels in the way the acquired wealth) thought that part of their responsibility was to use their millions to support culture. Carnegie built libraries, Rockefeller built art museums, Ford created his global foundation. What do we now get from our billionaires? Gates? Or Eisner? Or Redstone? Sales pitches. Junk mail. Meanwhile, creative people have their work reduced to ‘content’ or ‘intellectual property’. Magazine and films become ‘delivery systems’ for product messages. But to be fair, the above is only 99 percent true. I offer a modest solution: find the cracks in the wall. There are a very few lunatic entrepreneurs who will understand that culture and design are not about fatter wallets, but about creating a future. They will understand that wealth is a means, not an end. Under other circumstances they may have turned out to be like you, creative lunatics. Believe me, they’re there and when you find them, treat them well and use their money to change the world.”
~Tibor Kalman, New York, June 1998. “F___ Committees. I Believe in
Lunatics” article excerpted from Tibor Kalman: Perverse Optimist.
(Kalman fue uno de los diseñadores más influyentes en los 90s y, entre otras cosas, creó la revista Colors junto con Toscani)
Y aquà un par de otras cositas de Kalman:
