There are moments when we’re all set on one particular course of action but instead take the other fork in the road when an opportunity presents itself, circumstances change, landscape shifts under our feet…
Given my current involvement with TEDxWarsaw, I’m lucky to be travelling in the company of people who have done one or two interesting things with their lives. This, as they say in America, got me to thinkin’ about exactly how they have got to do those particular things, instead of something else – which in the case of pretty much all of those people would have been equally as interesting and worthwhile so the relative merits of their current vs. possible other occupations are not under discussion here.
Since it’s usually the easiest – or at least quickest – way to start with oneself, I did a rapid audit of the major turning points in my life. This is actually an exercise I have done a few times so it was not as much of a major undertaking as it may seem :) Details, as they say, are not important. The main ‘take-away’ is that, while in journalism school, I was all set to start a news photography cadetship with a major newspaper (not many of those around these days – cadetships, I mean, though the same goes for newspapers) but instead decided to join a rather large community documentary project I read about in my local paper. The project lasted over a year and started to teach me how to work in a team, produce large projects and generally use photography in a range of ways. It also gave me a few life-long friends and resulted in my living in a different country. The path has been somehow parallel to what it would have been had I not followed the “but instead…”, but altogether different.
Today I’m wondering what may have been the “but instead…” point for others and since TEDx is a gathering of some rather brilliant creatures, I’m going to chat to a few of them and get their insights on these turning points and how they have impacted their lives, careers and contribution to this thing we call humanity. The results will be posted here in whatever form they happen to be captured.
Politics and business : it’s a marriage as old as humans’ attempts at social organisation. In the US that marriage has just gone into an even tighter embrace, with the US Supreme Court opening the door to unlimited campaign contributions by corporate interests. Putting aside discussion about the perceived “rightness” of the decision or even any basic common sense in the justices’ declaring corporate entities citizens of the nation, the decision naturally paves the way for a buildup in special interest manouvering, ranging from blunt instrument bludgeoning to razor sharp surgical intervention and from corporate heavy petting in the corridors of power to a full-on orgy of spending within the Beltway and throughout seats of authority big and small.
That much is clear. What I’m more interested in is how this potential blow to US democracy might actually turn out to be good for the planet. Yes, that thought surprised me, too. But consider for a moment some of the ideas put forward by “business greens.” Consultants and a small but growing number of executives are looking at ecology through the lens of hard-headed business and coming up with surprising yet pertinently common sense suggestions : go green not because you like trees and polar bears but because your bottom line needs help. Getting out of the red and into the green might be an appropriate metaphor.
Consider this scenario: companies en-masse wake up to the fact that saving energy and limiting waste equals saving money, which – lo and behold – enhances shareholder value. Shareholders (from the institutions to individuals) press company executives to use their newly gained ability to legally buy, I’m sorry, contribute to the campaign funds of politicians who then push through legislation requiring corporations to, say, save energy or maybe look for alternatives to the increasingly expensive fossil fuels – not in some nebulous “national interest” but because it’s damn expensive not to. Or how about investing in wind farms (campaign contributions from “windy” states), solar energy (that would be, for argument’s sake, Texas and Nevada), wave energy (last time I visited the Pacific North-West there was plenty of it about)… You get the point. Special interest is a double edged sword in the hands of fallible individuals. All that’s required is an adjustment of focus and a clear understanding of how energy innovation can become an economic driver for the entire century.
What’s required is business leadership of the sort of calibre we have not seen for a while, perhaps ever.
Naturally, the door has just been opened just as wide to special interests in the oil and gas business or even marginal farmland owners desperate to paint their trucks greener than green as they drive their genetically modified soya beans to the ethanol depot but that’s the fascinating nature of democracy. It has always been the case of squeaky wheels getting the grease. Except now it seems the greasing of wheels has become a whole lot easier. Maybe it’s an opportunity to do some good. Or maybe the tragedy of the commons is about to ensue. In any event, it’s not going to be a boring year.
It’s that time of the year again. Gingerbread and single malt cookies. Things are looking good. This is a recipe for really rather yummy gingerbread cookies for grown-ups. Meaning not too sweet. Lovely and gingery on the tongue. With a lingering single-malty after taste.
