Ronald Shakespear Never ask for permission
I've been designing for half a century,
and I dedicated this talk to the future because it's where I'm going to spend the rest of my time.
And quoting Woody Allen : "Only those who have eaten garlic can give me some aspiration."
50 years ago, I visited Orson Welles in Madrid, he lived in front of Juan Perón's house.
I didn't have an appointment, so I arrived, knocked and entered.
And I said: "Sorry for coming without an appointment." And he said: "Never, never ask for permission."
That's why I came this afternoon to tell you about these design myths without asking for permission.
I am not sure, as it has been said, that design can save the world.
The world will not be saved unless we design it, that's for sure.
I've been thinking about this, the least I could do,
and as some dictionaries say: "design, mental plan." Nothing to do with drawing, maybe it is that way.
A teacher designs, a musician designs, a cook designs, a statesperson designs, nothing to do with drawing.
The NASA engineers requested Raymond Loewy to design the interior of the Skylab platform.
He said that they could launch the platform to space, but if they had to put a man in there, they'd better call him.
They requested him to redesign the bullseye window,
with ergonomic accuracy, and when the astronauts came to Earth thanked him from the White House Oval Office.
It was that little window which allowed them to observe their home Earth avoiding in this way the space stress.
Design landed on the Moon.
I didn't finish high school, I failed in Mathematics (a little dumb).
But in compensation I had five admirable teachers: Juan Carlos Distéfano, Rómulo Macció,
Armin Hofmann, Jorge Frascara and Alan Fletcher.
Poor them, they did what they could, all the rest is because of my lack of rigor and other lacks.
I entered a library when I was 13, there I met Thomas Mann, Albert Camus,
Masedonio and Rodolfo Walsh. Years later Borges, of course, and the great Alan Fletcher came to me,
the latter led me to discover the design prophet George Dockiner, who said:
"The man speaks in lowercase, shouts in uppercase."
Most of the teenagers read very little or nothing today,
and the visual junk we see in our cities today is basically due to the fact that the majority think that
the computer replaces the book and that it designs by itself.
They have forgotten that the light in Rembrandt, the word in García Marquez and the Orson Welles montages
are infinitely more important than digital technology.
Design is good for making people live better or is good for nothing.
My grandson tells me a secret: "Tell me grandpa, ¿Do you know how an elephant hides?"
I say: "It's impossible." He says: "Yes, grandpa, in a herd of elephants."
This is what the mercenaries who talk about green do, they drain their corruptions in a herd of other corruptions.
Nobel Prize Desmond Tutu in the acceptance speech said:
"When the missionaries came to Africa, they had the Bible and we had the land,
they came and told me: Pray. We closed our eyes and prayed.
When we opened them, we had the Bible and they the land."
Mae West said: "You only live once, but if you do it right, one time is enough."
I had a great friendship for a long time with Father Duncan. He was Irish,
and I think what brought us together was the gin and tonic as we played Truco in the parish backyard.
He knew I was an heretic, of course. I think he never cared.
One day Duncan told me: " Look, that cross over the dome is not visible at night, I think I need to put a neon light cross."
I respectfully told him: "Priest you are drunk."
Beautiful icon, the cross has been built throughout history in hardwood, marble, iron, bronze,
but never in neon which is the grammar of sin, night, vice, easy life.
However, one day there appeared a light blue neon cross.
Years later coming back from my conference in Mendoza, I met with a friend who was a pilot and I said:
"Can I go in the cockpit, I'd like to see the sunset." -"Of course, sit down."
Reaching Márquez, the plane descends. It's 14 kilometers, so I asked:
"tell me: How do you know that you have to descend here?"
He said: "Simple, see:
there's the hand of God." And there it was indeed the light blue cross of Father Duncan.
The traditional instrument of torture of the time when a man was executed, first for being a Jew,
and then for promoting the rebellion of the period.
The cross is anchored in the collective memory and admits everything, even neon lights.
My friend Duncan was right.
In Mexico a Jesuit told me: "Get off the cross we need the wood."
I don't believe in blank page panic, but it seems that it exists, it's not a fantasy.
But ideas are like a jar of olives, you take the first out and then the others pop up.
In the end, it's about learning to learn.
My mom Dorita, who died at 99 always said so.
She also told me that when the moon shone I lit up the pipe, and creativity appeared amid the smoke
and so the fairies, naked, by the way.
I confess I've never seen a fairy and even less a naked one.
Besides, I really don't know what this thing about creativity means, at least in the design field.
I've always thought that it's a dialectical euphemism to express a certain magical capability,
that some individuals have to generate situations of innovative value.
