I have recently been reintroduced to Ira Glass of “This American Life,” specifically to his series on storytelling. As I’ve pondered the role of stories in our lives, I can’t help but think about the particular role of story in business and the arts. Is success in any realm the same as creating a great story?
Glass’ description of connecting anecdote or sequence of events with a moment of meaningful reflection, i.e. creating something new that is ”larger than the sum of its parts” struck me as a pertinent lesson for everyone engaged in the creative process. Seems to me this explains why so many great ideas die on the drawing board–without relevance they are simply Thoreau’s ”castles in the air.” If you attest to this concept of our lives as stories however, take one part anecdote and add a meaningful insight, and you may just have begun to build the foundation of a successful story wherever you choose to channel your creative energy.
“If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.”
Working and living in a creative community has its pitfalls. The excitement of watching visionaries and creative personalities work their magic is infectious and addictive. The highs are high. Trying to make a living on the roller coaster of creative endeavors can take one to the depths however, and watching the most talented among us suffer through bouts of indecision, depression and insecurity can be excruciatingly painful.
I used to wonder if some of the creative people I met were simply self-indulgent and full of unreasonable expectations, or if some of them thought the old “tortured artist” label was something they had to adopt in order to truly create. New research into the connection between creativity and mood disorders is making me take a second look. Studies find that certain “ruminating” personality traits may contribute to creativity and mental health issues.
Read an article on CNNhealth.com and watch Kay Redfield Jamison talk about mood disorders and artistic creativity for more on this research into the link between creativity and mental health.
But just when I think there no hope for being creative AND mentally stable, a list of creative minds focused on making the world a better place brings me back to my senses. Check out Utne’s 50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World for 2009. Do these folks suffer from the highs and lows scientists claim are tied to creative thinking? If so, they are pushing beyond and overcoming it with amazing success. Scientists should be studying that phenomenon, don’t you think, how creativity combined with compassion may overcome linked mood disorders?
The word adaptation has been coming up for me a lot lately, not just in the recent spate of press about climate change and agricultural adaptation, but in relation to community, the arts and technology. A series of experiences in how humans adapt to their circumstances led me to an epiphany.
Necessity may be the mother of invention, but creativity requires desire and undistracted mental space.
Ok, so blinding flash of the obvious you say. But the interesting part is the process by which this thought arrived. Like most personal epiphanies, it came from a collision in mental space. It was a convergence of words, images and sounds. A conversation, a movie, a book, a magazine interview, a song. Here are the bits and pieces:
My Galapagos friend observed that because resources are so abundant for the island residents, most have no desire to achieve or change anything within their communities. She described a lack of energy for the locals to even partake of the beauty surrounding them. I wondered, why would abundance breed complacency rather than fuel creativity?
I watched the 2002 movie Adaptation with Nicolas Cage and Meryl Streep based on Susan Orlean’s book The Orchid Thief, and was struck by a scene where the main character attends a Robert McKee Story Seminar. “You cannot have a protagonist without desire.”
I noted when reading FREE: The Future of Radical Price that author Chris Anderson uses of the E.M. Forester story “The Machine Stops” as an illustration of what happens when all human needs are taken care of. “Humanity loses its sense of purpose, giving up even the creation of art and writing to the Machine.”
And when I reread the March 2009 Sun Magazine with a reprint of Wendell Berry’s essay “Why I’m Not Going to Buy a Computer” and an interview with Nicholas Carr, “How the Internet is Rewiring Our Brains,” I noticed both articles address the ways in which we are removing ourselves from direct sensory contact with one another and nature, and how time-saving and efficiency come at the cost of human relationships, community and depth of thought. Again, I asked myself, is the abundant availability of information affecting our creativity?
