Getting Creative to take on Creativity

You may not know that the Canada Council for the Arts has actually set artists up against one another, in competition for increasingly limited funds.  Of course it has done some good.  However, if it were designed by artists and not bureaucrats it would not have made artists explain everything they want to do before they do it, ignoring how creativity works.  The present system actually inhibits creativity and encourages artists to spend 3 months of each year filling out forms.  It was instituted by government shortly after the October Crisis in Quebec (which may or may not be a coincidence). 


Bulgaria and Romania are countries with arts communities that actually flourish and, there`s little or no paperwork.  Their professional arts associations were set up under strict communist dictatorships.

The last time I checked the Romanian professional artists had their own factory for fine art paints, plus a large facility for pouring metal to make bronze sculpture.  There is a national network of artist-owned galleries and residences. 

There is no arts council in these countries.  The artists have actually organized and gone after clients.  Almost all the money for this expansion of services came as income from clients. 

There is nothing like this in terms of representation of artists in Canada.  One contract I heard they secured was to design and decorate a casino in an old mansion.  Costs for services ... $2 million in 1995 dollars.

Canadian artists don`t tend to dream big.  Dreaming within state guidelines and in accordance with application deadlines seems to do the job nicely, thank you very much.

Each time the Canada Council budget gets cut artists have this habit of getting excited, making some noise, throwing a low-budget stylish party in sheer defiance.  While all the time feeling powerless to do anything any differently.  

Become less dependent on this bureaucratic system.  Start something creative and more natural, that works in parallel.  

``XXXXX Does not compute!!!! XXXXX.... XXXXX Does not compute!!!! XXXXX``

It's unfortunate that the Canada Council was not set up to encourage collaboration and therefore empowerment of artists.  But, hey.  Let's get over it and face facts.  

This system has been around a long time, and it's long been time to adapt.  And don`t expect bureaucrats to take care of this.  They will not be helping us adapt so that together artists become more enterprising and self-sustaining.  It's not something that bureaucrats offer.

Pointers to Our Near-term Economic Future

'Developed nations' are rapidly leaving the manufacturing economy behind.  What can we expect from our near-term withdrawal from the old economy?  


The BDI tells you a lot about what to expect.  It is an indicator of international trade of raw materials.  Look at the graph  from the 1980's to the present on the page linked below and decide whether what has happened in the last year is 'significant':


http://www.alt-market.com/articles/540-baltic-dry-index-signals-renewed-market-collapse


And what to expect in the Eurozone.  This is dictated by the US-based banks that will continue to make themselves look as good as possible for as long as possible.  


Ellis Martin of www.EllisMartinReport.com talks about the impending undeclared default of five of the major US banks.  Whether the banks have officially run out of money all depends on the very powerful International Swaps and Derivatives Association.  This association is run by some of the same banks.  Listen to this January 30, 2012 audio interview:


http://www.jsmineset.com/2012/01/30/the-impending-undeclared-default-of-5-major-us-banks/

We don't have a say in terms of what goes on in the global economy.  It makes us feel powerless to act.  Maybe the fact that the global economy was designed and is run by un-elected officials in international banks and economic institutions suggests that it was designed to disempower... Who knows?

This is important to understanding and attempting to anticipate our near-term economic future.


The creative economy has become increasingly important.  And its rooted in your neighbourhood, where you have some say in what is goes on.  Adapt accordingly.

When You want Change, what do You Call Yourself?

If you want input on what you are trying to create to bring about a better society, here are some terms that I've tried to define, and some ideas people associate with these terms.

Alliances tend to be formed amongst pre-existent organizations.  It is a term used by the right-wing.  The Alliance Party in Western Canada brought two existing political parties together against the Liberals. 

The left-wing tends to use the term 'coalition'.  You see single issue groups like 'Coalition against Poverty', etc.

I don't know why people use these terms.  It may explain why people hear Alliance in a name and think of it as right-wing.

The term 'movement' suggests person-to-person collaboration and coordination. 

Look in a dictionary to confirm whether what I say about these terms is correct and maybe get back to me if I'm wrong.

