How Higher Education can support local ecosystems of innovation
Great paper from Stanford Social Innovation Review on how HE can support innovation at a local level using a model of knowledge sharing, developing a community of practice and capacity building rooted in reciprocity, commitment, and love.
‘Project managers and administrators can only do so much and should only do so much, especially if capacity-building is a central goal: constructing a shared space of core and auxiliary field practitioners to develop themselves as a community of practice is key to fostering an organically shared commitment to whatever collective project in question.’
Meet the next-normal customer
Good think piece from McKinsey looking at how Covid-19 may be changing consumer behaviour permanently.
English Pastoral
English Pastoral is a wonderful and thought provoking new book from Cumbrian farmer James Rebanks
Adjacent possible
A while back we blogged about the concept of the adjacent possible,
The adjacent possible is a kind of shadow future, hovering on the edges of the present state of things, a map of all the ways in which the present can reinvent itself. … the adjacent possible “captures both the limits and the creative potential of change and innovation.” (Martin Erlic)
It seems to me that the recent Qantas’ flight to nowhere is an example of just such an adjacent possible. I appreciate that it is environmentally questionable but try and look past that to the approach. What do you do as an airline when your usual mode of operation has been completely dismantled? Qantas response is to offer a sightseeing trip. What might you do that is closely connected to what you did before but is not the same and is feasible in this transitioning world? Maybe ENO’s recent drive-in La bohème is another good example?
Civic Activism
Interesting series of arts activism events from the Pratt institute focused on the forthcoming American elections, and encouraging voting.
The time is now! Join candidates, concerned citizens, artists, and organizations in a virtual event focused on voter registration, campaigns, and change strategies in an unprecedented Presidential Election year.
Radical Re-imaginings
If you are trying to imagine the next normal you could do worse than picking up scissors and glue! Collage is one of my favourite forms and this book offers wide ranging insights into how artists are reimagining this period of extreme change. The book features 40 diverse artists from nine countries (I’m not affiliated in any way; it just piqued my interest!).
Artwork is accompanied by a statement in which artists describe how they want to reimagine the world. “The work of destruction, inherent to reimagination, is already taking place in social relationships, economic structures, political alliances, and communal life,” writes Kadour. “To not seize this moment and begin the work of reimagination is to give into ruination, to cede hope.”
Uncanny Valley: Being Human in the Age of AI
A topic very dear to my own heart and creative practice, something that I think deserves our full attention.
[Uncanny Valley] builds on contemporary metaphors from the technological imagination—the digital alter ego, the model of swarm intelligence, the data-mining algorithm—to propose a new visual vocabulary for describing the relationship between humans and machines.
Have a good weekend.
Susan & Dawn