So I researched more of Carr and Wendell’s writing and found this blog post from Carr, juxtaposing writers Steve Gillmor and Andrew Louth:
“Gillmor: My daughter told her mother today that her boyfriend was spending too much time on IM and video-chat, and not enough on getting his homework done. She actually said these words: “I told him you have to get away from the computer sometimes, turn it off, give yourself time to think.” This is the same daughter who will give up anything – makeup, TV, food — just as long as I don’t take her computer or iPhone away.
So realtime is the new crack, and even the naivest of our culture realizes it can eat our brains. But does that mean we will stop moving faster and faster? No. Does that mean we will give up our blackberries when we become president? No. Then what will happen to us?
Louth: Western culture, as we have known it from the time of classical Greece onwards, has always recognized that there is more to human life than a productive, well-run society. If that were not the case, then, as Plato sourly suggests, we might just as well be communities of ants or bees. But there is more than that, a life in which the human mind glimpses something beyond what it can achieve. This kind of human activity needs time in which to be undistracted and open to ideas.”
But it was a rendition of Radiohead’s song “Fake Plastic Trees” sung in a rather poignant way at a concert that pulled all those seemingly disparate pieces together. “She looks like the real thing/ She tastes like the real thing/ my fake plastic love/ But I can’t help the feeling I could blow through the ceiling If I just turn and run/And it wears me out/It wears me out”
The refrain “it wears me out,” nailed it. I suddenly knew what modern life is threatening to do to our creativity. Without desire and space—creativity withers. Our lifestyles, full of abundant information and resources that are designed to make life more productive and efficient, are wearing us out. Instead of evolving towards a “life in which the human mind glimpses beyond what it can achieve” will our technology evolve us into communities of ants and bees, capable of handling tasks but unable to truly create? Could it be, as Louth points out in a Heidegger paraphrase, ”it is the role of the poet to preserve a sense of the earth, to break down our sense of security arising from familiarity with the world. We might think of contemplation, the dispassionate beholding of reality, in a similar way, preventing us from mistaking the familiar tangle of assumption and custom for reality, a tangle that modern technology and the insistent demands of modern consumerist society can easily bind into a tight web?”
Let me do a little more dispassionate beholding of reality and I’ll tweet you when I’ve got an answer.
A running conversation among the creative people I work with is frustration at the long-standing, and now even more widespread trend of being expected to give their music, art, photography and writing away for free. While some understand the promotional value of getting their work in front of more people who might eventually purchase something, the nagging feeling that their work is being devalued and diluted and they will always have to keep their day job won’t go away. Something’ s missing for them in the explanation of how “free” makes money.
So how and why do some people and companies manage to transform “FREE” services and products into income?
A new book, FREE: The Future of a Radical Priceby Chris Anderson, Editor in Chief of Wired magazine provides a comprehensive and fascinating discussion of why giving things away is fast becoming the #1 business marketing strategy that is driving many parts of our economy–noticeably in the creative and entertainment sector–and explains how ”Free” may be essential to survival in today’s marketplace. He describes a number of ways businesses are profiting more by giving away products and services than by charging for them.
FREE: The Future of a Radical Price isn’t without its skeptics and controversies though. An article posted on Bad Idea highlights a few of the holes and criticisms, particularly a review by author Malcolm Gladwell in the New Yorker and a plagarism charge from Virginia Quarterly Review.
Anderson debates his premise at SXSW 2009:
Are my creative friends voicing a darker side of Anderson’s optimistic view of a digital economy that spreads goods, services, information and, as Anderson sees it, wealth around in a more democratic way? Will the proliferation and immediate economic benefits of ”FREE” come at the expense of supporting and sustaining our most creative and innovative individuals?
For a full length video discussion of Free concepts, watch Anderson’s Revenue Bootcamp keynote address.
I’ve been thinking about that John Holden video I posted a few weeks ago that touched on redefining the value of arts and culture, and have been observing how the three deeply interrelated forms of culture he describes—publicly-funded, commercial and homemade—are played out in the community where I live.
