Creative R&D Issues #1-10: The Recap
This week: A special edition capturing the key themes and ideas in the first ten issues of Creative R&D, plus some key background reading behind the blog. Plus: The hottest jobs in the ecosystem...
It’s time to draw breath.
We’ve covered a lot of ground in the first 10 issues of “Creative R&D”, bringing together new projects, programmes and perspectives.
Below, I’ve summarised seven key themes and ideas that have emerged out of the present-tense stew we’ve been swimming in, plus some recommendations for further reading, watching and listening if you’re interested in where some of my persepctive comes from.
Most of these we’ll see more and more of in the weeks and months ahead.
The underlying topics here are simple. They are:
The new kinds of storytelling, new kinds of institution and new approaches to innovation that we’re seeing because of the collision of technology and creativity.
They’re fundamentals.
Enjoy.
Remember: Only paid subscribers get full-access to the growing archives of “Creative R&D”. If you want to explore all the 🔥🔥🔥 goodness below, please consider upgrading to paid. 😘🙏
Theme 1 // The Threat and Promise of AI
Let’s start with everyone’s hot topic: artificial intelligence. Like most of you, I’m all in on the benefits and grappling with the risks.
I tried to grapple with this ambiguity back in issue 4, when I wrote about the emergence of synthetic social networks.
That was partly a response to Deep Mind founder Mustafa Suleyman’s take on Interactive AI - the generation of AIs to come which we covered briefly in issue 2. I also covered three podcasts on AI in issue 2
But for all the concern, when faced with the creative technical potential of AI, I went all in with a hyper-enthusiastic take on NERFS and Gaussian Splatters in Issue 9.
BACKGROUND: Most books on AI (frankly, most books on tech) totally suck. The ambiguities of AI are much better captured in Blade Runner or Ghost in the Shell. Watch Blade Runner again and just keep asking … Is Sean Young human or replicant? How does the answer change how you feel?
Theme 2 // New kinds of digital-age institution
Possibly our major topic over the last ten weeks has been seeing new types of institution emerge as as a response to the collision of creativity and technology.
Innovation Labs are a key building block of doing Creative R&D, and we started by talking about National Gallery X, the lab for the future of culture I ran, and the lab at the British Museum i’d hoped for but never got to. Then in issue 2 we talked about distributed media labs - a model brought brilliantly to market by Digital Catapult. And in Issue 8 I ❤️❤️❤️’d talking about Michelangelo’s very own art lab, hidden underground in Florence.
The institutionalising of the principles of Creative R&D - places where learning and acting at the interface of research, art and technology - was the big idea in Issue 3 which looked at the opening of London’ East Bank.
New kinds of digital age competitors to galleries, museums and arts venues have come around a couple of times. The rise of the immersive institution is a big theme for me and we’ve looked at both Las Vegas’ Sphere and Outernet in issue 2. We also looked at the idea of distributed instutions with a take on Arkive, a web 3 museum in Issue 5.
BACKGROUND: I was lucky to study with economist Mariana Mazzucato a few years back. Her whole take on institutions in The Entrepreneurial State is excellent. John Gertner’s The Ideas Factory is a brilliant read on Bell Labs, one of the great innovation labs.
Apply now // This week’s 🔥🔥🔥 jobs
Looking for a new gig? LOVE great digital content?
Cultur.Art is a new digital content studio being set up by The Arts Society to provide insights and inspiration from the arts to help people lead more fulfilling lives. They're putting together an inclusive team and currently have job openings for an arts and culture obsessed Content Creator and Social/Digital Marketing Manager.
Theme 3 // The Digital Twins of Sport and Art
Motion capture and the real-time ability to turn complex data into live simulations is an area that has been exploding into new forms over the last two months. In Issue 3 we looked at the flowering of this in baseball - and then the NFL followed immediately behind.
But it’s not just sports. In Issue 4 we featured the Venice Architecture Biennale’s digital twin (which was, frankly, a bit weird) and then deep-dived into museums non-identical digital twins in Issue 5.
BACKGROUND: It’s hard to imagine digitised sport beyond the boundaries set by Tron back in the 80s … So watch Tron! I also ❤️❤️❤️ Tron Legacy, which is aesthetically gorgeous.
A message about our partners // NIMI
I am delighted to welcome NIMI as our partners for the rest of 2023.
NIMI is an amazing platform focused on digital collectibles for the museum and galleries market. They’ve already worked with the Belvedere, and there is MUCH more to come.
Stay tuned next week for a special announcement on exclusive content.
Theme 4 // New forms of digital storytelling
We’ve looked at LOTS of different kinds of digital storytelling.
First kind: hybridity, and work that moves fluidly between the physical and the digital. We took a big look at one of my favourite design groups, Space Popular in Issue 6 and dove in a new performance of Wagner’s Ring Cycle in Digital Valkyries in issue 7
Major efforts in advanced digitisation has been another piece. Back in issue 3 we looked at an amazing recreation of an Aztec city, then in issue 9 a brilliant VR film, Buried in the Rock created from Lidar scans. A deep dive into recent immersive museum experiences in Issue 6 was followed by a look at a hyperreality opera in Issue 7.
And over the last couple of weeks we’ve looked at new subjects and objects for art, with a look at Berlin’s LAS-Art Foundation and their art about AIs and installations made for bees, and how meme of the year the Erosion Birds shows a new path for digital creativity.
BACKGROUND: NYT journalist and old friend of National Gallery X, Farah Neyeri’s Takedown: Art and Power in the Digital Age is great reading on lots of the themes here.
Theme 5 // New Models of Innovation
New kinds of digital creativity are creating new ways of innovating, and new outcomes to that innovation.
I looked at the idea of slow innovation back in issue 3 and defended the state of 21st Century Culture in issue 8.
In issue 4 I looked at how game design has been on a 40 year quest to innovate the infinite and how generative AI is now unlocking a new kind of digital infinity. - Issue 9
BACKGROUND: Benoit Godin’s Models of Innovation is the major take on how different types of innovation process and system work. If you’ve any interest in the history of technology, read Vaclav Smil.
Theme 6 // Digital evolution of creative markets
The emergence of, and opportunity for new kinds of markets has been a big theme.
We’ve talked about advertising and the chance to build cultural business models between advertising in issue 4. Then last week we looked at Darabase, a platform for augmented property rights .
We’ve also looked at the way the digital art market is moving towards a singularity that will give it strength and value.
Museums’ blockchain adoption was a topic for Issue 5, and then in issue 10 we looked at research and insight on the digital fashion market.
BACKGROUND: I’d love to hear some suggestions for good reads here….
Rise of Commercial IP for Future of Innovation
Last but not least we looked ahead at what the licensing of the Matrix films for the brilliant Free Your Mind! project at Factory International might tell us about the future of IP in Issue 7. And we looked at a crazy Web 3 Monopoly in Issue 8.