WEBVTT 1 00:00:11.620 --> 00:00:13.020 You 2 00:00:41.000 --> 00:00:42.400 You 3 00:01:02.280 --> 00:01:03.680 You 4 00:01:47.320 --> 00:01:48.720 You 5 00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:00.460 You 6 00:02:41.220 --> 00:02:41.980 A 7 00:02:41.980 --> 00:02:44.080 Bright tent in a high meadow 8 00:02:44.900 --> 00:02:47.420 Meeting place for ideas 9 00:02:47.420 --> 00:02:52.960 Aspen for more than ten summers home of the International Design Conference 10 00:02:54.520 --> 00:02:56.720 Walter Pepke dreamed it up 11 00:02:57.700 --> 00:03:05.020 Characteristically he also made the moves and listed the support paid the costs to convert dream to reality 12 00:03:05.740 --> 00:03:11.640 Eero Saarinen designed a tent amphitheater and with the help of many other people dedicated to the idea 13 00:03:12.720 --> 00:03:15.160 IDC was a going concern in Aspen 14 00:03:21.960 --> 00:03:25.720 But why Aspen you might ask if you hadn't been there 15 00:03:25.720 --> 00:03:33.200 Other places undoubtedly match Aspen's attributes at least the ones pertinent to creatively oriented conclaves 16 00:03:34.800 --> 00:03:38.460 It couldn't be primarily the Old West aspects 17 00:03:38.460 --> 00:03:42.740 Certainly other Colorado towns loom larger on the historical scene 18 00:03:43.440 --> 00:03:48.020 This was amply demonstrated and definitive volume published in 1880 19 00:03:48.020 --> 00:03:51.800 Which made much of some of the places you will pass through on the way to Aspen? 20 00:03:53.220 --> 00:03:57.260 Places like Denver of course and 21 00:03:57.260 --> 00:03:59.920 Silver Plume and 22 00:03:59.920 --> 00:04:01.940 Georgetown and 23 00:04:03.000 --> 00:04:03.840 Leadville 24 00:04:04.760 --> 00:04:09.620 Leadville was Colorado's second city in 1880 with 25,000 people 25 00:04:10.820 --> 00:04:14.000 Aspen's day was yet to come and 26 00:04:14.000 --> 00:04:20.220 It's still coming long after the digging is all done in Leadville and Georgetown and Silver Plume 27 00:04:25.700 --> 00:04:30.200 Coming to Aspen is still picturesque no matter how you negotiate 28 00:04:30.200 --> 00:04:38.620 And in the first ten summers of IDCA some 5,000 people made the dramatic trek one way or another 29 00:04:43.680 --> 00:04:49.980 But it wasn't the spectacular nature of the approaches that attracted them to Aspen they came to look 30 00:04:50.980 --> 00:04:54.920 To talk and to listen 31 00:04:56.440 --> 00:05:00.820 They came to be enlightened and to be entertained 32 00:05:05.240 --> 00:05:09.000 They came to get together and to get away 33 00:05:09.940 --> 00:05:15.180 They came for some or all of these reasons to Aspen 34 00:05:28.320 --> 00:05:37.440 They came to see and hear and talk with 159 panelists and to each other on such related subjects as communication 35 00:05:37.440 --> 00:05:39.060 human values 36 00:05:39.060 --> 00:05:41.680 direction of the arts 37 00:05:41.680 --> 00:05:44.460 Design and human problems 38 00:05:44.460 --> 00:05:48.980 the corporation and the designer in 39 00:05:48.980 --> 00:05:49.960 Ten years there were ten people who were involved in the development of the city 40 00:05:49.960 --> 00:05:52.880 Ten themes divided into 30 cycles 41 00:05:53.560 --> 00:05:58.300 These ten themes and 30 cycles and 159 panelists 42 00:05:58.300 --> 00:06:05.100 subdivided still further into an undoubtedly impressive but happily unrecorded number of smaller discussions 43 00:06:05.100 --> 00:06:08.600 Not necessarily related to the scheduled conference theme 44 00:06:11.740 --> 00:06:17.060 So much for the starkly statistical data and IDCA's first decade 45 00:06:17.060 --> 00:06:18.200 more important 46 00:06:18.200 --> 00:06:21.600 What is an Aspen design conference really like? 47 00:06:22.640 --> 00:06:23.580 What makes it go? 48 00:06:24.580 --> 00:06:26.680 The second question can be answered quickly 49 00:06:26.680 --> 00:06:32.680 the international design conferences work mostly because a relatively small number of devoted people 50 00:06:33.280 --> 00:06:37.300 Apply large amounts of their own time to make them work 51 00:06:37.300 --> 00:06:42.120 Since the permanent IDCA organization was incorporated in 1955 52 00:06:42.120 --> 00:06:46.120 The executive committee elected every year by the membership 53 00:06:46.120 --> 00:06:51.560 Plans and governs each conference and provides the continuity of far-ranging effort 54 00:06:51.560 --> 00:06:54.900 Which keeps the organization moving ahead between conferences? 