LIVING BEAUTIFULLY
Living Beautifully by beautiful.business is a regular newsletter to share and inspire a different way of looking at the world. What would our world look like were we all to make it a little more beautiful?
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"What sets worlds in motion is the interplay of differences, their attractions and repulsions. Life is plurality, death is uniformity. By suppressing differences and pecularities, by eliminating different civilizations and cultures, progress weakens life and favors death. The ideal of a single civilization for everyone, implicit in the cult of progress and technique, impoverishes and mutilates us. Every view of the world that becomes extinct, every culture that disappears, diminishes a possibility of life”
– Octavio Paz
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John Kuzava, who shared this rather wonderful quote with me, wrote: “Paz’s words had always remained with him” - because they were - “a central notion about how we are stewards to the ecology of relationships. Even if we don’t exactly think of it this way”.
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01. Beautiful Conversations
Poet Naomi Shihab Nye reading her ever relevant and beloved poem “Kindness”.
Listen in to Naomi in discussion with Krista Tippett – Naomi believes most of us actually “think in poems” whether we know it or not. Rarely, as she points out, do you hear anyone say they feel worse after writing things down. That, she says, can be a tool to survive in hard times like these, to anchor our days and to get into a conversation and community with all of the selves that live on in each of us at any given moment — “your child self, your older self, your confused self, yourself that makes a lot of mistakes.”
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Artist Luchita Hurtado created an expansive body of work but only became a sensation in her '90's. Sadly, she died last year just short of her 100th birthday.
Born in Maiquetía, Venezuela, in 1920, Luchita Hurtado has dedicated seventy years of her painting and drawing practice to the investigation of universality and transcendence. Inside her Los Angeles home and studio, Hurtado reflects on connections that exist between the body and its larger context – nature, the environment, the cosmos.
From her first solo exhibition 'Dark Years' at Hauser & Wirth, New York, 2019.
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In case you missed it, here is my talk with Sir Tim Smit of the Eden Project in which we discussed themes from my new book Do Build.
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A wonderful conversation with Matt Ridley on the topic of Infinite Innovation [The Knowledge Project Ep. #107].
Matt Ridley is the author of several books related to science and human progress including the Red Queen and How Innovation Works. What I enjoyed was the approach to innovation.
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02. Beautifully Made
The first USPS stamp to be designed by an Alaska native artist. The stamp Raven Story, from Rico Worl, co-founder of Trickster Company, features a trickster raven as it steals the sun.
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Arup Explores: Regenerative Design.
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Andrew Hoyem, master typographer and printer of Arion Press shown here on Anthony Bourdain's Raw Craft.
Arion Press, one of the last of its kind, has only a handful of members on its staff, all fellow craftsmen dedicated to this age old process.
Here's why the practice of craft delivers a meaningful life.
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03. Beautifully Restorative
Covering 6 months of the year in 28 episodes, Melissa Harrison’s podcast brings the wonder of nature into our locked-down homes.
Listen in now so you can get in sync with the original broadcasts from April 2020.
You may also note from this award winning novelist, The Stubborn Light of Things: A Nature Diary, a collection of essays on her observations and experiences of nature, paperback edition due to be released later this month.
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On the importance of art and science to protect the Ocean: an interview with Markus Reymann from TBA21-Academy – via the Icarus Complex.
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Finisterre Ambassador and social ecologist, Easkey Britton, discusses the liberation that comes from immersion in the ocean; how it can help us work through emotions, fears and free both our minds and bodies to heal themselves.
Available from Finisterre in partnership with Oceanographic Magazine - Place of Encounter | Oceanographic 17.
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Commonland work on the long term restoration of the natural world. This graphic explains time horizons and why we need to learn to think long term.
Ties van der Hoeven, previously an ambassador for Commonland, is now one of the scientists turning the desert green - read.
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04. Beautifully Built
Anna Heringer says, “leave no waste, but knowledge”. A powerful idea, an evenmore powerful belief. Anna says “My work is totally mixed. Of course, I am an architect. But I am also a development worker and an activist. If I see a need somewhere or a potential, then I get involved. To me creativity is a tool to improve lives.”
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A house built from bamboo, nothing short of extraordinary. This film captivated me.
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05. Beautiful Reads
Klara and the Sun – Kazuo Ishiguro
About halfway through “Klara and the Sun,” a woman meeting Klara for the first time blurts out the kind of quiet-part-out-loud line we rely on to get our bearings in a novel by Kazuo Ishiguro. “One never knows how to greet a guest like you,” she says. “After all, are you a guest at all? Or do I treat you like a vacuum cleaner?” – Radhika Jones, The NYT.
My friend is reading Klara as, he says, ‘in an attempt to escape from the poverty of imagination that strikes us ordinary mortals when we try to think about what living with (or under?) intelligent machines might be like’.
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The Timeless Way of Building – Christopher Alexander
A book that proposed a new theory of architecture (and design in general). It has had a huge influence on creative thinking, especially in the areas of architecture and software design. Alexander has been described as a beautiful storyteller, a beautiful writer, a beautiful thinker, and one of the most original minds of our time.
The Timeless Way of Building is the introductory volume to Alexander’s other works in the Center for Environmental Structure series.
Interested in more, watch this documentary about Christopher's work.
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George Dyson’s selections for The Manual for Civilization – The Long Now Foundation
This is quite a list. Looking at peoples book shelves always fascinates me. What would your Manual look like?