The first step in the preparation of Mrs T’s Gingerbread Cookies is the purchase of right kind of single malt. Laphroaig is our favourite but I understand Balvenie has been known to render pleasant results.
You will need the following ingredients (to end up with enough to fill a generous six-inch cookie jar):
400g of spelt flour – worth the extra search
100g of butter – use the good stuff, really, it’s worth it – and unsalted!
two tablespoons of honey
110g of dark muscovado cane sugar (oh, yeah!)
half a (flat) teaspoon of baking powder
100ml of maple syrup
two small eggs – if you have large ones, improvise
two teaspoons of nutmeg and clove powder (proportions to suit)
half a teaspoon of cinnamon powder – flat or not, as you like it
three cardamom pods – just the seeds, Martha, just the seeds… (crush ‘em, too, of course)
Naturally, you will also require ginger, in powdered form. The exact amount is a matter of personal taste. Three teaspoons seem to do it for us. Now you’re ready to start.
Pour half a whisky tumbler of single malt. Add a few drops of water. Toast the year which has been and the one which is coming soon.
Mix all of the dry ingredients in an over-sized bowl. Melt the butter in a thick-bottomed pan, add honey, syrup and sugar. Slowly melt it all, bring to a simmer and leave aside for 20 minutes or so. Pick up the single malt bottle and read the label. It’s quite educational what information may be gleaned from these scant pieces of paper. Toast Christmas and goodwill to all mankind.
If you know what you’re doing with a whisk, use one on the bowl and its contents. For the rest of us it’s time to put everything into a cake mixer or kitchen whiz. It’s also time to review the content of the tumbler and toast our surroundings and one’s better half.
Mix the dry and wet ingredients on a slow cycle, add the eggs and mix till it all resembles a fairly dry play dough. Take it out and work into a ball with your hands. Don’t forget to disinfect them internally with the single malt first. If the dough sticks to your hands then add a little flour. Only a bit at a time to make it dry.
Wrap the ball of dough in food wrap and put in the fridge for a minimum of an hour and a half. More if you want to enjoy another glass of single malt and some civilised conversation with your other half for a bit.
Now comes the fun bit. Take out your cookie cutters. Of course you need the right ones – bunnies and egg-shapes are generally used at another time of the year. We’re talkin’ wee fir trees, stars, tiny bells and such things. We found our set after weeks of searching at a supermarket in town. The effort one puts into these things… Anyway, now’s the time to put on the Garbarek CD and get rollin’. The quality of your rolling pin will govern the fineness of the cookies so if you’re getting one especially then be sure to get something that is fit for the purpose. Marble’s good, professional quality steel’s nice too. If it’s a plastic job then it needs to be heavy and generally decent-feeling. Cheap rolling pins do not render results which score highly on the “mmmm” scale. Wood, just as a personal note, is best used inside the fireplace.
So, to work. After a celebratory swig of the single malt, after all we’re nearly at the end of the journey here, take the ball of dough out of the fridge and make sure it’s a good regular shape. (The amounts above give you a ball about the size of two fists.) Cut off slabs that are roughly 1.5 cm or somewhere in the vicinity of a half inch in thickness and roll ‘em, roll ‘em, roll ‘em. The trick to rolling dough is not to use too much force, especially at the beginning and definitely not at the end. Nor, particularly, in the middle of the rolling process. Think purposeful caressing rather than heavy-handed intimidation by a Central-Asian regime. It needs to take a bit of time or else the slabs will crumble and you’ll have to start over. For courage, use liberal dashes of single malt. The general idea is to end up with large petals of dough, a couple of millimetres in thickness. No more or the little blighters won’t bake evenly. And be sure to use a sprinkling of flour on the board.
Now you get to use the cookie cutters. Safety Notice: make sure the blades are sterile. I’m sure you can figure out what you have to use for that purpose. Practical Notice: every time you finish cutting a sheet of dough you will end up with some excess bits. Roll them up and work them into a ball before you work them over with the rolling pin again. It’s worth the extra effort.
