Nov

C is for Cyclops, S is for Sicily

by Sheron Long on November 21, 2013

Cyclops' face on a boat in Aci Trezza, Sicily, recalls the country's Greek cultural heritage. Image © Robert Long.

Cyclops on board! Sicily’s Greek heritage stares you in the face from a boat in Aci Trezza.
© Robert Long

Stories Speak of Cultural Heritage

Under the watchful eye of my high school English teacher, I learned about the 10-year voyage of Odysseus (aka Ulysses) and his encounter with the cyclops, never imagining that I would one day see evidence of their fight.

Yet, here I am on the Cyclops Riviera where the encounter occurred. Before my eyes, stories—old and new—engage me in the cultural heritage of Sicily.

A Story of Old: Odysseus Meets the Cyclops

In the Odyssey, the great epic poem often attributed to the blind poet Homer, Odysseus sails home after his clever idea for the Trojan Horse won Greece a victory over Troy.

Along the way, Odysseus stops at an island where one-eyed giants known as cyclops tend their sheep. He and his crew, laden with gifts of wine, find the cave of the cyclops Polyphemus. They make themselves at home, lighting a fire inside the cave and stealing the cyclops’ cheese and lamb. Not a good idea.

Sheep grazing in Sicily, part of the island's cultural heritage

Sicilian sheep still graze in the shadow of
Mount Etna, an active volcano.
© iStock/Domenico Pellegriti

When Polyphemus returns with his sheep, he isn’t too hospitable. He traps the Greeks inside the cave and proceeds to have a couple of ’em for dinner.

He has two more Greeks the next day for breakfast, and Odysseus has an “Oh, I see” moment. He better do something fast!

So, when Polyphemus leaves for the day with his flock, Odysseus fashions a spear from an olive branch. That night, he sees to it that Polyphemus overindulges in the sweet wine and falls into a drunken state. That’s when Odysseus hardens the point of his spear in the fire, rams it into the cyclops’ one big eye, and blinds him.

Though injured and blind, Polyphemus does what a shepherd has to do. In the morning, he takes his sheep out to graze, feeling their fleece as each exits the cave, and blocking the opening with a boulder to keep the Greeks inside.

Only problem is that the cyclops has an “Oh, I don’t see” moment—the Greeks have tied themselves to the undersides of the sheep, and they escape.

As the Greeks set sail, Odysseus taunts the cyclops. In a fit of rage, Polyphemus tears rocks from the mountainside and hurls them into the sea, hoping to sink their ship. The Greeks get away, but the rocks are still there today.

Rocks off the eastern coast of Sicily, part of Greek mythology from Homer's Odyssey and thrown by the cyclops to stop Odysseus, figure in the cultural heritage of Sicily. Image © Sheron Long.

In Greek mythology, the rocks, now known as I Faraglioni off the eastern coast of Sicily,
were thrown into the sea by the cyclops trying to stop the escape of Odysseus and his crew.
© Sheron Long

Is it only a story? Who knows, but it’s been around in oral form since the 12th Century BCE. It’s part of Sicily’s cultural heritage that includes not only the Greeks but (among others) the Phoenicians, Romans, Arabs, Normans, Spanish, and finally the Italians once Garibaldi unified Italy in 1861.

Due to its geographic position, Sicily has built up layers of history from different cultures, and the evidence is everywhere. For the Sicilians, settling on an identity is not always easy. I ask one woman if she identifies now with Italy. The answer? “Only once every four years when Italy plays in the World Cup.”

A Story of New: Boy Meets Girl

Every day that goes by, new layers of history are added, both cultural and personal. Today I get to look into the past and the future. Gazing seaward, I see rocks supposedly thrown by the cyclops about 3000 years ago; looking into the plaza, I see future stories, steeped in Sicilian culture, unfolding.

A couple just married pauses there to document this historic day in their personal story. They begin a new chapter in their lives, drawing on their more contemporary cultural heritage.

