Yesterday’s most memorable talk at the MOB Design Conference was given by Susan Andrews of the Visão Futuro Institute, a non-profit based in the state of São Paulo dedicated to the study and promotion of happiness. There was a whole panel of the conference dedicated to the study of happiness and GHP, or Gross Happiness Product – in Portuguese, Felicidade Interna Bruta. Quite appropriate in our “Post-Economic” era, too. Brazil was said to be a country with highly valuable human (and happiness) capital, and an inspiration for the rest of the world (following the world’s own kingdom of happiness, Bhutan). Susan Andrews is also organising the next world conference on happiness, to take place in November in Foz do Iguaçu. Other speakers on the panel spoke of how GDP is a wrong index to measure progress, of the symbolic and intangible nature of design and culture, and of what really makes us happy (not stuff, but healthy, lasting human connections).

Later in the day, I attended the opening for Patrick Jouin’s retrospective exhibition at the Instituto Tomie Ohtake called “Patrick Jouin’s Paris”. Talk about a change of scenery and tone. While his work undoubtedly makes people happy, there was no “post economy” discourse there. Lots of crystals, sleek furniture (including his remarkable rapid prototyping pieces), a concept room for W Hotels (shot after the opening by my friend Leonardo Finotti, who I’m staying with here in São Paulo, the reason we only left the Institute well after 1am), a house in Kuala Lumpur, restaurants for Alain Ducasse (from the Eiffel Tower to Las Vegas) and the like. This exhibition, like Jouin’s work, is “pre-post economic era” design – French style – at its best.