Interdisciplinary Thinking
Interdisciplinary thinking integrates knowledge, intuition and methods from seemingly different disciplines to address complex problems requiring new solutions. Unlike analytical and logical thinking it encourages empathy, compassion and mutually beneficial collaboration to question our assumptions, motivations and behaviors to dare to originate and reach for the untried, to bring light into the darkness of the unknown.
01
Music
Music is a language of emotion, lyricism, and structure. It is the closest language to pure emotion that we know. It is universal and is understood by all living organisms. It is such an important language to understand and to gain skills in because of its universality. And every musical instrument has its own character and personality that has its own unique emotional response. Music affects every living thing and that is why it is so important to learn. It helps us to understand relationships and communication. It is feeling in its purest embodiment.
02
Health and Fitness
Your own health is the basis of your existence. It is the platform by which everything is felt and responded to. What you see, feel, touch, hear, and taste is directly related to your health. If your health is compromised everything in your life is compromised. Your body is the only vehicle you have to experience the realities and challenges of life and that is why one's body must be fine tuned, strong, flexible, have aerobic endurance and have good balance. These are the four pillars by which our day-to-day life proceeds. If your body is not fine tuned in these four basic areas you will miss much from your daily life.
03
Fine Arts
To originate is a unique skill of being human. And to originate with no other purpose than to see what you envisioned in your mind to become reality is a special gift of being human. Art is defined by creating a thing for its own purpose. It need not relate to anything and that is wonderful. This step away from reality is needed to make us more aware of reality and art does this. Its power is that it can survive solely on its own with no purpose other than to see it. We need art. We need to step away from the day-to-day utilitarian needs of life and to touch upon the pure creation of something for its own sake.
04
Industrial Design
In Nature nothing is designed just for appearance--it must have a function, a purpose, a reason for its shape, its color, its texture, its working abilities. And so it is with industrial design. It must have a functional purpose. And the highest level of industrial design is to make that functional purpose a timeless work of art, an insightful composition of simplicity and usefulness, an extension of the user. Functionality is a universal principle of all living things and yet, Nature creates non-functional objects, for instance a mineral crystal, as an exquisite display of mathematics, precision, and form with no other purpose than to exist as a testament to Nature's perfection.
Car Stereo Amplifier for Alphasonik Corporation
#1 Rated Car Stereo Amplifer in the world - Circa 1990
05
Architecture
The form, spatial volumes, structure, color, texture, and construction materials found in nature are all components needed to visualize a three-dimensional structure. Architecture is fine art design to be lived in and therefore it encompasses a multitude of sciences, engineering, art, psychology, means and materials of construction, color, texture, and a host of other concerns. It also entails rhythm, harmony, color, texture, shadow, major and minor themes, all of which can be applied in a wide range of ways. Architecture must be habitable. Its function is more than its capacity to sustain life; its highest purpose is to make human life beautiful, exciting, full of surprise, and compelling.
06
Invention
Creating what has not existed before and using that creation for a specific purpose is a blending of function, form, and purpose, just as many other activities also address this. Invention is an attitude that permeates all of the subjects. It's a spirit that can be applied to all manner of pursuits. It implies reaching into the unknown and being directed by functional purpose.
07
Nature
Nature's existence has thrived for more than 4 billion years; an amount of time and development that is hardly fathomable to us, and during this time Nature leaves us with clues that indicate a process of development. The more we study what Nature shows us, the more we are able to uncover and deduce. It is an endless process and that's why we must continue to research it. Nature has developed answers to many problems and to every kind of circumstance. It is our challenge to interpret the problems and answers and translate them to our specific circumstances.
08
Clothing Design
The uniqueness of clothing design is that it is something that we utilize, feel, see, touch, and smell every day. It is a part of us and we can therefore evaluate the real moment-to-moment functional use of a design; it becomes a very personal experience and that is its power. The clothing we wear becomes our introduction to the world and it is how the world first sees us. It is a kind of moving architecture that adapts to our daily activities from moment to moment. It defines us.
09
Diet
We sustain our daily lives based upon what we eat, so the quality of our lives depends upon the quality of what we eat. Our diet determines our strength-to-weight ratio, which is the basis of our health. How often we eat, what we eat and drink, all becomes who we are. We must be constantly searching for the answers to our personal optimization. This search is never ending. Our diet and our health are living things, so we must experiment and try many different ways of eating, many ways of combining foods, many kinds of diets until we find what we are content with and what maximizes our strength and minimizes our weight.
10
MORAL INTEGRITY, KINDNESS, EMPATHY AND COMPASSION
This is the most crucial aspect of interdisciplinary thinking and living because it gives meaning to everything we think and do, and it is glaringly absent from other human endeavors. All human undertaking, if it is to have real and lasting purpose and benefit, must be directed by moral conscience. It must do no harm to others and the living organisms of the world. It must consider long-term thinking and doing. It must consider and anticipate its consequences far into the future and anticipate the possible scenarios which could take place. It must heed the words, "do no harm," and abide by that promise. Our greatest human quality is kindness.
