Emerging Futures - Volume 154: New Suns & New Constellations

Good morning beings of far more diversity than is possible to sense,

This week, we write to you from under the full moon high in the Austrian Alps. We are in the small village of Alpbach at the European Forum Alpbach. We have been facilitating a weeklong workshop on Emergent Green Changemaking. 

‍Last week, we wrote about our thoughts on the idea of “the best books for creativity." And we were quite critical of the very concept. But that does not mean that we are against books in regards to creativity. There are many important books and other sources of knowledge for creativity. But our sense is that given how wrong our standard approach to creativity is, we currently  need to avoid reducing how we seek new knowledges to any short list – rather, we need to read and research extremely broadly and experimentally. 

But here’s the thing: in regards to sources of knowledge for creativity, we find that far too many are content to read and engage far too narrowly. Perhaps this specialization can work in highly established and narrow fields, but with creativity, where the standard historical approach is so problematic, there is a profound need for new interdisciplinary configurations, and this requires a radically catholic approach to knowledge and reading.

For us, it is far too soon to be recommending books. We, as a community of practitioners interested in an ecosystemic and emergent approach to creativity, are still in the process of building a constellation of engagements with research fields that can support a genuinely alternative approach. 

Before we even talk about books, we need to orient ourselves to these fields…

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For New Suns

“there is nothing new under the sun – but there are new suns” Octavia Butler

Octavia Butler is right – there can be new suns, and in regards to creativity – it is time for a new sun. 

So where do we start? 

For the first century of creativity’s development in the West (1880’s-1980’s) it has revolved around a reductionist and essentialist sun—one that focuses on the human individual and what is purportedly in the head. 

To leave this orbit, we need to find sources of knowledge that do not begin with the individual mind = core site of creativity – and that strongly critiques all forms of brain-centric models of cognition. 

From this perspective, the first stars in a new constellation that could orient us towards other suns will involve fields that begin by taking reality itself to be creative (rather than creativity originating in the head of an individual genius). 

A. Reality is Creative – here we can look to the fields of: 

1. Evolution
2. Complexity Science
3. The Earthsciences
4. Ecology

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Once we have the resources to ground ourselves in a reality that is spontaneously creative (and in the myriad of ways how this operates), we still have to rethink the individual. Here, what is fundamental is to invert the classical direction that treats the individual as a primary given and any collective as a secondary and dependent. Rather, we need to understand the process by which things (including humans) individuate out of larger dynamic systems (collectives). Put simply and generally, the collective always precedes and gives rise to the individual. 

B. Collectives Precede Individuals – to gain a good grasp on this, it will require (in addition to the above fields) research in: 

1. Political Science
2. Sociology
3. Anthropology

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This then begs the next critical question – what all needs to be considered to be part of this active, dynamic collective? Is it just humans and their ideas? Rethinking agency and the collective requires us to rethink the status of things – from physical tools to conceptual tools and environments. Things, habits, creatures, systems, tools, and environments are all part of the collective that individuates us as certain historical forms of individuals.

‍C. Expanding Agency & the Collective – here, in addition to the above fields, we need to turn to the fields of:

1. Technology Studies
2. Philosophy
3. Biology
4. Anthropology

Now having considered both how reality is spontaneously creative and how more-than-human collective individuate, then what of the brain? The brain is considered the site of both thought and creativity. It is often claimed that “creative people are just wired differently." 

D. Rethinking Cognition – We also require new approaches to cognition and neurology that do not reduce thinking to the brain or the individual – here these two fields are critical: 

5. Enactive Cognition
6. Distributed Cognition

Thus, the three trajectories of (1) reality as creative, (2) more-than-human collectives as the source of individuations, and (3) distributed cognition as the site of thinking can help push creativity into a new orbit if we draw upon these diverse fields. 

These are radical shifts for many of us who developed their approach to creativity within the century-long western tradition. And this will require quite some serious engagement with very diverse fields.  But these concepts in various permutations have been critical to other traditions for quite some time. There is a perplexing chauvinism in western thinking around creativity and complexity studies that has a hard time recognizing that other – especially non-western traditions, have engaged with these approaches for quite some time. 

‍E. Alternative Resources – here we can turn to many sources

7. Non-Western Thought
8. Aesthetics
9. Speculative Arts/Fiction
10. Design Studies

We can loosely map this:

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Fields to Wander – Not Books to Read

We list these seventeen fields here without going into any detail (that will be the focus of next week’s newsletter) to make the point of how broad our sources of knowledge need to be. Looking for ten books or even a hundred is not that helpful. Nor is having a grasp of one or two fields. We need to be able to wander over a far richer and vaster set of territories. While it might seem like we are suggesting that this is about gaining mastery or becoming an expert in nearly everything, we are not suggesting this whatsoever. Rather, what is important is getting a sense of how broadly we can and should wander to develop new suns.

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Gravity and Escape Velocities

And as we turn towards the potentiality of new suns, we need to be profoundly cautious. For the moving towards new suns is equally a moving away from well-established habits, practices, and forms of knowledge. And such forces of gravity do not let one go easily.  We require a highly active critical practice of collective twisting out of problematic historical habits and practices. It is a careful practice—always on the lookout for how we are being pulled back into the gravity of a massive, ever-radiant old sun. 

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And it is here that the diversity and breadth of fields are helpful—each one is pushing others, checking others, and catalyzing others into new configurations and propensities. 

Next week, we will go into some of the key questions, areas with these larger fields, and key thinkers. 

Till then, stay diverse, gain exit velocity, and make new constellations real experimentally.

Keep Your Difference Alive!
Jason and Iain
Emergent Futures Lab

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