Jillian de Beer is a community design strategist whose expertise has helped shape the 'Sense of Place' developments initiated by Auckland City that are bringing more creativity and more artists into local urban design processes.

Interview with Jacquie ClarkeJillian de Beer is a community design strategist whose expertise has helped shape the 'Sense of Place' developments initiated by Auckland City that are bringing more creativity and more artists into local urban design processes.

Interview with Jacquie ClarkeJillian regularly travels the globe as an international speaker and advocate for New Zealand enterprise and innovation. She is also an international communications consultant who recently traveled to Toronto, Canada to pick up a prestigious award from the International Association of Business Communicators for her contribution to global leadership in community building and advancing the communication profession. Jillian advocates for long term urban planning based on ecologically sustainable principles and works with futuring strategies - that is looking ahead by 100 years. She has just returned from Croatia where she advised the Croatian Government and communication management professionals in that country on cultural tourism development strategies. Trying to describe what Jillian de Beer does is like herding cats so I asked her in this interview to describe herself to us.

TBI: There are so many aspects to your career as an international New Zealand arts advocate, a 'future city' planner, a design specialist, an international speaker, an events manager. Your work is so dynamic and globally ranging - I wondered how you would describe what you do?

Jillian de Beer: I see myself primarily as an enabler. I enable people to express themselves individually and within their community through working closely with them to define their dreamscape, their aspiration, their future focus. Often the dreamscape is not able to be expressed in words, so I'm referring to verbal, or visual and non-visual mediums. I'm talking about language and expression in various forms. I have a very deep interest in indigenous peoples in different locations around the world. That contact has really taught me a lot about knowledge management systems and learning through the senses, not just through human contact but through connecting with the environment, as part of the eco system. I explore this paradigm by enabling people in communities to express their identity and how they want to be. That expression is interwoven with what they create; perhaps it goes into an urban design brief for a public place; into design thinking to create a work space; into a narrative that may guide architecture; it may be the brief for a strategic plan for a city, a region, a town or suburb; a corporate; a multi-national. I've worked with people who are vision impaired as well as facilitated focus groups with a wide range of people for whom English is a second language. So I'm including all communities - I've worked with street people, artists, investors, rural villages, indigenous peoples, the high net worth of Florida - I'm talking about extremely different types of communities and how they can effectively design the environment of the future.

TBI: You often present aspects of New Zealand culture to a global audience and use Maori symbols to begin your discussion?

Jillian de Beer: In my presentations I often use the image of kete handles. I refer to the kete because it represents knowledge, and it represents generational time and a continuum - no beginning and no end. So I'm talking about the circle of life, and about design inspired from nature. I use a symbol of a spiral to represent the essence or DNA of life. The spiral is about connecting all the threads, the past, the present and the future - the seen and the unseen/the yin and yang. The spiral is a great symbol for me to be able to tell a story around. When people can focus on a symbol it really helps them to take a journey of discovery. I have hundreds of photographs of spirals used in traditional craft and contemporary design. I look at the shape, and how it appears in indigenous symbolism around the world; it's fascinating and enriching. This also applies to the meaning of feathers and fibres. It's about simplification. I look at ecology and how we fit within the ecosystem; how we interact with people, and how our actions impact on the balance of natural systems through what we construct. I talk about transformation and the spiral helps me to set that context. I present a lot of slides that address the city of the future, our ethical role as a community in what we are creating, and living with sustainable principles. Futuring is 100-year-planning up. We talk about the city of the future because that will provide the basis for how businesses will evolve, how urban residential communities are going to work, or how Councils are going to operate etc. Futuring is next generations planning.
TBI: So the scope is very very broad -

Jillian de Beer: Yes, it's about setting a context for ecological sustainable principles. I was involved in developing the Sense of Place guidelines for the late Brian Toy at Auckland City. Quite a lot of the urban development that is currently happening in Auckland is informed by this urban design framework. I map out the threads and dimensions that connect a community and facilitate a community aspiration audit. I've just completed an aspiration audit that feeds into the transformation of the Auckland CBD. I look at community aspiration and individual aspiration.

