About
Essays from the archive of the future.
Each week, Creative R&D publishes an essay that explores a single work of art—visual, musical, literary, cinematic—that sets the preconditions for how creativity meets technology today.
We connect the past to the present: from Talk Talk to time crystals, from Mad Max to Erosion Birds, from Demon Slayer to generative storytelling engines.
Alongside the essay, we track bleeding-edge developments in materials science, AI research, experimental games, performance, and digital aesthetics—drawing the map of a cultural landscape still being built.
Creative R&D is for artists, researchers, technologists, and anyone haunted by lost futures and excited by what comes next.
Each issue also includes:
A second essay on a novel technology or research breakthrough with creative implications
A curated selection of emerging artists, books, platforms, and prototypes
Deep Foundations—links to research papers, interviews, or archives that ground each issue intellectually
Signal Returns—a digest of themes from earlier issues to track long-wave trends
This is Creative R&D as fieldwork: mapping not just what’s new, but where it came from—and where it’s going next.
About Chris Michaels
Chris is a consultant, advisor and researcher based in London.
He helps organisations:
Tell new stories for a changing world
Develops the case for investments in R&D and Innovation
Grow new creative technologies and digital IP
His clients include universities, research organisations, start-ups, technology companies and many of the world’s major museums. He works independently and with Bolton & Quinn and Human Economics.
He is Deputy Chair of English Heritage and sits on the Digital Advisory Boards of the National Gallery. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts.
Join a community
The positive evolution of creativity in face of technology change depends on community. Join with others who want to understand that evolution here on “Creative R&D: Art | Research | Technology”.
To find out more about the company that provides the tech for this newsletter, visit Substack.com.