“…that the upsurge of home-made culture in the last thirty years, brought about by the easy and inexpensive access to tools that allow anyone to publish a book, sell music, produce a video and then spread it freely around, “…should not blind us to the fact that access to publicly funded culture is still very limited, with only 4 per cent of the population enjoying the arts regularly. There is a thin line between defending quality and erecting barricades against outsiders, and it is not always clear where that line is. Sometimes ‘maintaining standards’ just means preserving status.”
I’ve been privileged to get to know a wonderful group of local musicians, artists and writers who might be called “defenders” of homemade culture and the need to preserve its character and accessibility, and who believe in the power of such culture to heal and build community. It’s been inspiring to see a group get together to record the songs of an aging musician who has never cut a record or another organization soliciting and installing a cooperative mosaic project in honor of two cultural icon in the community as well as to see a fledgling street entertainment program springing up, replete with actors, dancers and musicians of all types popping up on the streets of the downtown on weekends.
What this is telling me is that even though giving people greater opportunity to create, perform and experience culture in the “homemade” way rather than forcing them to either succeed or consume traditionally-judged or competitive forms of culture may dilute the “quality” of the cultural experience in some way, a flourishing homemade culture offers benefits far beyond “high standards.” Allowing people to express themselves through the arts and share it with others in more ways can only promote a greater sense of personal and community well-being that is far more valuable than revering arts and culture that only 4 percent of the population are enjoying and denigrating the proliferation of homemade culture.
I like this post I found on a blog appropriately called “Homemade Culture.” The author defines it like this:
“homemade culture…spontaneous. free to participate in. communal. homemade culture has fingerprints not corporate branding. it is not mass produced. it is impermanent. adaptable. makeshift. made of the materials at hand. local. non-commercial. ad hoc. improvised. small scale. lively. energetic. made with and out of the stories of everyday people. fitting. imperfect. quirky. loose. always political, even when it’s not overtly so, because it challenges the notion that culture is “produced” by our paid culture-manufacturers and only “consumed” by folks like us.
why?
because we’ll meet our neighbors. because we’ll finally understand what our grandmother meant when she said we should learn the piano so that we can entertain our friends by playing and singing songs on a Friday night. because we’ve fallen asleep at the wheel. because it’s good to play. because in it we will find small truths.”
Thank goodness for folks that understand the value of maintaining all the different forms of culture. Hooray for the defenders of homemade culture and the small truths they preserve!
The terms creative economy, creative industries, creative cities, creative class, and creative clusters have become all the rage these days, with economic development departments from cities large and small not only embracing the terms, but actively pursuing ways to attract and retain individuals that produce and consume “creative” products and services of all types.
A number of agencies have sprung up to champion this specific approach to planning and economic development, believing that supporting the creative sector of a community encourages the introduction of new ideas, which can be the foundation of economic growth in the form of trade, industry, social development, tourism and retail or consumer services. The Upper Valley Lake Sunapee Regional Planning Commission is a fairly typical example of how this is being implemented in communities around the world.
John Eger writes in his article “Forging a Creative Community for the New Creative Economy” that “…at the heart of such efforts must be a recognition of the vital roles that art and technology play in enhancing economic development and, ultimately, defining a “creative community” — a community that exploits the vital linkages among art, technology and commerce. A community with a sense of place. A community that nurtures, attracts and holds the most creative and innovative workers.”
I’ve been watching this idea take hold where I live in a small town tucked away in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. It’s a place with a deep sense of history and a community that tries to honor the past, examine the present and not barrel ahead too quickly into the future. Progress here seems to move with a Virginia-bred slowness that is sometimes ridiculed, called old-fashioned, and even blasted as ignorant or backward. A few people I’ve talked to have argued that this reverence for maintaining a historical sense of place stifles creativity and freedom and severely limits growth, diversity and equality. They feel it perpetuates discrimination of all kinds.
