What is the point of art school ?

'Creative Curiosity is always intellectually restless, its always 

lateral against the linearity of rationality' 

Jeremy Till, Pro Vice Chanceller of Central Saint Martins

I have been attending Central Saint Martins doing my masters in Innovation Management for around 9 months now. I have been particularly bad at writing here. Which is ironic as a key thing they continue to teach you is to reflect on your work which was kind of the point of this blog 7 years ago. One thing I have particularly loved moving to London and now even more so at CSM is the creation of cultural capital. 

Art, design, film all this cultural capital that expresses itself in a multitude of ways is one of the reasons I would struggle to return to Australia. Everyone jokes about the lack of culture in Australia but it was never more evident than when I showed my father an article in Monocle magazine about CSM and a project I was working on. 'Oh you go to an art school'. Its what a lot of people think. But I feel the opposite. I was educated in a linear rationale way that I never understood. I always struggled with a world that was created around assumptions. Why do we do that. Just because we do. That makes no sense. I used to say to my father when I was younger. I was exceptionally curious and that has never faulted as I got older. I then got to the UK where a huge history built a structure of even more assumptions. But the interesting thing was that their was an alternative. An alternative for people that didnt just want to live one way just because. That wanted to explore beyond that for themselves but also for a greater purpose.

The problem now is that the opportunity and environment in which you are encouraged to open up your point of view is being controlled. It is being held back by those rational people who dont see the value in art. CSM ran a conference recently called 'Whats the point of art school?'. It would take me too long to write my point of view and to be honest its still a prototype. But I have seen the value not just for myself but for the wider construct of the world in which we live. I think a key component of this argument is talk in the language in which the rationale's will understanding. I have been looking at the list of Alumni from CSM recently. What if you picked the top 100 CSM alumni and compared it to a business school like Warwick. Then compared the value they have brought to the economy but also other elements of society. Also look to minus the bad elements like money pulled out of the markets. This maybe would start to see that in order to get out of the mess that the rationales got us into. That the business school model of looking at previous casestudies to better establish what to do doesnt work.That you are going to need some pretty bloody creative people to get us out of it.

Creativity cues from John Cleese ... very nice

As a creative I felt frsutrated, as a consumer I felt violated..

I think everyone working in advertising has this feeling. But I think the cost and simplicity of doing your own ideas can in fact be quite rewarding. I have done some side work for smaller companies before and I think it helps keep your mind in check and not too restricted.

Its also interersted that he put his money where is mouth was and paid for a lot of it.

Five key secrets to innovation... its an obsession not a job description

This article from cnn has been doing the rounds on how to innovate. They seem so simple yet not diluted in anyway. Sometimes I feel that simple is now turning into easy to understand. Which is not always the case. I do truly think that innovation is simple...in theory but relentless in action. Innovators never stop doing any of the below. Whether on the toilet, in the pub with friends or away on holiday. Its an obsession not a job descritpion

FIVE KEYS TO INNOVATION

Researchers say they have identified five skills that drive innovation:

Associating: The ability to connect seemingly unrelated questions, problems or ideas from different fields.

Questioning: Innovators constantly ask questions that challenge the common wisdom. They ask "why?", "why not?" and "what if?"

Observing: Discovery-driven executives scrutinize common phenomena, particularly the behavior of potential customers.

Experimenting: Innovative entrepreneurs actively try out new ideas by creating prototypes and launching pilots.

Networking: innovators go out of their way to meet people with different ideas and perspectives.

The creative class might be the answer

The Ghosts of Soho, originally uploaded by Thomas Hawk.

I am a huge fan of Richard Florida's view on the creative class from his book and I have written posts on it before. He wrote his book a number of years ago but with the current economic crisis its starting to come up again. It seems that he has become quite big in US and Canada helping to build or what he has termed 'reset' the economy for the future. He makes some interesting comments on how during the last two depressions the economy was in fact readjusted to cope with the issues

I couldnt embed the video but check it out on his site here

here is another interesting article he wrote on how the creative class could change the US economy for ever

Another cool creativity website

The artist, the Stuntkid aka Jason Levesque

Ive been a big fan of behance for a while. I use it for images and things for work presentations. But I also do it fora bit of work and personal inspiration. But here is another great one I found on a twitter feed notcot.

I think I need some more beautiful things on this site again. Its been a while

Hope you enjoy some illustrations of pretty girls from

I hate brainstorms....

Brainstorming

View SlideShare document or Upload your own. (tags: brainstorming ideation)

I have always had a huge problem with brainstorms. I think its almost a socialist way to make people feel good about themselves and be apart of the process. But the truth is it can limit true creativity. I believe the smart and truly inspiring people get pulled down by the broader group, who arent as open minded.

The realisation is you only have a small amount of time in a brainstorm and often its a one off thought you dont have time to think through and fully form. Then it takes too long to explain it to everyone. So it gets lost in the 'I dont get it' pile. Couple that with the difference in egos vs non egos... and you start to see the barriers to creativity. I can't say much as I am often the loudest (trying to hold back more) in a lot of these sessions. But I will put my hand up and say that I think I restrict, often quieter but hell more brilliant people than me.

I also hate that people dont understand the information that is really important to address an issue. We do strategy and research to fully form our thinking to sell to clients. One off ideas from people who dont know all the other parts usually wont address that (sometimes they can). I love the idea of the book Blink, that our brain is so fast it can come up with these ideas and we often post rationalise. But my viewpoint is we have to feed our brains with all the right information to get there in the first place.

My thinking and hatred was then finally saved.. I found this great article in Contagious Magazine.

I love how it addresses a number of the things I hate. But also gives some really useful ways to breakdown those issues. Slackers is a great one detailing the people who often are not that interested and pull the group down. I love the idea of flying solo and then what they call 'shifting' or bringing your thinking into the group for greater builds and sense checking. Sorry about the bad copy but have a read if you can.

Great Creativity Everywhere

teamwork_v.jpg, originally uploaded by joshuadamon.

The one thing I love about the internet. Is that I continually find really creative stuff from all walks of life and the great thing is people love sharing it. I guess the internet gives you a different kind of validation for what you do.

I saw a really interesting article in Wired about a competition that Netflix has that challenges people to beat their algorithm by 10% and you get a million dollars. The really interesting thing is the two parties leading, are from completely different fields. One the usual techy group and the other who is a pyschologist and is getting his daughter a university student to build the code.

Am I just a visual person ?

I dont know why... but I have really getting into weird visuals lately . I think Im just an extremely visual person. I remember reading something that said guys tend not to talk about sexual experiences with their mates because their mates dont want to visualise it... so true. But I have found an awesome site from Australia, that I get a lot of stuff from everyday to feed my addiction from everywhere around the world. Check it out . It has more than just visuals.... a lot of great interesting stuff

Destructive..............

Naturaljust cool