55 00:06:55.700 --> 00:06:59.480 Although programs are planned months even years in advance 56 00:06:59.480 --> 00:07:02.120 There is much to be done on the conference scene 57 00:07:03.120 --> 00:07:08.780 Breakfast meetings of the executive committee produced the first official business of each conference day 58 00:07:08.780 --> 00:07:14.740 These invariably expressed the purposeful informality which has come to be the Aspen style 59 00:07:16.240 --> 00:07:21.980 Conference sessions start at 930 in the tent attire is informal for the most part 60 00:07:23.120 --> 00:07:25.220 Humor is good as a rule 61 00:07:26.420 --> 00:07:34.080 Anticipation is keen or should be for no conference day is without its own special contribution to the Aspen story 62 00:07:34.080 --> 00:07:37.160 The feeling of which we hope to convey in this film 63 00:07:38.160 --> 00:07:44.340 Perhaps excerpts from many mornings across the first decade will impart something of the scope of IDCA 64 00:07:45.000 --> 00:07:53.200 It should be noted that the necessary departure from context has been carefully affected to minimize any detriment to the original communication 65 00:07:54.440 --> 00:07:59.200 Most conferences start with brief tributes to the setting and I find it 66 00:08:00.760 --> 00:08:06.440 To be here and to experience this charged atmosphere that is the design conference is a 67 00:08:06.440 --> 00:08:11.000 Simulating experience very soon. However, the scheduled business has taken up 68 00:08:32.320 --> 00:08:36.020 But more words inevitably come before the recommended action 69 00:08:36.440 --> 00:08:41.820 Some of them relate not surprisingly to design and that is the good design 70 00:08:41.820 --> 00:08:47.200 Really good design can help a corporation achieve anything it wants to achieve 71 00:08:47.200 --> 00:08:49.460 including profit I 72 00:08:49.460 --> 00:08:55.820 Have not seen any example of where market research has destroyed good design in our company 73 00:08:55.820 --> 00:09:01.520 Maybe we haven't applied enough others as if anticipating future inquiry on the subject a 74 00:09:02.140 --> 00:09:05.340 Panelist five years earlier made this unequivocal statement 75 00:09:06.440 --> 00:09:10.300 We cannot help but be subjective if we are to be created 76 00:09:10.300 --> 00:09:15.800 We cannot help but fumble and broke most unscientifically if we are to create 77 00:09:16.480 --> 00:09:18.880 another panelist in another conference 78 00:09:18.880 --> 00:09:22.840 corroborated this judgment in his own way I think 79 00:09:23.440 --> 00:09:29.640 the biggest mistake a designer can make is that he thinks he is a businessman and 80 00:09:30.940 --> 00:09:35.260 Forget that he is an artist. I 81 00:09:35.260 --> 00:09:38.540 Would like to suggest that we take a short break right now 82 00:09:40.680 --> 00:09:43.540 Interesting exhibitions are featured at every conference 83 00:09:43.540 --> 00:09:48.820 Ranging from the work of design students to examples of the creative efforts of current panelists 84 00:09:49.480 --> 00:09:57.460 Some delegates enrich their break periods with generous drafts of bracing Colorado air before reconvening for the morning's second round 85 00:09:58.360 --> 00:10:05.240 The special point of view of the imaginative businessman was frequently exemplified by the statements of Walter Pepke to the conference 86 00:10:05.260 --> 00:10:10.900 In this instance on the subject of leisure activity and the happiness it should promote 87 00:10:10.900 --> 00:10:18.160 I think you'll remember modest Gary once said that man only want to be happy. This would be rather easy to accomplish 88 00:10:19.000 --> 00:10:25.620 But most people want to be happier than their neighbor and that's very difficult because we believe our neighbor to be happy and we are 89 00:10:25.620 --> 00:10:28.380 I think however the Aristotelian 90 00:10:29.300 --> 00:10:33.080 Thought which is undoubtedly the minds of many of us