Creative Culture

CREATIVE CULTUREBreandán Knowlton – @bfk

Europeana Foundation

European Network of Living Labs Summer School 2013 - Creative Ring Session29 Aug 2013

Thanks for having me here in Manchester. My name is Breandán, and I’m the Chief Product Officer of the Europeana Foundation.I’m going to take about 15 minutes to ask three questions about reuse and creativity. But I’m really trying to answer one of the themes of this session: what sort of connections should the Creative Ring foster?

@bfk | ENoLL Summer School | 29 August 2013

ONLY THOSE WITH NO MEMORY INSIST ON THEIR ORIGINALITY.— ATTRIBUTED TO COCO CHANEL

I start with a quote attributed to Coco Chanel: Only those with no memory insist on their originality.Ironically, the quote is attributed because we don’t remember who said it first. But it does raise the question:


Where do we keep our memories?

Where do we keep our memories? One place has always been:


1810

Our brains. They’ve been with us since the beginning, and do a pretty good job. You put stuff in, you take stuff out, just like in this 1810 illustration from a medical textbook.But when you have groups of people collaborating (which we call culture), you need:


1847

a place to put everything. To remember. And institutions are born so that these Victorians could visit the Egypt Room of the British Museum in 1847 to learn and be inspired by cultures far away from their own. When we put enough of our memories together,


1860

We can start to put them on shelves, or even move them around like this perambulating library of a guild of mechanics in 1860. You can move the memories of how to do something directly to where the people are doing it. But when you look at the world,


1596

That’s a lot of potential stores of memory and culture. Even in this map from 1596 the wide extent of the world was pretty well known, and each group of people have their own memories to keep. How do we keep and share them now?


1969

Now we can use computers. Like this IBM 360 mainframe in 1969, we can put our memories into databanks, and retrieve them anywhere. So we finally have a tool to help us with the question.


Where do we keep our memories?In a distributed network of computers.

Where do we keep our memories? Now, we keep them in a distributed network of computers. So now these millions of outside sources exist – what does that have to do with the way we think today?


ALL IDEAS ARE SECONDHAND, CONSCIOUSLY AND UNCONSCIOUSLY DRAWN FROM A MILLION OUTSIDE SOURCES.– MARK TWAIN

As Mark Twain said, “All ideas are secondhand, consciously and unconsciously drawn from a million outside sources.” So our very thoughts are shaped by these memories, coming from outside ourselves. But that raises the second question:


Do we reuse … or remix?

Do we simply reuse these ideas, or do we remix, recycle, transform them into completely new shapes? I think you can see where I’m going with this.


1860

This clothing ad from 1860 shows the height of leading fashion for men. While moustaches have now come back, some of the other shapes and fabrics seem strange ….


1962

But is it really so far from those high collars and straight lines to this fashionable overcoat from Hywel Jones, a Welsh fashion designer, in 1962? I’m sure he didn’t spend his time poring through Victorian catalogues. But the idea, the memory persists as a kind of reuse. In 1940,


1940

The Empire theatre in Scotland advertised their bands of the week. They use careful woodblock typography, a clear grid, the same condensed gothic type that’s back in fashion today. But 50 years later,


1990

a Jane’s Addiction concert poster in Amsterdam seems to reject the idea of machine-set type, even as the form of the letters still echoes the woodblock printing of a previous generation. Re-use becomes a conscious Rejection, but still with Reference.


900

This illustration of an eyeball from an Islamic medical text in the year 900 might have been echoed a thousand years later,


1870

in the textbooks for this graduating class of surgeons and doctors in 1870, established by the British to bring precious technical knowledge to the subcontinent of India. Not direct reuse, but remembering what is important. So to answer our question,


Do we reuse … or remix?We build on what has gone before.

do we reuse or remix, the answer is obvious: we build on what has gone before. Not literally, perhaps, but in the flow of memory and culture and creativity. The creative industries of fashion, graphic design and even medicine all depend on this constant process of remembering and transforming. So creativity isn’t really the same thing as originality.


AUTHENTICITY IS INVALUABLE; ORIGINALITY IS NON-EXISTENT.– JIM JARMUSCH

Filmmaker Jim Jarmusch said that “Authenticity is invaluable, but originality is non-existent.” If we reject the idea of isolated, unique originality, what we’re left with is a striving for the authentic, the real. Raising my third question,


How do we capture authenticity?

How do we capture this authenticity? How do we move beyond imitation and create a true sense of the real? One way is to look at the memories of an age.


2006This Danish film poster from 2006 certainly tells us something about our attitude toward teenagers, their habits, their fierce desire for independence. But just as much,


1980

This ad for an Amsterdam leather shop in 1980 tells us something about that era just as strongly. (Unfortunately, you won’t be able to un-see that image.). Moving back,


1975this migrant-rights poster from 1975 certainly tells us something about how The Netherlands perceived foreigners. And if we want to really know nostalgia,


1950

a poster for the Communist Youth movement in Hungary in 1950 captures perfectly that sense of rural nostalgic euphoria, combined with the modern progressivism imagined by central party planners. The memories of any age are strangely compelling to revisit,


1180

like this cartoon from the year 1180 showing this poor peasant who just wants to burn the bristles off a boar so he can have some dinner. Almost a thousand years later, can’t we tell exactly what he’s thinking?


