The above is one installation in an exhibition by Austrian Stefan Sagmeister that just ended at Philadelphia’s Institute of Contemporary Art. Comprised of video, print, sculpture, interactive installations, and graphics, the show was an exploration of happiness. It was entitled, appropriately, The Happy Show.
There was lots of fun and provocation. This bit citing psychologist Haidt is one of my favorites. If you’ve read much of my stream of BS leading up to this you’ll likely guess that I totally buy the metaphor of elephant and rider.
And that sitting here in a very lonesome shack by the sea without electricity or running water watching waves and whales and gulls and seals, the pachyderm and its obsessive passenger have had meaningful and productive intereaction. Matter of fact we’ve gotta go pump water before it gets dark. More later.
*In case your resolution isn’t fine enough:
“Research psychologist Jonathan Haidt describes the mind as a small rider, the conscious. Sitting on a giant elephant, the unconscious. The rider thinks he is in charge and can tell the elephant where to go but the elephant has his own ideas. The rider cannot force the elephant into a direction but can train him slowly over time. When the rider and the elephant work as a team – when the conscious and unconscious are close – I’m going to be rich.”
The Subtle Landscape 
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