TBI: Let's talk about your international advocacy for New Zealand art practice.

Jillian de Beer: When I receive an invitation to speak somewhere, I make sure that I get a brief that is agreed to by the people who are hosting me. Invariably people ask, "We want to know about New Zealand. We want to know why New Zealand is so creative. We hear it's the most beautiful country in the world. It's the place that all long to go to." And they just drool over New Zealand. Apparently we are always in the news. There's a sense of magic and mystique. It's either through the tourism campaign, Lord of the Rings, or through our anti-nuclear stance, through the beauty, through travel writers, and they hear about our creativity. I get asked to build all of these aspects into my presentations. I have been very diligent about connecting with people around New Zealand and talking to groups, saying what I do and asking, "How do you want me to present you". For example that happened with the Takahanga Marae in Kaikoura. I was so honoured to share the beautiful images of the marae experience with people outside of this country. The Takahanga Marae is the most incredible place. There are 5000 white pebble stones gathered by the community and artists in its entranceway (created by artist Chris Booth). The marae was pleased for me to share the experience of their inspiring and very spiritual space with the First Nations Indian peoples of Saskatchewan, Canada. The Cree were so inspired that they have since traveled down here. They came down to assist with the creation of a significant carving in Auckland. A Paiute film maker also ventured down to film a movie called Indigenous Movement. And that was all due to being inspired by those images.

I think about the Wild Foods Festival in Hokitika. I have really presented what they are about, the big picture, because all of their profits go back to the community. They are really creating their artistic expressions through their recipes, food, and stalls. It's just awesome what they do. Or the World of Wearable Art in Nelson. They send me photographs to include. Also there is Hunterwasser who wasn't born here but who certainly contributed to New Zealand. His design thinking and the sheer essence in his creation of the community toilets in Kawakawa is simply amazing. He has used loving objects of the past and given them renewed value in a new context. The audience just go wow when they see this creativity and how sensory it is. Also, the Onehunga tiled seat and, if you go down Ponsonby Rd, you see the bike stands in the shape of the koru, the basket weave paving around the Viaduct, the bridge down at Mission Bay, all of these projects have had artists and craftspeople involved. What I'm really trying to promote when I show images such as these is that it's about community oneness and creating a narrative in the design that expresses our identity. It's also about creating an environment that we connect with. It's about a sense of place, and building a sense of community with sustainable outcomes. As well as functional, it must be aesthetically beautiful. Virginia King was involved in designing the bridge in Mission Bay which combines functionality with the image of the waka.

TBI: When we first started talking you had just been to New York and seen Jacqueline Fraser's recent exhibition. I'm just wondering about how you see the individual New Zealand artist, like Jacqueline, whose career is at the point where they need to be recognized on an international level. What advice would you give them?

Jillian de Beer: The one thing that I really identify with Jacqueline's work is that no matter where you are on the planet you understand this work. It's very beautiful and it's very easy to connect with it irrespective of whether you have been to New Zealand or not. To crack the international scene you really need a very good agent. 400 people came to Jacqueline's opening in New York, it was massive. Her agent is just relentlessly working - relentlessly promoting. I got an email from her [agent] on Friday and she was off to Florida with some of Jacqueline's work. She's wired. She's networked. I ask people in New York what is the secret here? People say there's no secret, but you need to be incredibly good with people, high on relationship management. It takes you years and years to build up a clientele. Jacqueline's work truly has an x factor. It's also incredibly beautiful.
I have the impression that Jacqueline planned to be an internationally recognised artist up to ten years ago. She needed to move offshore because of the scale, the number of people who appreciate her work at the level that she is working is limited. New Zealand is small – the percentage of people who can afford to sustain some of our top artists is very small. So they have to go and they have to have work that other people can understand. That's a consideration that the artist has to make. That's a decision that the artist needs to make as to whether they want to go into that space.

