Greg O'Hanlon

The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honours the servant and has forgotten the gift

Albert Einstein

We sit at the intersection between the art brain and the logical brain. One can make bold conceptual leaps with little reason other than instinct or emotion while the other demands process, order and efficient execution. Fusing left brain right brain processing is a task which is far from insignificant and while the relative outputs uniquely compliment each other, it is perhaps one of the most significant challenges facing us today.

As we undergo the consumerisation of IT and move towards ubiquitous computing, art and design are crucial components in humanising technology. Science fiction is now science fact with Roddenberry’s hive mind not such a distant possibility (see video from Ericsson below). There are currently in the region of 5 billion mobile users worldwide with 90% of the global population having access to a 3G network. Mobile internet will surpass the desktop within the next four years and as the separation between work, home, formal and informal is truly blurred, content is king.

Where once the ability to read and write were prerequisite to employment within a media context, an awareness of the audiovisual toolset is now the default condition. Discrete specialist facilities and tools are no more. Content developers are mobile and creativity spontaneous. Data wrangling, asset management and experience of multiple applications and workflows are fundamental. As we then move into the interactive space building strong ideas around a software driven core requires a unique skillset. Experience creators fuse ideas, design and technology. As Forrester's Mike Gualtieri put it great software talent means renaissance developers who have passion, creativity, discipline, domain knowledge and user empathy. We tend not to see how radical the changes of the last decade or so have been. In the USA, the Department of Labour estimates that 65 percent of 6 year olds starting out in school will eventually find careers that haven’t been invented yet. The labour market therefore is finding it difficult to keep up. Crucial for all of us is the willingness and ability to learn, unlearn and relearn.

In the midst of this technological whirlwind it is easy to forget that underpinning all of this is the human story. We are emotional beings bound by constants of motivation and traits of character which have been with us since day one. Communication and connecting with both hearts and minds (storytelling) has never been more important.