Shaping Business Minds Through Art Podcast: May Summary
In case you missed out on the May episodes of the Shaping Business Minds Through Art podcast, here is the monthly summary! You can listen to all the episodes on the Podcast page of our website or when you subscribe to your favorite podcast apps under Subscribe.
Listening to podcasts is great, but we know how challenging it might be to give your full attention to something for 30 minutes to an hour. That’s why we’ve decided to try and give you a little summary of what we’ve done this month — that way even the busiest of you will stay up to date, and you can deep dive into the topics that interest you.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with us, we wanted to give you a little of a written preview of the stuff we produce every month, so you can browse before you jump into listening to full episodes.
This month on Shaping Business Minds Through Art we continued on our season 2 journey by covering a range of topics, from social media algorithms to mindfulness! What do all these episodes have in common? They’re about the artist’s greatest tool — the ability to ask questions.
How Software Engineers Us
“We engineer software and software engineers us back.” — Ben Grosser
Ben Grosser is an artist focused on the cultural, social, and political effects of software. In the first of his two episodes, we talk about how people engineer software, and software engineers people right back.
We talk about:
- Why do numbers matter so much on social media?
- How can we add humans back to the equation when we make software?
- Why do so many people focus on creating what already exists instead of creating something brand new?
- What advantage do artists have over scientists, in terms of method?
- Why does art value such unique thinking?
Key takeaways:
- How software is designed can have a huge effect on society.
- Artists, unlike other professionals, aren’t constrained to following the path of what’s been done before, allowing them to be much more innovative.
- Instead of focusing on recreating what already exists in new ways, we should focus on developing completely novel projects.
- Ben’s Facebook Demetricator is a tool that takes the numbers out of Facebook that anyone can install.
Depersonalizing Digital Platforms
“It takes intention, and it takes creativity to find a way to regain some agency in a world where we’re embedded in, surrounded by, and quite frankly have no choice but to interact with all of these technologies and software platforms.” — Ben Grosser
In the second half of Nir’s conversation with Ben Grosser, they focus on why and how we should depersonalize a variety of digital platforms.
We talk about:
- Should we be able to use digital platforms without algorithms suggesting certain content over others for us?
- What is doom scrolling?
- How can we teach people to analyze how the design of digital platforms influences their behavior?
- How (and why) did Ben hack TikTok?
- Should Spotify and Netflix rethink how they suggest content to their users?
Key takeaways:
- Algorithms are designed to make digital platforms more engaging, but sometimes they can be exhausting because they just show us more of what we’ve already seen.
- Art can make us rethink our habits and look critically at the tools we use every day.
- We can assert our independence and agency in a world dominated by digital platforms, but it takes intention.
- Ben’s Not For You application allows anyone to view TikTok without the algorithm, so they can be exposed to new types of content.
Be Confident in Your Uncertainty
“The stronger your expectation, the more blind you’re going to be to any deviation from that expectation.” — Ellen Langer
Dr. Ellen Langer is a Professor of Psychology at Harvard University; she is the
recipient of four distinguish science awards and the liberty science genius award; she is considered the mother of mindfulness and positive psychology.
We talked about:
- What is mindfulness, and how does it differ from meditation?
- What is mindful creativity?
- What prevents people from becoming more mindful?
- Can mindfulness really impact the final product of our work?
- How can we use art to cultivate mindfulness?
- How are symphonies and business alike?
- What did she discover when she started to create art?
Key takeaways:
- Being open to uncertainty and realizing that the world is constantly changing around us is one of the keys to developing mindfulness.
- When we work mindfully, people better appreciate the result.
- You can’t be afraid to make mistakes when being creative because that’s when you become the most mindful.
- Sales teams and orchestras alike can improve their outcomes when they engage in mindfulness.
Experiencing Versus Visualizing Data
“My artist’s mind is more about creating problems and the engineering mind is more about finding solutions.” — Daniel Canogar
Daniel Canogar is a Spanish-American visual artist whose works surround the themes of memory and loss. His works have been exhibited around the world including at the Reina Sofia Contemporary Art Museum, the American Museum of Natural History, and The Andy Warhol Museum.
We talked about:
- How do obsolete technologies reflect the reality of the human condition?
- How can a sensorial experience of data evoke an emotional reaction?
- How can art make abstract concepts tangible to the public?
- In what way does art create inner order amidst the chaos?
- What effect does the change in a tactile to a visual world have on our society?
Key takeaways:
- Aesthetic objects can have powerful social and political messages.
- Art can help break down some “numbness” surrounding our world’s greatest issues.
- Art can help to create meaning out of incomprehensible data sets.
- When people can experience data with all of their senses, it allows them to create a more emotional connection with the meaning behind the numbers.
Interesting Articles We Curated For You
If you’re interested in learning more about the artist’s mindset, catch us on the Shaping Business Minds Through Art podcast which you can find on iTunes, or via our online web player.
Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn @theartian, and Medium at The Artian.
Keep safe!
Until next month,
The Artian
