TED2008 The BigViz Animation

The images created by Kevin Richards and David Sibbet during the TED2008 are set to music and animated using gorgeous complexity modeling. The hundreds of individual sketches are transformed into rivers of data, DNA strands, and galaxies of ideas.

Collaborative Leadership: The All-Terrain Skill

Greater levels of collaboration require Collaborative Leadership. The alternative is not pretty – we are dinosaurs waiting for the meteor. Collaborative leadership is the application of a few basic principles. By embracing these principles we can harness the energy and attention of the people around us.The core principles of Collaborative Leadership are: Presence, Purpose and Path.

Letting Go of the Outcome

As facilitators, it is imperative to keep our ego in check. As graphic facilitators, we go into many conversations blind to the real depth of the content and unaware of the outcome. This article from FacilitatorU.com shares a wonderful story of how a 2-year-old became a teacher on the importance of mindfulness and joy.

While a Magician Works, the Mind Does the Tricks

I often refer to scribing as a magic trick: We watch a human pull images from thin air, grabbing pictures and ideas from the vapor of conversation and giving them physical form. This article gives insight on why the physical performance of illusion is so captivating and how the brain uses neural tricks to do this: approximating, cutting corners, instantaneously and subconsciously choosing what to “see” and what to let pass, neuroscientists say. clipped from www.nytimes.com In a paper published last week in the journal Nature Reviews Neuroscience, a team of brain scientists and prominent magicians described how magic tricks, both simple and spectacular, take advantage of glitches in how the brain constructs a model of the outside world from moment to moment, or what we think of as objective reality. For the scientists, Susana Martinez-Conde and Stephen Macknik of the Barrow Neurological Institute...

Fast Company: 10 Rules of Effective Brainstorming

Somehow they didn't get the memo. In order to do brainstorming right, you need to make ideas visual! Still, this slideshow by Fast Company itemizes (and validates) the creative elements needed for innovation sessions. clipped from www.fastcompany.com This is the traffic cop of the session, and should be an outsider. An insider brings baggage that can inhibit the free flow of ideas. HR consulting organizations are one possible resource; if you are working with a design firm like IDEO or Continuum, they may be able to help. If bringing in an outsider is difficult for some reason, the second best option is to bring in someone from a different group inside the company. Facilitators need to be skilled at group dynamics, able to read when the team is flagging or when it is hitting on all cylinders. They have to be patient, yet willing...

Ups and downs of zero gravity art

And I thought creating drawings in front of a live studio audience was tricky! clipped from www.reuters.comJul 9 - British artist Nasser Azam goes weightless for his latest creations. Azam led a team of five artists aboard a Russian transport plane specially modified to simulate zero gravity conditions feet for his new project, Life in Space.

The Cartoon Lounge

Graphic facilitator and intermittent cartoonist for The New Yorker Magazine, Drew Dernavich, announces the launch of The Cartoon Lounge, a blog--or "blorg" according to contributor Zach Kanin--for non-New Yorker content.