How do we capture authenticity?We use trustworthy sources.

So we’ve answered part of the question. How do we capture authenticity in the absence of unconnected originality? We use the trustworthy sources of each age and culture. Our memories feed our sense of the authentic.


IT’S NOT WHERE YOU TAKE THINGS FROM–IT’S WHERE YOU TAKE THEM TO.— ATTRIBUTED TO JEAN-LUC GODARD

But as Jean-Luc Godard (probably) said, “It’s not about where you take things from – it’s where you take them to.” And in these days with our memories housed in computer systems around the world, we need new tools. I work on one of them,


europeana.eu

called Europeana (where I sourced all of the images for this talk). It’s a website and data service that connects some of these dots, where


europeana.eu2,200 memory organisations

29 million digital objects

1 access point

5 years old

< 1% complete

More than 2,000 of these memory institutions, museums, archives, galleries, libraries, audiovisual collections in 30 countries can share 29 million digital objects to create one access point across countries and cultures. The project is about five years old, but is far, far less than 1% complete.


1985

Just as the railroads created new connections and economies, our mission is to be a catalyst for change in the world of cultural heritage, and our network creates new ways for people to engage with their creative and cultural history, for work, learning or pleasure. We also believe that openly accessible heritage contributes to a thriving knowledge economy.


1936

But we need to find new ways of connecting the dots. Like the intermodal “Railway Air Services” of 1936 we need to connect individuals, SMEs, cities and technology partners to the cultural institutions we represent, to enable this process of authentic and creative remix.


1930We think that we have the beginning of a solution, though we’re at the beginning and very far from a cure-all. As part of a project called “Europeana Creative”, we’re starting a network of Living Labs where we can prototype creative industry partnerships and applications along with end users. These labs can be nexus points to engage creative industries, commercial players and academics with cultural heritage in new ways.

@bfk | ENoLL Summer School | 29 August 2013In Helsinki, Brussels, Paris, Barcelona and Palma we’re all ready to get going with new pilot projects in design, history and science education, cultural tourism and social networks. Next year we’ll begin public challenges in London, Amsterdam and Berlin to select projects that we can help incubate.


1920

But this is very new for us, and we need advice, resources and connections. Lack of knowledge can be a dangerous thing, just like for the Russians at risk of cholera in this public health campaign. But if you can help us to avoid the dangers and risks of this approach, it really leaves only one question:


What do you want to make?

Once you have immediate access to the science and culture of centuries, what do you want to make?


So, let’s connect!

b @ breandan.orgeuropeana.eu

So, let’s connect our creative cultures. Thank you very much for your very kind attention.

http://breandan.org

http://breandan.org

IMAGE CREDITS (ALL SOURCED VIA EUROPEANA.EU)http://l.breandan.org/10h8nnV - wall sellerhttp://l.breandan.org/XjVL3g - isaac clothinghttp://l.breandan.org/XjXmG3 - person's weeklyhttp://l.breandan.org/11Rvv2x - intercityhttp://l.breandan.org/10h9UKv - cholerahttp://l.breandan.org/15ZRKjN - kalzanahttp://l.breandan.org/WZ5URp - religious emergencyhttp://l.breandan.org/14r3SOg - glasgow empirehttp://l.breandan.org/YhUb1f - blood could savehttp://l.breandan.org/13B2IRc - nixon/hitlerhttp://l.breandan.org/YGEYq6 - leather pantshttp://l.breandan.org/10VekdV - jane's addictionhttp://l.breandan.org/YIQynB - geen pasjewsethttp://l.breandan.org/Zrquqd - refugee posterhttp://l.breandan.org/YhVz3P - rezone filmhttp://l.breandan.org/ZrqTc6 - communist youthhttp://l.breandan.org/10d0OQD - more lazarushttp://l.breandan.org/Xk8faV - mary conceiving christhttp://l.breandan.org/YIWNHS - raising lazarushttp://l.breandan.org/ZrrZVm - slaughtering pighttp://l.breandan.org/Zrs3Em - corsethttp://l.breandan.org/ZryUO8 - medical schoolhttp://l.breandan.org/11TM3TV - brainhttp://l.breandan.org/XKlcqn - British Museumhttp://l.breandan.org/YH84Wq - Perambulating Libraryhttp://l.breandan.org/Xlb8Z2 - Laurel & Hardyhttp://l.breandan.org/10dOLSY - Overcoathttp://l.breandan.org/WZLszU - World Maphttp://l.breandan.org/YWIMzA - Computerhttp://l.breandan.org/XfByMG - Air Servicehttp://l.breandan.org/YWLgxU - Droitwich Spahttp://l.breandan.org/YHgvRB - Ghent railway

PRESENTATION

Education

Creative Culture