More from Oxford.
Carl Honoré, author of In Praise of Slowness, spoke about his book. We've been, "marinated in the culture of speed," Honoré says, to our detriment. Our linear concept of time, the fleeting, "time is money" (thanks, Ben Franklin!), "you snooze, you lose" approach that drives our rat race world, causes us no end of distress. All well and good, but I suspect our ability to singularly unplug from this time machine in any sustainable way is pretty limited. Trying to do things at, "the right speed" -- a pace appropriate to the task -- is my takeaway.
Next, Barry Schwartz reprised his Pop!Tech presentation of the key ideas from his book, The Paradox of Choice. Barry didn't engage the criticisms of his work, which makes sense. I believe he overstates the impact of mundane choices on most people (particularly young people), but I do think the bigger, existential choices cause young people lots of distress.
Dawn Denby followed with a talk on "sustainable design." An attractive and appealing young woman, Denby is part of a growing group of designers who thing "green" by instinct. Acknowledging that most sustainable design is a "metaphor" (examining deeply the global consequences of local design decisions often reveals their limited impact - which I've been calling, "light green" in conversations with my design clients) she demonstrated ways in which heavy impact items like disposable printers could be manufactured in a more environmentally sensitive manner. One big point: "designers are now being tasked with choreographing the system, not just maximizing sales." This means designers have greater opportunity to interact with marketing, manufacturing and, most importantly, customers, to design sustainable systems.
Stefano Boeri, Bill McDonough and Bob Neuwirth closed out Day Two.
Boeri, architect and Editor of Domus magazine began with the question: "how can one best represent the process of globalization?" This complex presentation showed how Google Earth presents images that are at once "familiar and uncanny." He described Domus' recent exploration of the surreal Pyongyang, North Korea, cityscape. Boeri speaks of a place that creates, "anguish and surprise"; a place in which wide roads with few cars and no bikes, bordered by no signs, ads or shops, partoled by manneristic traffic police, lead to giant buildings that appear to have been created in Photoshop. Pyongyang's "crowning achievement" is the Ryugyong Hotel, a 1,100 foot tall structure, built to house 5,000 guests. Today it stands empty; structurally unsound, at the center of a city Domus calls, "a capital between the Middle Ages and science fiction."
Boeri contrasts this building with the Bilbao Guggenheim, which he calls one of a family of "superplaces; celebrity places." The Guggenheim, along with the Queen Mary 2, and Ground Zero (all shown from Google Earth satellite images as he spoke) are connected with the media world. The truth of urban globalization lies somewhere between these two extremes, Boeri says.
Then, a three-minute TEDster talk by Nat Irwin. Irwin is the son of a preacher, and plays the part well in talking about the need to spread the "Thrival" meme. Thrivals are young black youths who "see the world through global lenses." This new global identity finds its archetypes in Nelson Mendala and the Dalai Lama, and seek to transcend traditional ethnic/racial/national stereotypes. What energy and commitment! Irwin's drive will make the word "thrival" sound less odd in the coming years.
Next, Bill McDonough reprised his TED presentation, yet again. Bill is a driving force in the sustainable architecture movement. I look foward to a new presentation the next time I hear him speak.
Finally, Bob Neuwirth spoke about the "cities of tomorrow," the Shadow Cities springing up all over the globe. These are squatter cities like Quibera, outside Nairobi, its analog near Mombai, or Favela adjacent to Rio de Janeiro. These are huge, sprawling places with no services or permanent structures. His images were stunningly disturbing; millions living in unimaginable squallor. Soon there will be one billion people living in these conditions. Two hundred thousand per day migrate to live there. Still another problem of unthinkable complexity.
So, Day Two of TEDGlobal ends as so many do here, with challenges to our conventional ways of thinking and everyday lives.
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