Ask whether the word 'movement' captures the essence of what you are doing.  It might serve better than the word 'party'?  People probably have reasons for starting parties, because party sound familiar, political and gets people in the door.  However, when you go global people may find the word 'party' confusing.  It may have slowed down the growth of the Green Party as it expanded out of Germany.

The women's movement was never slowed down by its name.  It grew enormously fast.  It took nine months to go from the kitchen table to a world conference in Japan.

There are two types of movement.  Next decide if you're driven by ideology - in which case you are probably (a single issue movement, like health reform?) a transformational movement big on advocacy.

Now if you say that you want a paradigm shift (towards coordination rather than every individual, group or organization looking out for themselves), you start off as an 'expressive movement'.  This suggests you're bringing people together to take on an array of challenges.  If that's the case I believe you are an 'expressive movement'.

A challenge is a problem that has been defined.  It can be defined by individuals or a network. 

Now a movement probably has no structure to begin with.  It's pretty fluid.  To get things done either you adopt a top-down command-and-control model, in which case you become an organization.  This is how the church, monarchies, military and big corporations got things done.

Fast-forward to 21st century ....

We're looking for creative adaptations to the styles of organizing we've used in the past.

These days we're more into distributed decision-making.  This allows us to be global, national or local in outlook yet be flexible enough to take very local situations, and deal with them immediately, i.e. without waiting over a month for the board to meet and tell us what to do next, or ignore suffering because of higher priorities.  When you have hyper-local decision-making an international movement will have taken on the form of a geographical network of hubs or centres.  When that happens, you call yourself a network.

So when you are interested in creativity and participative operational styles, why not start off with the idea of a network reflected in the name?

Funding a network that has no tax base requires an agency that brings money to individuals creating a better world starting in their neighbourhoods.  Otherwise you go to the same bankers that everyone else ends up getting in with.

With an agency in place to generate income for a network, you can go from global thinking, to hyper-local action with compassion, and without compromise.

A network that is working with an agency to handle client needs is the only way I know that we can create a compassionate society where no-one is left behind socially and economically.

Embrace a Social Ecology. Go beyond Dogma

The industrial activity of North America and Europe relocated overseas .  And national governments allowed this to happen mostly during in the late-1990`s.  This is how capitalism was able to take advantage of lower wages and lower environmental standards in other countries.  


Business has mostly served the financial, production, promotional and distribution needs of industry.  Following that relocation of factories overseas we saw the contraction of businesses at home.  


It’s time we accepted this, learned to proceed accordingly, and adapt.  


But how do we adapt?  It's certainly not by using the same level, or the same complexity of thought that produced factories, businesses as we've known them to date.

Within government and business we relied heavily on a level of thinking that could solve isolated problems.  This is the relatively simple level of linear thinking that has allowed the ‘dogma’ of project management to continue unquestioned.  If there were a powerful priesthood that upheld this dogma of project management, which I don't think there is, it would never disclose to you the basis of project management which is process philosophy.  People would question the main pillars of process philosophy and thus bring an end to the priesthood's power.  


Process philosophy is the thinking behind project management and therefore the unquestioned basis of how things get done in Western business, government, and much of science.  I have studied process philosophy intensely for several years at the same time as studying Eastern philosophies about the workings of reality.  And process philosophy pales in comparison.


A project management approach requires that we keep life away from everything we do.  (Think of analyzing the workings of 'a small piece of life' in a test-tube.)  A project manager has the ridiculous job of pushing life aside  constantly in order to clear the path so that the preconceived results or goals proceed in an uninterrupted manner to the planned outcome.  


Unless life is maintained outside the project and outside closed doors where all the real planning of outcomes gets done things quickly get too complicated for linear thinking.  (Think of Western society where $1-billion is spent on troops to keep life outside the perimeter fence of a G-20 summit.)  


To adapt we need to move to the next level of thinking in terms of complexity However to enter today’s emerging creative economy we acknowledge that nothing is isolated and that everything exists in mutual relationship and interdependence.  (Think of fluid groups of people being gassed and beaten outside the perimeter fence of a G-20 summit and formal proceedings in a hotel complex inside the fence.  Many outside the fence have sufficient complexity of thought to allow for life, grasp some of the wisdom of our ecology, and usher in some of the social adaptations we need at this time.)

