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The Art of Conversation

By gsmith on September 1, 2009.

Conversation may be compared to a lyre with seven chords - philosophy, art, poetry, love, scandal, and the weather

Thus stated the nineteenth-century writer Anna Jameson and the truth of these words certainly still resonate today, perhaps even more so. It is definitely an honor to have been invited into the Revolutionary Minds Think Tank fold as I find these kind of collaborative conversations essential in overcoming the boundaries that frame individual disciplines. Strange and wonderful things happen when experts make lateral moves and start to assess and schematize other domains. How does an economist interpret the design brief of a major urban redevelopment? How would a biologist analyze the supply chain of major grocery store franchise? Most importantly, what kind of conversation takes place when a physicist and a choreographer get stuck in an elevator? These are the types of questions that keep me awake at night.

Forgive this roundabout introduction but the musical analogy (specifically the reference to chords) is so perfectly appropriate for describing where the Rev Minds conversation is headed: a consideration of cross-disciplinary research. So, as Erin said, for the next few months I'll be augmenting the Rev Minds content stream with commentary, related links and posts inspired by reader feedback. I've had a glimpse of what we'll be publishing over the coming weeks and it is some really dynamic, timely thinking.

My interest in cross-disciplinary research mainly stems from my writing and design practice. Over the past two and a half years I've crafted my personal blog to examine design with a wide-angle lens. I'm trained as an architect but I'm working in web and information design - perhaps my attempt to reconcile this divide is most evident in Vague Terrain 13: citySCENE, a body of work on urban representation that I curated this past winter. In a nutshell, I'm a systems guy, and hopefully my bringing those filters to Rev Minds enriches the conversation for all parties involved.

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Boundaries of science

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