“La pittura murale deve essere totale, come nel castello di Brignano, cioè le quattro pareti dipinte «tutte» e magari il soffitto (tutto il soffitto) e le pareti tutte intere, dal piede al sommo (senza zoccolatura)”
Amate l’architettura, Gio Ponti
link“La famiglia di Sachs era alquanto rumorosa. Le sorelle e i rispettivi mariti erano arrivati in aereo da diverse parti del paese, e dal momento che quasi tutti non si vedevano da parecchio tempo, ben presto la conversdazione conviviale si trasformò in un cicaleccio disordinato in cui tutti parlavano contemporaneamente.In qualsiasi momento quattro o cinque dialoghi distinti si svolgevano da un capo all’altro del tavolo, ma poiché i commensali non parlavano necessariamente con i propri vicini, questi dialoghi s’intrecciavano in continuazione gli uni con gli altri, causando bruschi cambiamenti negli accoppiamenti degli interlocutori, di modo che tutti sembravano partecipare allo stesso tempo a tutte le conversazioni, chiacchierando simultaneamente a ruota libera dalla propria vita e origliando gli altri. Si aggiunga a questo le frequenti interruzioni dei bambini, l’andirivieni delle varie portate, la mescita del vino, i piatti caduti, i bicchieri rovesciati e i condimenti versati, e la cena cominciò a somigliare alla messinscena improvvisata di un elabortato spettacolo di varietà.”
Leviatano, Paul Auster
link“Insomma, la vita è molto più complicata di quanto credevo prima e mi accorgo che è difficile non avere dubbi su di sè, sugli altri, su ciò che abbiamo fatto o non fatto, sulle cose che ci capitano o che facciamo capitare. E perdipiù ho il dubbio sul dubbio, cioè mi chiedo se il non avere tante certezze belle solide come il masso di contrada Munì sia un bene o un male, una fortuna o una sfortuna”
L’ora di pietra, margherita oggero
link“La définition du problème a toujours pour origine une image mentale, une métaphore capable de générer d’autres images et donc des actions, des interactions entre personnes, et des interventions sur la matière. C’est ce saut dans l’imaginaire qui fournit une première définition du problème et jette les bases d’une solution… à l’origine des étapes successives de la résolution du problème, il y a toujours un évènement non formalisable : la naissance d’une métaphore générative, l’apparition d’une idée simple mais capable de synthétiser une quantité d’éléments complexes.”
Ezio Manzini, La matière de l’invention. I haven’t found the English version of this notion he calls “generative metaphor”. (via betaknowledge)
via • link“The fundamental cause of this global instability is the institutionalization of the discovery of new knowledge. A vast international network has been set up which links universities, colleges, government, and private research and development centres. Its overriding aim is the creation of additional knowledge, much of which then fives rise to new industries or social trends and activities. this explosion stimulates further research, rotating the wheel of innovation. Knowledge is the fuel of change. Without this international research and development system, itself the greatest innovation of the twentieth century, there would gave been no Green Revolution and associated population explosion, no ubiquitous urbanization and industrialization and no planetary environmental crisis. It is ultimately responsible for the global economy, the spread of Westernization, the rise of the electrical imperative and the downgrading of the value of labour. It also gave birth to the New Age human potential movement with its allegiance to networking, rather than to the traditional power hierarchies.
[…]Ours is a word buffeted by strife and torn by change. Yet despite this chaos, some systems continue to thrive. This apparent paradox brings to mind the Darwinian phrase “survival of the fittest”. But what does this elusive fitness consist of? It is not merely a question of size, strength or speed. By the middle of 1942, Germany ruled a larger portion of Europe than any orther power in history. Less than three years later, the Third Reich was in ruins, Germany has surrendered and Hitler was dead. Parallels can be drawn with the natural world. The enormous dinosaur Tyrannosaurus rex has long been extinct, yet brachiopods have survived for more than six hundred million years. Despite their longevity, most of the 220 remaining species of this small bivalve animal live anchored to the seabed. Nor is fitness simply a question of intelligence. Bacteria and viruses have survived very well without it, while mankind’s future is threatened by too much knowledge, rather than by too little. The ability to think is not synonymous with the capacity to succeed.”
Harold D. Foster, The Ozymandias Principles: thirty-one strategies for surviving change. 1943.
link“Crowdsorcing has the capacity to form a sort of perfect meritocracy.[…](it) operates under the most optimistic of assumptions:that each one of us possesses a far broader, more complex range of talents that we can currently express within current economc structures. […] Crowdsorcing turns on the presumption that we are all creators.”
Howe,crowdsorcing
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