Giving Sol

Today I read a classically short yet latently powerful post by Seth Godin that gave me pause and a slice of inspiration.  The post, titled Doing it wrong, relentlessly, offered insight as to why, for whom, and for what purpose he blogs.  For me, it served as a reminder that rules are created to influence us to align with someone else's ideological beliefs of what is "right" - whether it is or isn't.  This doesn't mean we should all freely break the rules. Rather, it means we should all have internal conviction as to why we follow them.

When I was a child, an art teacher taught me to turn objects upside down to get a clearer picture and therefore more accurate sketch a given subject. To my surprise the trick worked and my rendering was always much more like the actual object.  Why? By looking at the object from an uncommon perspective, it forced me to depend on what I could really see and not what my memory and experience suggested that I was seeing.  It took me out of the comfort of knowing the object and into a space where I could see it differently.  I think this elementary exercise has application for my daily approach to problems solving. How can I symbolicly turn things upside down to assess what I see without my own preconceived  "stuff" obscuring my view?

Life is a series of design opportunities daring us to transcend the issues we face, ask different questions, and take the time required to address them anew. However, many (if not most) of us are wired to be tactical and seek clean and linear solutions within a pre-determined amount of time.  On the other hand, design approaches are messy, divergent, and continuous (with major milestones but no real ending).

A good friend posted this Theo Jansen video on my Facebook wall with the comment, "Thought of you when I saw this because you are always innovating beyond walls."  Little did she know that I was planning to re-launch my blog with a new skin and new purpose; to embrace the path I've traveled as an artist/engineer turned philanthropod, now dedicated to creatively re-engineering approaches to social change.  Listening to Theo Jansen resonates with me deeply, producing vivid memories from childhood and adulthood.  I've never excelled at "coloring within the lines" and my path to this point in life has been anything but linear or confined within the walls of what was expected. I was born with the divergent, "right-brained" mind of an artist combined with a strong undercurrent of analytical "left-brainedness." My passion for drawing and painting in elementary school gave way to a love for mathematics, science, and technology in my later years.

The summer before entering college at N. C. A&T State University, where I received a degree in mechanical engineering, I worked in motherboard manufacturing at IBM.  I returned to work at Big Blue during all but one summer during my undergraduate journey. The summer I missed was spent at Argonne National Laboratories as a Department of Energy Scholar.  After graduation, I pursued a masters degree in mechanical engineering at The Ohio State University.  Similar to Theo Jansen, I was fascinated with the kinematic motion of robotic systems.  The title of my thesis was "The Mechanical Design of a Compliant Actuation System for a Four-legged Running Machine" (the knee joint movement of a four-legged robot).  I studied under Dr. Kenneth Waldron who is now a Stanford Engineering research professor.

Although engineering satisfied my intellectual curiousity and penchant for problem-solving, I became increasingly preoccupied with the pursuit of solving the greater challenges of humanity, ultimately leading me to become a phiilanthropy professional.  I don't know Theo Jansen...but I know Theo Jansen.  I know what it's like to be captivated by mapping human progress as an engineer and to be simultaneously compelled by the need to artistically "sculpt the world around us and give it shape."  It's art. It's science. But most of all it's a soul-guided quest to make the world a better place.