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06. Beautiful Food
Italian chef Monica, makes delicious Tagliatelli pasta. Beautiful things are only made with love.
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If we want to create livable cities and have an answer on the significant environmental challenges, we need to fundamentally change the way we grow and distribute food and the way we use land. There is an inevitability to this way of thinking, says Meiny Prins, founder of the Sustainable Urban Delta Foundation.
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The Craft of Sustainable Rice Farming - The Isbell family of Arkansas has spent decades experimenting with new ways to grow rice. In the process, they pioneered American-grown rice for sushi and sake, along with farming techniques that can slow climate change.
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07. Beautiful Experiences
On December 7, 1972, NASA launched Apollo 17, a lunar mission crewed by Eugene Cernan, Ronald Evans and Harrison Schmitt. It would be the last time humans traveled beyond low Earth orbit, the last time man landed on another celestial body, and the last time man went to the moon.
The Last Steps, a film by Todd Douglas Miller, uses rare, footage to retrace the record-setting mission.
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Chris Watson, is a sound recordist, artist and composer, Chris says 'sound is visceral, it connects to our hearts and imagination in a very direct way’.
Chris has created a sound calendar of environments from the northern hemisphere. Listen in on sounds from the Staple Island, one of the Outer Group of the Farne Islands in Northumberland. Read more in Ears to the Ground.
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The Out of Eden Walk is Paul Salopeks multiyear, 24,000-mile, storytelling odyssey across the globe in the footsteps of our ancestors. As he traverses the globe at the measured pace of his footsteps, he reveals the texture of the lives of the people he encounters—nomads, villagers, traders, farmers, and fishermen who seldom make the news. When this journey ends, he will have pieced together a global mosaic of stories, faces, sounds, and sights. This is slow reflective journalism.
Listen in to Paul speak about the extraordinary hospitality he has received on his journey.
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There are many discussions arising about the efficacy of Universal Basic Income. Unlike those who believe we will just consume drugs, this is not so, as shown in recently published results of an experiment in Sickton, California.
Residents were given $500 per month for two years, without restrictions. In this time employment rose. People were also much happier as debt was paid off and depression levels dropped.
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“policies until recently considered eccentric, such as basic income and wealth taxes” are now on the table, virus lays bare the frailty of the social contract – via the FT.
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This concept of nature existing in its own right as a living entity—not merely as inert property to be extracted and exploited for profit—is the essence of a rapidly spreading Rights of Nature movement.
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Climate change will reshape Silicon Valley as we know it. The next entrepreneurial revolution will arise to combat the crisis of our lifetime. Via Wired.
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Clean tech 2:0: Silicon Valley’s new bet on start-ups fighting climate change – via the FT.
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The Future of Energy - Green hydrogen transport –via Arup.
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The Netherlands and the regenerative economy. Renewable electricity production grew by 40% last year and now covers 25% of the national electricity demand. Renewable electricity is delivering 30 TWh for the country. Via Kees van der Leun.
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South Australia has become the largest grid in the world to have 100% of electricity demand met by solar power, even as its electricity prices have become the cheapest in the country. Via Renew Economy.
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In China, coal-fired power plants fell to less than half the country's total power capacity last year, and look set to fall by a further 3% in 2021. This is big news. China is the world's largest emitter of carbon and by far the largest producer and consumer of coal. Meanwhile, 61.7% of new energy investments were spent on wind, solar and biomass, 20.5% on hydro and 7.2% on nuclear. Via SCMP.
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Report on how renewable energy jobs can uplift fossil fuel communities and remake climate politics – via Brookings Institute.
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US consumers want companies to go well beyond sustainability and “do more good” to the planet. According to a study by ReGenFriends nearly 80% US consumers prefer “regenerative” brands to “sustainable” brands (they find the term “sustainable” too passive).
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How can we use digital technology as a means of revitalising democracy rather than as a method of undermining it? This conversation with Audrey Tang, Taiwan’s first-ever digital minister, gives a fascinating insight in the attempts Taiwan is making to use tech to enrich deliberative democracy. You might describe this as an attempt to reinvent the consent of the governed. Via Noema.
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Listen in on how the passion economy redefines work.
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09. Beautiful Leadership
“Listening is participation” says Naomi Shihab Nye.
This is John Francis, known as the planet walker, who gave up motorised transport of any kind in 1971 after witnessing a massive oil spill in the San Francisco Bay.
His travels on foot initiated many discussions with other people and soon after he stopped riding, he also stopped talking. His vow of silence lasted 17 years, during which time he earned his bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees. “Having listened to thousands of people, I realised we had a narrow view of what the environment is. It's more than saving trees; its about how we treat each other, and that includes gender and economic equality and civil rights”.
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Want to help someone? Shut up and listen!
Wonderful wisdom. When most well-intentioned aid workers hear of a problem they think they can fix, they go to work. This, Ernesto Sirolli suggests, is naïve.
In this funny and impassioned talk, Sirolli proposes that the first step is to listen to the people you're trying to help, and tap into their own entrepreneurial spirit. His advice on what works will help any entrepreneur.
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“True solitude is found in wild places, where one is without human obligation. One’s inner voices become audible. In consequence, one responds more clearly to other lives” — Wendell Berry.
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10. Beautiful News
As well as more immersive learning journeys, my two day seminars are now running.
Do get in touch if you would like more information hello@beautiful.business.
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A reminder that 'Do Design. Why beauty is key to everything' is now available in Spanish via Koan Publishing, Barcelona.
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