While I’m not disputing that being too committed to tradition can be completely inhibiting to the creative economy concept, there’s a definite reason for taking the time to truly understand a city’s “sense of place.” Attracting the best and brightest is great, but I have come to think that maintaining an objective cultural perspective of how a city’s long-time residents have lived is equally important. Understanding a place’s history and what is important to the long-time residents, whether you agree with it or not, could make or break this creative economic strategy in some places.
My theory is that the “grow slow” idea isn’t all bad, and it seems to be working, at least here on the far side of Virginia. Historic preservation has been a major local effort for many years, and “green” initiatives have become a focus this past year. The city recently designated a portion of the city as an “Arts and Cultural District” and have partnered with a local small business training and micro-loan agency to fund loans for “…entrepreneurs who have traditionally had limited access to financing, ranging from women and minorities, to artists and students, to low- and moderate-income residents.” And in the process, they have not lost sight of the basic issues like maintaining infrastructure, public safety, education, jobs and housing that have to be addressed in the measured ways government must move forward.
So even in the midst of an enormously tough economic cycle, this gradual movement towards more visible support of so-called creative industries has energized the local scene. All the arts and culture organizations within the city have formed a council to collaborate on marketing and promotional ideas to help increase tourist trade and attendance at galleries, historical sites, performances and special events. The downtown association has begun organizing and advertising street performances throughout the fall to encourage actors, musicians and artists to be more visible to the community and increase traffic for downtown businesses. Local musicians have banded together to form an alliance with venues, media and music-related businesses to increase exposure and provide services to other musicians. Newcomers who are unmistakeable members of the creative class are opening businesses, running for political office and becoming active in local organizations.
Now I don’t pretend to know anything about the economics or social psychology of any of this, but the potential economic benefits to all this activity seem pretty obvious. To me, however, the emotional advantages of fueling a more inviting and inclusive ”sense of place” that encourages entrepreneurship, creativity, AND community feels like the big payoff, particularly when applying these principles to smaller cities. Attracting and supporting the new ideas of the creative class to take root can undoubtedly be a worthwhile aspect of any community planning program, but if what’s happening in my town is any indication of success, understanding and respecting a community’s history during the implementation of such strategies will certainly build stronger community participation and livability. Only time will tell if such efforts can revitalize and sustain a creative economy’s health over the long haul. Stay tuned.
How is the traditional model of the value of arts and culture being redefined in today’s global economy? John Holden describes the expanding and interrelated reach of arts and culture…
“Arrange whatever pieces come your way.” Virginia Woolf
Mental pictures, visions, intuition, serendipity–how does innovation arrive? And maybe more importantly, how is it suppressed? Arranging what comes requires always being aware and open to what arrives.
This dramatization nails the dance of brillant minds opening and closing. Orson Wells at what he does best!
I’ve been working in my local community to help fuel a movement to designate a portion of the city as an “Arts and Culture District.” The goal has been to get the myriad of arts and culture organizations in the city to join forces to actively promote and grow into a more cohesive community that can be marketed as a destination for visitors looking for that kind of experience.
A secondary, unspoken goal is to create an environment where the ”creative class” that exists can be encouraged to flourish and expand. With that, the hope that the economic benefits of more services and products required to support such a population can benefit the entire community.
It’s got me thinking what it takes to create an art and culture scene in any given location. Can it be planned and encouraged or does it have to happen spontaneously? Which comes first? And is this elistist thinking?
Kwende Kefense posits in “What’s in a Scene?” on the CreativeClass.com blog that cultural scenes may often be the deciding factor in what kind creative talent can be attracted and retained in any given region.
Richard Florida, father of the creative class concept contends in Who’s Your City that deciding where one lives is one of the most important decisions anyone makes, and quality of life and cultural scene have a huge impact on that decision. And some of the statistics he has gathered are suprising! What’s your city’s “Bohemian Index?”
Listen for the comments about what constitutes true creativity in this video clip. Not education, not affiliation–but openness to all kinds of experience.
