Article 9, Design Talent: Ether Outsourcing May 1, 2014

 Watching this video is optional! 

Here is quite possibly my most controversial article yet: Design talent. I would like to explore this touchy ego sensitive topic among architects in a way that does not criticize design abilities but rather adds to them. I'm not going to be judging, critiquing or comparing but offering a new perspective to this most "subjective" and disputed topic, Architect Denied style and make it even more disputed, of course. So whatever level your design talent, have no fear, you will not be lectured by some nasty college professor who doesn't understand the genius that you are, oops flashback, OK let's move on. So for the first part of this article I will explore the use of intuition in architecture. Come on, you know about intuition (or instinct, I will inter-change these) It's what helps all species in the animal kingdom survive, including us as well.

When you're in a pesky situation you may have noticed that inner voice, (or Gazoo's voice) whispering, "you better not do this , or go ahead do that", helping you get out of danger or conversely snatching up an opportunity. Just as intuition helped you out in danger it also helps you out with other less dramatic things like design, which is what I will be exploring in this article. Moving on from intuition, in the second part of this article I will discuss "Ether outsourcing" which is used in conjunction with intuition. But before I discuss that I will need to  lay down some ground work so you get the full understanding of exactly what I mean and how best to utilize it in a real way. I just want to note before you snicker about how this is just part of some "new age, feel good movement" (nothing against new age) it's not. I'm actually basing my material on the work of reputable scientists, so please hear me out on this. I would also like to note that I am NOT making any scientific claims, or passing this off as scholarly study etc. This is my own interpretation of information and my own method I use and trust to bring forth great design, especially when I'm struggling for a solution to a difficult problem. One more thing, I am in no way implying these methods (Intuition and Ether Outsourcing) are a substitute for formal educational and training; these are supplements to it. They will enhance your technical training I believe and if you follow these methods you will never, ever, be miss-lead, design or otherwise. So the voice of Gazoo beckons; what is your intuition telling you right now about this article? STOP READING and tune into your intuition; if it tells you to continue reading, then read on, if not, stop. Either way you will have obeyed your intuition and learned your first lesson in this article: Always listen to your intuition. 

My Book, The Intuitive Architect

OK welcome back, I'm glad you stuck around. In my book, (plug), The Intuitive Architect, Drawing the Mental Line, I approach the subject of design through, as you may have guessed it, intuition and instinct. Why you ask? Because we all have it so why not use it to help us? But does that mean we are all creative designers? No, but we all posses design/aesthetic/art recognition and use it in our everyday life from picking a car, home, pair of pants, or even selecting the music we listen to. The people that take design to a higher level and call themselves artists, creators, designers and architects have simply decided to follow their calling a lot further than most. Some of us decided to follow our calling in math, or science, or maybe auto repair,  I simply chose to follow my calling in art at an early age. When I was a child (I caught a fever, my hands felt like two balloons....) I loved to sketch and draw and doodle just like every other kid on the planet.  However in my case either through a stronger biological pull or through the power of suggestion, I kept at it and placed a great emphasis on my art. I proceeded to always be the top student in my art classes winning many awards, and making it my life. I have never looked back since. Now you may be thinking "how about those people who cannot draw a line, even sketch a stick figure and lack total and complete design, art skills? Are you saying they chose not to connect to their untapped design skill?" That is a very good point. I concede there are those who cannot sketch a stick man or dog if their life depended on it and then there are those who are born to be a Van Gogh. My response to that is, I don't know why some of us are born with certain natural talent's. My point is, whether you cultivated your art prowess, or are a natural talent or have no artistic skills you still have the ability of design recognition, appreciation and I can prove it.

Santiago Ramon y Cajal (Neuro-scientist)

Have you ever listened to a piece of music and instantly knew you liked it or hated it? Found someone attractive or not the second you laid eyes on them? "Who ever loved, that loved, not at first sight"? The same goes for choosing one car over another, what clothes you like etc., Most people can immediately and instantaneously recognize what they like, think looks good, sounds good and smells good without having to analyze, ponder, scientifically scrutinize or investigate it for more than a nano second. I'm not saying that a person can instantaneously know the answer to a complicated problem by just looking at it (unless your the Rain Man) but when it comes to making a decision on the spot between choosing one thing over another (at least superficially) most people can quickly make a decision. After all, who in there right mind would pick a burned out building over a brownstone, a Pinto over a Porsche a garbage heap over a park! You don't need complicated algorithms, expert opinion, or this article to figure that out. The average person can easily recognize good design (at least in their opinion) without knowing any design theory. The interesting part to all of this is, if you ask them why do they like one thing over another, they really couldn't tell you, at least not in technical terms. The reason why we have these inclinations and an on the spot understanding is because it's in our biology, our evolutionary genetic make-up, in other words it's built into our DNA.

