Australian Art in the Asian Century

Over the weekend I attended an artist conversation with Vernon Ah Kee, an Indiginous Australian artist of Malaysian background at Art Atrium, hosted by gallery director Simon Chan and moderated by Imogen Yang, one of the curators along with Djon Mundine OAM. The topic of this conversation was an emboldened perspective on the aspect of Indigenous Australian art from artists with an Asian ethnic background.

Today the Australia Council for the Arts hosts *samag - Seminars for Arts Professionals, with a compelling panel featuring Aaron Seeto, the Director of 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Dr Thomas Berghuis, a lecturer in Asian Art at the Department of Art History & Film Studies at the University of Sydney, Paschal Daantos Berry, an independent Filipino/Australian writer and dramaturg whose practice is focused on interdisciplinary, cross cultural and collaborative processes, Lorraine Chung, Translator/Project Assistant at Gallery 4A, and Su-wen Leong, a COFA artist and arts administrator assisting the Curatorial Department at Object Australian Centre for Design.

The resounding themes of the two talks are the struggles of artists in Australia from other ethnic backgrounds, whether it be the exclusion of an aboriginal heritage or the hurdles of finding immigration opportunities to stay after graduating with an academic degree or upon expiration of a working holiday visa.

The focus of much of the conversation centered around the Australian white paper, "Australia in the Asian Century", available on the Australian Government Asian Century website. The panel at one point cautioned the audience when looking at Asia as a "resource", which is often how the white paper defines the Australian/Asian relationship and the opportunities that lie ahead.

The most controversial statement made by the panel may have been from Thomas Berghuis when he said "The 20th Century was the Asian Century", not the 21st Century as the white paper claims. In the questions and answers following the panel Thomas defended his statement "The 20th Century was the Asian Century" and evoked a great chorus of clarifying statements from the panel.

Thomas mentioned research at Harvard like that of Tarun Khanna, Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor at Harvard Business School on the Indian and Chinese economic powers. Thomas stressed an emphasis on the 500 million people taken out of poverty in Asia in the 20th Century.

Aaron Seto adds that most of the work to create the Asian Century was done in the 20th Century. The mid to late 19th Century saw a great flood of immigrants out of Asia, and the 1901 immigration act restricting that immigration. The fall of Saigon and decolonisation of South East Asia and other cultural and historical changes laid the foundation for what the white paper so aptly defines.

Paschal confirmed "Australians are the new Americans", as spoken by his Filipino audience on his travels to the Philippines. He explained this means that the wealth and influence in the region, whilst of American origins in the 20th Century, comes more noticeably from Australian business and governmental influence in the new millenium.

Lorraine added that she chose to study in Australia and not the United States where she grew up because of her belief that Australia is the up and coming, a Western power to rise from the Asian conflicts of the 20th Century. Starting from its inexplicably low status in the global stage during the 20th Centuray, Australian influence in the 21st has plenty of room to grow and be noticed in its influence as a prosperous European chaperone.

Later from Pedro de Almeida, Program Manager at 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, the question was posed "What must Australia do with its focus on Asian art to bring the cultural rise into an approchable format?" The panel answered with their own examples of past curatorial choices that set this example, and ideas of what can be done in the future, naming specific artists and these artists' own take on the communication of the pressing issues around the Asian cultural influence that is on the hearts and minds of the international audience, attracted to this event hosted by *samag at the Australian Council for the Arts.

On a personal note relating to the confusion of Asian cultural identity, I can't help but think of my friend and classmate from Duke University, Pete Ortiz, when in a discussion about finding a partner of your similar ethnic background he said, "I don't meet many Japorican women." His mother is Japanese and his father is Puerto Rican, and he grew up in the military outpost of Fayetteville, North Carolina, working in his mother's noodle shop.  God bless you, Pete ;)

Shining Night with Morten Lauridsen

I just watched "Shining Night: A Portrait of Composer Morten Lauridsen" by Michael Stillwater and was reminded of the incredible experience I had with Sacred Passage at Flinders Island, reflected in the blog entry I posted on Friday November 12, 2010.

