We recommend that all those looking to break down disciplinary boundaries read The Nexus. The book is written for creative professionals and leaders across government, academia, and industry. The Nexus serves as a compendium of the historical underpinnings, the lessons learned, and the broader implications of Julio Mario Ottino (JMO)’s and Bruce Mau (BM)’s decades-long work to transcend barriers between art, science, and technology in the academic and corporate worlds.
The authors argue that today’s most pressing challenges, such as those relating to sustainability, security, or global health, are increasingly complex. These types of complex challenges, the authors argue, will only yield to individuals, teams, and organizations that embrace what they call “Nexus Thinking,” or the ability to leverage the specialized knowledge and modes of thinking from the diverse domains of human creativity—art, science, and technology. This framing is supported in part by JMO’s research in the science of complexity...