Bake the trees, stars, etc. on a tray lined with baking paper, in an oven pre-heated to 175 degrees Celsius. If you have fan-forced baking function, use it. (Use Wikipedia or, better yet, Wolfram Alpha to convert to Fahrenheit.) Bake the cookies till the edges begin to darken – which will only take a few minutes. Do not wait till you’ve cut up all the dough but bake in batches. Trust me on this one. Take out and cool before you put them in the cookie jar or else they’ll sweat and you’ll end up with “cookies and no cream” version, which is not what you want.
Once cooled, grab a handful (you ought to have plenty, from the proportions above), pick up the tumbler and single malt bottle – assuming there’s any left – and head for the room with a fireplace or, if you’re in the Southern Hemisphere (lucky sods), the deck. Sample at will.
There you have it. Ginger and single malt cookies. Great any time of year. Particularly agreeable at Christmas. Have a Merry one. And a good year in 2010.
Generations of Varsovians have taken their children to see the “szopka” (Christmas display) at the Capuchin Minor Friars’ monastery in Miodowa Street but unless you happen to go past the place during any other time of year, and at the right time of day, you wouldn’t know that for most of the year the friars provide an important social service, dispensing free food to those who need it. The rules are simple: anyone can show up if they need a free meal. No drunkenness or brawling are tolerated by the brothers – who have seen a lot over the years – but other than a little bit of discipline there are no other requirements.
My friend Marek Seretny, an experienced marketing strategist, has recently taken on the job of co-ordinating a new fundraising effort, aimed at building a larger kitchen and eating hall, and has asked for help in bringing this effort to the attention of the public. Last Friday I attended the lunch (tomato soup was really good!) and shot some photographs of the volunteers at work. These are going to be displayed to the visitors at Christmas szopka-time, perhaps as a reminder that the line between the haves and the have-nots really is not that thick. With luck people will reach into their pockets and the city fathers might also come in with some extra funding.
This post marks a departure from the “creative” direction taken by this blog until now, into the uncharted territory of “new economy”. Life follows art and art is taking this author on a trip beyond the boundaries of what most creative professionals tend to concentrate their efforts on. Hang on tight, this is likely to be a bumpy ride.
The text below is based on a PechaKucha talk I gave last week, two weeks after the idea of “participatory free markets” first crystallised in my head. If you don’t know PechaKucha, it’s an evening of lightning fast presentations by members of “the creative professions.” Mine was something of a departure from the norm on the night :) The slides (an abridged version from the mandatory 20 on the night) are embedded below. If for some reason you can’t see the embed, they are on SlideShare.
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My entire professional life has been spent, some would say mis-spent, on photography and publishing. I’ve done a bunch of books, taken one or two decent pictures and worked with some cool people, so naturally tonight I’d like to talk about … the fundamentals of economics.
This is not as stupid as it sounds since the ideas are actually very much related to my current project, Pixengo.com. This is an internet startup, a media community for travellers which we are building according to the ideas I’ll be talking about.
Capitalism in the modern form has been with us since the time of the Renaissance and its basic principles have been around since the 18th century when Adam Smith wrote his “Wealth of Nations”, but we could say, it’s been a work in progress all along. Marx, the bearded guy on the left, thought he could improve it and we know how that ended up. The next guy along, Rockefeller, perfected it and was the richest man on Earth for a while. The lady here, Carly Fiorina (an accomplished business leader – check out her career if you don’t know who she is) is one of many women who’ve shown that girls can play too, and win. As for the guy on the right, (Madoff) well he just made off with a lot of peoples’ money and is now behind bars.
So you could say we are now at a cross-roads as to how capitalism can develop next. In fact we are living at an evolutionary moment or at least a moment which could have a chance to be evolutionary, given enough persistent work by visionary individuals, not unlike Brother Martin here, (Luther) who nailed 95 theses to a famous cathedral door, starting a process of change. Well, ten years ago four people wrote another 95 theses, accelerating a process of change which was already underway (“Cluetrain Manifesto”.) The key here is thesis #2 : “markets consist of human beings”. What McLuhan foresaw (“The Medium is the Message”, “Understanding Media”) has now come to pass, of course, and over the last ten or fifteen years a number of bright people have looked into the subject of technology freeing up economic potential, starting with Yochai Benkler – we’ll meet him again in a moment. (“Wikinomics”, “Remix”, “Tribes”, “The Long Tail”, We Think”, “Free”, Here Comes Everybody”, “New Rules for the New Economy”.)
