Ninth Annual Dare to Dream Conference held on November 17th in New York City showed of a wide variety of student presentations on Human Rights.

The nature of innovation is shifting, but our society is stuck in old paradigms of innovation. Our Executive Director, Christopher Hire, examines what a Creative Age of innovation may mean and the opportunity it gives all of us, …

Brooklyn art galleries have put together an exciting program this weekend in New York City, some transport logistics and branding improvements could be made in our view, but an interesting re-branding exercise.

If you’re new here at 2thinknow, and you’re interested in the latest ideas on trends, companies and innovation, subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for your visit!INSPIRATION – Rembrandt was a great & significant artist, primarily of people. The Dutchman’s main quality was a magnificient play with light & dark.
Be inspired by these slides, thanks to DIOGYU on Slideshare.

COMMENTS — Airlines have been decorating their planes for some time now. Below is a slide-show from Reynolds on SlideShare. Well done!
The Trends. 2thinknow view.
Handmade, hand-painted, decorating mass-objects are key trends of the 21st century.
This is a nascent trend of modifying mass-produced objects.
Decoration & personalisation by hand, not machine, will be a strong dominant theme of the 21st century.
Once we were impressed by the modernist metallic sameness of airplanes. Now we are impressed by their uniqueness.
The mass-produced object is losing it’s 1960s gloss, at the cutting-edge. And has been replaced …

REVIEWS — Shoes are an often underestimated element of design.
But the design of such a basic item, is a design challenge. Especially a design that has to be practical (at least for 10 minutes walking!). And also entice women to spend money.
What’s the Trend?
Shoes, especially hand-crafted, hand-decorated.
National Gallery of Victoria had a hand-decorated sneaker exhibition. There’s a ’scene’ in Melbourne.
Handmade/decorated will be important in days of sustainability & local sourcing. We’ll need to transition to craft, trends suggest it will be the new local service economy.
The folks at Handmade Nation …

REVIEWS, Stuttgart — Traveling to Germany on Eurail had been an exciting adventure. Stuttgart, especially, surprised me, probably having more inspirational potential than text-based research would indicate.

The magnificent and exciting Stuttgart StaatsGalerie was holding an extensive Pop Art Exhibition at the time of my visit. It was a well curated exhibition of the Pop Art movement in the USA and UK primarily, in the 1950s & 1960s mainly.
Here is my journey through that exhibition, and an increasing realisation that modern art of a time period is often a window on …

ANALYSIS, Frankfurt — Art (or kunst in Deutsch) is a window into mens souls.
German art is a window into the Saxons, Prussians, Bavarians and other Germanic tribes.
People forget that the German nation is a modern construct, stitched together by Bismarck as a Greater Prussia. Prior to this, Germany was a collection of largely independent kingdoms.

Accordingly, major German regions and cities with links to art and design throughout European history are hardly surprising.
I find much to like in the art of Saxony, including Leipzig, and the so-called Leipzig School (an …

COMMENT, Paris – Paris is divided into: Old Paris, where all the buildings have consistent height, and often consistent or at least fitting facades.
Standing on level 5 of Georges Pompidou, you can see the whole of Old Paris, laid out before you. I did this last in April 2007, and was mesmerized.

And New Paris: Office district on the other side of Paris; La Défense. This modern office block tower district, is really an additional side to the old Paris not a central part of Paris.
The new 300 metre tower by …

REVIEWS, Europe — So being from Europe, Eurovision is a national pastime and real conversation piece this time of years.
I like to think of it as a way of watching a variety of cultures, and their attitudes to themselves. At 2thinknow, we study cultures, and globalism, so it is home-work!
Eurovision Song Contest – Belgrade 2008 Preview Player
Essentially a singing contest, with one representative of each nation, often controversially selected. The most interesting part is the voting, where neighboring countries often vote for or against each other, depending on the politics. …

REVIEW, Melbourne — Who said theatre was dead?