Society is an ecology that meets the need for interdependent levels of products and services within that society.  We are learning how to better meet these needs simultaneously through coordination of projects.  

We can think of projects as arranged in a large array consisting of six-stages.  Levels within the array are a rational approach to face our challenges.  Position each project in a level from 1 to 6 depending on the need it meets:

1. social, 
2. cultural, 
3. educational, 

4. for business, 
5. for communication, or 
6. for overall coordination. 

It's good to notice how each stage builds on the prior stage.  Think about it.  We don't have a culture without a society; we don't have a culture to share through education without a society and a culture; we don't have a business sector to get things done without education, a culture, and society; and so on.  

The progression of these stages show a marked increase in complexity.  A system of coordination requires a more complex way of thinking and doing than communication, or business.

We need a culture that goes beyond project management to allow for life.    We need education that shares process philosophy on which Western society is based, and philosophies on which Eastern societies are based.  We need to examine them, come up with rational alternatives and test their effectiveness as social adaptations.  Without a rational approach for all to examine and discuss we are stuck with something like the unexamined 'truths' a priesthood would hold in place.

It simply was not possible to handle coordination of arrays of interdependent projects before the Internet.  On-line tools provide international society with organizational support for coordination services to emerge as the next, great source of value, and therefore the next, great economy.  

Update on Social Creator network in Toronto

We had a Social Creator gathering at the Italian cultural centre in Toronto on Wednesday February 8th, 2012.

As promised we took a look at the income model.  We are redesigning business as a fine art form, called Biz Nouveau.  Using the methodology of 'expressive movements' rather than work with a preconceived agenda, other than the income model we let topics for discussion emerge.

One focus that emerged quickly was on the group supplying physical products and systems for land developers who are putting up condos, theme parks etc. 

A second focus was an agency to represent, or sell the ideas and services of our arts-based professionals. We also saw a market for accreditation of land developers as agreeing to work by certain standards that the agency will develop.  People interested in participating in the agency shared an interest in collaborative villages.  We are witnessing and keeping track of these gradually spreading across various neighbourhoods and coming together as a social ecology. 

Another focus was on services such as theatre productions that put across subtle ideas about the role of the interrelationships and the technology in our lives.  

The agency's income as a percentage of the ideas, services and goods sold will allow us to establish an acting troupe for storytelling, skits and theatre productions.  These events will prepare people for new ideas, our products and services, as well as outright 'selling' to interested prospects.  We also see a promotional role for video production and film.

Vision and Mission for Today - West and East interpenetrate

The vision for society is no-longer a single statement or goal that hopefully everyone understands, and interprets the same way.  We no longer need to 'get with the program'.

We can now treat the economy less like an engine of growth along a track to some inevitable destination we're not sure about, and more like development of a society-wide ecology that brings balance, ease and sanity to our lives.

What I am sharing with you next, I feel is very important.  It`s something that our civilization has only begun to grasp at the beginning of 2012.  

Now the Internet is up and operational, the vision for society has become mutual fulfillment. 

We achieve this vision through coordination.  Therefore the mission for society is to become fully coordinated.  

The specifics of what mutual fulfillment looks like differs from individual to individual, and changes as each individual moves from situation to situation.  The Internet allows us to update and share in a timely way, what we feel will fulfill us and become our next contribution to society.

There is a word for something that each individual understands in a different way, at different times.  It`s called a symbol. Artists are experts in the use of symbols.  Therefore, what governments are calling arts-based professionals are here to help in our new social environment.

As individuals we create the space for a new culture and a way of educating ourselves in order to contribute within today`s economy.  Our society adopts the symbol of mutual fulfillment and the practical mission of fully coordinating our projects.   


We have been adapting to become the change we wished to see in the world.  We`re moving beyond occupation by an inner empire of linear timelines and singular exceptional progress.  The empire is quickly super-ceded through ecological thought and balanced outlooks. 

Thank you Gandhi.  Thank you India.  Thank you art.

Knowledge-based Economy?

Strategic notions of a knowledge-based economy in `developed countries` require all levels of government to put in place policies that ensure citizens get paid for their knowledge.  


