This Is How We Do It (“process value” and why it matters)

22Apr11

I was recently invited by the folks at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Unity Temple Restoration Foundation to give a talk as part of their Break the Box series, which celebrates “creative nonconformity.” It was a real honor. I’ve written before about a design pattern in media/culture that I informally call “process value”, and this talk was an opportunity to really attempt a deep dive into the idea.

Here’s the presentation:

[vimeo 22723497]

From the program notes:

What do homemade music videos by OK Go, live Twitter updates about Egypt, and industrial films from the 1950s have in common? They all have a high degree of “process value”: a willingness to expose the creative act itself and embed it, front and center, in the finished product. And they generate intense engagement on the web — often much more than their big budgeted, high-production-value counterparts. Wired and Fast Company writer and filmmaker Pavlus looks at why that is — and how to put it to use.

One thing I wasn’t able to talk about in the presentation (because I’m just not knowledgeable enough about it) is how this idea of process value applies to architecture. Luckily, there was a gentleman in the audience who filled in that gap for me during the Q&A session, explaining how Frank Lloyd Wright himself was very much into “exposing the scaffolding” of his process both literally and figuratively in his architecture and architectural philosophy.

Here’s a list of links to the videos that I included in the talk:

C’Etait Un Rendezvous, by Claude Lelouche

Here It Goes Again, by OK Go

Touch Wood, by Morihiro Harano, Kenjiro Matsuo, et. al.

A Glorious Dawn, by Symphony of Science

The Monitor, by me, Christie Nicholson, and Christopher Mims

7 Ways to Walk the Walk, by Alissa Walker

Lego Antikythera Mechanism, by me, Andrew Carol, Misha Klein, Adam Rutherford, et. al.

Also:

RadioLab, Infinite Jest, Longshot magazine, slow food, Michael Bay, Kickstarter, and many more.

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