Couple posing for a wedding picture in a Sicilian plaza and following traditions that are part of the Sicilian cultural heritage. Image © Sheron Long.

A picture-perfect wedding picture in a centuries-old Sicilian plaza
© Sheron Long

Couple standing in a Sicilian plaza after a wedding that reflected their cultural heritage. Image © Sheron Long.

A couple stands where other couples have stood across centuries
to celebrate an important chapter in their personal stories.
© Sheron Long

Bride walking without shoes, following a ceremony that reflected the cultural heritage of her life in Sicily. Image © Sheron Long.

Walking into the future—what stories will the bride and groom write together?
© Sheron Long

Like Odysseus, they are about to set sail, hopefully for more than the ten years that comprised his voyage and surely full of “Oh, I see” and “Oh, I don’t see” moments—the kind of moments that always make for a good story. Buon viaggio!

Newly-married couple pose by a traditional Sicilian boat reflective of the island's cultural heritage. Image © Sheron Long

May the voyage be long and happy filled with Sicilian traditions, like this boat!
© Sheron Long

The Italian government tourism office offers travel videos and information on Sicily. For maps of Sicily showing its vulnerable geographic position, visit World Atlas.

Visit the Ancient History Encyclopedia for more on the Greek rule of Sicily (8th–3rd Century BCE).

Comment on this post below, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.

Sheron Long Comments

Cultural Heritage & Traditions/Italy/Literary World

Nov

Culture Smart: Sew Me a Story

by Sheron Long on November 10, 2013

Story quilt by Harriet Powers, showing African American artistic traditions and the influence of African heritage on quilts created by slaves

Story quilt created in 1898 by African American quilter Harriet Powers

The Quilt Designs of Harriet Powers

Harriet Powers (1837–1910) never learned to read or write, yet her story quilts left a significant record of life and events in the American south of the 19th Century.

Sheron Long Comments

Cultural Heritage & Traditions/Literary World/The World's Art & Design/USA

Nov

How Creative Thinking Kicks The Soccket Ball to Success

by Sheron Long on November 7, 2013

Brain-shaped light bulb symbolizing the power of creative thinking to solve problems

When brain power lights up and creative thinking flows, people find the
good ideas that solve perplexing problems.
© iStock

Powered by Play

In 2008, for an engineering project at Harvard, Jessica O. Matthews teamed up with Julia Silverman, to prototype a soccer ball that traps kinetic energy during play and then turns the energy into a light source.

They called it the SOCCKET because a light inserted into the ball uses the stored energy for power. Thirty minutes of play harnesses enough energy to power a LED light for three hours.

During soccer play, a pendulum-like mechanism inside the SOCCKET captures the kinetic energy and stores it in the ball for later use as an off-grid power source.
© Uncharted Play Team

In 2011, Matthews and Silverman co-founded Uncharted Play to produce the SOCCKET and thereby harness the power of play as a power source for people.

Their story is a fascinating one on how creative thinking, fortitude, and perspiration lead to successful products. And their work illustrates (at least) five stages of creative problem-solving.

1. Seeing the Need

Over 1.3 billion people worldwide lack access to electricity that is reliable, affordable, clean, and safe.

As a result, households use dangerous sources of power, such as kerosene lamps and diesel generators, which cause nearly 2 million deaths per year and harm the environment. According to Uncharted Play, “Living with fumes from one kerosene lamp is the equivalent of smoking two packs of cigarettes every day.”

Jessica O. Matthews, who applied creative thinking to invent the SOCCKET ball. Image © Uncharted Play Team.

Jessica Matthews,
CEO of Uncharted Play
© Uncharted Play Team

Matthews explains how she came to understand the need:

Just a few months before the SOCCKET was first developed, I visited Nigeria for my uncle’s wedding. I remember very distinctively choking on the fumes of a diesel generator outside their house.

My cousins said, “Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it.” Their complacency really bothered me.

