Note: This session was originally commissioned to be part of the 2015 London Environmental Challenge program at Imperial College. Regrettably, the session had to be postponed. I include it here as sample work and a representative example of my approach to interdisciplinary ideation, innovation, and creative session leadership.

1. Ideation for
Resilience
Note: These slides were completed
for a session to be presented at
Imperial College as part of the 2015
London Environmental Challenge.
!
Though the session had to be
postponed for a future event, it
remains a key example of my
approach to interdisciplinary
ideation.
CC BY-SA Joshua Davis 2015

2. Ideation for
Resilience
Heath Rezabek, MLIS
CC BY whologwhy 201

3. Librarian and futurist
!
Lunar Mission One liaison to the Long Now Foundation
!
Connected Youth
Technology Centers for at-­‐risk youth in East Austin, TX, US
Heath Rezabek MLIS
@heath_rezabek heath.rezabek@gmail.com
linkedin.com/pub/heath-rezabek
CC BY whologwhy 201

4. What connects
Ideation to
Resilience ?
CC BY

5. The future resilience of our cities and societies
relies on our ability to arrive at genuine innovations
by connecting ideas in new ways.
!
This session will share practical means of doing so,
and will introduce a sample project designed
to help future generations do the same.
CC BY

6. Main concerns: the role of technology in society,
the voices of young people in determining the future,
long term thinking, and very long term preservation
of the biological, scientific, and cultural record.
!
Served as Intern at the Long Now Foundation
Liaison with Long Now for Lunar Mission One
Some Background . . .
CC BY

7. Rosetta Disk • Clock of the Long Now
10,000 Year Library • Manual for Civilization • much more…
Long Now Foundation
CC BY Christopher Michael 2014

8. Rosetta Disk
1,500 languages
One sample text
Microetched nickel
Optical, not digital
One copy on ESA Rosetta Craft
Other copies around the world
Photo by Rolfe Horn courtesy of The Long Now Foundation

9. Manual for
Civilization
Representative collection (3,500 volumes)
for the Interval, Long Now HQ
!
Core collection, starting point of
10,000 Year Library
!
Intern, 2013-­‐2014
Assisted and advised on initial stages
Used by Permission © Long Now Foundation 201

10. Changing the tools you use to view the world
can expand the range of your possibilities.
0Founded 1996
CC BY Christopher Michael 2014

11. Ideation
some Tools
and Methods

12. Concepts and themes selected from…
Toolkit for Resilient Cities (Arup, RPA, Siemens 2013)
Glossary of Environmentally Sustainable Design (EDG 2011)
SlimCity Knowledge Cards (World Economic Forum, Arup 2009)
citylab.com/cityfixer/
!
…fed into crowd-­‐curation tool
allourideas.org/
!
!
www.allourideas.org/2015-lec-cities
Ideation
citylab.com/cityfixer

13. A/B Sorting
Users can add new ideas
!
In case of server overload:
Notecards and pens.
allourideas.org

14. allourideas.org
Ideally, we want collaboration;
unexpected input and feedback
!
Random drawings mean
it can be used as a random generator

15. Connetivity
The unexpected
can be regarded as good news.
CC BY-SA Aviva West 2012

16. Oblique Strategies
Many online versions
google.com/search?q=oblique+strategies
Brian Eno & Peter Schmidt
CC BY-SA Cory Doctorow 2013

17. Oblique Strategies
Drawn from domain of music -­‐ however…
!
For our purposes, there’s no noise;
only potential signal.
!
If all you have is a hammer,
everything looks like a nail.
Training to see connectivity expands the toolkit.
CC BY-NC-SA Stephanie Asher

18. Ideation
for Resilience
Idea generation, capture,
analysis, synthesis.
!
Goal:
A sustainable way
to identify and develop innovations.

19. 1. Build your idea pool
2. Draw a sample
3. Connect a subset: 3 of 5 … 5 of 7
4. Note key connections and concepts
Connective Codex
DIY idea pool

20. To spark solutions in the future,
we want to sample from
the most comprehensive pool possible.
!
As with design projects,
so with long-­‐term preservation.
Connective Codex
DIY idea pool

21. is an idea pool, a wellspring of future possibilities.
(Economic, cultural, technological…)
We want to carry forward as many vital sparks as possible.
The Resilient City
CC BY Stamen Design 2015

22. What is long-­‐term resilience?
What sparks it? What sustains it?
Identify what is vital, and carry it forward.
What is Vital?
CC BY-SA Petras Gagilas 2010

23. Rebuilt by its
community
every 20 years.
!
Always rebuilt
in the same fashion.
Ise : Shinto Shrine
CC BY Ajari 2008

24. Ise : Shinto Shrine
What qualities
of Ise are
resilient and vital?
What qualities
of Ise are
at risk over time?
CC BY Ajari 2008

25. What qualities of London
are resilient and vital?
What qualities of London
are at risk over time?
London
CC BY-SA kloniwotski 2013

26. How do we capture what a city is?
What is London’s vital heritage?
!
How would we carry
those vital sparks forward?
London
CC BY-SA kloniwotski 2013