Morten's biography is impressive, earning the National Medal for the Arts in 2007 with his music being played worldwide, invoking emotions that leave audiences speechless. For an introduction and explanation in his own voice, see the Wall Street Journal article he penned in February 21, 2009: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123516723329736303.html

"O Magnum Mysterium" is one of the focal points of his musical oeuvre and referenced at the beginning and end of Stillwater's film. The only two sentences of the latin verse touch on the wonder of the birth of Christ and have been set to music for centuries. I cannot boast that I have composed music to express the wonder of this and all creation, but my experience on Flinders Island brought me closer to how Morten addresses the subject.

While Morten composes on secluded Waldron Island in the San Juan Archipelago in Northwest Washington State, I captured some of my surroundings on Flinders Island off the northern coast of Tasmania. I was fascinated at the opportunity of connecting this profound relationship with nature and the daily tasks of my experience in business management, set in motion by the same values that provided a cultural fit at Ensemble Partners.

With respect to Morten Lauridsen and a challenge to reiterate that experience, I've reposted the entire entry from 2010 here in hopes to keeping the experience and insights fresh in my life, if not the lives of any readers present.

With a profound respect for our interconnections to the Divine Creation of which we are all a part, JB.

I. Describing the Indescribable
II. The Life of John P. Milton, Creator of Sacred Passage and The Way of Nature
III. A Valiant Beginning to a Lifetime of Teaching
IV. Who Am I?
V. Your Call to Action, Leader of the Future World




I. Describing the Indescribable


What would happen if you camped on a solo site for five nights, nourishing your body on a liquid diet while undertaking a strict regimen of guided meditation and Qi Gong to forge a deeper connection to nature and all the interconnected forms of life?

Dig into your most profound memory of being human and bear with me.

It’s hard to condense 100 hours of profound experience in one blog entry. After attending Sacred Passage with John P. Milton on the recommendation of the Founder of Ensemble Partners, our CEO and five others including myself are left somewhere between navigating life as usual and dissolving completely into the ultimate sustainability of becoming one with nature.

If one man has become one with nature, a thousand years says Milton comes close.

No matter how many pictures I could take or videos I could record, nothing would begin to clearly articulate the whole picture. Because of Who I Am (explain of Caps later), I will share some drawings made during the experience to send you on your travels for the remaining four sub-headings.




II. The Life of John P. Milton, Creator of Sacred Passage and The Way of Nature


What’s the most engrossing film you’ve ever seen?

Remember it... Think about it... Relive that feeling of being completely engrossed...

Somewhere between Star Wars, Seven Years in Tibet, and Batman Begins lies the life of John P. Milton. The summary of John’s life goes from studying Zen Meditation in the 1950’s to becoming the first Ecologist at the White House under Nixon; from studying with Taoist Masters on Wudang Mountain in China to spending years with Buddhist Masters in the remote hilltops of Tibet.

There’s no way to summarise when just two in the list include following the Taoist lineage of Chang San Feng from the 13th Century and studying Vepassana meditation with the now deceased S.N. Goenka in Nepal, whose recorded voice remains the sole guide for all Vepassana meditations worldwide.

It’s better that I let John speak for himself, down to the details.

The following excerpt is taken from an interview with John P. Milton by Carla Brennan:

“Since the late 1950's, I have been honoured to work with fine teachers in Taoism and T'ai Chi, Buddhism, Dzogchen, Vedanta and both Hindu and Buddhist Tantra:

In 1958 I had my first teacher of meditative Qi Gong for spiritual cultivation; that opened an ever-deepening form of Taoist practice which I have continued with ever since. Then, in the late 1960's I was first exposed to T'ai Chi Ch'uan and immediately fell in love with that system of spiritual and energetic cultivation. From 1973 through 1980 I studied Cheng's Yang family style T'ai Chi - predominantly with Robert Smith and Ben Pang Jeng Lo - but also with Maggie Newman, Tam Gibbs and others. I also studied Qi Gong and Taoist yoga with Sifu Fong Ha, Mantak Chia and other Taoist teachers.

I have taught these systems since 1979.

In 1958, I also began practicing Zen meditation with Ed Maupin as his teacher. For many years, I practiced classical soto style zazen meditation between four and eight hours a day and Zazen continues until today as a core practice for me. Later on in the 1960's, I also became a serious student of the teachings of Taoism, Tibetan Buddhism and both Hindu and Buddhist Tantra. In the 1970's, I was deeply influenced by the blessings of shaktipat and Siddha Yoga with Swami Muktananda. As a result of all this spiritual cultivation, my first major experience of the arising of Kundalini Shakti and the opening of central channel came in the mid 1970's.