Realize that when governments ask us to submit ideas free-of-charge we limit the quality of input as well as the possibilities of some kind of economic knowledge recovery.  Then we could spend in our neighbourhoods and strengthen local economies.

Knowledge is embodied in each individual.  Supposedly it's lodged inside each person's neurology and muscle fascia.  But who knows where knowledge extends?  


Officials at the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD, have been pumping out ideas of a knowledge economy for some time now.  It's an international institution run by unelected officials that use ideas about economics to help governments tackle the economic, social and governance challenges of a globalized economy.  Ministers of industry and finance subscribe to these ideas and dutifully pay their membership dues each year.  The notions of the OECD result in national strategies that have very real consequences in all of our lives.  www.oecd.org.

I've never heard of economies other than those derived from creating less demand on limited resources, or less need for action.  Who knew we are strategically planning our competitive stance as societies based on economies derived within the accretion and rearrangement of bioplasma in brain cells and electronic impulses in body cells?



If we want to progress through economies of knowledge then would we be well advised to drop ideas of competition and work together internationally, much like how learning progresses through sharing of academic studies and research.


We need to change as individuals so we're able to produce the items and services that contribute to whatever kind of society we want to live in.  The specific nature of your ideal society differs from that of other individuals based on cultural outlooks, values, education, and experiences.


It would be tragic if government talk of competitiveness tended to distract us from making our unique contribution and fulfilling our unique needs and aspirations.  In economic crises are soothing words delaying the need for personal introspection and the prospect of shared  adaptations?  
 

The Future is Unclear. Adapt accordingly.

It’s easy for governments to ignore issues surrounding creativity and the mounting significance that heart-felt individual action takes in terms of our socio-economic future together.  Outside-the-box, creative, or values-based thinking is readily discouraged even though it is essential for dealing with areas that remain unclear and in the realms of probability, such as our future. 

True, there`s some interest in better ways of getting things done. Governments will continue to ask people to pitch in, and 'submit your ideas'.  Perhaps government employees see themselves as encouraging participation, of switching to a more `participative' style of government.  However participation is directed rather than facilitated.  

The familiar authoritarian style is also perpetuated by this wonderful capacity governments have of setting the questions ahead of time.  Allowing participants to define the terms of a discussion is not an option.  Every question,  every review, every national commission, is phrased into existence based on the solidified and dogmatic assumption that our representatives are there to lead the way to fulfilling needs in each and every situation.  

Nothing can change when government representatives define the terms for a discussion of our great rethinking and our great reworking.  Because of how things are set up for us we can confine ourselves to giving input and contributing in ways that won`t work.  

Don't look to Governments for a Recovery

The real and timely solutions to our problems reside within local communities.  Let's take a look at why this seems to increasingly be the case.

Governments are not well positioned to handle the details of each person’s life needs.  Challenges to providing meaningful and well paid work for educated people go unmet. 

To address issues of economic recovery we have to include community in the mix.  Perhaps this is because a local community is better positioned to supply what is necessary when people are in-between jobs, in distress, or simply wanting to be pro-active and discover a new way of being in the world. 

Why meet to address the needs of the government when we could be addressing the needs of societies where governments are increasingly powerless to effect the necessary change?  It’s relatively difficult for institutions to think and act differently so as to allow us to turn things around. It would be illegal for governments to spend tax-payers’ money, held in trust, to move towards outcomes that are not understood ahead of time. 


Money and effort must be in service to an outcome that is readily broken down into clearly defined objectives.  However those days are probably over. 


When a government insists on clearly defined outcomes it does not help society.  This means that we cannot limit ourselves to project management.  Therefore creativity is difficult for a society reliant on leadership through representation.  Creativity is required when we are dealing with probabilities and do not know outcomes before we start.

Why not work together creatively as individuals, in ways that increase the possibilities of recovery?

It is only when an individual determines what is fulfilling that he or she feels motivated to act.  It is only when we ask questions we want answered that we maximize our chances of figuring out what will work and outperform, in terms of effectiveness, what is currently in place. 

The real tragedy in all this is that authoritarian forms of government distract us.  We continue to delay personal introspection and therefore our prospects of making the adaptations we need to make.  