Well thanks Mr McLuhan. We now not only can but often have to do jobs which were generally not just unavailable to us – we may not have known they existed. We are competing against everybody else in this global village and everyone now has the potential to become a publisher. But at least we now have the tools, and of course I don’t mean e-commerce, which in itself is somewhat old now.
We are witnessing the birth pangs of an altogether new e-conomy, enabled by technology and populated by visionary companies such as these (Fon, Threadless, SNDA, eBay, Second Life). These are not commerce websites, these are enablers of parallel economic systems. How big is this creation of parallel economic systems? It’s big already but it’s actually still just the beginning. If eBay were a country it would be in the top ten economies of the world, and we have barely begun.
Yochai Benkler puts it very elegantly – this is in fact my email signature now (“Technology creates feasibility spaces for social practice.”) Instead of the social fabric being torn apart by progress, we can actually coalesce around common interests and ideas, thanks to the available technology. This is as much an economic process as a social one. In fact this other bearded guy (Marx) had some of the words almost right but it is only now that we are at the dawn of an era of great individual opportunity – combined with equally great individual responsibility. So we’re talking libertarianism rather than communism.
It’s already been amply demonstrated that everyone can be a producer of goods or services as well as a consumer within the context of the network but we do have to deal with the 80/20 rule, the Pareto distribution (another bearded guy.) A minority of people will always contribute the most, own the most and earn the most but it also means that a lot of people CAN participate down here, along the long tail, and this area right here, at the curve, is where the participatory free market will work.
People are people and Pareto is not going to change his ideas any time soon but with the emerging opportunities we can try to at least flatten the curve here. And this is the new idea. I think we’re actually headed for the emergence of something best described as participatory free market or markets, plural. These are plateaux of aggregated, vertical market-specific economic activity by individuals, enabled by technology and run in ways that are just beginning to be invented.
I googled this term when it first occurred to me. Imagine my astonishment at the google whack – which actually had nothing to do with the phrase I was looking for. The other column is from a week later when I’d tweeted the question of what people thought the term might mean and began to get replies.
So we can see that we are in fact drawing new maps of the world which are actually maps of our social and economic interactions and not maps of topography. We can change the status quo, and I don’t mean the 70’s rock band. In fact these maps are numerous, they overlap and many of the places they represent have the potential to become discrete but related participatory free markets which are not based around geography but around ideas and social interactions. Of course, there are going to be bumps in the road ahead but these are pretty much all related to human nature rather than technology. Technology is easy by comparison. Not least of these is EBI: extreme bureaucratic idiocy – also enabled by technology, which is actually neutral.
This is a work in progress and I look forward to your comments. I’m not an economist and I certainly don’t play one on the wireless so, I’d really like your thoughts on where capitalism is going next and how we can create new spaces for economic and social interaction. Here are some of the conditions that need to be satisfied (“privately owned, technology enabled, individual opportunity, individual responsibility, fair and simple rules, long tail”.) I’m sure there are more, we need visionaries and explorers in this new space, and I look forward to your comments. Thanks and have a great day.
Head to tedxwarsaw.com. We'll be posting information as it comes to hand and registrations for the event will open later this year.
If you’re a TED fan you will know how much raw excitement is packed into those three letters. If you’re not a TED fan, you will become one once you have done a bit of lurking around their website. If you can find a more impressive gathering of brilliant creatures on the face of this planet, I’d like to hear about it!
So it was with considerable delight that I, very quickly, yelled out “definitely” when my friend and business confidante Colin Ude Lewis asked me some months back if I’d like to be involved in putting together a TEDx – independently organised TED event in Warsaw. Now, thanks to the efforts of incredible self-starters Adam Liwinski, Maciej Michalski and Lukasz Alwast, we are underway and TEDx Warsaw is set for March 5 next year. Check it out. And if you’ve got a little spare time on your hands, we’d love help with making it a memorable event, so do get in touch.
Keep an eye on the website – registrations will be open later this year. For now make a date in your diary. Warsaw University, March 5 next year.
