Artistic Visions: Some quotes
A rule says, “You must do it this way.” A principle says: “This works … and has through all remembered time.” The difference is crucial. Your work needn’t be modeled after the “well-made” play; rather, it must be well made within the principles that shape our art. Anxious, inexperienced writers obey rules. Rebellious, unschooled writers break rules. Artists master the form.
– Robert Mckee in Story, his famous classic on screenwriting.
I am reading McKee’s book right now, a very well-written analysis of the art of story-telling. Interweaved, also, is his vision of what creates great films. Or great anything, for that matter.
Architect I.M. Pei is a classic example of mastering the form, and THEN breaking the rules, or rather bending the rules to realize his artistic vision. Pei was a soundly trained engineer who knew well the principles of construction and physics, hence when he started building, he could use that knowledge and depth of understanding, knowing well where the boundaries are. There is a beautiful PBS documentary on I.M.Pei, if you want to listen to his artistic vision and philosophy. I.M. Pei of course, is the architect of such famous works as Pyramide du Louvre, Paris, and the East Wing of the National Gallery in Washington. Among his most important is the 70-story Bank of China Tower in Hong Kong whose innovative and economical structural system has significant consequences for the future of high-rise construction.
And here is the recent commencement address at Stanford by Steve Jobs - someone who has both mastered his art form, and broken all possible rules. He has, however, followed a certain principle: he has innovated and brought to market great products with sound engineering, superb aesthetics, and where it matters, with great stories. Steve’s simple clarity of vision has touched and turned three major industries: Computing, Film, and Music.
I cite Jobs and Pei because both of them have had the rare ability to fuse technology and aesthetic sensitivity with such sweeping magnificence, and given where we are in history today, this leadership combination is going to be in such demand - that I often examine its best practitioners.
Business Week’s recent cover story talks about this phenomenon at length, and what certain b-schools are doing about it. My earlier post back in April touched it as well. The seeds, however, of this combined art form of technology and easthetics, need to be planted much farther back than in b-school. An eye that is not sensitive to visual beauty does not suddenly become so.
“Formal symbolic representation of qualitative entities is doomed to its rightful place of minor significance in a world where flowers and beautiful women abound.” — Albert Einstein