We need to change as individuals.  We can produce items and services that contribute to whatever kind of society it is that we want to live in.  No-one has to know ahead of time what that society, or mix of societies will look like.  

Lonely at the Top - Powerful at the Bottom

The previous post was about how the Internet supports us in directing our own fulfillment with greater immediacy.  This is happening because of greater self-awareness, and the Internet bringing more people together.  This is happening at the same time that lone leadership has entered into voluntary decline.


Lone leadership is in decline.  But that does not mean our impulses to command and control others has declined in the least.


To compensate for ineffective leadership, as a society we’ve entered into an elder-ful era.  The idea of the role of elder is from indigenous cultures to distinguish anyone who voluntarily dedicates his or her life to taking care of the greater good.  These days, I’ve noticed elders 18-years of age or younger. Look at what happened to Craig Kielburger when he was 12-year old in April 1995! http://www.freethechildren.com/aboutus/history/

I have experienced aspects of the Occupy movement taking responsibility for the greater good.  This is happening with varying degrees of self-awareness.  Some of us have noted our urge to shadow-box, to thrash and strike out at aspects of life we despise.  We don`t admit that whatever we’re fighting set up camp inside us long ago.


It’s on the record that the Occupy movement and the Arab Spring were spurred on in part because of  tools for organizing made readily available on the Internet.  We conduct the details of coordination for mutual fulfillment using both on-line tools, and those potential little-spies-in-your-pocket, we lovingly call cellphones.


Thank you social media.  And thank you open source software.


Coordination for mutual fulfillment tends to be carried out locally, in and among neighbourhoods.  Public spaces are where you’ll find those soul pools and nutrient rich spawning grounds where the elders swim.  Neighbourhoods are now vessels where projects wriggle and interweave, where adaptations arise from the cross-fertilization among notions. Social adaptations hatch in local places.  These are challenged, chased around, and later dismissed before becoming strong enough to find their way into the mainstream.


There’s no way of knowing what comes next from the shallow waters where social adaptations emerge.  Some new ways of doing things have inherent capacities to grow and plunge straight down because they are designed to trawl through the depths of our collected realities.  These surpass the role of lone leadership.  Drawing on what is deep within us has always been the role of muse.

Contribute within TODAY`s Economy

In the USA, Obama's annual State of The Nation address continued the illusion that life in ‘developed nations’ is all about manufacturing.  

At least citizens of the US get a regular pep talk.  In Canada we have no idea where we are heading, either as an economy, or as a society.  You'd think that somebody in government would do something to rectify that.   

When you walk up to the door into a public washroom you notice that someone has been thoughtful enough put a little phrase or graphic on the door.  It’s something that everyone knows indicates a public washroom.  The reason it’s placed there is to indicate what to expect next.  

There needed to be something placed on the door to the future, decades ago.  The word for that little phrase or graphic that everyone understands is a sign.  

We achieve new kinds of society.  It's something we all agree to strive towards.  Together we put our life blood into making it happen.  All we need is a little sign.

Many of us distrust, or simply don’t know what kind of society we’re supposed to be moving towards let alone know what we`re contributing towards achieving.  The last time we heard a politician describe a vision of where we are going as a society was during the 1970’s when John F Kennedy told us we were going to the moon. 

As it turns out it was not a vision for society but a message to calm the military-industrial complexes of the US and USSR.  Kennedy was thoughtful enough to place a sign on the door to the future to indicate what the military and war industries of the two superpowers could expect next.  

Talk about the moon was a sign to indicate to the military-industrial complexes that they had a future in a world that was relatively peaceful.


Maybe that's why people are looking for signs of the times.  The sign we need is TODAY when we look around us.

Maybe that's why people talk about signs of the times.

Envisioning the City we want to live in

Its good to be aware of changing approaches coming out of our city halls.  It used to be that a city hall was all geared up to handle people with problems, but had no way to handle people with visions. 

In Toronto Councillor Joe Mihevc, www.joemihevc.com has sent out an invite to everyone around the city.  He has put together a three part series of events aimed at bringing citizens together to envision the city we want to live in.  This is refreshing.  

Should this approach be encouraged?  I think so.  How else do we know what we're all so busy working towards?