Welcome to Emerging Futures — Volume 18! Towards a New Model of Worldly Creativity
We are working through this — what are your thoughts?
Dear fellow innovation and creativity travelers,
Over the last four months we have been going back and forth between deconstructing/critiquing existing models of creativity and offering a series of alternative proposals.
This week we offer a preliminary synthesis of this effort. It is by no means complete — or fully worked out. But it is something we would like to fully work out— with you. This is where we would like to invite you to add your insights:
We will walk you through the comparison step by step contrasting
“Classical Creativity” and our emerging alternative model of “Worldly Creativity” — and we would like to hear your thoughts:
NOTE: We have set this up as a contrast between “classical creativity” and our model. This contrast can easily fall into a neat binary situation — this is not our intention — we are offering one of many alternatives. We are using this term “classical creativity” to refer to the basic mainly implicit logic that makes up the contemporary western model of creativity. The history of this is something we have gone into detail previously.
We have divided our comparison up into six sections:
Orientation, Visualizations, Location, Ethos, Methods & Tools, Authorship.
What are the most basic commitments of an approach to creativity? How does it orient itself to the topic?
Classical Creativity Primary Orientation:
NOTE: This orientation is one that fixes an essence in advance — something fundamental that cannot change. As such it radically circumscribes the scope of novelty and change — where ultimately not much can change… It also has a strong commitment to creativity = human activity and creativity = mental activity.
Worldly Creativity Primary Orientation:
NOTE: While it is not explicit — this is a radically non-anthropocentric model — hence “distributed assemblages” — equally it is immanent and contingent.
What are the tools, metaphors and analogies that are continuously being referenced? This section could be a whole series of articles…
Classical Creativity Visualizations:
NOTE: There are all visual and diagrammatical tools of essentialism — which is to say — the refusal of difference, novelty and innovation. It is astonishing how often we fall back on these…
Worldly Creativity Visualizations:
NOTE: Each of these is a specific tool drawn from a distinct discipline that is fundamental to pragmatically activating an alternative creativity.
Where “is” creativity? What locations are fundamentally critical to the processes of creativity.
Classical Creativity Location:
NOTE: It is all in the human head and in ideas and their articulation. But, we know that: (1) thinking does not happen in the head and (2) novelty cannot first emerge as something that could be represented. So why are these concepts/locations still considered so fundamental?
Worldly Creativity Location:
Ethos being the general character or logic of an approach:
Classical Creativity Ethos:
Worldly Creativity Ethos:
NOTE: Here we introduce worlds, and worldmaking (see our last two articles).
This is by no means a complete list — more a sampling of some key methods and tools…
Classical Creativity Methods/Tools:
Worldly Creativity Methods/Tools:
This pretty much sums up the difference in three words…
Classical Creativity Authorship
Worldly Creativity Authorship
So, after reading this preliminary synthesis — what do you think?
Between this piece and our earlier articles and newsletters — does this make sense? What is missing? What did we overlook? Where would you go? How would you change it? How have you been changed by it?
We’d welcome your thoughts, insights, questions, critiques, and alternatives — just hit reply, send us an email — and let's collectively take this further!
Next week we will make the discussion a key part of the newsletter — so please don’t hold back!
Till Volume 19,
Jason and Iain
Emergent Futures Lab
We’re How You Innovate
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📚 P.S.: For a new model of creativity – check out our book
❤️🔥 P.P.S.: Love the newsletter? Please forward to a colleague
🙈 P.P.P.S: Any feedback, praise, criticism is really welcome
🏞 P.P.P.P.S.: This week's drawings in Hi-Resolution
