Hasta La Ideas

pThe business world has been quick to try and implement design thinking in hopes of stimulating sweeping organization change and innovation, only to abandon it and return to old practices when it doesn’t “work.” Is design thinking nothing more than a poorly defined gimmick, or are people just missing the big picture? /p

pPerhaps a part of the problem is that design thinking is more than just a set of tactics to be carried out, but rather a new ecology of mind. While grounded in business-minded rationality and operating within a defined set of constraints, it also contains an emotional/intuitive component that is often lost upon the more traditional thinkers. What this aspect requires is a capacity for switching between multiple perspectives and the ability to understand the world and our relationship to it, and within it, in a different way. Though there are many methods that can help develop this skill, I’d like to discuss an approach that may be unfamiliar to some: Futures Thinking./p

pimg alt=”miemis_futures_head.jpg” src=”http://s3files.core77.com/blog/images/miemis_futures_head.jpg” width=”468″ height=”719″ class=”mt-image-none” style=”” /br /
emImage: a href=”http://ericaglasier.com/”Erica Glasier/a /em/p

pbr /
strongWhat is Futures Thinking?/strongbr /
Futures thinking, or foresight, is a set of principles and practices that can be applied to solve complex problems. It combines data and trend analysis, pattern recognition, intuition, and imagination to envision desirable and sustainable paths of action. Just as Tim Brown distilled the design thinking process to: inspiration, ideation, and implementation, futurist Jamais Cascio a href=”http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/jamais-cascio/open-future/futures-thinking-basics”described/a the future thinking process as: Asking the Question, Scanning the World, Mapping the Possibilities, and Asking the Next Question. It’s an iterative process which helps you consider a range of possible, probable, and preferable outcomes. It’s not predicting the future, but rather taking a structured approach to understanding the potential impacts of today’s decisions and actions./pa href=”http://www.core77.com/blog/columns/how_can_futures_thinking_amplify_design_thinking_16791.asp”(more…)/a
pa href=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/qI75V1yGGceUOmdaLAR2xdMAlTk/0/da”img src=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/qI75V1yGGceUOmdaLAR2xdMAlTk/0/di” border=”0″ ismap=”true”/img/abr/
a href=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/qI75V1yGGceUOmdaLAR2xdMAlTk/1/da”img src=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/qI75V1yGGceUOmdaLAR2xdMAlTk/1/di” border=”0″ ismap=”true”/img/a/p

A forward-thinking Italian collective starts an incubator for better design

A stand-out presence in the Italian design panorama, founders Andrea Magnani and Giovanni Delvecchio define Resign as not just a design collective, but also as a methodology “for all the designers who believe in magic and symbolic value of things.”

After graduating from ISIA in Faenza, the pair began collaborating with local companies, as well as national design institutions and universities, always following their dream of joining highly intellectual concepts with innovative approaches towards craftsmanship. Keywords such as sharing, symbolic capital and sustainability have led them to create a series of playfully conceptual unique and semi-unique objects. Their performances—like randomly abandoning their objects in front of doors, ringing the bell, running away and observing people’s reactions—have gotten them some attention too.

At the heart of their signature technique is a workshop element, what they call a “Bottega 2.0” model based on the work of sharing knowledge and creating dense relationships. The tactic is one of the reasons why they’ve also launched the Resign Academy, aimed at creating relationships and generating ideas in a sort of amusingly monkish isolation.

The next event for true “resigners” takes place mid-July in Sassello, on the mountains of Liguria. The workshop is open to all as long as you sign up before 10 July 2010.

Kashi’s 1999 photograph captures the hands of a boat painter in Pisco, Peru.

When last we caught up with photojournalist Ed Kashi, he was busy suing Google for copyright infringement and documenting life in Madagascar (as the recipient of the 2009 Prix Pictet Commission). Now comes word that Kashi is the newest member of VII, the photo agency founded in 2001 with the goal of “documenting conflict—environmental, social and political, both violent and non-violent—to produce an unflinching record of the injustices created and experienced by people caught up in the events they describe.” Kashi, the collectively owned agency’s twelfth member, joins an esteemed group that includes James Nachtwey, Ron Haviv, Marcus Bleasdale, and Stephanie Sinclair. “I take on issues that stir my passions about the state of humanity and our world, and I deeply believe in the power of still images to change people’s minds,” said Kashi in a statement issued today by VII. “I’m driven by this fact; that the work of photojournalists and documentary photographers can have a positive impact on the world.” And that Madagascar project? Done! Have a look at the stunning results here.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

A mouth-watering book of Italy’s warm-weather recipes from the authors of the Italian cooking bible

For Italian food fanatics, the new cookbook “Recipes from an Italian Summer” culls the country’s famed culinary delights, gathering together a collection of warm-weather dishes that go far beyond flavored ice. Spanning lesser known North African-infused Sicilian cuisine to more traditional Tuscan fare, the recipes and photos alike are a gorgeously inspiring journey through Italy’s diverse terrain and its seasonal produce.

Chapters dedicated to usual summer affairs such as picnics, barbecues, entertaining and more help put the pretty pictures and mouth-watering recipes to use. Compiled by the authors of the “The Silver Spoon“—the magnum opus of Italian cooking—the book serves up over 380 newly-sourced recipes dedicated to more daring chefs. Dishes such as ham and kiwi mousse, veal roulades in aspic and Trieste-style potato gnocchi with plums appear next to classics like piadina, Florentine T-bone steak and gelato in flavors from rose petal to jasmine flower.

Colorful photographs of the dishes and ingredients by Andy Sewell are interspersed with hazy scenes of the nation’s countryside shot by Joel Meyerowitz. The book also includes a calendar of seasonal produce, a schedule of summer food festivals, a directory of specialty stores stocking items used in the cookbook and Italian translations of all the recipe titles for a little passive learning.

“Recipes from an Italian Summer” sells from Barnes & Noble and Amazon.