Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on November 24
One of Singapore's top designers, Feng Zhu, asked a pointed question to a panel of mostly Western designers at the end of the second day of ICSID that got the mostly Asian crowd really buzzing. "How much does making money drive design and how much does saving things?" he asked. Feng Zhu was reacting to two days of presentations by mostly European and American designers that focussed on saving the planet by cutting back on consumption and the making of things.
Of course, design has traditionally been associated with the making of stuff, often beautiful stuff. This ICSID conference, however, has embraced the design thinking perspective of designing large scale social systems, especially the planet's systems (such as rising oceans due to global warming, exploding population straining food and water systems, and carbon energy raising the earth's temperature).
I totally agree with these arguments--but wonder if the audience is really open to the message. After all, it's one thing for the rich, consumerist West to begun to shift to a post-consumerist, sustainable society and quite another for Asia, which is just beginning to get the wealth to buy nice things to be told to give them up in the name of the planet.
Feng Zhu's question got to the heart of that issue. The design of more and better is the way Asian designers make a living by serving the rising Asian middle and wealthy classes. These classes are in acquisition mode big-time as incomes rise in China, India and Singapore and they will have to be persuaded to shift to a post-consumerist value system before Asian designers can themselves begin to think of "saving" as a way of making a living.
Feng Zhu is a successful Asian concept designer. He has worked closely with George Lucas on Star Wars, Episode 111 and with James Cameron. He studied architecture at US Berkeley and industrial design at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. And he's built a successful series of companies, including About in Santa Monica, California. It was embarrassing when someone on the stage asked if he was a "student" after Feng Zhu asked his question. All the Singaporeans in the audience recognized him.
Of all the Asian countries that just might be persuaded to make the shift from consumer to post-consumer society, Singapore may actually be the best placed. It is already clearly wealthy, with a high standard of living. Shopping and buying of global brands has been a deep part of the culture for many years. People already have a lot of stuff in their homes. At the same time, awareness of global warming and its impact on Singapore, a small island city-state, is very high. Concern about the vulnerability that comes with importing water, energy and food is also high. A reconfigured economy that is more sustainable and less dependent on the buying of expensive things, mainly foreign stuff, could be appealing to those who manage Singapore's affairs.
Feng Zhu gets his chance to talk on the third day of the ICSID conference. Let's see what he has to say.
But it will take a lot of persuasion to ask the growing Indian and Chinese middle and wealthy classes to give up their buying of things. And no one at this ICSID conference has even dared to suggest just how to sell a post-consumerist, sustainable society to an Asia that wants to live like the West, if not better.
Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on November 24
I just got back from the red dot design concept awards given to Asian students and young designers. It was quite a production, with a runway for the winners to walk down to receive their awards. Ken Koo who runs the red dot museum in Singapore and is the organizer of this special type of design award for Asia, was on stage to hand out the awards, along with Peter Zec, founder of the red dot awards.
This was my first red dot design concept contest and I was struck by the high quality of ideas presented by the winners. Young Koreans did really well this, winning across a broad swath of concept markets. Young designers from Taiwan, Japan and China picked up awards. There were winners from Singapore, the US and Australia as well. If you're looking for the best design talent in Asia, you should check out the red dot concept winners.
The space at the red dot museum in Singapore is big and well-designed to showcase the work of young designers. And I liked the idea of a bar/cafe being situated there too. Food and designers go together.
Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on November 23
Every once in a while I come across a government bureaucrat who totally surprises me with the person's insight and competence. Singapore Minister of Finance Tharman is one of them. We opened the ICSID World Congress Monday with a conversation onstage. Every nation has a governing elite but Singapore has an exceptionally competent one.
Here are my questions to the Minister. He had a chance to see them before he went onstage.
Q&A With Singapore’s Minister of Finance
Bruce Nussbaum, 2009
Mr. Finance Minister, the last time I was in Singapore was in 1969. I was told I’d better cut my long hair shorter for the visit. Today, you can see that this is no longer a problem. I wish it were.
Mr. Finance Minister, you sit at the epicenter of decision-making in Singapore. You were recently Minister of Education. You served in the Monetary Authority of Singapore. You currently chair the Economic Strategies Committee. Mr. Finance Minister, you helped shape one successful future for Singapore after 1965 and now you are helping to shape strategies that will create a second future for Singapore in the 21st century.
Indeed, Singapore and its leaders have shown a great capacity for visualizing the future. So today, I would like to have a conversation with you in front of this wonderful ICSID audience and talk about three things: 1) How did Singapore create itself over the past 40- plus years, transforming a small island with only the resources of its people into a global city-state that is a model of economic success, social unity, educational superiority and technological achievement;
2) How can Singapore re-create itself into a global city-state that is a model of creativity, originality, innovation and design-driven economic growth?
3) How does Singapore see the world today—are we at an historic inflection point that will transform the global context of the past half century into something very different in the near future?
