The Curiosity Chronicles

Curious About…Communes.

I’m fascinated with communes - a couple of my colleagues here at IDEO grew up on them and one in particular always regales me with stories of his childhood - he grew up in a traveling theatre troupe (complete with the requisite bus) that communally moved across California and New Mexico and listening to him, it sounds like they were modern-day gypsies, their bodies painted bright colors, singing, dancing, cooking and eating together. While they might seem somewhat trapped in a timewarp with people smiling benevolently about their quaint hippie values, I am sure that the roots of these types of communities still have amazing relevance today. 

Wikipedia describes a commune as: “an intentional community of people living together, sharing common interests, property, possessions, resources, and, in some communes, work and income. In addition to the communal economy, consensus decision-making, non-hierarchical structures and ecological living have become important core principles for many communes.”  Many cultures naturally practice communal living (Kibbutzim in Israel, Mir communities in Russia and Kommuja in Germany are three notable examples) and wouldn’t designate their way of life as a planned ‘commune’ per se, though their living situation may have many characteristics of one.

There is a long history of communes in America that continues to this day. Andrew Jacobs of The New York Times wrote that: “After decades of contraction, the American commune movement has been expanding since the mid-1990s, spurred by the growth of settlements that seek to marry the utopian-minded commune of the 1960s with the American predilection for privacy and capital appreciation.”

The Twin Oaks Intentional Community in rural central Virgina has the tagline “100 People Sharing Our Lives.” Made up of 85 adults and about 15 children, their website states: “We do not have a group religion; our beliefs are diverse. We do not have a central leader; we govern ourselves by a form of democracy with responsibility shared among various managers, planners, and committees. We are self-supporting economically, and partly self-sufficient. We are income-sharing. Each member works 42 hours a week in the community’s business and domestic areas. Each member receives housing, food, healthcare, and personal spending money from the community.” Choosing to be politically active in diverse areas such as peace, ecology, antiracism and feminism, they openly host visitors and each year a collective Women’s Gathering and a Communities Conference where they welcome both experienced communitarians and seekers who are new to community living.

What Of It? I have to say: on paper, communes seem to make a lot of sense on a lot of levels. I’m not for a second suggesting that they are for everyone, but for a certain kind of person with a certain set of beliefs, they seem perfect. One of the projects we have done again and again at IDEO for various clients comes under the general title: “The Future of Community” and lot of modern day communes seem to embody the kind of values and design principles that would not seem out of place in one of our project final reports. Perhaps it’s more of a legacy branding issue - one man’s commune is simply another’s community, one man’s hippie values are simply another’s empathic, human-centered beliefs. Looking at the issues they are dealing with - environmental, family, economic and social systems, they are interestingly both quaintly nostalgic and decidedly forward-looking simultaneously. Their collective, participatory decision-making is something many of our clients are striving to achieve in their own organizations.

I Am Curious about shared value and belief systems, how they manifest as communities, spaces and ecosystems, how values from the past become both relevant and reinvented for today and about how once seemingly “fringe” things can become the possible mainstream at another time. Communes are to me, less about place and more about creating a collective mindset and philosophy.

Curious about…The 幸福饼干 Controversy.

Fortune Cookies, from the Chinese 幸福饼干 meaning “happiness biscuit”, are actually not a Chinese but an American invention. Chef Makoto Hagiwara of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park’s Japanese Tea Garden is reported to have been the first person in the USA to have served the modern version of the cookie when he did so in the 1890s or early 1900s. 

Today’s Fortune Cookies are usually made from flour, sugar, vanilla, and oil with a “fortune” wrapped inside, a piece of paper with words of faux-profound wisdom or a vague prophecy. The message inside may also include a Chinese phrase with translation or a list of lucky numbers used by some as lottery numbers, some of which have become actual winner numbers. Fortune cookies are often served as a dessert in Chinese restaurants in the United States and some other countries, but are completely absent in China. 

On the origin of the cookie, David Jung, founder of the Hong Kong Noodle Company in Los Angeles, made a competing claim that he invented them in 1918. San Francisco’s mock Court of Historical Review attempted to settle the dispute in 1983. During the proceedings, a fortune cookie was introduced as a key piece of evidence with a message reading, “S.F. Judge who rules for L.A. Not Very Smart Cookie.” A federal judge of the Court of Historical Review determined that the cookie originated with Hagiwara and the court ruled in favor of San Francisco. Subsequently, the city of Los Angeles condemned the decision.

