2 posts tagged “austria”

Today (02-09-06), at the end of the symposium about simplicity at Ars Electronica ( Linz–Austria ), I approached John Maeda professor at MIT (massachusetts institute of technology http://web.mit.edu/), to ask him for an autograph on my copy of his most resent book: “the laws of simplicity”. (Yes, I confess that I am a bit of a groupie!).

He with a big smile, kindly asked for my name; after I answered –Liliana-, he asked me to spell it out for him and while I was spelling it, and he was writing his autograph, he suddenly shouted at me: -FOCUS!-, followed by a query about my current activities.

While answering his second question and seeing him writing something else on my book, I realised how surprised I was by his statement and how out of base he caught me! I was also a bit embarrassed…

I quickly pull myself together and asked him what he meant by “focus”? His only answer was: -You should be FOCUSED!-. At this point my confusion was at its maximum pick and a hasty thought crossed my mind: -Maybe his unexpected “suggestion” was triggered by a couple of interventions I made while the panel about simplicity was taken place-.

I then said to him that his particular “recommendation” was incredibly appropriated for me, on light of the focus I would have to have to do my thesis at the master course I am doing, I thanked him for his “suggestion” and left.

Later on, whilst claiming the “reward” (a printed t-shirt from the event itself) for my interventions during the symposium, I noticed that the ones with the slogan “Simplicity” were out of stock; then, while choosing between the two models left I had  a dilemma: The one that I liked the lest, had printed the slogan “make things simple” and that for me was a sort of mixture between the past and the present well known Philips’ slogans: “make things better” and “sense and simplicity”.  I decided then to go for the other one that had printed the “complexity” slogan. While doing that John’s remark came back to my mind, and it occurred to me that he may be a sort of “shrink” able to read people’s minds, and that he specially directed his “focus” to me, because he knew that I should be focussing in more important things than paying too much attention on something unremarkable as the slogan of a promotional t- shirt. This reflection disappeared very quickly because I have to run in a hurry to leave the place to catch a train to Vienna, where someone was waiting for me.

At the train station at while buying my ticket to Vienna, the short encounter with John came to my mind once again: What if he was a wizard? What if John was able to predict the exact advice someone needs? Was he able to foresee with exactitude that I was in need of advice? And that it was that particular kind the one I needed? All those questions were quickly dispersed because my train was due in two minutes at platform 16^th and I had to hurry up and step in…..

At the train, more relaxed then, I had another flash of my brief encounter with Maeda and I noticed that at this point the whole event was becoming a sort of obsession, but I suddenly realised that Maeda had left a message on my “simplicity” book, which I did not read because of my rush. I hoped   that perhaps it would have a clue to decipher the puzzle that his advice had become for me. Quickly I looked into my things for my book, not remembering where I had put it, but I found it at last.

I opened the book looking for the message and seeking for final clarity to all my thoughts. Surprisingly, I was not able to understand a single word written there: Not even his signature was legible to my eyes. Then a final thought came: What if he is just a simple “random” wiser? Someone that has the power of discerning and judging properly as to what is true or right! And what if his “advice” or “suggestions” are something he does casually to anybody that approaches him, in a kind of unsolicited compulsory fashion, without caring if a person is asking for it?

It then occurred to me that my “precise”, “magic” and “beautiful” advice was basically a “random” advice. 

After this occurrence I felt a bit disappointed, but soon my feelings of deception started fading away, while thinking that my encounter had been magical anyway:  -After all, I had met my first “Random wiser”-. 

This whole episode offered me hints of what may be a wonderful way of living: Just giving people “random wisdom on the move”.

For me, the “Random wiser” theory is definitely a simpler explanation for John Maeda’s words and may be also a good starting point for my thesis project.

Daniel Castro former conductor of Amici’s choir always insisted for me to visit Vienna, he spent for many years half of the year there and half of the year at Bogotá, ideal situation. It has being nearly twelve years since my first trip to Europe and only till this year I have managed to go to Rome and to Vienna.

Vienna is, no surprise, an astonishing city with monumental buildings and fluid way. I felt that the pace of the city was relaxing.

I had a great hostess: my friend Sonjia the best guide someone could find at Vienna .

The picture shows the Stephansdom, or St. Stephen's Cathedral, is an island of Gothic magnificence in a sea of Baroque and 19th Century architecture. Most of the church dates back to the 14th, 15th, and 16th Centuries, with the Romanesque "Giant's Doorway" on the west façade dating back to the early 1200s. and 19th Century architecture.