is 91 00:10:33.080 --> 00:10:35.640 Happiness is largely the 92 00:10:36.960 --> 00:10:39.940 Growing or the development to your highest potential 93 00:10:40.680 --> 00:10:44.640 Echoing the need for greater development another panelist made this point 94 00:10:45.320 --> 00:10:46.480 well, they 95 00:10:46.480 --> 00:10:50.680 the leadership on the one hand in our society and 96 00:10:51.460 --> 00:10:58.280 Group any a horrible form of group adjustment on the other we have to recognize the fact that most of our leadership 97 00:10:58.920 --> 00:11:04.520 Particularly in terms of leisure is now coming not from people but from institutions 98 00:11:04.520 --> 00:11:11.160 the institutions of TV a comic book and other destructive forces which are destructive not in themselves 99 00:11:11.820 --> 00:11:14.100 But in the way in which they're being used 100 00:11:14.100 --> 00:11:18.700 Professional standards and ideals must envision something 101 00:11:18.700 --> 00:11:24.840 Beyond what even the best in the society or the best of the group now has 102 00:11:25.680 --> 00:11:32.840 While discoursing on the need for intelligent city planning an earlier panelist reduced the design problem to architectural terms 103 00:11:34.020 --> 00:11:40.180 architectures most urgent mission is to convert chaos into order 104 00:11:40.180 --> 00:11:41.160 change 105 00:11:41.160 --> 00:11:48.080 Mechanization from a tyrant to a slave and thus make place for beauty where there's 106 00:11:48.080 --> 00:11:50.300 vulgarity and ugliness 107 00:11:50.300 --> 00:11:52.480 suburbia with phony 108 00:11:53.080 --> 00:12:00.920 Respectability and genuine boredom effectively isolated from the world by traffic jams 109 00:12:04.760 --> 00:12:05.700 And 110 00:12:05.700 --> 00:12:11.760 so a mosaic of morning sessions ends and the tent disgorges its assemblage for lunch a 111 00:12:12.520 --> 00:12:14.140 period of great possibilities 112 00:12:14.720 --> 00:12:16.720 gastronomical and sociable 113 00:12:17.320 --> 00:12:24.100 Directions initiated in the tent are often maintained in the colorful variety of luncheon settings provided by Aspen 114 00:12:25.280 --> 00:12:31.460 This extracurricular discussion tendency is not limited to restaurants. However any convenient wall 115 00:12:32.220 --> 00:12:35.400 patch of green sward or a poolside table 116 00:12:35.400 --> 00:12:39.020 Converts easily into a site for significant conversation 117 00:12:44.880 --> 00:12:45.640 In 118 00:12:45.640 --> 00:12:50.700 The afternoon the IDCA show moves out of the big tent and goes on the road 119 00:12:50.700 --> 00:12:56.300 With each of the day's panelists playing 45 minute stands in each of three seminar locations 120 00:12:57.460 --> 00:13:06.840 This decentralization permits less formal mutual investigation of the day's theme cycle by panelists and smaller segments of the general conference membership 121 00:13:07.520 --> 00:13:12.320 flanked by a seminar leader the panelists takes the questions as they come and 122 00:13:13.060 --> 00:13:18.900 Delegates get the opportunity to speak up for or against attitudes communicated by conference leaders 123 00:13:18.900 --> 00:13:22.420 By the time panelists have made all the seminar stops 124 00:13:22.420 --> 00:13:27.240 They have pretty tangible evidence of popular conference response to their points of view 125 00:13:30.260 --> 00:13:32.080 After seminar sessions 126 00:13:32.080 --> 00:13:39.040 IDCA delegates have some three hours for dinner and other forms of relaxation before the evening schedule 127 00:13:39.040 --> 00:13:48.140 These sometimes take the form of visits and interesting Aspen homes and studios 128 00:13:59.460 --> 00:14:06.300 Every year there's a big poolside party at the Hotel Jerome a high social point of Aspen week 129 00:14:09.940 --> 00:14:15.200 Restaurants galore take it from there and if you observe reasonable discipline on timing 130 00:14:15.200 --> 00:14:18.120 You will arrive at the Wheeler Opera House for the first of the week 131 00:14:18.120 --> 00:14:18.120 132 00:14:18.120 --> 00:14:18.120 133 00:14:18.120 --> 00:14:20.520 The night's films or slide presentations 134 00:14:22.020 --> 00:14:29.580 Filmfare at international design