Fortune cookies before the early 20th century were all made by hand. The fortune cookie industry changed dramatically after the fortune cookie machine was invented by Shuck Yee from Oakland, California. The machine allowed for mass production of fortune cookies which subsequently allowed the cookies to drop in price to become the novelty and courtesy dessert many Americans are familiar with after their meals at most Chinese restaurants today.

Fortune cookies have become an iconic symbol in American culture, inspiring many products. There are fortune cookie-shaped jewelry, a fortune cookie-shaped Magic 8 Ball, and silver-plated fortune cookies.

What Of It? San Francisco evokes unique Chinese memories for me, obviously due to the huge influence of the Asian population here; somewhere between the misty Americanized nostalgia of “The Joy Luck Club” and the tacky yet spectacular neon-lit dumpling restaurants you find here in Chinatown. I actually think of Fortune Cookies as one cross-cultural bridge that came from those early immigrants, an attempt to take the deep-rooted philosophy of their Chinese and Japanese heritage and help find a away to commercialize it (albeit it in a pretty shallow soundbite) for ordinary, everyday folks. I love the fact that a product such as this can exist and somehow be as American as apple pie and at the same time as Chinese as chopsticks.

I Am Curious about cross-cultural icons, about the origins of everyday things, about the overlaps between the philosophical and the commercial, about how a simple and humble products can have a complex and controversial beginning.

Curious about…Crocs.

Following on from a post I made a few months ago about traditional Dutch Klompen (Clogs) I thought it might be time to revisit them in the modern context. Arriving yesterday in San Francisco, at best a city known for its practicality when it comes to fashion, I was taken by the number of people wearing the modern interpretation of the clog, the Croc, and was interested to see how these fascinating (and deeply polarizing) shoes came to be so popular.

Crocs, Inc. is a shoe manufacturer founded by 3 friends - Scott Seamans, Lyndon “Duke” Hanson, and George Boedecker, Jr. -  to produce and distribute a foam clog design acquired from a Quebec company called Foam Creations. The shoe had originally been developed as a spa shoe. The first model produced by Crocs, the Beach, was unveiled in 2002 at the Ft. Lauderdale Boat Show in Florida, and sold out the 200 pairs produced at that time.

Made from a proprietary foam resin called Croslite, the foam forms itself to a wearer’s feet and offers purported medical benefits, according to a number of podiatrists.

Opinions are extremely polarized about Crocs shoes; many regard them as comfortable and colorfully decorated, others see them as a fashion disaster and a vibrant subculture has emerged of vocal opponents of the shoes. A Washington Post article described the phenomenon: ”Nor is the fashion world enamored of Crocs. Though their maker touts their ‘ultra-hip Italian styling,’ lots of folks find them hideous.” Tim Gunn, fashion consultant, told Time Magazine, ”…the Croc - it looks like a plastic hoof. How can you take that seriously?”  A blog named “I Hate Crocs dot com” follows opposition to the original “luridly coloured Swiss cheese clog-footwear”. The Facebook group “I Don’t Care How Comfortable Crocs Are, You Look Like a Dumbass”, dedicated to eliminating the shoes, has over 1.4 million “likers” as of July 2010.

The shoes have been targets of satire: on Real Time with Bill Maher, Maher called for a “New rule: stop wearing plastic shoes,” over a photo of Crocs, and The Daily Show ”Senior Public Restroom Correspondent” Rob Corddry, following up on the Senator Larry Craig June 2007 lewd conduct arrest, “reported” that anyone wearing Crocs is signalling “anything goes.”

But of course Crocs have the last laugh. At their 10th anniversary sales meeting earlier this year, brand guru Scott Bedbury said: “Crocs is well poised to take its brand to the next level. The next year will be a time of opportunity and expansion if it can further diversify product collections and strengthen its marketing efforts around the world.  The brand has achieved world-wide recognition in a short time and with Crocs innovative style and business approach – they are evolving into a true lifestyle brand.  ”

What Of It? I’m not a huge Crocs fan myself, but I have to admit, these things are a powerful force to be reckoned with. Just as the Dutch championed a solid, wooden shoe for toiling away in the farms and factories, today’s modern workers clearly need their solid modern rubber klompen to toil away in their farmers markets and supermarkets. Worn by everyone from chefs to nurses, dads to directors, Crocs are the Volkswagon Beetle of shoes - quirky, iconic, fun, not for everyone, but very much a statement, however you choose to interpret it.

I Am Curious about modern riffs on traditional dress, rituals and foods, about the notions of practicality and emotion and how they overlap, about fashion and anti-fashion, how one man’s Prada is another’s Croc.