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Update : October ‘09
Professional event organiser and TEDster in the making Julian Kozankiewicz has now joined our small team, bringing with him a lot of energy and experience – fuelled by a visit to TED India in November2009. A recent project of Julian’s was an international business and technology conference in Warsaw with The Woz as the keynote speaker – attendance exceeded expectations by a factor of 2x. Not a bad effort!
Some good things take time. OK, most good things take time and often that time is measured in years. Over two years ago I shot some new photographs for my good mate Nigel Gavin’s and Richard Adams’ then up-coming “Recent Works” CD. Time passed which we understand is its job and it does it with admirable patience. A few months back it was all on again, with the exec producer, New Zealand music supremo Roger Marbeck in the driver’s seat, in his recently re-defined role as a recording label boss. (Long may it continue!)
I was given the most enjoyable job of art directing the package which, given we had shot the photographs specifically with the CD in mind, was a most satisfying project. This was the third CD project I’d done with Nigel but only the first one with Richard (who is also a much in-demand abstract painter and whose work was used on the front cover of the package.) In fact, Nige’s amazing, improvised brain-space music is the aural half of the audiovisual Urban Symphony project but that is another story. I understand the CD has quickly gone into its second pressing, which is testament to the wonderful interplay of Nigel’s guitar and Richard’s fiddle, or perhaps more to the point the interplay of their skillful, playful selves. Thanks for the opportunity to contribute to a supreme piece of music-making, guys.
The reviewers seem to like it, and even mention the artwork a few times. Cool!
PS You can find Nigel’s “Thrum” (solo seven string guitar) on iTunes here. (Yup, the cover photo’s mine.) As soon as I have links to other works by Richard or Nigel, I’ll get them up here, too.
Exhibition of large format prints of Janusz Kobylinski's portraits of the inhabitants of his village hangs in a field
My good friend Janusz Kobylinski, a photographer’s photographer, has just finished a very cool little documentary project, shooting environmental portraits of people who live in the village where he and his good lady have a country house. The village is not far from the Polish town of Kazimierz.
The project took a few months to come together and last Sunday it was time to unveil the photographs – and what a fine unveiling it was, too. The large-sized prints had been sandwiched back to back in rough-hewn boards straight from the local timber mill, and put up on round fence posts in a scrap of local field, especially mowed for the occasion. Now that is some seriously cool Rustic Style, you have to agree. Some of the photographs are available for viewing in a small web gallery here (in Polish) and the whole set will be exhibited in a ‘proper’ gallery in the autumn.
(Photo of exhibition courtesy of Janusz Kobylinski.)
A little while ago I was shooting in Palma de Mallorca, for a new yachting book project which now may or may not happen, but that is another story. On my last evening there, having finished up my work and packed up my lights, I went for a walk through the old town, so as to satisfy that time-honoured tradition of visiting bookshops with no particular end in mind. (As it happened I found a book as a present for my brother but that’s not the cool thing – though that book was actually a lovely facsimile edition of an early Plato translation but that, too, is another story.) The cool thing was that this English gentleman, having sold up in the UK, had moved the entire antiquarian book inventory box by box across to Palma and set up a delightful shop in a lane in the old town. Now, for the cool thing: while browsing I spotted a rather familiar cover.
“Legends of the Land” is now out of print in New Zealand and since I only have a handful of copies left, I was tempted to buy it! What a well-travelled little book this one was. I signed it, of course, and left my new friend pondering whether or not to double the price on the spot. I guess I’ll have to find out next time I’m there, probably to shoot another yacht.
I’ve just come across a very useful little mashup – for those of us with a natural bent towards nostalgia, or at least wanting to be somewhat organised in terms of our tweeting history. It’s just that – Twistory makes it dead simple to run an archive of your tweets right inside your calendar (I happen to use iCal but they have lots of other options.) Go check it out.
Some good things take time. OK, most good things take time and often that time is measured in years. Over two years ago I shot some new photographs for my good mate Nigel Gavin’s and Richard Adams’ then up-coming “Recent Works” CD. Time passed which we understand is its job and it does it with admirable patience. A few months back it was all on again, with the exec producer, New Zealand music supremo Roger Marbeck in the driver’s seat, in his recently re-defined role as a recording label boss. (Long may it continue!)
