Burst of Color, Emergence of Ideas

If you know Washington, DC, then you know Spring always starts with a burst of color. It's as if the great grey realities of this serious city simply can't contain themselves after the dark days of Winter. Every year, this annual declaration of exuberance launches Spring like a fireworks display. Where most of the world may be yawning as it's just now waking up from its wintery sleep, then gradually pulling back the covers on spreading green buds, we have cherry blossoms.

Speaking for a bunch of creative people, I find the ironic blast of life every March an apt analogy for the emergence of good ideas. It happens the same way, I think. Rarely to great ideas take shape in easy, gently rising arcs of development. Ideas that move people usually emerge after long stretches of quiet consideration, sometimes confined by cold, tightly wrapped pressures, only to suddenly explode with light and clarity, often close to fully formed.

Boom!

The trick, of course, is not to take that process for granted. The trick is to help create the right conditions for deep, ruminating thoughts to grow, and then find ways to uncork them. When I see nature's annual expression of passion-- of life bursting out no matter how grey the surrounding city and grinding gridlock--I cannot help but find myself a kindred spirit to the living world.

-MS

Structure and Meaning

The innate essence of things only emerge by juxtaposition against other things. By themselves objects and ideas have no inherent meaning. But placed in context they take on value and aesthetics beyond themselves. The vegetable here may be the heart of a stir fry for the person who takes it home, but it's also an elegant sculpture representing the infinite fractal depth of the universe writ big and small.

Ponder that for a moment.

Then, look at it again. It's simply cool, right? I particularly like the large green leaf in the center, holding the cauliflower like a hand.

The great thing about discovering deep meanings in unexpected places is that those discoveries don't ever wreck the things themselves. The cauliflower offers a window on the infinite, while simultaneously waiting to be simply a part of supper.

Faster than Light -- News and Thoughts from 1AU

Welcome.The journey begins afresh. You; us: together.

You're reading the opening verses of an epic poem, inscribed periodically by the creative voices at 1AU. With news about our latest projects, and notes on current media observations, creativity, and the fusion of ideas, our new blog--launched today-- becomes the heartbeat of 1AU Global Media. This is a poem with no conclusion…but it's not without a plot. Colorful adventures and destinations await, and it's here that you can journey with us--whether you're a client, a collaborator, or simply an armchair adventurer.

This March we mark our 7th anniversary. Since opening in 2005, everything astounding and shiny in the media world has since turned common and ordinary. Everything modern transformed into something mobile. But creativity endures, always. No matter what changes come to formats and styles, distribution platforms and business models, a good story presented in a smart way always has value.

That's the best part: the stories. If you follow this blog into the future, you'll hear one thing over and over again in a myriad of ways: humanity has been telling stories around hearth fires for millennia. That moment, when listeners lean forward to hear, and imaginations run free at the sight of projected shadows on cave walls, means everything. Everything.

You'll find photos and text here, and perhaps the occasional something else. But mostly you'll keep in touch with what we're doing and thinking.

And together…we'll go farther.

-MS