An anti-democratic and discriminatory term that favors certain people over the rest.
The times I said this, I noticed certain anxiety in the audience.
20 years ago, in Cartagena de Indias, I observed that people got up from their seats and left.
People coin certain expressions to explain the inexplicable.
Some Canadian postgraduate students were entrusted by their government with the task to find out
the reason of the rail width in Canada.
You know, wood is a State policy in Canada.
They started the research and found out that
Canadian trains have a 4 feet and 8 inches gauge, that's 1.6 meters approximately.
And then, they discovered that it was the same measurement of the North American trains, 4 feet, 8 inches,
and that they were managed by English engineers who have brought the original plans from their country.
So, they researched in England and discovered that the old English wagons
of century XIX century traveled along roads of 4 feet, 8 inches.
Later they found out that those roads had been designed by the Romans 2000 years ago,
so their legions could travel.
And why did the Romans establish 4 feet, 8 inches for all the Empire roads?
Simply because the Romans discovered that 4 feet, 8 inches is the width of the butt of two horses.
(Applause)
The students did a subsequent investigation and discovered that the rocket that comes from Utah to Cape Canaveral
is 4 feet, 8 inches.
And it happens with rail tunnels that are 4 feet, 8 inches.
Thus, the report ends up saying that state-of-the-art technology, cutting-edge technology of mankind
is based on the butt of two horses.
(Applause)
And now on innovative value bureaucracies are eternal.
The culture of information and persuasion instruments in big public spaces
took many years, and many pains until it settled with professionalism.
However you still have stupid people who put a public phone sign over a public phone.
And other stupids who put a mailbox sign on top of it.
I always thought the mailbox and the phone were the signal.
The world is full of jerks, isn't it?
Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson went on camping with their tent,
once they arrived, they had a wonderful dinner,
had some glasses of wine and went to bed.
Later, Sherlock woke up and nudged his loyal friend,
-"Watson, look at the sky and tell me what you see."
Watson woke up startled, saw the sky and said: " I see millions and millions of stars and galaxies."
- "And what does it tell you Watson?"
- "Well, it tells me that God is Almighty and we are small and insignificant."
- "So then?"
- "Well, besides I see the Leo is in Taurus so tomorrow we will have a beautiful signal."
- "And What does it tell you Sherlock?"
Sherlock lit up the first pipe of the morning,
and slowly said:
-"Watson, you are stupid, our tent was stolen, Watson."
(Laughter)
As Einstein says: " You see what you know."
For those who, like me, haven't gone through college during youth, and taking into account all I've received from my country,
surely the years teaching at UBA have been the most important.
It taught me to learn how to learn.
I have been in dozens and dozens of schools in the world but I have never found
a constellation of answers as in University of Buenos Aires, block 3.
UBA was magical, and I remember those years with immense tenderness.
My old students always remind me that, and naturally I was the one who learned most.
We invited Milton Glaser, 25 years ago he was at the Aula Magna, and told the students:
"Learn all you can from your teacher, but please forget it all once you cross Lugones avenue."
In the hard work of building Stevens, the wonderful character of "The Remains of the Day",
Anthony Hopkins had, in a moment, conceptual problems,
so the director, Ivory, suggested that he had and interview with an old butler from Windsor who just retired.
The man and Hopkins met for tea (things the English do, you know).
And had a long and delightful talk, but at the end Hopkins felt that the man didn't clarify any of his doubts.
He saw him to the door and when they were saying goodbye, he said:
"Please, tell me what a servant is."
The old butler thought for a moment, turned around and said:
"A servant is a person who enters an empty room and makes it look emptier than before."
I've always thought that this tender story of Hopkins expresses very clearly the nature of my earthly trade:
People's servant.
However, you have to consider the cultural factors, when we designed the stork for the Maternity hospital.
The director came very angry and said:
"Shakespear you have to know that kids are not brought by the stork."
(Laughter)
I said:
"I believe so. And so does people."
My friend Alan Fletcher told me this beautiful story about my trade
that he, in turn, had listened from a colleague:
In century LIII A.D., Marcus Crassus invaded Parthia, the present Iraq,
with an army of 40.000 men to expand its empire.
The result was catastrophic.
It was mainly due to the design of the Parthian's Bow, who were the masters of the use of this war weapon.
The Parthian Bow was a weapon built with a laminated spring, with such a power and reach
that the Roman troops rendered completely vulnerable.
20.000 Romans died, 10.000 were taken prisoners but the important thing for all of us here today
is that the Parthians did not defeat because of a better general
they did it because they had a better designer.
Design is not necessary but inevitable.
Thanks for listening.
(Applause)