Also starting in the late 1960's and through the 1970's until now, I have been fortunate and very blessed to have many fine teachers from several Tibetan lineages, particularly Sogyal Rinpoche, His Holiness Dilgo Khentze Rinpoche, H.H. the Karmapa, H.H. the Dalai Lama, Lama Tharchin, Lopon Tenzin Namdak, Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche and many other wonderful Lamas. In particular, the blessings of opening and deepening Dzogchen contemplation have been at the heart of my personal cultivation.

From the late 1960's on until now, I have been very active in helping protect Himalayan forests and in setting up wildlife reserves and national parks in Nepal and Bhutan. I often hired large numbers of Tibetan refugees to help me in survey and parks work in the Himalaya Mountains along the Tibetan frontier. All this has given me some extraordinary opportunities to study and practice with Himalayan masters on their home ground and often in a very traditional way, with few or no other westerners around.

I was also fortunate to study Vipassana meditation with S.N. Goenka and his wife in Nepal. Another major teacher for me has been the great tantrika, and devotee of the Divine Feminine, Vasudev of India and Nepal. Over a number of years I was blessed with being able to study with him in mountain caves, at Nepal's great temple to Shiva as the God of All Nature, Pashupatinath, and in the cremation grounds of Nepal and Varanasi (Benares). His teachings, transmissions and direct initiation into the Sacred View have been an incredible blessing to my life and my ability to serve my students.”




III. A Valiant Beginning to a Lifetime of Teaching


Have you ever used a metaphor from nature to describe your life experience? In any deeply rooted conversation about what just feels right, there is an example of it in nature. From animals who mate for life to the industriousness of an ant colony, nature offers something for everyone to understand the world we have shared for thousands of years.

By Day 3 I began to feel accepted by Gaia on her own terms. On Day 4 I had a profound shift as I climbed to the top of Mt. Strzelecki. The three hour hike to the summit involved the buzzing of flies that would often drive a human into a fit. By the time I performed the 11 Direction Ceremony looking out over the Bass Strait, I came to feel at one between Sky and Earth and joined the flies buzzing around me as electrons in the the atomic connection shared between everything in the universe. The flies were my buddies, along for the energetic ride we all call life.

The profound responsibility that comes with the thoughts I’m having is not lost on me. Looking out over all of Flinders and the surrounding Tasmanian Islands realise what it will take to protect this island development from a population of 700 into the future of what’s to come. I believe this can be a place of Zero Impact similar to the plans for Masdar in Abu Dabi. It’s in alignment with the preservation of Tasmanian wilderness and what’s reasonable and possible in the current paradigm shift in global consciousness.




IV. Who Am I?


(Not to be confused with “Who Am I Now?”, a puberty video my brother will recall...)

I want to share one thing that happens when an updated contract is signed with Mother Nature, being accepted by Gaia on her terms. The name I sign with exudes a deeper understanding of Who I Am. As one of many teachings in Milton’s Sky Above, Earth Below, the “Who Am I” exercise borrowed from the Hindu Master Ramana Maharshi reminds us that we are not any of the trappings that normally form our identity. This profound realisation stops us then to ask, “Who Am I?”, and come up with a meaningful answer that transcends space and time.

The best I can come up with is that I Am The Happy Wandering Artist. I’m on the verge of adding Heterosexual, but nature takes care of that for me. Just as nature takes care of Homosexuals, I might add. It’s no surprise that Penguins can change their sexual orientation from breeders to non-breeders when their population balloons out of control. Almost 7 Billion humans are forever in gratitude to you Non-Breeders out there. But I digress.

Perhaps in a past life, (you know me, Egon Schiele) and in the current life, I am a filter for the human experience constantly on the move. This return to the deepest understanding of myself I’ve had in a decade reminds me of not only Who I Am, but also the weaknesses that come with it. As John so lovingly pointed out when I received his council on my return to buildings and humans:

It is the constant addiction to my own entertainment that drives me. This is a life out of balance when I realise after three days of being confined to peaceful meditation that I can’t sit still for that long and break out to climb a mountain. Nature requires an inner peace in all of us. The need for constant stimulation must be balanced with the personal mastery of meditating for hours and connecting to Deep Source.

I have a lot of work to do on that. I’ll let you know how I go.