27. CC BY-SA Eric Fischer 2010

29. CC0 NASA JPL 1990

30. Pale Blue Dotthe
CC0 NASA JPL 1990

31. Consider again that dot.
!
!
That's here. That's home. That's us.
CC0 NASA JPL 1990

32. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard
of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The
aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions,
ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every
hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king
and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father,
hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every
corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint
and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust
suspended in a sunbeam.
— Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space, 1997 reprint, pp. xv–xvi
CC0 NASA JPL 1990

33. A thought-­‐experiment: Resilient, adaptive, very long-­‐term
community knowledge centers, to carry forward vital sparks.
Vessel Archives
vessel : container, conduit, medium, conveyance
CC BY-SA Joshua Davis 2013

34. Like the Pale Blue Dot, each locality on Earth is unique.
Unique strengths, strategies, challenges, opportunities.
!
We enjoy a moment of tremendous capability
to design and build resilient systems, institutions, cities, habitats.
!
Solutions must reflect local needs and qualities,
while remaining adaptable around the world.
Vessel Archives
CC BY-SA Joshua Davis 2013

35. Vessel Archives
Vessel Open Framework
Design challenge to create
an adaptable model
for resilient, long term reflections
of Earth’s heritage.
!
Draws inspiration from
both forward-­‐looking and
traditional approaches to
museums, libraries, archives,
universities, innovation centers,
and so on…
!
CC BY-SA Joshua Davis 2013

36. Vessel Archives
3-­‐entry layout in concept model
to accommodate collections,
exhibitions, and labs reflecting
nature, science, and culture.
!
Other typologies are possible
(circular, clustered, and so on).
Holdings would include
endangered biodiversity
(from data to DNA)
and cultural heritage
(from traditional to advanced
media types and formats).
CC BY-SA Joshua Davis 2013

37. Vessel Archives
Low-­‐profile structures could scale
to any size or setting, including
remote or sequestered backup
instances.
!
Alternate form factors
such as a tower suggest
degrees of visibility and
prominence as a landmark.
!
Assets and IP (symbol,
SketchUp models, and so on)
are Open Source.
!
CC BY-SA Vessel Archives / Heath Rezabek
CC BY-SA Joshua Davis 2013

38. Virtual collection accessible online
Crowd-­‐curated
Biodiversity database
Cultural heritage database
Lunar Mission One
Public
Archives
Lunar Mission One 2014

39. Lunar Mission One will make fresh scientific
discoveries on the Moon, but we also want the project
to help us learn more about our own planet and its
history. Bringing together schools, academics and the
general public from across the world, Lunar Mission
One will provide the funds to create a publically
assembled, free to access digital record of Life on
Earth – of human history and civilisation, and a
scientific description of the biosphere with a database
of species. Publically owned and accessible to all, our
Public Archive is a hugely ambitious plan that could
only be resourced by a project of this scale.
!
About the Public Archive
The public archive is one of the most exciting and
ambitious academic undertakings in history. It will
contain a publicly assembled and owned digital record
of life on Earth: a record of human history and
civilisation worldwide to date, alongside a species
database showing the biodiversity of animals and
plants.
LM1 Public Archives
Lunar Mission One 2014

40. When the drilling experiments are complete, Lunar Mission
One will bury the first edition of this public archive deep
below the Moon’s surface in the 21st Century equivalent
of a time capsule. This unprecedented educational
resource will also be available online, free and accessible
to all, for ongoing contributions and development after the
Mission. For the first time in history, all this information
will be in one place, free for everybody to access.
!
This will be the first time that academics from across
science and the humanities have collaborated to create a
peer reviewed public archive on this scale. To ensure that
it is a true representation of human history and world
biodiversity, academics and the general public from across
the world will play a role in deciding its contents. There
will also be an editorial board which will ensure that all
information included in the archive is accurate. The public
archive project will run alongside the Lunar Mission
Trust’s education programme, meaning that schools,
colleges and universities can all contribute to decisions
and discussions about the content.
!
http://launch.lunarmissionone.com/index.php/lunar-mission-one/people-and-planet
LM1 Public Archives
Lunar Mission One 2014

41. If LM1 Public Archives
were physical innovation centers…
What would they be like?
What qualities would they have?
What if:
Public Points
of Presence
Lunar Mission One 2014

42. If a comprehensive, resilient archive were built in London…
What would it be like? What qualities would it have?
Vessel Archive
LM1 Public Archive
CC BY Rory MacLeod 2011

43. Vessel Archive
LM1 Public Archive
Ideation & Brainstorming:
!
Build a Connective Codex for comprehensive
archival facilities which carry forth
a vital spark of adaptability
through time.
!
Or: Build a codex for
your own chosen design challenge.
www.allourideas.org/2015-vessel-lm1
CC BY-SA See Ming Lee 2009

44. Vessel Archive
LM1 Public Archive
Themes • Challenges
!
Resources • Stakeholders
!
Requirements
(Design goals / constraints)
!
Obliquities
(wildcard inspirations)
CC BY-SA See Ming Lee 2009

45. Continuing
Ideation
London Environmental
Challenge continues with
ideation towards the
second week of sessions…
CC BY-SA See Ming Lee 2009