Last night, in Melbourne, my wife and I sat in the Royal Botanic Gardens with between 500-800 people (a quick approximate headcount) to enjoy Shakespeare.
What struck me was the size and average age of the gathering.
50% or more of the people there were under 25. Most were under 35.
At least 10% were school age children, mostly pre-teens.
Sitting next to us was a group of around 25 10-13 year olds. Who rambunctiously enjoyed the performance with a few bags of Doritos, some bottled water …

VIDEOS, Youtube — These are just insane. Actually my last article about the BMW videos led me to find this.
Incredibly offbeat and unusual art & design from this Dutch artist, Theo Jansen.
The machines are almost animal like, yet man-made. Machines that crawl across the land as if they are insects, or prowl as if they are a hybrid between war machines and leopards.
These are original, unusual, and this video is well worth watching.
This is avant-garde.

REVIEWS, Global – The T-Shirt Collectors scene is potent globally. And yes, it now has a magazine. T-World.
Like sneaker-collector and custom sneaker decoration scene in Melbourne, another scene. With a local, but soon to be even more international, vertical-niche magazine.
The magazine, created by and crafted for T-shirts enthusiasts, T-world highlights global T-shirt culture.
T-world is a new niche publications with a cult status already, after only the 3rd edition.
It can be ordered online, or via MagNation in Melbourne or New Zealand. Try this link to have a look and order.
What’s the …

The history of women in art. Features a lot of figurative works.
A very popular inspirational viral video on YouTube, Technorati and other social networking sites.

The Big Question: Do you have a blog that is art or design based?
You can be a painter, designer, critic or follower of art… or a student.

This is a list of interesting, different art and design blogs.
I am hoping to get over 1000 here, so I will be adding them to get us started,…

COMMENT, Global – One of the trends I have noticed amplified whilst updating my book the Global Innovation Review 2007, is a return to the figurative in art and culture.
Why is this important? It shows direction in art. Away from post-modernist ‘I am a painter so why do I bother to paint?‘ thinking that typified the 90s. The 90s were however that kind of decade perhaps…!
Even moreso it shows a return to seeking meaning. It’s tiring looking at noir films, drinking black coffee and talk about meaninglessness.
Remember the artist …

TRAVEL, Austria — Culturally Vienna, like Paris, is one of those cities you must visit for artistic and cultural depth.
Of course, many European cities have great museums and art galleries and hidden treasures.

Vienna has a secret museum though. Well secret in the sense few people visit it as tourists. If you are arts-minded though you will enjoy it. …

TRAVEL, France — When you visit France, there are some paintings you must see to complete your Parisian cultural visit and understand France, and the modern world.
As Ruskin said:
“Great nations write their autobiographies in three manuscripts, the book of their deeds, the book of their words and the book of their art.
“Not one of these books can be understood unless we read the two others, but of the three the only trustworthy one is the last.”

ANALYSIS, Melbourne, Australia — My recent visit to the Guggenheim show at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne was most informative. But not about art.
The Guggenheim was informative about positive social change (innovation) and our society.
Art of recent years allows us to view the world through artists eyes. And great artists often have eyes and insight ahead of their time.
The most enlightening Guggenheim pieces were from the last 40-odd years. The well-curated Guggenheim exhibit of modernist & post-modernist art; informed visitors like me about inspiration & innovation.
Understanding Modern …

ANALYSIS, Sydney — Prague proves the point. Culture determines innovation.
Markets do not, not in isolation.
The Czech Republic has one of the least basket-case economies in Eastern Europe and key investment destination of the former Eastern European business investment destinations.
Walking the streets of Prague, we can see all the consulting firms, and major corporations, who have established offices here.
Remote analysis is useful, but research-including-walking-around and observing is often invaluable in pointing out flaws in statistical analysis.
The Balkan problem with Innovation – dogma
Croatia, a very beautiful place, and Slovakia its former sister …