Tapping Eden

After ten years of space travel and multiple gravity assists to reach fantastic speeds, the European spacecraft Rosetta arrived at its destination, Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, very early this morning.

The event was streamed live by the European Space Agency.

Comets offer scientists a time capsule, a look at the chemical and mineral composition of material present during the earliest periods of our solar system.

And that look will be close indeed. In November a small companion craft called Philae will gently land on the surface, which has very little gravity, lash itself to the streaking body, bore into the comet and relay its findings to the orbiting Rosetta.

If that interests you, make plans now to hear Lee Billings at IdeaFestival 2014! Author of Five Billion Years of Solitude, he'll discuss the current understanding of these ancient bodies, the recent discovery of hundreds of extrasolar planets and touch, I'm sure, on the very ancient questions of life and its place in the universe that inevitably accompany these finds.

Festival Passes are on sale now, but please don't wait too long! We're expecting to sell out again this year, and the price for a pass will go up on Sept. 2. The complete agenda and speaker line-up is available on the IdeaFestival web site!

Stay curious.

Wayne

Image: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA

The Neighborhood: Discarded, Tattoos, A New Start

Art is not about communication. It's about communion. - Raphael Lozano-Hemmer, IdeaFestival 2013

In this IdeaFestival story, Transylvania University professors and artists Kremena Todorova and Kurt Gohde talk about their work on "Discarded," say the Lexington Tattoo Project is a "love letter to the city," and share a quick story from their lives about what inspires them to make public art.

While not quite as dramatic as the encounter they describe in the first half of the video - really, just listen! - I've always been amazed at the fortuitous meetings and interesting ideas that people describe as having occurred at the IdeaFestival. Anne Shadle, for example, got rid of cable. One long time fan and supporter, Jan Winter, started a thriving non-profit focused on child health that reaches every elementary school student in the commonwealth.

In the workaday world where it's all too easy to fall into ruts and routines, and the media, sadly, affirms rather than informs, the IdeaFestival succeeds by going a different way. It emphasizes the new connections. It gently challenges. And as Kremena says near the end of the video, the first step toward any new idea or person takes an act of will. The goal of the IdeaFestival in particular and worthwhile art in general is to expand our sympathetic imagination. It's not to win any of us to a particular idea, but to ask, rather, if we can still be won.

Two-thirds of the way through the video, a loud crash, which Kurt and Kremena described as a telescope falling over, changed the space time continuum the lighting in the room they were in. I edited out the noise, but you may see what I mean when you watch.

I hope to see you at IdeaFestival 2014!

Wayne

Complete IdeaFestival 2014 Agenda and Speaker Lineup Released

The complete IdeaFestival 2014 agenda and speaker lineup has been released!

Featuring a multitude of incredible speakers, affiliate events like Thrivals and IF Water, brain-tingling, spine-straightening presentations on the nature of time, the allure of glamour, immortality, "the end of average," "moral tribes," the hunt for life beyond our solar system and the coming zombie apocalypse, IdeaFestival 2014 promises to be the best ever. 

Creative Capital will once again return with a lineup of artists who will make you think anew about the everyday.

You don't want to miss any of it! Festival Passes are available now.

Please don't forget to add your affiliate event tickets. The wonderful Janelle Monae will once again host Thrivals. Fabien Cousteau, grandson of the legendary explorer Jacques Cousteau, will present at IF Water.

Festival Pass prices will go up on September 2, so don't wait. Get you pass today.

I hope to see you there!

Stay curious.

Wayne

The Art of the Pitch: Explaining Change

Having a great idea and getting someone else to buy it are two completely different things. In this older essay that he identified as one of his favorites, Scott Berkun offers some useful advice on pitches.

He notes that buried in any pitch is the notion that something has to change. Berkun:

Ideas demand change. By definition, the application of an idea means that something different will take place in the universe. Even if your idea is undeniably and wonderfully brilliant, it will force someone, somewhere to change how they do something. And since many people do not like change, and fear change, the qualities of your idea that you find so appealing may be precisely what make your idea so difficult for people to accept.... So when your great idea comes into contact with a person who does not want change, you and your idea are at a disadvantage. Before you can begin the pitch, you have to make sure you’re talking to someone that’s interested in change, or has a clear need that your idea can satisfy.

Pitching is one of those skills useful to anybody, whether that person is summarizing the conceptual strength of a grant proposal, thinking anew about an art project or seeking funding from a roomful of venture capitalists. Berkun's post walks any would-be pitcher through the questions she might want to answer before trying to make the sale.

Have a great weekend!

Stay curious.

Wayne

Image: Some rights reserved by Waldo Jaquith

IF Uncut: "Once Is a Trick. Twice Is a Lesson"

Saying that the craft has taught him how easily we are deceived in our day to day lives, magician Alex Stone argued during his IdeaFestival 2013 talk for an intellectual modesty. We often know a lot less than we think we do.

Part of the IdeaFestival Uncut series, Stone's presentation is offered here in full.

The lovely thing about magic, as well as theater, poetry and the arts in general, is that they have always worked a subterfuge, exposing, in exchange for our willing participation, our shared presumptions and intuitions. "Being fooled," Stone said during his talk, is a way of experiencing something deep.

And science is now plumbing those depths, gaining new insight into how the human psychology works.

The mind, for example, remembers the final act in any drama. I think it explains why the experience of close-up magic in the Bomhard Theater in the Kentucky Center or being waived ahead in a crowded grocery queue is so powerful. It's as if our minds have been read. And in truth, they have. Having been pulled outside ourselves, the magic, if only for a moment, is that we can encounter ourselves anew.

Look for the release of the full 2014 IdeaFestival agenda soon!

Stay curious.

Wayne