Elaine Glaser
Elaine Glaser talked about authenticity; she observed the behaviour of people in power and how they portrayed a ‘Fake’ image of themselves for consumers. “Appearance and reality” creating an image that is very reserved from their services. Showing their hidden intentions, which seem to manipulate the public. She gave examples of David Cameron: sleeves rolled up, no tie giving an informal presentation as a ‘man of the people’. Michelle Obama: growing her own garden, showing independence as a female. Outlining their efforts of creating an impression that they are just ordinary people doing ‘normal’ things.She also showed example of big brand like McDonalds: Creating a heart-warming advert of where their potato’s come from, and Starbucks growing their own coffee bean in their retail shops. Manipulating people with their creation of this ‘authentic’ trend which is distracting people from the facts and reality (creating an illusion)To a certain extent I agree with Elaine’s views that public figures are portrayed in such a manor that they are made to see as “normal” when in actual fact their lives and responsibilities are completely different from the average man /woman. It also needs to be said that Elaine has taken fragments of their public life in order to obtain this conclusion, which may have been taken out of context.
Evan Davis
Evan Davis talked about two main strategies: physical production and intellectual properties. Physical production: the inventions of the factory, and the revelation of production that made a difference and great contribution to Britain’s economy. It was clear that manufacturing has become less and less important for Britain as entry level countries have adopted the manufacturing world as a way of getting rich quick. He mentioned Baumol’s law: the evolution of the factory that has became more advanced as countries got better and better in manufacturing, however this has meant that fewer and fewer people are employed. The second big thing you can sell is intellectual properties and most of the advance, have moved in that direction. The creative stuff comes from where capitalism is developed. It is evident in order for manufacturing and intellectual property to work there has to be a system where the two are balance out in the distribution. London is the Hub of intellectual property, selling service to counties the designing and producing the idea where then they do the next stage and that is manufacturing. If this system didn’t exist then countries will become self-contained and not rely on others around the word.
James Woudhuysen
James speech was based on leadership and innovation. His talk was about leader staying strong and having the drive to be ambitious, pushing for a better future. Leadership is about fixed intention: it should not be about emotional attraction he wanted people to open their eyes, assess risks sense the possibilities and research the future. He had this idea that with out leaders there would be no goals (objectives) building a whole new world because a nudge in the right direction would not make a change. He wanted us designers to be a lot more aware of the word and what’s happening around us, having the ambition to do better and have some sort of solidarity.
Anna Minton
Anna Minton spoke mostly about the privatised cities that are managed, business improvements districts and bring them together to manage. She also talked about policy a change enforces, this meant that places are treated as products and in some cases public goods are replaced by economic gain. There were issues with the policy like planning and compulsory not assessable to a pubic audience. As new legislation are brought in, Minton believes that there would be more power like police and that there would be a loss of security for ordinary people like park keepers bus conductors etc. With a growing obsession with security creates a less trusting environment. Minton concluded her talk about the future, looking for a balanced local economy give people some sort of hope, bring identity and diversity to communities that would help strengthen democracy trust and happiness.
Matthew Taylor
Matthew Taylor started his speech with asking a question: Why is that we find it so difficult together to achieve thing that we want to? He talked about the fact that we don’t know how to solve problems in society because there’s a gap and we’re not thinking and not growing and the solution requires us to use three major sources, well springs of power that reflect who we are. As Taylor said there are three fundamental characteristic of us and they are survival, collaboration and leadership and follower-ship. They are then reflected in three great sources of power: hierarchy, solidarity and individualism. Hierarchy have failed us people are losing faith, they are becoming weaker and weaker losing their sense of authority, technology used to be something that gave them power they were the only ones that could afford technology. Solidarity is weaker and diversity has changed which is harder to feel solidarity with people who are different to you. Individualism has grown to fill the gap that is left from the decline of hierarchy and the decline of solidarity. Individualism has too become narrow and materialistic motion of individualism. Challenging the narrow idea of what it is to be successful.
Angela Saini
The technological fix, which Angela talked about, was trying to find a solution in solving the world’s problems using technology creating this ideal world of hope. She talked about a very human idea that could shape the public understanding of the world. People believed that the idea of technology would help solve social problem such as war, crime etc and this idea was the atomic boom. As Saini went deeper in to her speech the more ideal her ideas and hopes became on solving problems and real social issues of the world. It was something she wants to see happen. A future that could be ’fixed’ with out having to change our lifestyles, ‘technology will bring salvation’. She talked about people still believing in the idea of technology being a big simple signal ‘fix’ solutions to our biggest problem like food crises, climate change and people are convinced that scientist can achieve this ‘idea’ making very thing ok.
*JetFace* 