WILLIAM R. AND ERLYN J. GOULD DISTINGUISHED LECTURE ON TECHNOLOGY AND THE QUALITY OF LIFE Tenth Annual Address Fountains: Using Technology to Create Happiness, Joy and Pleasure by Mark Fuller Chairman and Chief Executive Officer WET Design J. WILLARD MARRIOTT LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF UTAH . 2001 Fountains: Using Technology to Create Happiness, Joy and Peace Mark Fuller Chairman and Chief Executive Officer WET Design William R. and Erlyn J. Gould Auditorium J. Willard Marriott Library University of Utah November 14, 2001 About the Gould Endowment T" TT 7" illiam R. and Erlyn J. Gould f/f/ established an endowment V W in their names in 1992 in support of the activities conducted within the Utah Science, En­ gineering, and Medical Archives of the J. Willard Marriott Library. In addition to supporting the archives, the endowment also funds the annual William R. and Erlyn J. Gould Distinguished Lecture on Technology and the Quality of Life. These annual lectures focus on technical and environ­ mental topics, and how they relate to society as a whole. William R. Gould, one of the world's leading engineers, business­ Erlyn and William Gould men, and entrepreneurs, has named the Marriott Library as repository of record for his professional and personal papers spanning more than forty years. As with many of the donors of collections housed in the Utah Science Archives, extensive oral history interviews have been conducted with Mr. Gould, as a supplement to his collection. Through support by the Gould Endowment of the Gould Distinguished Lecture series, William and Erlyn have expressed their desire to share with the public their hope for the future: that through a more complete understanding of technology and its application, perhaps the humanity of which we are all a part may find a stronger path to greater social potential. In their support of the Marriott Library, the Utah Science Archives, and the Gould Distinguished Lecture series, William and Erlyn Gould have estab­ lished a durable marker by which we may more easily find our way. BO GOULD DISTINGUISHED LECTURE on TECHNOLOGY AND THE QUALITY OF LIFE Mission Statement he William R. and Erlyn J. Gould Distinguished Lecture T on Technology and the Quality of Life was inaugurated in October, 1992, at the University of Utah J. Willard Marriott Library. In establishing the lecture series, William and Erlyn Gould both recognized the critical need for continuing public education about issues regarding modern technology and its impact on our daily lives. Inherent to the advantage of technology is the importance of understanding the ramifications and responsibilities that accom­ pany modern scientific discovery. Only through continuing public education can scientific fact and social philosophy be successfully merged. This lecture series is intended to provide a forum for the discus­ sion of problems, issues, experiences, and successful case histories of the regeneration and preservation of our communities through the application of modern technology. It is hoped that an increased awareness of obligation in the public trust will emerge among practitioners of technology as they BO address the very important environmental and life-deteriorating problems facing society today. Through interaction between technologists and opinion leaders in communities that are the benefactors of their efforts, a syner­ gism can develop through which society may see great benefit in the long-term future. With this lecture series, it is intended that a dialogue be opened between the technologist, the philosopher, the humanist, the private citizen, and all who may wish to assert an active voice in our collective future. In such an atmosphere of mutual interest and understanding, no one group will be singled out for exclusion or be blamed for society's ills; rather, through understanding, discourse, and public education the positive direction of our future may be shaped. The Marriott Library's mission is to provide information resources that support the scholarship, teaching, and research programs the University of Utah offers to students, faculty, and citizens of the state. In this light, this annual lecture will strive toward providing a greater public understanding of technology and the social potential that can be cultivated. In conjunction with the Utah Science, Engineering, and Medi­ cal Archives program of the Marriott Library, this lecture series will provide the means of bridging the many disciplines of technol­ ogy while meeting the needs of the public in understanding its rich and diverse technological heritage. BO FOUNTAINS: USING TECHNOLOGY TO CREATE HAPPINESS, JOY AND PLEASURE It is rny pleasure today to introduce our speaker, Mark Fuller, the co-founder of WET Design of Universal City, California. I'm especially pleased to be introducing an individual who was associated here at the University of Utah as an undergraduate