1. Although not many dogs have style…
On interdisciplinarity, some incentives
Tom De Mette, PhD
2.
3. Suits you?!
Neuroscience on creativity
Creativity is the the power to produce
something that is both new (original, unusual,
surprising) and suited in a context or useful in a
certain situation.
(Emmanuelle Volle – ICM Paris)
4. Let’s dissect
because there’s more to this story
• the power
• to produce
• something that is new
• something that is suited
• in a context
• or useful
• in a certain situation
5. Power
• Natural born talent or nurtured ability?
• External or intrinsic?
• Individual or social?
6. Produce
• Where do ideas come from?
• Why do we want to develop them?
• What’s important: process or product?
• Does an end result even exist?
7. Something that is new
• Innovation is just a novelty
• New is the new old
• Every poet is a thief
• What society needs now (is failure)
8. Something that is suited/useful
• Truth or dare? The desire to succeed and the
fear of failing
• It’s a culture thing: zip it or hack it
• What’s the use anyway? (Art as commodity)
9. All about context
• In contexts begin concepts
• Interaction with ‘that world outside’:
serendipity
• Mediation
• Education: a means to an end
10. Hence, Creativity
• Is a power play
• That manifests both internal and external
• Driven by our desire to control things
• Situated in shifting contexts
• That are always defined by rules and/or
• Mechanisms in culture and society
12. Let’s ask the creatives*
• Rethink, reshape, remodel
• Artist as philosopher
• Artist as scientist
• Artist as entrepreneur
* Qualitative Research:
discourse analysis of in-depth interviews with artists, medialabs and art centers (2013)
13. • Extract, explore, experiment
“The aesthetics of the weak and vulnerable”
• Art studio as lab
• Pocket portfolio
• Connecting dots through networks
• A thousand platforms (Deleuze & Guattari)
Let’s ask the creatives
15. Nicolas Bourriaud
‘For contemporary creators are already laying
the foundations for a radicant art – radicant
being a term designating an organism that
grows its roots and adds new ones as it
advances. To be radicant means setting one’s
roots in motion, staging them in heterogeneous
contexts and formats, denying them the power
to completely define one’s identity, translating
ideas, transcoding images, transplanting
behaviors, exchanging rather than imposing.’
16. Some practices*
• Angelo Vermeulen: BIOMODD
• Peter De Cupere: OLFACIO
• Cimatics: D.I.W.O.
• Leroy bros.: AXEL KING
• Culture Hack
* Please feel free to research these practices on the internet…
17. Interdisciplinarity
• Impossible not to be interdisciplinary
• An ancient tradition presented as a new discipline
• Participation, collaboration, co-creation
• No limits, no boundaries: anything goes!
(Paul Feyerabend: Against method)
18. Just some suggestions…
• On educational level:
overcome curricula and become unlimited
• On individual level:
fluid identities mix better cocktails
• On societal level:
The power of creativity
compels you!
19. Just some suggestions…
• Entrepreneurship and bizz-education:
it shouldn’t be an add-on, but in situ (centre stage)
• Look around you, it will astound you:
invite enterprises, welcome cultural industries
(e.g. Integrated: Biennial international art & design conference, 26-27
November 2015. Organized by St Lucas School of Arts Antwerp & deSingel Antwerp)
• Partner up: detach and reconnect (no GPS!)
20. • What are you good at?
• What do you need done?
• Who do you know?
• Who do they know?
• What do they need done?
• What are they good at?
Just some suggestions…
GET TALKING…
21. Just some suggestions…
• Be truthful by telling lies
• Matters of fact, figures of speech
• Sleeping on the job: the art of snooze
• Don’t believe the hype, instead make them an offer
they can’t refuse
22. • Intra, inter, trans-it
• Laziness makes you insecure and more efficient
• Any questions? Ask Jeeves!
• And remember: entrepreneurship is a style
Just some suggestions…
Ask John Cleese…
23. … cats have it with abundance.
Thank you for listening.
Please feel free to contact me:
tdemette@hotmail.com
