Ben Goldman

Just as Benjamin Braddock, played by Dustin Hoffman in the 1967 film The Graduate, is informed "there's a great future in plastics," Ben Goldman tries to sum up the future of art in a single word: "REPRODUCTION." New technologies of reproduction have had a profound effect on art making throughout history and have always met profound resistance. The same holds true in this contemporary age of digital reproduction. Goldman argues that the exploitation of the newest technologies' full reproductive capabilities presents the essential challenge for the future of visual art and its influence on American culture. Equal parts history, economics, and social commentary, On Every Wall is an artist's statement and call to arms. Its catalytic ambition is to be a Silent Spring for the arts, helping to launch a new era of cultural environmentalism that expands the reach of creativity. The book includes 102 reproductions of art that illustrate key points in the analysis.

Cleaning up the environment is no longer just for tree-huggers. Today it is big business. As the Los Angeles Times reports: “toxic waste, oil spills, landfills, dirty air, contaminated soil and water—they’re not pretty sights...unless you’re looking for fast-growing job opportunities.”  A Money Magazine survey found that environmentally related business sectors are among the fastest growing Yellow Pages listings around the country.  BusinessWeek predicts that earnings in the pollution control industry will grow faster than in any other industry in the country during 1997—by an astonishing 164%—beating even computers and software.  Management Information Systems, Inc., a Washington, DC based consulting group, projects that a million new jobs will be created nationally in environmentally supported careers by the year 2005, a growth rate that is nearly twice as fast as the estimate for all occupations.

All government spending—be it military or civilian—creates jobs and other direct and indirect economic benefits. Spending on the arts does as well, but it also advances a critical strategic objective. Of all economic sectors, none has greater claim to creativity and innovation as its core competence than the arts. The future of the American economy, its growth, productivity, and specializations, is and has always been a function of ingenuity and enterprise—the very expertise of America’s creative artists. In times of trouble, the arts can not only inspire us and give us hope, they can also foster the entrepreneurial skills most needed by the Twenty-First Century workforce, provide cultural anchors for community development, and invent new forms of intellectual property that can drive prosperity for generations to come.

A RESPONSE TO THE GERALDINE R. DODGE FOUNDATION’S SUMMER 2009 STRATEGIC QUESTIONS

Sustainability is like immortality, but for a species. Gods and the undead need not apply: sustainability is a distinctly human concept about how our own behavior affects our own survival.

Sustainability means thoughtful adaptation. Its human focus pinpoints the difference between permanence and endurance: creativity. The actions of living, thinking beings drive the concept. Rocks last forever, or almost. But they’re lifeless. Evolutionary processes are key to understanding the longevity of living systems. But that’s just dumb luck. The uniqueness of human adaptability and our outsized impact on the planet depend entirely on our thoughts. Our species’ ability to change the evolutionary trajectory of life on earth—for better or worse—is the result of our own invention. To endure, we must change, and that’s a creative act, which begins with creative thought.

Here are a few of my own….

Most prefaces to a new edition mark time, and much indeed has transpired since our first edition was published in 1990, over two decades ago. In particular, this publication commemorates the first anniversary of the nuclear disaster at Fukushima. I offer for the occasion a personal meditation about public choice in our uncertain, rapidly changing world, making connections over time and space, and distinctions between good and evil.

We live in a time of unprecedented, constant change: COVID-19, global warming, evolving technology, death and divorce, business failings and successes—yet many people today are at a loss as to how to deal with change in healthy ways. Often, the stress of quick and excessive change leads to exhaustion, distraction, procrastination, depression, and more.

Nature Breakthroughs reveals forgotten, age-old methods for understanding and dealing effectively with change. Through research, storytelling, and visualizations, readers will discover the patterns underlying change and our reactions to it. The five steps of my Nature Breakthrough Method offer a simple, strategic countdown for harnessing change to create positive results.

This book is for anyone who is feeling stuck, in need of change, facing transition, or actively ushering one in. It’s a contemporary guide on how to become purposefully unstuck based on ancient methods of transformation, as well as a call to action to save both ourselves and the planet amidst the rapid cycles of change we are facing today.