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John Elkington

John Elkington

A world authority on corporate responsibility and sustainable development.

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Volans, By Murat Sayginer

John Elkington · 5 March 2016 · Leave a Comment

Flying Fish, by Murat Sayginer
Flying Fish, by Murat Sayginer
Flying fish homing in on Planet Earth
Flying fish homing in on Planet Earth, by Murat Sayginer

Out of the blue today, I received an email from Turkey. It came from Murat Sayginer, an artist who in 2014, I learned, did a short film featuring Pisces volans, the flying fish – our totem at Volans.

The film, Volans, was a Vimeo Staff Pick. Spookily, it features many images that have been important to me over the decades, including skeletons, spirals, starfields, 2001-like tunnels, and my beloved flying fish. The style of imagery reminds me of LSD in 1969.

So I asked him how the film had done since it was released? He replied: “It screened at lots of festivals and received over 250.000 views. The community liked it a lot. The flying fish is like my alter-ego,” he explained, “and I got curious about the web domain and found you!”

Currently working as a freelance visual artist and filmmaker he has a project called Animals, consisting of 72 collages that he is selling as open edition prints. The Flying Fish print is the first of the two images above.

The short film Volans ends with one – and then a shoal – of flying fish heading in towards Planet Earth. Exactly the sort of imagery I would have liked to conjure when drawing in the 1970s.

Inspired me to go upstairs, and fish out one of the drawings I did in 1978, according to the dating. This one featured human and ostrich skeletons walking across the backs of a vanishing landscape of crocodiles, but doesn’t show what another in the series showed – a series of golden dolphins breaking through the tsunami front, like claws in a giant linear paw.

Weird what the human brain will conjure.

One of a series of pen-and-ink drawings I did in the 1970s
One of a series of pen-and-ink drawings I did in the 1970s

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Introduction

I began this blog with an entry reporting on a visit to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution on Cape Cod, on 30 September 2003. The blog element of the website has gone through several iterations since, with much of the older material still available.

Like so many things in my life, blog entries blur the boundaries between the personal and the professional. As explained on this site’s Home Page, the website and the blog are part platform for ongoing projects, part autobiography, and part accountability mechanism.

In addition, my blogs have appeared on many sites such as: Chinadialogue, CSRWire, Fast Company, GreenBiz, Guardian Sustainable Business, and the Harvard Business Review.

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John Elkington is a world authority on corporate responsibility and sustainable development. He is currently Founding Partner and Executive Chairman of Volans, a future-focused business working at the intersection of the sustainability, entrepreneurship and innovation movements.

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