AN INCOMPLETE MANIFESTO FOR GROWTH

Bruce Mau

http://www.manifestoproject.it/bruce-mau/

PART 3: The next few postings will highlight this fascinating insights into growth

____________________. Intentionally left blank. Allow space for the ideas you haven’t had yet, and for the ideas of others 

Stay up late. Strange things happen when you’ve gone too far, been up too long, worked too hard, and you’re separated from the rest of the world. 

Work the metaphor. Every object has the capacity to stand for something other than what is apparent. Work on what it stands for. 

Be careful to take risks. Time is genetic. Today is the child of yesterday and the parent of tomorrow. The work you produce today will create your future. 

Repeat yourself. If you like it, do it again. If you don’t like it, do it again. 

Make your own tools. Hybridize your tools in order to build unique things. Even simple tools that are your own can yield entirely new avenues of exploration. Remember, tools amplify our capacities, so even a small tool can make a big difference. 

Stand on someone’s shoulders. You can travel farther carried on the accomplishments of those who came before you. And the view is so much better. 

Avoid software. The problem with software is that everyone has it. 

Don’t clean your desk. You might find something in the morning that you can’t see tonight. 

Read only left–hand pages. Marshall McLuhan did this. By decreasing the amount of information, we leave room for what he called our ‘noodle’. 

Make new words. Expand the lexicon. The new conditions demand a new way of thinking. The thinking demands new forms of expression. The expression generates new conditions. 

Think with your mind. Forget technology. Creativity is not device–dependent 

Organization = Liberty. Real innovation in design, or any other field, happens in context. That context is usually some form of cooperatively managed enterprise. Frank Gehry, for instance, is only able to realize Bilbao because his studio can deliver it on budget. The myth of a split between ‘creatives’ and ‘suits’ is what Leonard Cohen calls a “charming artifact of the past.”