10 disruptive leaders of civil society (Part I)
Publicado el 4 jun 2015
Architecture, anthropology, music, science, painting, cinema… Leaders League has selected ten ground-breaking leaders of civil society that have radically changed our way of thinking, doing and living.
For changing the way we build and live. Wright is so American, in the sense that at the time when the US was blundering in search for its own architectural identity, he defined and developed the true style that reflects the unique character of his country: a country of citizens harmoniously connected, both to one another and to the land. Not to mention that his master piece, Fallingwater, was voted as the "best all-time work of American architecture" by members of the American Institute of Architects in 1991. Meanwhile, Wright is also truly universal, in the way that his fundamental contribution to the philosophy of organic architecture, his beliefs on the role of architecture and architects, and his keen interests in technology and changes have largely influenced the development of contemporary architecture in the 20th century, and will continue to inspire us in our days of constant transformation. Believing that “the mission of an architect is to help people understand how to make life more beautiful,” Wright devoted his life to promoting harmony to make human habitation and the surrounding environment a unified and interrelated composition, both in material and in form. His values are so influential that today we cannot talk about sustainability or integration without thinking of him.
2. Claude Lévi-Strauss (French anthropologist and ethnologist, 1908 – 2009)
For revolutionizing the modern perception of culture and civilization. Before Lévi-Strauss, everybody was comfortable with the separation between modern and primitive societies. But Lévi-Strauss argued that the "savage" mind and the "civilized" mind are much more similar that people used to believe. Applying the structuralist approach, or, in his own words, “a quest for the invariant, or for the invariant elements among superficial differences,” he was the first to show through analyses that the underlying structures of all the societies were actually universal, including behavior, thought and intellectual potential. But his influence is far beyond the structural anthropology and extends to the whole humanity. As Gille Clément said during the 100th-Birthday Tributes Pour in for Lévi-Strauss, “He [Lévi-Strauss] represents an extremely subversive vision with his interest in populations that were disdained. He paid careful attention, not touristically but profoundly, to the human beings on the earth who think differently from us. It’s a respect for others, which is very strong and very moving. He knew that cultural diversity is necessary for cultural creativity, for the future.”
3. Akira Kurosawa (Japanese filmmaker, 1910 – 1998)
For being godfather of the contemporary cinema. New York Times praised him as “an autocratic perfectionist with a painter's eye for composition, a dancer's sense of movement and a humanist's quiet sensibility.” Wandering between the east and the west, Kurosawa was the first to combine Japanese traditional stories with western artistic techniques and storytelling, and has influenced a league of future generations of master film directors: Ingmar Bergman, Federico Fellini, Roman Polanski, Bernardo Bertolucci, Robert Altman, Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, George Lucas, John Milius, Satyajit Ray, Takeshi Kitano, John Woo, Yimou Zhang… From Rashomon to Ran, passing through Ikiru, Seven Samurai and Shadow Warrior, Kurosawa never ceased the experimentation of blending, creating and exploring beyond, while one thing remained unchanged: his thoughts on the evil nature of man. In the late years of his career, he even said: “No matter where I go in the world, although I can't speak any foreign language, I don't feel out of place. I think of the earth as my home. If everyone thought this way, people might notice just how foolish international friction is, and they would put an end to it. We are, after all, at a point where it is almost narrow-minded to think merely in geocentric terms.”
4. Vassily Kandinsky (Russian painter, 1866 – 1944)
For proposing another way of appreciating art. Widely credited with creating the first modern abstract painting in the world, Kandinsky also succeeded in incarnating music and philosophy in the pictorial form, thanks to his amazing synesthesia, which allowed him to associate different senses simultaneously and form his remarkable sensibility of colors. Color was for him “a power which directly influences the soul.” “Color is the keyboard, the eyes are the hammer, the soul is the strings. The artist is the hand that plays, touching one key or another, to cause vibrations in the soul.” For the first time in the history of art, all the recognizable objects have been removed from in front of us, and people have started to appreciate the freely abstract, pure, primitive forms and the evoking feelings and emotions, as Kandinsky's guidelines state: “Lend your ears to music, open your eyes to painting, and… stop thinking! Just ask yourself whether the work has enabled you to 'walk about' into a hitherto unknown world. If the answer is yes, what more do you want?”
5. Nikola Tesla (Serbian American inventor, 1856 – 1943)
For never stopping innovation. Light is to shadow what Issac Newton is for Gottfried Leibniz, Antoine Lavoisier to Joseph Priestley, Thomas Henry Huxley to Richard Owen, and Thomas Edison to Nikola Tesla. If Edison was a savvy businessman who excelled at exploiting the monetary value of scientific inventions, Tesla was a realistic dreamer and a practical visionary who never stopped changing the world with his incredible imagination and creativity: remote control, neon and fluorescent lights, wireless transmission, computers, smartphones, laser beams, x-rays, robotics and, of course, alternating current, the basis of our present-day electrical system… hundreds of technologies would have been impossible without him. Despite his falling into relative obscurity after his death and the true-mingled-with-false tales surrounding his obsessions, eccentricities and madness, it is deniable that he altered the world we are living in today, as Ben Johnston wrote: “Nikola Tesla is the true unsung prophet of the electronic age.”
Jeanne Yizhen YIN
Photo: Wassily Kandinsky, first abstract watercolor, 1910
In Part II, we will introduce Alejandro Jodorowsky, Marcel Duchamp, Alan Turing and a few more. This article is dedicated to our fortnightly newsletter “Leaders Wisdom Journal”. To Subscribe.
Other articles of the same issue:
A dialogue with Seth Dei: about choices of study, work and life (Part I)
A dialogue with Seth Dei: about investment, art and leadership (Part II)
Throughout Jobs’ Journey
Emotional intelligence: key to excellent leadership
Wisdom on inspiration
Video: Charlie Rose with Jack Ma (Source: Charlie Rose)