Power, a phenomenon we often associate with success does not proliferate out of thin air. Longevity, the ability to overcome apprehension, trial an error. These are qualities that come to mind when one is asked what the secret is to gaining power. If I was to choose three people in power today to fit each keyword it would be simple, Madonna, Barack Obama, Miuccia Prada respectively.
Madonna has spent 25 years in the record industry as a singer, songwriter and co-producer, an unimaginable feat since her humble arrival in New York as a teenage dancer. However in 1982, Madonna took her first tentative steps towards becoming the world icon she is today. She is now the most successful female artist of all time, with more than $200 million album sales and a fortune amounting to more than $172 million.
Current U.S. President, Barack Obama has only ever lost one election. The world was pushing back and appearing larger and larger, but before he was written off by his critics he finally became comfortable in his own skin. The loss turned out to be as significant as any of his wins and helped him develop the voice, the style, the track record and the agenda that have made him a celebrity senator and the current U.S. President.
Miuccia Prada a modern renaissance woman spent the last five years studying and performing mime at Milan's Teatro Piccolo, being a paid-up member of the Communist party and a champion of women's rights in seventies' Milan. Trying her luck in the fashion industry, a part of her childhood dream, she proved her worth as a fashion designer. She now holds shows for Prada and Miu Miu twice a year in Milan.
Blue - Madonna
Purple - Obama
Yellow - Prada
Referencing
Daily Record. “25 Years of Madonna.” http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk (accessed May 9, 2009).
Salon News. "How Obama learned to be a natural". http://www.salon.com/news (accessed May 9, 2009).
Fashion Forum. "Miuccia Bianchi Prada: Biography". http://www.fashion-forum.org (accessed May 9, 2009).
The meeting table is divided into two; Madonna's end and Obama's end. I hypothetically divised that the reason for their meeting would be for Madonna with her 3 decade long experience in media to help Obama with advertising for an upcoming campaign. Madonna, having used advertising in a very different area of expertise, given her ability to re-invent herself this comes up as a challenge. While Obama feeds her criteria, she comes up with many responses and alternatives, Obama then gathers the most relevant and useful information. This spread of information has influenced the shape of the table, Madonna's end (facing us in the image above) is suitable for a large output as she presents all possible information, while Obama's end is a recieving end gathering large data, sorting it out according to the criteria and taking the most essential of it.
The Madonna elevator, on the other hand consists of a re-interpreted shape of a throne, a reference to the frequent label "The Queen of Pop", it is light, elegant and gives an overall sense of luxury, but also a sense of superiority.
The Obama elevator (above) serves both as a podium to address his audience and as an elevator to make possible his meeting with Madonna in the meeting space. It consists of the same overall feel his office space has; a strong feeling of elevation, hovering over a mass of people (perhaps the people that elected him and perhaps even those that didn't) and the implications of leadership. The way the elevator actually moves in the UT environment reinforces this theme.
