Andersen Design Economic Evolution Discourse

Contemplating A Brave New World One of a Kind Prototype of the Emperor Penguin designed by Weston & Brenda Andersen T he reality of the world radically changing through an act of nature is difficult to comprehend even as we are living through it. We are adapted to our norms but they are shifting under our feet. How do we move forward when our norms are no longer our anchors? Political actors call for Governor’s to reopen the economy or resign, as if, reopening will bring about a return to a former normal. Reopening the economy will not cast a spell and bring back normal. In Boothbay Maine, where I live, the primary industry is hospitality, one of the hardest hit industries. Most do not want to risk their lives and those of their loved ones by exposing themselves to a virus which is still mutating and we still know little about. Wooden Mermaid Sculpture outside of house at Ocean Point, Maine The demand for re-opening eludes the calling for the reinvention of o...

In 2009 I attended a competition for what I thought was a small business grant, but later I found was "an investment". I made this mistake in part because I learned of it through the Maine Art Commission which had been sending announcements all year about the availability of stimulus grants - but when one opened the link, it was inevitably and exclusively for non-profits. When The Maine Arts Commission announced a competition for small business investment from an anonymous source I assumed it was a grant for a variety of reasons, including that it was for a very modest amount and that the source was anonymous. I wasn't paying much attention to those details as I had never entered such a competition before and there was a lot to processing taking place in a short amount of time. As later became apparent the anonymous source was the Small Enterprise Growth Fund , an investment corporation chartered by the Maine legislature to serve as an "instrumentality of ...