Play.

01 / Coffee

It started out simply enough: I like to start my day with a good cup of coffee. So I decided to learn how to make one.

Cut to 6 of us huddled around the coffee machine at the Intelligentsia shop at Venice, CA listening to Charles Babinski talk about coffee making, about the key flavors (sweet, sour, bitter, salty, savory aka umami), the equipment, and how to evaluate espressos for brightness, aroma, body, flavor and crema. it took some practice to pick up the different flavor nuances as we tasted the many, many cups of espresso Charles made. 

Next it was our turn. I stepped up to the gleaming, enormous La Marzocca machine and started pulling espressos. Shot after shot, with minor adjustments between shots. Did I tamp the coffee evenly? Is this one under-extracted? Does it taste too bitter?

37 shots later, there were 2 cups that tasted fine and only 1 that was truly delicious

  1. Coffee is the new wine. In fact, coffee has more aromatic and flavor compounds than wine, an estimated 1500 vs 200 in wine. 

  2. Pulling a good shot of espresso takes training. And practice. And then some more practice...

  3. Most good things, including good design, take practice. 

Lessons Learned

I was visiting UCLA when I walked into a talk by Marcos Novak. That's when I first heard about the Situationists and Transarchitecture. 

02 / Transarchitecture

Graduate school was where I learnt how to code (though I don’t make a very good coder/ the best technologists I know have more patience!). I learnt how to think in terms of liquid architecture (virtual spaces generated algorithmically); write algorithms to create interactive spaces in dialog with the audience (music that plays based on where and how many people are in a room); build virtual worlds (first UCLA Campus VR map; 3D spaces inspired by paintings). 

Inspired by the Situationists, I built a Virtual World with the words from the Latin palindrome In girum imus nocte et consumimur igni ('we turn in the night and are consumed by it') which was featured at the Getty museum.

I was planning to study urban design, driven by a vision to shape how people experience cities. 

Until I met Marcos Novak. He got me thinking about a new kind of 'liquid' architecture, cut loose from traditional logic and laws of gravity. Where spatial configurations exist at the intersection of virtual and physical, and mutate in response to people and events. 

He was the man who helped me 'see' Minority Report years before it was built.

  1. I wrote an algorithm that played music depending on where you stood in a room. Years later, I saw the same idea built into a New York subway staircase. Play. You never know what comes out of it.

  2. Everything you learn connects eventually — you just can't see how from the inside. Follow your curiosity. Not a plan. Not a five year roadmap. The curiosity.

Lessons Learned

03 / Inspiration

Everyday life. People. Conversations. Travel. A good cup of coffee. Chocolate cake. Simple things inspire me.

(Many) Lessons Learned

'The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.'
— Marcel Proust

My first Uni. Spanish chocolate. Churros.
A: What else have I never eaten before? Let's go exploring. 

The first time I saw an XL cup of Coke at the movie theater.
A: Can one person really drink it all? Can good design nudge people to make smarter choices?

The man at the café at the top of the Pompidou. His daughter's name was Clementine. He promised to send his recipe for clementine cake.
A: He was one of those people who actually did. Talk to strangers — you may walk away with your next favorite recipe.

A conversation with a monk about 'where is home.'
A: Sometimes strangers can show you your path.

I believe the world is good, so the world is good.