Alex is a student of architecture at Cal Poly, currently in his fourth year of study.  He has left California behind for a year in pursuit of a broader world view: first in the mountainous land called Switzerland to chase sheep, now in Rome to perfect hand gestures, next down-under to learn from a wallaby about soil, and finally back to the city covered in mist to understand the mistakes of masters.  His goal is to return to Cal Poly for his fifth year with enough experience to write a thesis on a global ecological paradigm shift (a knowingly impossible goal), or perhaps just design a really cool windowsill.  Aside from learning how to question the world around him, Alex spends his time in the kitchen, trying to speak to veggies and find where all the grana went.  One day he hopes to herd sheep and harvest zucchini in Vals, CH.

Other life goals include: write a large collection on the many improbable ideals of a modern ecological humanism while bartering my way around the world on a sail boat, spend time on Cyprus learning to cook from a mother, fish from a father, harvest from a brother, and speak from a sister, go back to school twice: once to learn from those who’s knowledge comes from age and another time to learn from those who’s knowledge comes from youth, raise a self-sustaining family that runs a small bed-and-breakfast on the weekends, and find a place where I can settle into my grave gracefully between a row of herbs and a field of many-colored vegetables.

A new TED talk that’s brought to light an interesting way to approach the interface between man and non-man…

http://www.ted.com/talks/natalie_jeremijenko_the_art_of_the_eco_mindshift.html

How about this hilarious Texan architect?  He has some really interesting theories behind junk art:

http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_phillips_creative_houses_from_reclaimed_stuff.html

Or perhaps a new scientific look at why we perceive things as “beautiful”…power to the craftsman!  Perhaps techne is more than a lost art – perhaps it is essential to us as human beings:

http://www.ted.com/talks/denis_dutton_a_darwinian_theory_of_beauty.html