Maeda's SIMPLICITY

Straight Down

Two meanings for the price of one.

I made a quick trip to Paris for the Philips Simplicity Event and to do some coordination regarding my exhibition at the Fondation Cartier. As is customary with exhibition preparation, I had the opportunity to talk to a variety of people in the European press. Talking to the media is like taking an exam. Either you pass or you fail. Human nature is to prefer to pass; although the self-tortured individual prefers to fail. I think deep down inside we are always both although the learner in us has the preference for failure.

When I started being a student last year, it took a while to deal with the fact that I would have to take tests again. I wish I could say that I have had perfect scores throughout the experience, but honestly I haven't nearly reached that mark. A test is able to illustrate how closely your thinking aligns to the thinking of the instructor. When the instructor is truly right in all factual senses and high objectivity, then your score signifies the distance you must travel to achieve perfection. Thus whenever I score poorly, I get an immediate assessment of what I am missing; however whenever I score perfectly (which is entirely rare) I feel a bit lost. It is easier to learn when you know what you are missing; it is harder to learn if you think you already know the material. Perhaps for that reason, all tests should be sufficiently difficult in order to create the ideal learning experience. In a way, I pity my current students that are reading this right now (insert innocent smile here).

Tripping onto the floor by accident within a crowd can be embarrassing. You can be alone without the witnessing crowd and still feel flushed. What defines the moment of learning is whether you pick yourself up, or instead just lie there to be trampled upon.

On the way home, at Charles de Gaulle airport I became stuck in an infinite loop with signage that pointed downwards towards my target of terminal 2C. I would go up the escalator, and see the sign pointing downwards, and thus go down the escalator. I would go up again, and then down. It was a long while before I realized that the downward arrow would signify one of two things -- "down the escalator" or "straight ahead" -- it could signify both meanings even on the same piece of signage. I took this as the final exam on my trip to Paris -- another invaluable learning experience. The lesson learned was that even if you fail countless times at whatever you might be doing, if in the end you make it to any final destination you have succeeded in changing. Change = Youth. Not only did I make it back to Boston, but thanks to the challenging discussions I had in Paris I am forever changed and forever young again. Vive la France!

Posted by maeda at September 25, 2005 09:15 AM