Unnecessarily Beautiful Spaces for Young Minds on Fire

Part of the 826 Valencia Tenderloin District space in San Francisco

Kids are used to cinderblock walls, plastic chairs, and industrial wall-to-wall carpet. So many spaces for kids are designed to withstand their presence, as opposed to celebrating it. Sterile, brutalist learning boxes can suffocate the mind and make a young person feel they are being contained, instead of being set free. If we want to foster creativity and sensitivity and students, we must surround them with a necessary, even extravagant beauty.

An inspired learning environment sets the imagination on fire and makes a young person feel loved. This is true: they feel loved, sensing the encompassing affection and respect that went into the creation of that learning space. And with beauty all around them, they will want to make beautiful things, too.
Dave Eggers, introduction to Unnecessarily Beautiful Spaces for Young Minds on Fire (McSweeneys, 2008).

A very small substance

The truth is a very small substance of all information in the world.

First of all, it's costly. If you want want to write a truthful account of anything you need to research, you need to gather evidence, to fact check, to analyze. That's very costly in terms of time and money and effort. Fiction is very cheap. You just write the first things that comes to your mind.

The truth is also often very complicated because reality is complicated, whereas fiction can be made as simple as you would like it to be, and people prefer usually simple stories.

And finally the truth can be painful. Whether the truth about us personally — my relationships, what I've done to other people, to myself or entire nations or cultures — whereas fiction, you can you can make it as attractive, as flattering, as you would like it to be.

So in this competition between truth, and fiction, and fantasy, truth is at a huge disadvantage.

If you just flood the world with information most information will not be the truth, and in this ocean of information if you don't give the truth some help, some edge, the truth tends to sink to the bottom, not rise to the top.
Kara Swisher & Yuval Noah Harari on Tech Bros, Witches & the Information Flood. Yuval Noah Harari. October 16, 2024. At 10:58.

Regarding the obstacles faced by young activists

...Young activists face additional obstacles when they seek to make their voices heard. [Mary Lawlor, the Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders] identified intimidation and harassment in online spaces and the media, lack of adequate support from traditional allies, academic sanctions, and legal, administrative, and practical barriers to participation in civic space as just some of the hurdles faced by child and youth activists. Despite these barriers, she notes, “Child and youth human rights defenders have been at the forefront of human rights movements and have achieved a significant impact, which should be acknowledged, celebrated and highlighted.”
From the report On Thin Ice: Disproportionate Responses to Climate Change Protesters in Democratic Countries. Climate Rights International. September 2024.

Regarding the role of museums in climate protests

[Protesters] believe that museums hold unique significance in the fight against climate change. They told Climate Rights International that museums are institutions that safeguard our history. They believe museums act as cultural institutions and often serve as symbolic representations of societal values and heritage. By staging protests at museums, some activists believe they can strategically draw attention to the interconnectedness of environmental issues and cultural preservation, emphasizing the threat climate change poses to both natural ecosystems and human history."
From the report On Thin Ice: Disproportionate Responses to Climate Change Protesters in Democratic Countries. Climate Rights International. September 2024.

Museum of Solution wins international Hands On! Children In Museums Award

Montage of program posters from the Museum of Solutions.

My former home, The Museum of Solutions, Mumbai (MuSo) has won the prestigious international Hands On! Children in Museums Award for 2024.

Congratulations to the MuSo team; founder Tanvi Jindal, the JSW Foundation and supporters — and the extraordinary community of young people MuSo is privileged to serve. <3

The Hands On! award has been given annually since 2011 by the European Museum Academy and the Hands On! International Association of Children in Museums to recognize excellence and innovation in children's museums "through interactive exhibits, educational programs, or inclusive design...that inspire curiosity, learning, and a sense of wonder in young minds."

In bestowing this award, the judges wrote — quite poignantly,

“The different zones on each floor address issues and ideas that are contemporary, bold and emotional. MuSo is not just about exhibits, it is about unlocking the potential within every child to change the world, using exhibitions, educational activities and public programmes to promote learning, enjoyment, reflection, creativity and knowledge. MuSo asks kids to put their ideas into practice, to make projects, finding strategies and solutions, and to realise them.”

The citation continues,

"MuSo is revolutionary, but its ethos is a model for many other countries […] MuSo has a strong belief in the power of children and that children are the changemakers. The young visitors are encouraged and empowered to think for themselves and to find methods and solutions, looking to the future, to make a better world for their communities. The museum does exceptional work, thanks to its extraordinarily committed staff. In the long run, MuSo contributes to raising responsible members of society. Who else but a children’s museum can carry out this educational task in such a holistic way?"

