Humberto Schwab

We have an inclination to associate learning with school. We have also the inclination to associate with school, negative feelings of boredom in the classroom and positive feelings about the outside classroom. The point is that we do feel that learning is boring and something concerning your youth. The quality of life however is dependend more on our learning activites then on our activities in for example work. Learning we have been taught, is something you do to acquire a skill, withw hich you can earn money or reach a better job. This total rationalistic view on learning, darkens the essence of learning which has more to do with breathing and living as an organic creature, than reaching goals.  This basic human ontological essence is the secret for a human enlightened life. The learning mode is the mode in which we the full experience of richness in being. It is the way we can exercise value, create value and give value. Learning and art are the values that a democratic society should promote for beings of all ages in all levels. Learning is not a tool, it is living.

The biggest challenge we face is to understand the way our communication cultures will interfere with the way we will act and be as humans in the future. This was the topic of the Eurolab we did with students of the Gerrit Rietveld Academy and the University of Amsterdam in a honoursprogram. The synergie between these two groups is very high on designing possible futures. They draw four interesting ways of seeing the human in the communication context. The enlighted character has overcome the opposition between the revolutionairy rebel and the pompuous consumer. This character knows it is living in a world in which real and hyperreal are no longer separated, it embraces the structures that determines us, it will have a higher awareness. The transhuman embraces technology and understand the fundamenst of our communication. It sees cultures as a way of communication: new technology is incorporated in communicationspheres. The post utopian learning agent understands that we need to re-learn to use our lost senses to intensify our communication with nature and all it inhabitants. The way to get out of our crisis is to reprogramm ourselves into communicative sensibility. The momologue transhuman sees a strong value in making the world an esthetic experience using our inner and outer senses. Chips and extra sensorial devices create infinite opportunities for enriched human experiences.

Doing some training with some CEO’s of the agricultural fruit and vet industry, was quite motivating. They are good in philosophizing new horizons, mainly beause they work in a strong traditional context. The traditional aspect in this branch is dominant, so you could see it yearns for innovation. Especially the question what to eat is a fine example of the importance of traditional knowledge. We have practically destroyed our ability to use the experience based knowledge of our ancestors in good food. In Holland the “huishoudschool” was an example of bad innovation. All women of lower and middle class families were send to a school where they were forced to copy an universal approach of cooking, cleaning, ironing, caring etc. This led to the so called “curriculum disease”, some guys want to have it all standardized in standardizable  chunks. So all the Dutch households experienced the exact same way of cooking the vegetables or the meat. The main target was hygiene, the rules of health. That is why there is no Dutch culinary tadition left. We have still a big inclination in Europe to have sterile foodproducts. But bacteria are vital to create a bit of taste in your food. The fabulous Dutch butcher Rodriquez made his meat with stinking bacteria a halucinating experience. He had to shut down his business.  Anyway thanks to the “huishoudschool” we now have overcooked vegetables and potatoes. The guys rom the foodindustry innovated by simply restore the knowledge which was still smoldering in the hearts of some elderly people.

Innovation is always about the elements of the quality of life, we have destroyed a lot of tribal knowledge about the way to have a quality life. That is why for a big part we can go “back in the future”.