pursuing a Bachelor of Science Honors Degree in Engineering. Following his undergraduate work here, Mark continued his graduate studies at Stanford University where he received a Masters Degree in Engineering and Product Design. It was during these early studies that Mark began to develop the interest and knowledge necessary to set a foundation for his later accomplishments. His Honor's Degree Senior thesis focused on, and I quote: Axisymmetric Laminar Fluid Flow, or for the rest of us The Creation of an Arch of Rapidly Flowing Water That Gives the Appearance of Being Motionless. Following his training at Stanford, Mark joined the Walt Disney Company where he created and implemented more than five hundred special effects and water projects for both the Epcot Center and Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. Perhaps Mark's signature project at Disney's Epcot Center is the Leapfrog Fountain, which created streams of water several feet long playfully leapfrogging from planter to planter in an orchestrated pattern. I hope some of you have seen it. It's fascinating. A Dallas commercial developer approached Mark to design a fountain for an I. M. Pei project, the result being Fountain Place.The success of this endeavor indicated to Mark the possibility of creating his own company to design such water projects. The result was WET [Water Entertainment Technologies] Design. Through theincorporation of his engineering and design background, and ingenuity, Mark has introduced technology that allows for energy savings of eighty percent or more, and a reduction in project costs of fifty percent in high-end fountain design. Through his own creativity, Mark has found a way to combine engineering and technology to influence the quality of life, and to enhance our sense of environmental art. Our own local examples of Mark's work are the recently inaugurated Olympic Fountain on the Olympic Legacy Plaza in Gateway, and the "as yet" unveiled cauldron which is going to be the signature for the 2002 Winter Olympic Games. It will be unveiled in Rice Eccles Stadium sometime in February. Mark is a most appropriate individual to be giving this year's tenth anniversary lecture of The William R. and Erlyn J. Gould Distinguished Lecture on Technology and the Quality of Life. Please join me in welcoming University of Utah alum, Mark Fuller. /. Bernard Machen, President, University of Utah BO Thank you Bernie. I was feeling a little nervous, as I often do before these presentations, until the moment when you invited everybody to sit on the floor. In my company we have a lot of conference rooms, but I frequently surprise people by sitting on the floor. I just think better that way. If I may, let me begin with a word frequently used in my profession's vocabulary: "saturated." We live today in a society that is saturated with technology. Many, perhaps most, of us will go home this afternoon and switch on something like CNN. And in the current news we will see the demonic side of technology as it has brought forth the ability to create weapons of mass destruction. In a non-sinister, but nevertheless pretty invasive exposure to technology, most of us will likely be the recipients this Christmas of yet another appliance; its front covered with a placard of buttons—each one, when pushed, revealing a spiraling nest of menus, one of which inevitably leads to the inexorable and undecipherable error message. In contrast, I'd like to share with you an image of what I consider to be technology at its finest. You don't see technology—but it's there. Technology unseen is aiding and abetting, silendy and supportively, the simple joy of being alive. I have spent my professional life working with one of the most common and simple, yet multifaceted substances on the planet: water— and, with the help of technology, enticing from that water a sense of joy, entertainment, and even amazement as it is coaxed to display its inherent properties, properties which it shields from us everyday. Sometimes we develop grand, exuberant displays with water. At other times in our work with this wonderful medium of water we employ the tools of technology to make it highly approachable and enjoyable on a very intimate, personal scale. BO H -ft" -•"•''"' i fl1 r% , j> .4 '.. These kids are playing in "high-tech" fountains. In their play they are bringing, by their very presence, a sense of joy into spaces that technology alone would leave much less friendly. This is a bank plaza. The owner was seeking to transform the space in front of this bank building into a place that would be inviting and would, therefore, become populated with people. In this otherwise purely commercial district, the result of this is that kids come from around the neighborhood. The parents and grandparents come to see the kids. All enjoy the child-play and the water- play of the many patterns and water forms—assisted by the unseen technology direcdy beneath.