The Future of Creativity and Invention - Nesta

6/2/2020 The future of creativity and invention | Nesta
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The future of creativity and

invention
How will creativity and invention play a critical role in helping us
to shape a better future?
Wednesday, 29 January 2020

In Futurescoping
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5 min read
Bea Karol Burks
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In the future, invention will be driven by loss. At FutureFest in March one of the
themes we’re exploring will be the future of creativity and invention. As a
provocation I wanted to share the three things that I believe will shape how we
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At FutureFest in March one of the themes we’re exploring will be the future of
creativity and invention. As a provocation I wanted to share the three things that I
believe will shape how we create and invent in the future.
1. Creation will exist alongside loss in an era of ecological

disaster
We tend to think of creation and invention as a productive, generative activity:

making new objects, designing new materials. Creativity is an idea that is
associated with abundance. Invention is associated with objects and outputs. In
the West, we have lived through nearly a century of prosperity, where land and
natural resources have been explored and exploited for our comfort, convenience
and entertainment.
But while we were inventing at a faster pace than at any other time in human
history, we were also quietly destroying the existing ecosystem we enjoyed. A
recent report estimates 60 per cent of the world’s animal population has been
wiped out in the last 50 years.
We are, belatedly, catching up with this mess. Or perhaps, more accurately, it is

catching up with us. Even if we take drastic action, we will still inevitably see
environmental loss on an unprecedented scale.
While we were inventing at a faster pace than at any other time

in human history, we were also quietly destroying the existing
ecosystem we enjoyed.
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So creativity in the future will have a different flavour to it. Rather than the
abundance of the past, it will be grounded in scarcity and loss. Our creative
endeavours will be focused on preservation rather than progress, and on putting
greater value in what we already have as opposed to what could be.
Frivolity will come under scrutiny and we will seek greater connection with the
things that surround us and the spaces between. It will involve what Johann
Wolfgang von Goethe referred to in 1790 as ‘dwelling in the phenomena’ and
Donna Harraway today calls ‘staying with the trouble’. This is a recognition that
we need a relationship with loss to be able to understand this new context and
create within it.
We’ll start to see invention for mitigation and amelioration, not just an
unstoppable march towards growth. Creativity will be more conscious and
conscientious. This doesn’t simply mean having new constraints. In fact it
dismantles the idea of constraints, redefining them from something you have to
work within to something you have to work with.
I see hints of this in organisations like A New Field, a new company that’s
experimenting with how anyone can make everyday objects from natural
materials, like making a toothbrush from crushed mussel shells. It’s also evident in
designers and technologists in the UK Government and their #onegreengov work,
or in the Masters courses in Design for Social Innovation and Sustainable Futures
at the London College of Communication. We are already training a new
generation of artists and designers in how to explore this future.
Anyone can make everyday objects from natural materials, like

making a toothbrush from crushed mussel shells
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2. We’ll see more unlikely collaborations between humans and

non-humans
Alongside this sense of environmental loss comes a renewed appreciation of it.

We will return to using the word ‘ecosystems’ in its truest form: the ecological
systems that human beings are part of. In his last two books, Timothy Morton
makes the case for deeper coexistence of people within the environment,
alongside other animals, insects and bacteria, relegating human exceptionalism
to a more level footing with the natural world.
In the future we’ll see more and more unlikely collaborations across species –
natural and artificial – opening the door to a better appreciation of the creativity
and capacity for invention amongst human and non-human beings.
In October, Nesta invited artist Heather Barnett to deliver a session working with
slime mould, a single cell organism which, ‘whilst it has no brain or central nervous
system, demonstrates primitive intelligence and an impressive capacity for
collective action’. Heather works with slime mould in order to explore how groups
of people engage with non-human forms of collective intelligence.
In the future we’ll see more and more unlikely collaborations

across species – natural and artificial – opening the door to a
better appreciation of the creativity and capacity for invention
amongst human and non-human beings.
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In a similar vein, Holly Herndon is a musician who has pioneered collaboration

between humans and AI. She’s created a musical AI that’s been trained using
choral singing called ‘Spawn’. She refers to Spawn as her ‘inhuman child’ and
names it on tracks on her album PROTO. One of the most intriguing tracks on the
album, Extreme Love, offers a vision of life beyond humans, where bacteria ‘thriving
in extreme conditions, proved more fit, better at taking the next leap’, and where
human beings are just one part of the complex and often hidden ecology of the
universe. Bacteria will be painting their own self portraits next.
William Meyer has documented growth in the field of biodesign, where artists,
designers and even builders move beyond biomimicry and start to incorporate
living organisms and ecosystems into their work. Koen Vanmechelen uses chickens
as a mirror for the human race, highlighting the benefits of cosmopolitan diversity
through cross-breeding and producing a ‘Planetary Community Chicken’, which
farmers can introduce to increase diversity in the coop. He credits the chickens at
the end of his short film.
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Microbiomal paintings were produced by the bacteria from the artist's gut.
3. We’ll find ourselves doing more scrappy, experimental work
As we redefine our relationship with creativity and invention, we have to play with
the new and the unknown. Working with new materials opens new possibilities.
Exploring the full potential of a material means being experimental, open to
unusual outcomes or sensations.
Design as a profession often means coming up with methods that are replicable
and repeatable. So we have a wealth of innovation methods and frameworks to
help
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process.
As we redefine our relationship with creativity and invention, we

have to play with the new and the unknown.
That’s not to say there’s not a place for standardised methods. Tried and tested
methods can scale, speed up and democratise the process of invention. It’s more
about recognising that, as we enter a new era where our role in creativity is
shifting from from all-powerful beings to collaborative participants, we will have
less control over the creative process. As a result we will have to become more
scrappy and experimental.
Creativity and invention have always had a critical role in leading us into the
future. Art and technology work closely together to first imagine and then make
possible the worlds we’ll exist in tomorrow.
It’s these three ideas that I believe will shape how we approach creativity and
invention over the coming decade. For what it’s worth, I don’t think they stop with
art, design and innovation either. I expect we’ll see this sentiment seeping into our
politics as we try to work through our democracy crisis.
You’ll get a taste of this and lots of Nesta’s other work at this year’s FutureFest.
Join us on 20 March at London’s Tobacco Dock to explore the future of creativity
and invention.
Author
Bea Karol Burks

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6/2/2020 The future of creativity and invention | Nesta

The future of creativity and

Wednesday, 29 January 2020

Bea Karol Burks

1. Creation will exist alongside loss in an era of ecological

We tend to think of creation and invention as a productive, generative activity:

We are, belatedly, catching up with this mess. Or perhaps, more accurately, it is

While we were inventing at a faster pace than at any other time

Anyone can make everyday objects from natural materials, like

2. We’ll see more unlikely collaborations between humans and

Alongside this sense of environmental loss comes a renewed appreciation of it.

In the future we’ll see more and more unlikely collaborations

In a similar vein, Holly Herndon is a musician who has pioneered collaboration

3. We’ll find ourselves doing more scrappy, experimental work

As we redefine our relationship with creativity and invention, we

Bea Karol Burks

Comments (1) Add your comment

The Simulation Machine

A trustmark for the internet?

What's in your climate crisis survival toolkit?

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