I'm a bit overwhelmed by the judges' words! This feels like what MuSo set out to do so many years ago and yet it still seems bold and aspirational to me, full of challenges and unknowns as well as deep significance.

(I am remembering a story MuSo's Abhik Bhattacherji told me months ago when I was still in Mumbai. As I recall, he had asked an elderly woman in the museum's library — LiSo, the Library of Solutions — how she was enjoying her visit and she burst into tears. She told him that she had grown up in great poverty, and she never imagined that in her lifetime she would see her two young grandchildren happily reading books together in such a beautiful, joyous, purposeful space.

Almost every day brought a story like that, and almost every day brought a new glimpse of just how deeply significant and impactful [and necessary!] this new kind of museum can be. Let's have many more of them. Young people, and our collective future, deserve no less.)

//
Cross posted on LinkedIn

Galactic-sized responsibility

It's possible that we're the only civilization in the Milky Way galaxy at the moment. If we're talking about the meaning of it all, meaning is a property of intelligence. Clearly the universe means something to us. Meaning exists here. But if there's no other intelligence out there in our galaxy, and we destroy ourselves, then we might eliminate meaning in a galaxy of 400 billion stars — forever. So consider that, world leaders. You have potentially a galactic-sized responsibility to maintain meaning in a galaxy.
Astrophysicist Brian Cox. Brian Cox - Are We Alone in The Universe 🤔? As a Civilization? November 23, 2023.

References for European Heritage Hub Forum, Bucharest

Just scrapping together a quick list of references for my talk today at the European Cultural Heritage Summit in Bucharest.

This was an event organized by the Europeana Foundation and the European Heritage Hub in association with Europa Nostra.

The topic was an exploration of the role of digital cultural heritage in the triple transition of Europe (digital, green, and social).

My role was to present a short provocation advocating for the daring, urgent use of cultural infrastructure to catalyze global effort - - actual action - - towards the climate emergency and the SDGs.

Links and references:

Examples of projects on the other side of the Big Frickin’ Wall

  • Brooklyn Library, Books Unbanned

  • MIT Open Courseware

  • Internet Archive National Emergency Library

  • Leiden European City of Science 2022 (365 days of programs in the community)

  • NEMO - Network of European Museum Organizations (activity around climate action, political action, etc)

  • List of references (good Digital stuff) prepared for European City of Science (40+ projects in 4 blog posts starting here)

  • MuSo homepage

  • National Geographic Society’s pivot toward environmental/social impact reporting (I don’t have a reference for this, but as I recall the editors decided to pivot to a more activist voice as a result of the programs and panels that took place during the Society’s 100th anniversary in 1988.)

  • Hip Hop Festival, Maramureş History & Archaeology Museum

    • https://hiphopkulture.ro/evenimente/roots-festival-de-cultura-urbana-2024-baia-mare/

    • https://www.directmm.ro/comunitate/cultura-urbana-la-muzeul-de-istorie-maramures-in-premiera-va-avea-loc-concert-special-de-hip-hop-in-incinta-institutiei-cand-are-loc-recitalul/

    • https://www.directmm.ro/comunitate/cultura-urbana-la-muzeul-de-istorie-maramures-in-premiera-s-a-organizat-un-concert-special-de-hip-hop-fondurile-pentru-achizitia-de-rechizite/

    • https://​www​.maramuresmuzeu​.ro​/

  • Green Council, Șirna Communal Library, Prahova County, Romania

    • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vC1CC4lhEmQ

    • Slides: https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/irna-public-library-romaniapdf/257829154

    • https://www.ifla.org/events/ifla-ensulib-webinar-series-sirna-public-library-from-romania/

“Some of the vaguest language ever devised has been used here in the last three days. The fact that there are 45,000 ‘traiblbazers’ here couldn’t devalue the title any more. Can AI sit there in a fleece vest? Can AI not go to events and spend all day at a bar?”
Comedian John Mulaney, addressing attendees of Dreamforce, Salesforce.com's AI conference in San Francisco. ‘Can AI sit there in a fleece vest?’: John Mulaney’s Salesforce roast was a masterclass in corporate comedy. The Guardian, September 24, 2024.

