Julio M Ottino and Bruce Mau - Explaining The Nexus: The New Convergence of Art, Technology, and Science

When: 2022-04-25 14:00-16:00 (Tallinn time)
Where: CUDAN Open Lab (online)

Video of the seminar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVD9INErWgs
Websites: http://www.juliomarioottino.com/ & https://brucemaustudio.com/ & https://www.massivechangenetwork.com

Abstract – Today’s complex problems demand a radically new way of thinking—one in which art, technology, and science converge to expand our creativity and augment our insight. This is The Nexus: the space where analytical, logical, methodical, sequential, and convergent thinking, normally associated with the sciences, coexists and synergizes with the creative, holistic, exploratory, metaphorical, and divergent thinking, typically attributed to the arts. In this provocative and visually striking book, Julio Mario Ottino and Bruce Mau bring together word and image to prepare us—individuals and organizations alike—for the challenges and opportunities of the twenty-first century. Creativity must be combined with the ability to execute; the innovators of the future will have to understand this balance and manage such complexities as climate change and pandemics. The Nexus offers a guide for navigating the intersections of art, technology, and science. Compelling historic examples illuminate the present, from the Renaissance, when the domains were one, to the twentieth century, with intense, collective creative outpourings from places as different as the Bauhaus and Bell Labs. Leaders must be able to grasp simplicity in complexity and complexity in simplicity—and embrace the powerful idea of complementarity, where opposing extremes coexist, and our thinking expands. Innovation needs more than managing. Managers use maps; leaders develop compasses.

Julio Mario Ottino is an academic thought leader, author, artist, and internationally recognized researcher whose work has been featured in Nature, Science, and Scientific American. A Guggenheim Fellow, he is the founding Co-Director of Northwestern University’s Institute on Complex Systems.

Bruce Mau is a designer, artist, entrepreneur, author, and educator. He has designed and co- authored books with, among others, Rem Koolhaas (S,M,L,XL). He has designed books published by Zone Books, the Getty Research Institute, and the Gagosian Gallery.