BeautyDialogues

Why Beauty Dialogues?

We have dialogues about war, about societal decay and spousal abuse, landfills, collapsed morals & the lack of universal health coverage... I think it's time to start talking about Beauty.

About Amy

About Amy
I live in Richmond, California, where I spend most days communing with my imagination via a computer screen, practicing my art at Clear Light Communications, the online design and consulting company I started in 1999. I work with people and organizations all over the world and help them negotiate the online medium to communicate about what's most important to them, and connect with others in heartful, meaningful, and generative ways.

I am fascinated by what is possible with this new medium of light and language, how it might be used to bridge and transcend gaps of space and time.

My passion is art; in using the creative life force in me to send messages out to the world. A pulse or smoke signal that can reach out to touch others all over the world. May it evoke an awareness of our place in the universe and nurture a profound connection with life in all who hear it.

You can reach me via email: amy@beautydialogues.com

About the Beauty Dialogues
The Beauty Dialogues started as a result of my desire to discover and embody a new of way of 'being' online...

Mine is a 'feminine' approach to technology that holds Beauty at the center of all I do: Beauty in the design that creates the 'look and feel' of an online environment, Beauty in our decisions and listening about how to adapt & develop technology for human beings, and Beauty in the ways I interact with others, in respectful and collaborative work teams and in curious heart-full online conversations.

For me this means standing in my truth as an integrated human being, giving rein to both personal and professional passions with only the thinnest of lines between them. Thus - the Beauty Dialogues.

Why Beauty Dialogues?

History of the Beauty Dialogues

About the Beauty Dialogues

The Beauty Dialogues came out of a conversation between myself, Ashley Cooper & Beth Alexander during a walk we were taking together during a Spring 2006 Summit of 'Girl Geeks' in Seattle.

We were noticing how absolutely beautiful we found a particular tree, or perhaps it was the pattern on the ground made by the sun shining through its leaves that we found so moving...  we started to wonder aloud about what it is that makes some things beautiful in that aching, haunting kind of way... what it is in that particular moment or material that evokes the 'beauty!' response in one or another of us.

What is beauty, anyway? Is it different for each person? Or is there some 'objective' measurement, like Christopher Alexander's calibration of the amount & quality of 'life' in each element, to what we collectively experience as Beauty? Is it a pleasing surface symmetry, or is it some deeper indication of wholeness and pattern that triggers the awareness of beauty in our midst? What is the 'essence' of beauty?

And thus started an inquiry that has already blossomed into a thousand forms, including this blog; a conversation that I hope will continue to meander like a healthy river through our curious minds for some time to come (here's one of the tributaries).

Something truly remarkable to me about that summit of eight women in Seattle was the way we all see Beauty at the center of our lives and work ... this and the passionate belief we share in using the power of technology to enhance the sense of community and connection between people. Beauty in action, if you will. This perspective seems to be a particularly feminine point of view, and feels like something deeply needed in the world right now. It's a perspective that brings balance and begins to restore wholeness, not only to the way we see and utilize technology, but also to our ability to face and respond to the larger challenge for humanity in today's world.

And so we wind around to another layer of the conversation... what is our work with Beauty in service to?