Taipei, Taiwan

I’ve just accepted an invitation to make a presentation as a Salon speaker and participate in a panel discussion (in the Economic Development stream) at the 2011 IDA Congress Taipei this coming October. My talk will follow the Keynote by Esko Aho, Executive Vice President, Corporate Relations and Responsibility, Nokia Corporation (who also happens to be the former Prime Minister of Finland). I guess I should start to think about my lecture topic…

The International Design Alliance (IDA) is a strategic venture between the international organisations representing industrial design, communication design, and interior architecture/design; the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (Icsid), the International Council of Graphic Design Associations (Icograda), and the Federation of Interior Architects/Designers (IFI). IDA’s mission is “to bring the benefits of design to world bodies, governments, business, and society;” it’s vision is “of a design community working together for a world that is balanced, inclusive, and sustainable.”

Themed ‘Design at the Edges,’ the Congress will emphasis the borders between the design industry and stakeholders of design from other sectors. The programme “highlights cutting edge design paradigms whilst addressing the importance of dialogue and collaboration.”

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I was delighted to receive a link this week from designer friend/equestrian Christina Weese in Saskatoon—to an online version of the 1972 Chouinard Catalog. As an aging trad climber this really takes me back… legendary climber/mountaineer (and IMAX photographer) David Breashear writes about the influence of this very same 1972 Chouinard catalog on his climbing in his 1999 autobiography, High Exposure.

“Another serious influence on my developing style came via the Chouinard climbing equipment catalogue of 1972, a slender publication with a Chinese landscape painting on the cover. Its author, the revered rock and ice climber Yvon Chouinard, called for “clean” climbing, proposing that climbers disavow pitons and bolts that scarred or otherwise altered rock. Instead, he advocated the use of metal nuts of various shapes and sizes which slotted into cracks without damage to the rock and could be recovered by the second climber on a rope. He reminded readers of the edict of John Muir, the late-nineteenth-century poet-environmentalist: ‘Leave no mark except your shadow.’ This ethic of purism and self-control made a profound impact on the climbing community—and on me as well.”

Images: a few pics from the catalog, including the chapter title for a treatise on clean climbing, a mess of ‘biners, the breakthrough Hexentrics stopper, Yvon’s ironmongery, and a pair of exquisite Annapurna glasses.

Tuesday… and some more inspired lines from the great Rumi…
Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Balkhī, جلالالدین محمد بلخى

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From the beginning of my life
I have been looking for your face
but today I have seen it
Today I have seen
the charm, the beauty,
the unfathomable grace
of the face
that I was looking for.

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Burdens are the foundations of ease and bitter things the
forerunners of pleasure.

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Your hand opens and closes and opens and closes.
If it were always a fist or always stretched open,
you would be paralyzed.
Your deepest presence 
is
in every small contracting and expanding,
the two as beautifully balanced and coordinated
as bird wings.

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In the body of the world, they say, there is a soul
and you are that.

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Late by myself, in the boat by myself
No light and no land anywhere
cloud cover thick, I try to stay
just above the surface, but I am already under
and living in the ocean of your love.

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Since I was cut from the reedbed,
I have made this crying sound.
Anyone apart from someone he loves
understands what I say.
Anyone pulled from a source
longs to go back.

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A rose’s rarest essence lives in the thorn.

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I died as a mineral and became a plant,
I died as plant and rose to animal,
I died as animal and I was Man.
Why should I fear? When was I less by dying?

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You were born with potential
You were born with goodness and trust
You were born with ideals and dreams
You were born with greatness
You were born with wings
You are not meant for crawling, so don’t.
You have wings
Learn to use them, and fly.

+++

What was whispered to the rose
To break it open
Last night
Was whispered to my heart

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We are the mirror as well as the face in it.
We are tasting the taste this minute of eternity.
We are pain and what cures pain both.
We are the sweet cold water and the jar that pours.

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Since you will come
and throw kisses
at my tombstone later
why not give them to me now
this is me
that same person.

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—William Shakespeare

(Thanks to ‘Segun Olude for the quotable).

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What if we were more like trees, converting carbon
dioxide and releasing oxygen?
We live in a bite-back, one-up world where anger,
bitterness, resentment, prejudice and violence are
the soul’s carbon dioxide.

We could receive curses, then give blessings.
We could get manipulated, then speak the truth.
We could be spat upon, then respond with grace.
We could be struck, but not strike back.

The thing about trees is that they need to absorb
CO2 in order to live and grow.
We could do the same. We could absorb hate,
discrimination, judgment and harm, and use
forgiveness to demonstrate healing and love.

This would free us from having to avenge our own
injustices and allow us to open our arms, welcoming
those who are often unwelcome and unwanted.
Photosynthesis and forgiveness are miracles of life.
Without them, the world is a hostile place.

—Ryan McCormick, from Geez

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(thanks to friend Andrew Boardman, celebrating his birthday today, for this)

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Growing up in cities of central Europe, I spent countless days visiting galleries (as a teenager, contemplating an art career) where I would stand for hours in front of classic paintings by great masters…

Today I chanced upon Google’s Art Project—the closest I’ve come for a long time to those joyful times of youthful wonder and discovery. Make a (virtual) visit to a growing number of top-notch art galleries around the world, zoom in to examine exquisite levels of detail, and come away truly awed… here.

Images: assorted details…

معمر القذافي

—Ernest Hemingway

(good counsel… thanks to Bruce Campbell for the quote)