2. Putting Two and Two Together

Though her relatives didn’t want to change the situation, Matthews noticed that they did want to play soccer:

Around my aunt’s compound, kids were kicking around whatever they could find. I even saw kids playing soccer with a bottle cap. Still, their skills were more impressive than those seen in a FIFA level game.

As often happens in a creative “Oh, I see” moment, Matthews combined the two ideas and the inspiration for the SOCCKET came alive.

Typographic art using two light bulbs to replace the o's in "Solution" and symbolizing how creative thinking is often seeing the connection between two disparate ideas. Image © iStock.

The solution she envisioned would use people’s passion for play to create the power for households, allowing kids to study and families to accomplish tasks after dark.

Boy studying after dark with the light of the SOCCKET, a creative solution for families in energy-deprived locations. Image © Uncharted Play Team.

3. Getting the Idea Off the Ground

After prototyping the SOCCKET for their engineering project, Matthews and Silverman (who were studying to be social scientists, not engineers) discovered the inevitable obstacles that come with pursuing an idea.

In an interview with Inc., Matthews discussed how she ran into an engineering community that insisted “there was no way to build a ball that would be light enough to kick and capable of generating substantial energy.”

That’s where the perspiration came in. She “taught herself the basics of soldering, building circuitry boards, and whatever else it would take to bring the idea to fruition.” The final SOCCKET weighs only one ounce more than a soccer ball.

Soccer balls rising from grass, symbolizing how a creative idea gets off the ground.

Textbook Example: As happens with many ideas, it was harder to get
the SOCCKET off the ground than to think it up.
© iStock

Matthews also had to maintain a strong belief in the value of her idea. As she says of the SOCCKET:

I knew it would be a good product at the very least. I never once said that it could be huge; I only said that it was meaningful. I was very persistent in my belief the SOCCKET would matter to people in a way that made it worth continuing its development. So I pursued it.

And she gives due credit to her naiveté in business, citing it as an advantage in not worrying about what could stop her.

4. Going for Quality

On the journey from the creative idea to the quality solution, Matthew’s company recognized the importance of testing, listening, debriefing, redesigning, and retesting.

The SOCCKET after plenty of use in field trials that are essential to creative problem-solving. Image © Uncharted Pay Team.

Companies with a commitment to quality always kick around a new product before its release.
The SOCCKET took plenty of kicks in field trials this fall in Nigeria.
© Uncharted Play Team

So far, over 10,000 SOCCKETS have been tested in Central and South America, Africa, and in a few communities in the USA.

New ideas emerged, so the SOCCKET that goes on sale in the next few months will also come in a Portable Power Kit—one SOCCKET and ten portable lamps that remain lit for an hour after a 25-second charge from the SOCCKET.

Diagram showing how multiple lamps can be charged from one SOCCKET and representing the importance of product testing in reaching creative solutions. © Uncharted Play Team.

Testing a product leads to improvements. Uncharted Play identified the need to charge multiple lights from one SOCCKET and to make the lights portable.
© Uncharted Play Team

According to Uncharted Play, “That way, children living in off-grid communities can play with a single SOCCKET ball as a team at school and still have their own personal light for reading . . . each night.”

5. Keep Asking “What’s Next?”

Consistent with its mission to inspire people around the world to lead playful lives and to foster well-being from that play, Matthew’s company keeps the creative thinking going.

For the developing world, it has prototyped other energy-generating play “tools,” like jump ropes that hold four times as much power as the SOCCKET.

For the developed world, it has created a smart soccer ball called Ludo, due out in 2014. A motion sensor detects time used in play. The number of minutes are converted into Play Points that individuals can “spend” to direct donations from sponsors to social development projects.

It looks like the power of play will keep such creative problem-solving going for years to come!

Jessica O. Matthews and Julia Silverman were honored by the Harvard Foundation in 2012 as “Scientists of the Year.” To keep up with the latest at Unchartered Play, check their Facebook page.