Whispers of the Ghost

Symbol of the 'Individual Eleven' 

Whispers of the Ghost

The concepts behind my greatest inspiration

Almost everything I have learnt about future technologies, I have learnt from the Japanese. Specifically, from one Japanese artist (philosopher) named Masumune Shirow.  

As an expose of art used to give life to a philosophical concept, the world of ‘Ghost in the Shell’ (GITS) is, for me (and possibly my generation), unparalleled in its technological significance.

I was 22 when I first saw ‘Ghost in the Shell’ the 1996 classic. I was in university and the setting was perfect; we thought in Ideals, we oriented ourselves towards the future, made ripe with knowledge and eager for immediate application. I was blown away, inspired, rewired. It would be one of the few permanent imprints on my mind. All else has faded, been rethought and changed; the power of that animation resonates perpetually. The memory of what I have learnt from it tugs and pokes at my senses.

The movie (derived from the Manga) itself was inspired by a white paper titled ‘The ghost in the machine’ by Arthur Koestler. A philosophical work that addresses the Cartesian duality paradigm by rejecting its premise. Shirow adopts this thinking, and in the treatment of this structuralist essay creates a world where art meet deep insight.

I ended up working in general management which I feel was one of my biggest mistakes. In 2009, at the age of 30, I tried to make amends and started my own design firm. On that occasion, the setting was far from perfect; family, friends, economics and international wars made the process almost impossible. The inner push to attempt this was, in no small part, inspired by GITS and the possibilities of working, creating and living ‘futuristically’.

The idea behind my org chart was derived by GITS: an open source firm, specializing in finding the right ‘designer’ for the client, looking to build creative products. No restrictions of scale and scope, the name says it all (inspired by the studio behind the original movie): Intense Designs Creative Committee. I wanted to create a Committee of creative folk, each member responsible for one medium. My dream was to one day operate a ‘tool shed’; a conceptual model of delivering design solutions for almost any project. A ‘hub and spoke’ model organization where the craft is realized by tapping into freelancers and virtual teams.

Everyone was to be connected yet no one was to be restricted. All workflows would converge at the ‘Cloud’;  there the work was accumulated and centralized for archiving. The Cloud was a conceptual tool, aimed at providing the back-end needed to make design a reality. It was both an infrastructure and a thought process. Even as I write these words, I find it difficult to explain the essence. Suffice to say, it was modeled around the ‘Stand Alone Complex’. An independent entity that operates within the global network, meshing with it but retaining its own identity.

It was to be the team of the future. Or, if you live in the future like I do, the team for today. I believe it to have been one of the most significant endeavors of my life, and brings me today to pen an introduction to the ‘origin’ of my motivation.  

(to be continued...)