Creativity gets people riled up. That was one thing I learned as a panelist at “Creative Current,” the topic of Wednesday night’s Future Human salon, run by Bad Idea magazine and held at The Book Club in my lovely neighborhood of Shoreditch. The other panelists included Paul Epworth (2010 Brit Awards’ Music Producer of the Year, of Bloc Party / Florence / Plan B fame) and Tiger Savage (former Creative Director at M&C Saatchi, recent creator of Tigers Eye consulting).
Creative Current “explored the cutting edge philosophies and techniques that are being employed to harness creativity in the 21st century.
Bad Idea describes the Future Human concept: “Future Human is a unique monthly event that reinvents the intellectual salon for a decade of radical change and innovation. Guests are invited to open their minds, become a part of the show and debate important ideas of the age with pioneering thinkers. The event is an interactive, brain-spinning spectacle that takes its audience to the frontiers of our radically altered near future, and then provides access to strong cocktails”
‘A blend of intimacy, anarchy and intellectual nourishment… the salon has arrived in the 21st century’ – The Sunday Times / One of London’s Five Best Talk Events – The Evening Standard / ‘Hurrah! We get to pretend to be sophisticated members of the intelligentsia’ – Grazia / ‘Lively, informative and fun’ – The Daily Telegraph / ‘The new salon for hip intellectuals… book early, tickets sell like (calorie free) hot cakes’ – Time Out
I will write about a few of the more interesting points we discussed at the event soon, including why the creative winners of the future will work with people they hate.
If you were there and would like to see a post on an idea that came up that night, please request it in the comments!
Hey good work on your blog Caneel! Really like the layout (although I would ditch the category cloud if I were you). Cheers, J
I think the idea that creativity will be fuelled by a desire to make vast sums of money came up once/twice and is something I completely disagree with. Scientists/artists/intellectuals tend to be driven by the pursuit of knowledge, truth, status or beauty all above the accumulation of wealth. The people driven by money will then commercialize these ideas – there’s lots of examples of this, not least in companies copying YouTube trends.
I do agree that the creative winners will work with people they HATE. I wonder if this approach extends to working in art forms or businesses you HATE also? I remember the artist Grayson Perry saying he was attracted to Pottery because it was so ‘naff’ and hated the environment around it.
Two great suggestions, Steven. I’ve been going back and forth with a few people about the creativity / money link on twitter, and will seek to clarify a few things in a forthcoming post.