conferences has developed to the point of making the evenings add up to a veritable film festival 135 00:14:30.220 --> 00:14:34.060 Part of each program relates to the succeeding days conference cycle 136 00:14:34.060 --> 00:14:41.000 But additional selections are screened simply because they are of the caliber likely to be appreciated by the conference membership 137 00:14:48.120 --> 00:14:48.120 138 00:15:06.580 --> 00:15:10.640 Wednesdays are traditionally unscheduled conference wise 139 00:15:13.360 --> 00:15:17.360 After two days of comprehensive consideration of the IDCA theme 140 00:15:17.360 --> 00:15:21.640 Conferees and panelists are set at liberty for the pursuit of happiness 141 00:15:21.640 --> 00:15:26.560 Which abounds in many seductive guises among the rocks and rills of Aspen 142 00:15:34.720 --> 00:15:39.820 Pleasures of the water rushing or otherwise appeal to many 143 00:15:58.680 --> 00:16:05.820 Others take the cable-threaded high road recently and reluctantly abandoned for the season by legions of skiers 144 00:16:10.860 --> 00:16:15.320 This time of year you may ride down with no fear of derision 145 00:16:16.660 --> 00:16:17.340 The 146 00:17:14.140 --> 00:17:15.540 Another 147 00:17:15.540 --> 00:17:20.600 Favorite junket is a highly scenic drive to the famed husky kennels at toklah 148 00:17:21.380 --> 00:17:25.780 The recreational opportunities are too richly variegated to catalog here 149 00:17:26.560 --> 00:17:32.000 Suffice to say Wednesdays in and around Aspen are memorable indeed 150 00:17:51.140 --> 00:17:59.560 Come Thursday the conference is back at its regular stand and the membership has a second wind with which to pursue the remaining portions of the theme 151 00:17:59.560 --> 00:18:07.460 It may be that there is somebody in this audience who has an idea. I don't know if there is such people are very rare 152 00:18:07.460 --> 00:18:13.400 By Friday the subject has been sufficiently prepared for final assault by the full panel 153 00:18:13.400 --> 00:18:15.520 We have here on the platform the first panel of the conference 154 00:18:16.520 --> 00:18:24.080 Human resources of this conference the final act and often the highlight of each conference is the summary speech 155 00:18:24.080 --> 00:18:26.520 All of these have been noteworthy 156 00:18:27.120 --> 00:18:35.520 One in particular is often quoted that of England's Jacob Bronowski who summarized the 1957 International Design Conference 157 00:18:36.300 --> 00:18:40.480 Here are excerpts. There would be no design problem 158 00:18:40.480 --> 00:18:43.000 If there were not machine production 159 00:18:44.000 --> 00:18:46.500 With the enormous markets to which it caters 160 00:18:47.440 --> 00:18:50.740 now the designers problem in this sense is really very simple and 161 00:18:51.940 --> 00:18:55.640 That is that it's often easier to create the illusion of fulfillment 162 00:18:55.640 --> 00:18:58.800 Then to offer people a real fulfillment 163 00:18:58.800 --> 00:19:04.300 but the designer has to choose between handing out something as 164 00:19:04.300 --> 00:19:06.260 a drug or as a food 165 00:19:07.460 --> 00:19:15.040 Now the difference between a drug and the food is the drug it creates the illusion of well-being and 166 00:19:15.040 --> 00:19:17.620 The food really adds to your well-being 167 00:19:17.620 --> 00:19:21.520 About this I would only say one thing that I am very sorry for drug addicts 168 00:19:22.600 --> 00:19:25.240 But what I should really hate to be is a drug peddler 169 00:19:30.960 --> 00:19:34.180 Well, that's pretty much the way IDCA works 170 00:19:34.180 --> 00:19:40.060 Each conference differs from the others in many small ways and in a few big ways 171 00:19:40.060 --> 00:19:43.880 But any and all of them are rewarding to attend 172 00:19:43.880 --> 00:19:50.300 There is little doubt that both design and designers have made progress since the first conference in 1951 173 00:19:51.720 --> 00:19:58.400 It is the aim of this organization to strengthen continuously not only design and designers 174 00:19:58.400 --> 00:20:03.900 But all of the positive aspects of designs relationship to our total culture 175 00:20:04.180 --> 00:20:05.420 in the decades ahead