Calgary, Canada / Spring 2008 / Personal Project

Barcelona, Spain / Autumn 2006 / HP Spain

Guadalajara, Mexico / Summer 2005 / Personal Project

Guadalajara, Mexico / Winter 2003 / Personal Project

Recently I heard a lecture series called “The Ethical Imagination” by Margaret Somerville, which in summary discusses the power of our creative ability as human beings and the consequences that this entails. This material lead to too many reflections, and I think one of the first ones to jump in to my head is that while there is an ethical imagination, one of the practical ethical influences in our world is ecology, given that the moral of our actions on the environment rests on our ability to survive as a specie in the future. As in this picture, the concept of an eco-imagination is deserves to be explored in depth.

Allow me to give an example just to illustrate this concept.

The major industries in the world and Superman

There are currently three major industries in the world. They virtually govern our thinking in order to customize the way we perceive our reality. They are the military, telecommunications and entertainment industries.

How they are interconnected are evident when we use one our favorite imaginary characters like Superman, as an example. He is an all-mighty alien who believes that the only way to interact within a society in distress is incarnating its values and defending their rights. The relationship between this superhero and military, comes to be evident when the figure of Superman validates historical events such as the Great Depression, World War II, the unilateral disarmament of nuclear weapons and the 7/11, that certainly had lead into armed conflicts. Superman covers this specific historical moments, and considering his role and duty as a defender of the American people, he cannot be indifferent to the real world. Turning Clark Kent into a silent witness, event ought he is a reporter, and Superman, as an validating figure of forced invasion, military confrontation and disarmament of the enemy in the real and comic world.

The Warner Brothers Co. posses the rights of the superhero, which is one of the most successful franchises in history. Superman is a stellar character in TV series, movies, cartoons, etc.. Warner`s effort is destined to convert Superman into an universal paradigm, so it they can be recognized anywhere in the world. The more people know about the character, the more profitable it becomes. Just an example, let`s recall the amount of air time on tv news and space in the newspapers that Superman received in 1990 when DC Comics decided to kill him and then come back to life.

Well, let’s take the example of the film industry, now we enter the season of blockbusters, in which it is usual so see that a single film may have a budget close to $ 100 millions dollars. Superman Returns, directed by Brian Singer (2006) had an approximate cost of $ 200 millions dollars with a modest collection of 390 million dollars in cinemas in the United States. Consider that each film is a product itself, which represents a very long production chain with many branches and a huge inertia, such as promotional marketing of the film, licenses to fast food chains and industry toy, just to give a few examples.

Let`s take note that this fictional character in our reality, needs a material subtract. The comic industry prints tonnes of paper, annually millions of action figures are made of plastic, and movie theatres generate huge amounts of waste, and even the amount of electric energy that took me to write about this character, enters what may be considered the ecological footprint of Superman on this planet. And every new Superman movie has ecologic consequences.

Eco-imagination

Understanding this background, we can finally explain the meaning of the ecological imagination. Although when Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster gave life to the character, they did not think this can have a relationship with the damaging a forest in particular, but it is fair to think that our consumer habits related to imaginary products deserve a very careful revaluation, especially when we substituting imagination for expectation it the trend to follow.

Using your imagination is an ecological practice since it does not generate emissions and produces no waste. If you do not have space to plant a tree, buy biodegradable products are expensive and take a bus instead of a car is impractical, you still have a good alternative that does not harm the planet, imagine in your spare time.

Remember it dreaming costs nothing, especially in times of economic crisis

Recently, I was searching on internet for techniques for public speaking and interestingly I found a course that was designed to transvestites to feminize the pitch of their masculine voice. To be hones I did not inquire too much into the issue but that certainly left me thinking. There are many perspectives on a single subject and how the personal situation of each individual really influences our pursuits.

In this particular case, this is asituation where a hoarse voice, a broad back, great muscular complexion, body hair and angular features, may be totally opposite of what a particular person is actually looking for, while for others may be normal, even optimal. This is not really surprising, what really captures my attention is how the market tries to adjust these different demands to specific products.

An excellent creative exercise is getting into the perspective of somebody else very different from you. Leaving aside prejudgment, popular reasoning and moral judgments, an honest approach can very interesting and enriching.

Get in someone else’s shoes is proving that a different path can take to a similar destination, even when it may contradict our own everyday thinking. The important thing about this exercise is not only understanding his/her/their actions it is also having an empathic comprehension of our reactions.

Just suggesting a few shoes:
* A dental professional specialized in dinosaur´s fossilized jaws.
* A legal adviser for drug dealers.
* A dry cleaner who makes robes for priests at Vatican city.
* An architect for prisons.
* A armpits model for deodorant ads.

How their days would? What could be their problems?

In photography there is a very familiar term called overexposition, and basically it refers to a photo or part of a photo which captured to much light, more than enough, erasing all details and fading colors. Sometimes our reality is overexpose too, our conception of what is real has been defined in such accurate way that turns rigid and in some cases artificial, just “too real”.

However, there are times when we need/want to see objects in a new way, recapturing their essence and validating new colors in the spectrum of what we call normal, expected or assumed. This is especially necessary if our goal is innovating, finding a new service or just running into a cool idea, just for fun.

For this technique we need at least two people, a series of simple objects, such as a toothbrush, a mouse, or a wristwatch. Each person takes its turn, select an object, let’s say a pencil, an proclaims: This is not a pencil, is one… any object that comes to mind, an umbrella, for example.

“This is not a pencil is a umbrella” as a phrase has no logic, but what it really does is forcing the brain to give an explanation of how this can be possible. This pen can be an umbrella if it has the particularity of being able to erase heavy clouds and draw a sunny day. Now this is magic pencil, we do not get wet because rain has been prevented.

Just imagine how many services can be provided just by announcing phrases like: “This is not a credit card is…” “This is not a car is a…” “This is not a first class ticket is a…” Uhm, I bet you got the idea.

This technique was inspired by the painting “Ceci n’est pas une pipe”, by René Magritte.  He plays with the idea of how pipe and the illustration of a pipe have a meaninful distance. This pipe may be the image of a pipe, it could some represent a entertaining example or surrealistic art and also, considering it was painting by René Magritte it is a piece of art worth millions of dollars, “It is not a pipe, is money in the bank”.

ZeroPointZero

Calgary, Canada / Spring 2009 / Personal Project