V. Your Call to Action, Leader of the Future World


I first saw Milton speak at a Wake Up! Sydney event hosted by the resourceful Jono Fisher in 2009. Little did I know at the time that my future employer Ensemble Partners had brought John to Australia to form The Way of Nature Australia, an Oceanic subsidiary of his institute in Boulder, Colorado, which led in turn to Sacred Passage on Flinders Island.

The take-away from his 2009 speech before a sold-out audience was the vision of what would happen if all the world’s leaders, CEOs, and top thinkers decided to spend at least three days immersed in nature, focused in deep meditation guided by the past thousand years of enlightened human experience.

It was a profound vision of the future then, and it remains profound now.

I urge you, Leader of the Future World, to go out into nature for as long as you can until you begin to feel that Gaia accepts you on her terms. When the world understands you with a Universal common denominator, you will start to understand yourself in ways I am only beginning to see in me.

When you get back, give me a call. Learning from each other, it will start to make sense.

Inauguration of Barack Obama

I was just watching coverage of the Inauguration of 44th US President Barack Obama from where I stand in Sydney, Australia.

Truly a global event, a dark-skinned gentleman standing next to me was slowly clapping in celebration of the incumbent.

In 2012 I was introduced to Democrats Abroad in Sydney, working alongside Dae Levine in an acting Social Media role, ultimately delivering the news of Obama's re-election in November.

I continue to enjoy being a part of the US Democratic system and US Democratic Party from this land of opportunity Down Under in the Asia-Pacific.

God bless Barack Obama, and God bless the United States of America as we navigate the international waters of friendships and allegiances towards a solution-oriented Design Thinking approach to Global Possibility.

Lineaist Design Branding Process

In a recent job of rebranding for Turning Green, a sustainability recruitment consultancy, the Lineaist Design brand development process has taken some patented steps into a stylistic competitive advantage.

As most successful brand designers will agree, brand management is about trust. To develop the level of trust necessary between a designer and business owner takes time and some shared exercises.

In this case we went through a series of rehearsals with a scripted engagement, video-taped with a whiteboard presentation as a part of the conversation. What emerged was a very simple logo and brand message.

Lisa Tarry, Managing Director of Turning Green, says, "Thank you Jonathan Blackwell! It was fantastic working with you and I love the new branding!"

Visit Lineaist Design on facebook to watch for more Lineaist client updates.

FC Bayern vs Manchester City - FIFA XBOX

My housemate is being dominated by one of his friends playing FIFA on the XBOX.

To further shame his Host, The Opponent then proceeded to tweak a new player profile with 99% perfection on every profile detail.

We thought that sounded like some brilliant messiah baby newborn business. DNA perfection, strand by strand.

To spite The Opponent, the player profile he created was not properly saved, resulting in all that time being spent in vain.

Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity. (Ecclesiastes 1:2 KJV)

A Prayer for the Chaste

A prayer for the chaste, in the common language and understanding that psychological guidance provides, upon reading two books: “Conscious Loving: The Journey to Co-Commitment” by Gay Hendricks, PhD, and Kathlyn Hendricks, PhD,

and "Real Sex: The Naked Truth About Chastity" by Lauren F. Winner. I must also mention a renewal of my faith in Christ Jesus, the Living Son of God, through Whom I pray with the Holy Spirit to Our Father in Heaven. May my words be pleasing to God, and the message of Christ Jesus be sanctified.

There is no premarital sex in my current relationship.  God has seized control of my life. Everything I am learning and experiencing draws me closer to a spiritual tradition that comforts me. I wish the same thing for everyone on Earth.  From where I stand that sounds like spreading the Gospel. I have the utmost respect for where other people are coming from, and thank anyone for sharing with me what that is. My advice to the reader, please leverage your passion as much as you can.  You will be a role model for the rest of your life.  Remember that. When you encounter problems, address them swiftly. Don’t avoid them. Celebrate your connections. They will respect you in return.

I pray this message helps you in any way it can.  Contact me if you’d like to make a connection and I will pray for you directly. If you are lonely, pray on that. God will speak to you through what you perceive and you will know they way. You will be on the right path when you find yourself to be the valuable jewel that you are, empowered by your service in a higher purpose. We are in a spiritual battle, and we are on the front lines.

