A REAL-WORLD DISPLAY OF HUMAN INGENUITY

LEONARDO'S CLOTHESPIN

What follows is an unique collection of exhibits from small designs submitted by professional designers, artists & educator, under the Leonardo Project organised by the Eli Whitney Museum in May 1995.

They embodied the expression of the craft & creativity defined by Leonardo da vinci's Notebooks.

He explored his world with the eyes of a scientist; he reinvented it with the hands of an artist. he directed students in architecture & landscape design, in fashion & theatre design, in product design & graphic design: all of the creative expressions that surround mankind.

Inspired by Leonardo, the museum invited submissions to demonstrate the transformation of a clothespin into a recognisable character as well as to show design at work.

Personally, I am very impressed by the creativeness & ingenuity of the creators of the following exhibits.








[Source: Eli Whitney Museum & Workshop]

HUMAN INGENUITY AT WORK

While window-shopping at Ngee Ann City on Orchard Road the other day, I noticed a really creative display of human ingenuity, on the part of French luxury goods boutique Hermes, in embellishing the mundane frontage, while construction works were going on behind the scenes to renovate its existing large store, as captured by me in the foregoing & following digital snapshots.

Kudos to the management of Hermes!

INGENUITY DEFINED

I particularly like the following definition for ingenuity from Philip McKinney, as outlined his weblog:

"Ingenuity is the power of creative imagination; the quality of being cleverly inventive or resourceful...

Ingenuity is the key ingredient to creating innovation.

Ingenuity is the smallest element of innovation... the spark that starts it off.

Innovation is the outcome of applying the ingenuity of individuals."

I fully concur. It's the result of human ingenuity that allows us to enjoy all the modern conveniences that we see around us today.

As a matter of fact, the following observation from economist & entrepreneur Paul Zane Pilzer, also author of the classic, 'Unlimited Wealth: The Theory & Practice of Economic Alchemy', sums up my sentiment best:

“I realized [that] we were always running out of some resource, but the actual resource we were running out of wasn’t a resource until human ingenuity invented it, and we’re always inventing new resources.”

When he was once posed with the question "Is the Earth being depleted of natural resources?", his response was a swift:

"Nope... That’s because there is plenty of the ultimate natural resource: human ingenuity."