TBI: You talked about going to Croatia recently to discuss redevelopment.
Jillian de Beer: Yes I did. It was very interesting because they have these 13th century castles. I was talking and advising about value-added activity inside the castles and also around the castles. There's a whole cultural dynamic in their community and rightfully so - they look back in time because of the problems and the war. They have pre-industrial people in the heartland of Croatia, whereas in the cities they have high-end innovation in the digital arts and film. They are very creative. It's unbelievable. So you have this hugely differing social/cultural dynamic. Part of the reason for my invitation was to inspire people to look forward and to expose them to what has been done elsewhere in the world. There is a huge challenge for people to be able to envision a future. Culturally, they usually look back. There is also a lack of social cohesion internally. They have several different languages within the country, several different lifestyles by region. They have a number of issues with the country's current social and economic transformation. For example, they have beautiful castles but they are putting up not so beautiful modern housing right next door. There is a general tendency to avoid anything to do with the local councils. So they erect houses without any form of consent. They can put up anything they like right next to a world treasure. There are real issues on urban design and also creeping investment that is blocking out the coastline. There are also foreign investors who are coming in and buying old houses and renovating them so that they have another look and feel. Many villages that I traveled through have been shattered by the war. As a result, all of the farmland around them has been let go. It's very impoverished. I went through a beautiful valley that would have made a great film set. But it was full of weeds and nobody was tilling the soil. The Croatians all said to me "All of our most innovative people go to Australia and New Zealand and they never come back." They really are in a state of transformation through lack of long term cohesive leadership at all levels in that country. When a country has been war torn it comes down to just coping. They have got a long way to go. The country needs very strong leadership and funding for the future. They are a wonderful people though and very stylish. I saw great examples of wearable art there. The fashion is amazing. The fabrics are amazing. They are very into fashion there and have a superb design culture.

TBI: What is your vision for New Zealand in a hundred years' time?
Jillian de Beer: I'd love it to be green and clean. I want it to be incredibly creative and the people to be creative. I want people to understand simplicity and to continue to keep our lifestyle simple. That means ensuring that we have vertical integration between what we export, what we create, what we inspire to be at a high level, and life on the ground. Social equity on the ground is very important so that people who are born and live here can have a wonderful life. We need to keep a balance on the type of development that we allow our country to have and to receive from foreign investment. I really embrace the tourism strategy, particularly when the campaign is about attracting and encouraging investors who are socially and environmentally aware. Our environment is everything. I've seen what has happened in some of our urban development. There is nothing New Zealand or Pacific about it. We have to stop pulling down our heritage buildings. All that has to stop. We have to have a really strong framework where what we create is actually creating a unique identity that fits in harmony with the landscape. I think if we do that, then we can overcome lots of social issues. If it's a great place then people will stay and people will invest. They don't want to move offshore. It's one way to stop the brain drain. We have to keep a sense of intimacy in the community. That's happening. It's happening all round the world as well though so we need to be aware.

TBI: Do you want to talk about the international award that you received recently?

Jillian de Beer: I went to Toronto this year in June. I had to go to receive the IABC Chairman's Award in person. That was great, a real surprise. It is the first time in the award's 39-year history that it has been presented to anyone in the Asia Pacific region. I belong to the International Association of Business Communicators, a global network of 16 000 business communicators, graphic designers, and creative writers. Every year names are submitted of people who have demonstrated leadership and achieved pioneering work for the global industry. The Chairman's Award is bestowed on someone every year but the profession looks at around a 5-year span of a person's contribution. I received a phone call from Canada one day. It was from the international chairperson who told me I had won the 2003 Chairman's Award and asked if I could go to the IABC international conference in Toronto in June to receive it in person. So the local Asia Pacific regional area of the international body funded my trip to attend the ceremony. They also presented me with an award for the local region.