Your experience of life is valuable. Move confidently forward. Pray for what you want.  Ask God.  Be specific. Use the resources out there to make it easier for God to work for you, and you will surely be blessed. I love you as a sibling in the Love that Christ has died for us.  Now and always.  Alpha and Omega. Be protected, be encouraged, and be yourself with the confidence that you are being looked after. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

Notes on How to Run a Successful Branding Studio

After attending the AGDA (Australian Graphic Design Association) event with Damian Borchok, CEO of Interbrand for the Australia and New Zealand markets, I'd like to share my notes on "How to Run a Successful Branding Studio".

Damian kicked off the talk with a poignant subject that I returned to with a question at the end. He used the comparison of the Design industry to that of Law, pointing out that Design is a relatively small market. He questioned the size of the design market when the value of the service and thinking that surrounds it is proven now by firms like Apple, and given that there are so many lawyers competing with each other in a robust market.

By doing some research of my own to prove Damian's assumptions, the Law Council of Australia released figure from an LCA Brief in 2009 showing that, at the end of June 2008, the legal profession employed just under 100,000 people (99,696) and generated $18 Billion during the 2007-2008 financial year, contributing $10.9 Billion to the Australian economy.

The same information for designers can be found as a paying member of DIA, the Design Institute of Australia or directly accessed through the Australian Government Job Outlook. As recently as November 2011, the number of Web Designers and Illustrators in Australia was 45,500, almost exactly half that of legal professionals. The average salary has been hovering around $45,000 p/a depending on where you look, in this case the Payscale Australia website. There are other figures with My Career here. These 45,500 designers generated just over $2B in Salaries.

Here's the fun part, getting a figure of gross profit from the salary figures we have. Based on a 50% business efficiency ratio, each designer is worth about $90,000 in profit per annum. So $2B worth of salary industry wide gives us $4 Billion of design revenue produced in Australia in 2011.

With these rough numbers, we get the idea that for 1/2 the workforce of the legal profession, Australian graphic designers produce less than 1/4 of the revenue legal professionals produce. As for their contribution to the Australian economy, Graphic Designers can argue that their visual contribution yields a larger percentage of value to the average consumer than that of lawyers and barristers.

So here's where we get into the question I had to ask Damian at the end of his talk. Given the numbers that we now know, (and yes, possibly fudged), what can the 45,500 designers out there do to convince our clients and customers that we are worth twice as much as we are now, to be on par with our friends in the legal profession?

Damian's response was brilliant. He reminded us how young our profession is, relative to law and even medicine. His first point was that doctors were considered charlatans in the 19th century, and only in the last hundred years have they gained the level of respect they now deserve in the community. No comment on the amount of respect lawyers deserve in the community. They can afford to be the butt of all jokes.

Regarding the last hundred years, Damian gave another example. What was the global value of management consultanting in the 1920's? Truth is it hardly existed. The profession began with "time and motion studies" of business efficiency, basic mechanics of improving a system that has now ballooned to include all kinds of applications, software, and training of hard and soft skills to better manage people. There's an industry to crunch some numbers.

By comparison, a report on IBIS World says that Australia has roughly 35,000 management consultants that gross an average of $8 Billion in revenue. That report also points out that the industry is experiencing about 2% in annual growth. What I failed to mention from the Australian Government Job Outlook porthole on graphic designers is the 6-8% growth figures they project. If we are invited to slice that growth anyway we want it, we could exercise a few options:

1. We could plan to hire 6-8% more designers making the same average of $45-48K.

2. We could keep the number of designers static and earn more like $55K on average.

3. We can secure Australian contracts and move to India, living like it's $200K.

Short of outsourcing ourselves to India, I'd advise fellow designers in Australia to follow the example of the management consulting profession, which has been around even less than graphic design if you look at the work of Toulouse Lautrec as modern design from the 1800's. If Design can be raised to the same business value as management consulting the way Blair Enns in his Manifesto and others have outlined, we should have no problem accounting for $8 Billion of revenue with 10,000 more people to produce it than the 35,000 consultants out there proving their business relevance.

It's not hard to do, either. Sit down with your clients and talk them through everything they have going on. Write it all down. If you are a designer I'm sure you will draw some pictures. This is the beginning of your scope of work that adds true business value to the big ticket items that are first from your clients' lips. If you can put a dollar figure on achieving those goals, and can lay out a plan to achieve them in a design campaign, you both may be suprised at how quickly that broad conversation takes your relationship to new heights.