“There’s sort of a parable I’d like to . . . In India . . . I guess it’s a parable: In India, sort of the lowest, the poorest, the, those, those without and the lowest in caste, eat very often–particularly in southern India–they eat off of a banana leaf.

Banana Leaf, via Wikipedia

And those a little bit up the scale, eat off of a sort of a un . . . a low-fired ceramic dish. And a little bit higher, why, they have a glaze on–a thing they call a “tali”–they use a banana leaf and then the ceramic as a tali upon which they put all the food. And there get to be some fairly elegant glazed talis, but it graduates to–if you’re up the scale a little bit more–why, a brass tali, and a bell-bronze tali is absolutely marvelous, it has a sort of a ring to it.

And then things get to be a little questionable. There are things like silver-plated talis and there are solid silver talis and I suppose some nut has had a gold tali that he’s eaten off of, but I’ve never seen one. But you can go beyond that and the guys that have not only means, but a certain amount of knowledge and understanding, go the next step and they eat off of a banana leaf.

And I think that in these times when we fall back and regroup, that somehow or other, the banana leaf parable sort of got to get working there, because I’m not prepared to say that the banana leaf that one eats off of is the same as the other eats off of, but it’s that process that has happened within the man that changes the banana leaf. And as we attack these problems–and I hope and I expect that the total amount of energy used in this world is going to go from high to medium to a little bit lower–the banana leaf idea might have a great part in it”

-Charles Eames, from the Charles Eliot Norton Lectures at Harvard

Design by Animals: Fly Lamp, Front Design.

While this is an interesting and unique example of using animals to manipulate human-designed objects, animals are manipulating their environments all the time, in many cases “designing” them. Chimpanzees, for example, have been known to fashion twigs into ant-catchers and use palm fronds as pestles. But what about birds who build nests? Is there any creativity involved for the bird or is it simply a hard-wired behavior, and does that matter in determining if that bird can be considered a designer.

An example that really pushes that boundary for me is the Vogelkop Bowerbird of Western New Guinea, highlighted in BBC’s Life television series. Male bowerbirds build a house-like structure of twigs and then carpets the area with moss. They then collect colored bits–berries, flowers, beetles, bottle caps–from around the forest floor and arranges them in front of his “house”. These compositions, which can vary widely between different birds, are used to attract female bowerbirds. Sort of like getting a girl in your bed with the shiny red Mustang convertible parked outside your place. What’s interesting is that the female bowerbirds are attracted to novel collections that contain unique or rare items, which seems to point to a certain level of creativity.

Vogelkop Bowerbird structure.

The bowerbird inspecting his lawn ornaments.

I’ve never seen nor read the book nor do I know what exactly Nelson meant by the first subtitle, but there’s deliberateness to it that makes be believe if he were alive, he would not be happy with the change.

Photograph of Earth taken by Voyager 1 in 1990. Via Wikipedia

“From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of particular interest. But for us, it’s different. Consider again that dot. That’s here, that’s home, that’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.”

-Carl Sagan

But what if you took that idea one step further. Instead of these specialty streets existing in isolation, perhaps they exist in a gridded urban environment where the intersection of two streets might be represented by companies who’s identity spans two industries. The Apple Store, for example, might exist on the corner of Circuit Street and Fruit Way, with Best Buy the neighbor on one side and Edible Arrangements on the other. A ZipCar might be parked at the intersection of Automotive Ave. and Fashion Lane, and eBay’s offices might be at corner of Electronics Road and Liquid Lane. Like Denver, Colorado, the street names on both axis would be in alphabetical order, in this case to facilitate finding or exploring certain business categories.

Furthermore, the empty lots at certain intersections might provide the impetus to imagine new types of products or business models (or at the very least more creative company names). Is there a market for a new kind of store that might sell comfortable chairs (Furniture Road) while you get your keys cut (Hardware Heights)?

I’m open to ideas and suggestions.

1847 Lower Manhattan map, via Wikimedia Commons.

Downtown Tokyo, a contrast in Meiji-era and post-war modernist aesthetics.

Who is my boss?, asks Shibuya.

Yes, in addition to bullet trains, electronic toilets and vending machine eateries, the houses in Japan are made of gold.

In the woods, I came across a shrine, dedicated to the mammary glands.

Tsukiji Fish Market, 6:00am. Cutting fresh tuna with a meter long knife. This picture has an illicit feeling to it, like the guy is in the Yakuza, practicing his knife skills.

Red octopus. Not Photoshopped.

-Salvador Dali

(via Yen Huang)

The city of Guilin in southern Chinese region of Guangxi. Stark limestone hills contrast the drab, rectilinear buildings.

A minority village nestled between the Longsheng rice terraces.

Hiking through the Tiger Leaping Gorge.

Mountains in Yunnan, near the Gorge.

The Great Wall snaking atop the mountain peaks.

“Bowl (Apia Nie) [Wuvulu or Aua Island] (1979.206.1428)”. In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000-;. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ho/11/oci/ho_1979.206.1428.htm (April 2008)

Generally, hand-crafted objects gain value with applied decoration, especially in places where resources are scarce. Care and meaning are visually embodied in the decoration’s complexity. So its strange and unique that Micronesia used decoration sparingly. In this case, it seems like the apie nie bowl’s smooth surfaces and high level of finish (in part due to residual coconut oil) convey a sense of craft.

The museum also had a navigational stick charts, used by the people of the Marshall islands as a diagram to study ocean currents and the intersection of wave swells while on land. If like me, you’re having trouble reading the charts, I should note that navigational techniques were kept secret within families and that a chart like this might only mean something for its creator.

“Navigational Chart (Rebbilib) [Marshallese people, Marshall Islands] (1978.412.826)”. In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000-;. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ho/11/oci/ho_1978.412.826.htm (April 2008)