So let’s begin with the past. I understand that you are a wonderful storyteller. Can you tell us a story or two that captures how Singapore discovered and developed the capacities that have made it so successful today? Can you unpack some of the mysteries for us?
Thank you. The capacities of the past may not be the capacities needed for the future. What kind of capacities do you see Singapore needing and developing for the years ahead?
Singapore’s impressive success has come in large part from a technology-centered, engineering, top-down kind of social and economic model that is a marvel of efficiency. In 2002, the “Remaking Singapore” initiative was launched to turn Singapore into a world center of creativity, innovation, and design. These new capacities are associated with a human-centered, social science, bottoms-up model. How successful is Singapore to date in making a transition to this different kind of model? What kind of education do you need to develop original, creative young people? How do you foster creative talent and keep it in Singapore?
The city is making a big comeback around the globe. New cities are being built, megacities are rising and older cities are being renovated. What lessons can these cities, especially the megacities, learn from the city-state of Singapore, as they strive to grow and prosper? Are there transferable lessons?
Finally, just a small question. Looking at the world from the vantage point of Singapore, where are we going? How are we changing?
Thank you."
The Finance Minister made a persuasive case for strong government intervention in the economy and in society. Compare Singapore today to what it was when I first visited many decades ago and I had to agree with his assessment of economic progress and social harmony. This country has lept from Third World status to First World nation in about 4 decades. Remarkable.
The Minister also recognized that the engineering, efficiency-driven top-down model that has given Singapore so much success needs to be augmented with a more creative, innovative bottoms-up model. The government is recognizing that new industries outside it's usual control are cropping up--such as airplane maintenance--and has policies to move quickly to support them. In Singaporean fashion, the government is redesigning the education system to promote creativity among the young.
Will it work? I hope so but I'm not sure. Many of the young Singaporeans that I am meeting tell me of friends living and working overseas because they find Singapore too controlled, hierarchical and stifling. I asked the Minister about new startups in Singapore and he acknowledged the need for more of them but focussed on attracting big multinationals to bolster the economy.
Other young Singaporeans noted that there is not much of a local culture of risk-taking and failure in the country. And not much of a private venture capital structure either. So many would-be entrepreneurs leave for Australia, the US or Canada.
The sophisticated insight and knowledge shown on stage by Minister Tharman lead me to expect that the government will probably get it right as it promotes the evolution of Singapore from an efficiency-centric society to a mixed efficiency/creativity model. But it might accelerate that progress by bringing more of Singapore's smart young Gen Y generation of creatives into policy-making positions right now. A global mega-city of Singapore's excellence can't afford to let any of its young go.
Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on November 22
On Monday morning, I interview Singapore's Minister of Finance to open the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID). We'll talk about how Singapore created a modern 20th century city-state and what it must now do to become a 21st century mega-city. Think of a shift from efficiency to creativity.
The big show will come from the nine incredible Design2050 studio teams put together by Arnold Wasserman that will explore some of the most important and exciting issues of the future. Feng Zhu, founder of Singapore's Feng Zhu Design, is leading a group to talk about entertainment; Chris Bangle, former head of BMW's design group, is leading a group on Emotional Mobility 2050. Stephano Marzano, the head of Philips Design, heads a group talking about Healthcare 2050. Arup's Chris Luebkeman leads a group that will discuss the drivers of change for the next four decades. Ravi Naidoo, the head of South Africa's Design Indaba, is leading a team that will present on urban agriculture.
Cocktails tonight. Gotta get dressed.
Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on November 22
Sitting here in Singapore as President Obama went through China and flew home from his 8-day trip to Asia, it is perhaps easier to see the true truth of his trip--it's deep failure. The entire neo-liberal economic model promoted by the US over the past decades is now held in such disregard in Asia that a President representing the US system must suffer from the model's decline. Soft power, such as culture and economic models, is always a major component of projecting a nation's power around the world. Right now Wall Street, Alan Greenspan and the Chicago-school of market mania has so undercut America's standing in Asia by the horrible recession they caused, that even President Obama's popularity couldn't overcome it's negative impact.
Obama came home empty-handed. He made little headway in his single most important mission--China's revaluation of its currency, the yuan. A higher value for the yuan makes sense for the global economy, for the US economy and for the Chinese economy. But Obama couldn't persuade Beijing of that because you can't muscle your banker and China is America's banker. And everyone in Asia knows this. You can feel the shift in the way people talk and in the way nation's are beginning to accomodate China. Expect more visits from China's growing blue-water fleet. Expect more Asian students studying in Chinese universities. Asian children are already beginning to learn Mandarin in a big way.
I visited an old British airforce base in Singapore today while I was out birding. It was a strange, nostalgic scene. Unless the US gets its act together and reverses it's global decline, it may one day soon also be remember with nostalgia.