The technology they like, no matter the social cost

“I was struck by how many of the wealthiest and post powerful figures in Silicon Valley — including some I knew — were now loudly backing Mr. Trump. ... Mr. Trump appeals to some Silicon Valley elites because they identify with the man. To them, he is a fellow victim of the state, unjustly persecuted for his bold ideas. Practically, he is also the shield they need to escape accountability. Mr. Trump may threaten democratic norms and spread disinformation; he could even set off a recession, but he won’t challenge their ability to build the technology they like, no matter the social cost.”
Why Do People Like Elon Musk Love Donald Trump? It’s Not Just About Money. New York Times Opinion Guest Essay by Chris Hughes, co-founder of Facebook and chair of the Economic Security Project. September 25, 2024.

Huxley and Orwell

Contrary to common belief even among the educated, Huxley and Orwell did not prophesy the same thing. Orwell warns that we will be overcome by an externally imposed oppression. But in Huxley's vision, no Big Brother is required to deprive people of their autonomy, maturity and history. As he saw it, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacies to think.

What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one.
Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves To Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business, 1985. (via 20th anniversary Edition, published 2005. Page XIX.)
“Few companies have greater influence over what we eat (or wear, or fuel our cars with, or use for personal hygiene). Costco dominates multiple categories of the food supply — beef, poultry, organic produce, even fine wine from Bordeaux, which it sells more of than any retailer in the world. It is the arbiter of survival for millions of producers, including more than a million cashew farmers in Africa alone. (Costco sells half the world’s cashews.) Its private label, Kirkland, generates more revenue than towering brands like Nike and Coca-Cola.”
How Costco Hacked the American Shopping Psyche by Ben Ryder Howe. NY Times, 8 August 2024.

Messy

Any explanation which would make the thing being explained simpler or more elegant than it is should be treated with suspicion. Ockham’s Razor needs a second part: Only expect as much simplicity in an explanation as […] the thing being explained allows. The world is sometimes messy, and therefore some explanations of how it works will be messy. Explanations often achieve elegance only by ignoring the rough edges of reality. Very few things in the world lack imperfections and redundant features.
Julian Baggini, How to Think Like a Philosopher: Essential Principles for Clearer Thinking, 2023. Page 83.

A lunchpail job

I've learned one thing over these last 9 years — and I was glib at best and probably dismissive at worst about this: The work of making this world resemble one that you would prefer to live in is a lunchpail f**king job, day in and day out, where thousands of committed, anonymous, smart, and dedicated people bang on closde doors and pick up those that are fallen and grind away on issues until they get a positive result.

And even then they have to stay on to make sure that result holds.

So the good news is I'm not saying you don't have to worry about who wins the election. I'm saying you have to worry about every day before it and every day after. Forever.

…Although, I am told that at some point the sun will run out of hydrogen.
Jon Stewart, What Jon learned while he was away, The Daily Show. 15 February, 2024. "9 years ago" refers to 2015, the year Steward left his job as host of The Daily Show.

Harvesting

One of the weakest aspects of creativity is the 'harvesting' of ideas. I have sat in many creative sessions where a lot of good ideas have emerged. Yet in the report-back stage most of those ideas have not been noticed or picked up by those at the session. […]

In some of my writings I have suggested the role of concept manager. This is someone who has the responsibility for stimulating, collecting and shepherding ideas. This is the person who would set up idea-generating sessions. This is the person who would put problems under the noses of those expected to solve them. This is the person who would look after ideas in the same way as a finance manager looks after finance.
Edward de Bono, Six Thinking Hats, Chapter 35: Green Hat Thinking, What Happens to the Ideas? (p. 142.)

Overwhelming sadness

“It was among the strongest feelings of grief I have ever encountered. The contrast between the vicious coldness of space and the warm nurturing of Earth below filled me with overwhelming sadness. Every day, we are confronted with the knowledge of further destruction of Earth at our hands: the extinction of animal species, of flora and fauna . . . things that took five billion years to evolve, and suddenly we will never see them again because of the interference of mankind. It filled me with dread. My trip to space was supposed to be a celebration; instead, it felt like a funeral.”
Actor William Shatner, famous for his portrayal of Star Trek's Captain Kirk, on his trip to orbit in 2021 at age 90. From an excerpt of his biography, William Shatner: My Trip to Space Filled Me With ‘Overwhelming Sadness’ (Vanity, Oct 6, 2022). Shatners biography, co-written by Josh Brandon, is titled, Boldly Go: Reflections on a Life of Awe and Wonder (Atria, 2022).