Santiago Ramon y Cajal (Neuro-scientist)

All pleasing design attributes can be traced back to our evolutionary survival traits passed down through our DNA. To give an example of how this works, I'll take one universally understood and accepted design concept: symmetry.  Symmetry, you may or may not  know, is key to survival for most animal species. I am generalizing here (and maybe being gross) but if you cut through the center line of a horse, person, turtle, cheetah, mouse, or any other living thing, one side will be identical to the other; in other words, symmetrical. If this was not the case, there would be major problems for your survival (referring to prehistoric times, before the advent of technology) to run from a predator, hunt for your food, build your own shelter etc. So symmetry was essential for survival. Now in the modern era symmetry is not essential for survival although our physical traits still bear its evolutionary shaping. Because we know symmetry was beneficial to our survival we  recognize it as "right" and good, because it helped us.  Ultimately we know symmetry is aesthetically pleasing because we know biologically the positive benefits it has provided us over time. Our perception of beauty is forever associated with the qualities of symmetry. There exist scientific studies that show the more symmetrical a persons face the more beautiful they are found to be. Anyone, regardless of their knowledge of what I just described would be able to gather and sense something "wrong" ( I'm not insulting anyone, just making a general point) in a fellow human being if one leg was shorter than the other, or one side of their face was bigger than the other etc.

So how do I use these biological understandings to my advantage? I first acknowledge that those biological  factors are at play and through intuition (which is just a higher form of survival instinct) I let my biological evolutionary DNA critique my design. Now as I said I only gave one example of a specific biological, evolutionary trait (read my book!) there are dozens at work. I will start a design and not finish until every sense in me has stopped giving their alarm that "something is not right" with this design. Many good architects already implement this strategy without knowing the dynamics of what they are experiencing. Don't believe me? Do you analyze every single line you draw when you begin a design? Oh you do? Then poor you if you are spending that kind of time on a line. For the rest of us we typically make snap decisions "This line works well with this, that one does not work,  let's go with this...etc" If not, it would take you 50 years to design a single building.  However if I stop sketching at any time before I "feel" it's right (yes I said it, feel)  it never fails that I have a design not at it's full potential. Please note I'm not speaking of design development where certain things reveal themselves as a design develops or when new information is provide.

Moving on, "Ether outsourcing"  is the second tool I use in conjunction with my evolutionary understanding to help solve design. Now to move beyond intuition, which is at the core of your being and great for deeper  understanding and insight, at some point you must move outwardly for sources of inspiration and ideas. To achieve a greater level of success you must start thinking there is a reality beyond your own limited thinking and explore new ways of thinking or "linking your thinking". This exploration is more than an awareness, it's a portal (no pun intended) waiting to be entered or at least tapped into. There are many scientists in the quantum physics realm proposing just how to do that, like physicist David Bohm and his Implicate and Explicate order, Max Planck and Albert Einstein's research into quantum physics, and Hugh Everett's, MWI, (Many Worlds Interpretation) and on and on I could go. I can't describe all these concepts in one simple article (unless I get enough requests, then I will try but I also cover much of this in my book) but they all make use of a science that moves beyond Newtonian thinking and one that shows, you are more connected to outwardly energy sources then you think. Now I will admit, there are some concepts that are way out there and you don't need to understand or believe them but don't discount them either. If you research quantum physics you will undoubtedly come across such bizarre hypothesis like Schrodinger's Cat, or MWI  which seem to bend reality in impossible ways but such thinking is the fun and beauty of this science. Watching this field evolve and develop is very interesting and will  ultimately lead to a more practical understanding of the world we live in. However weird you believe this science to be, mark my words, someday it will be used in every field of study, including architecture. I cannot tell you where to outsource your inspiration and ideas, what works for me might not for you, it's a personal journey. The fact remains (or opinion-I think of it as fact) to produce an architecture worthy of praise and one that is beneficial to the community, you must seek alternative sources of inspiration.  Look at it this way: any architect can produce "great" architecture because someone else trail blazed it. When you stick to the status qou of design, you are only producing variations of what someone else revealed to the world but if you want to be one of the architects that others copy then you must start outsourcing your inspiration and let god work through you.

Don't believe me? Of course, in the professional world this kind of talk is heresy. Most architects I know have no time for this sort of "thing". They are busy with life and trying to earn a living or trying to make lots of money. I suppose if quantum physics showed the way to a pot of a gold at the end of a rainbow more of us would be interested. So to those who ignore this because there is no money to be made Ok, I get your point but to those who outright dismiss it, I see that as being a flat earth-er type, or those who mocked "invisible waves" prior to radio or those who burned witches at the stake. People like that will always exist, check and balances I guess but I don't want to be one of them. You may not agree with any thing you have just read and that is fine but in so reading this you have just indirectly opened a personal path of possibilities and participated in Ether outsourcing without even knowing it. Gotcha. Lesson two complete, Cheers.