Culture and Creativity

It is necessary to have a larger world view and

understanding of underlying causes to be successful with in
work
Understanding trends and their historical antecedents
allows one to have a competitive advantage

Striving for authenticity in your output and campaigns

gives one’s work depth and allows it to stand the test of
time
Culture and Creativity
What is Culture?
Kroeber, A.L., & Kluckhohn, C. (1952). Culture: A critical
review of concepts and definitions.
" Culture consists of patterns, explicit and implicit, of and for
behavior acquired and transmitted by symbols, constituting the
distinctive achievements of human groups, including their
embodiments in artifacts; the essential core of culture consists of
traditional (i.e. historically derived and selected) ideas and
especially their attached values; culture systems may, on the one
hand, be considered as products of action, and on the other as
conditioning elements of further action."
Linton, R. (1945). The Cultural Background of Personality.
"A culture is a configuration of learned behaviors and results of
behavior whose component elements are shared and transmitted
by the members of a particular society."

Parson, T. (1949). Essays in Sociological Theory.

"Culture...consists in those patterns relative to behavior and the
products of human action which may be inherited, that is, passed
on from generation to generation independently of the biological
genes."
What is Culture?
Culture is Shared
To be a member of society means sharing a culture. In this sense, a
society is more than the sum of its members. Membership in a
society necessarily involves sharing a way of life, engaging in
similar patterns of thought and behavior.
Culture is Learned
Human beings are not born with cultural patterns encoded into their
DNA. No one is born Hindu, an English-speaker, and MP3 files user.
All such patterns of behavior have to be learned, and the more
complex the society one lives in, the longer it takes to learn the
necessary skills needed for competent social participation.
Culture is Nonmaterial - Nonmaterial culture comprises the
software of society: specific shared ways of thinking shared by
members of society such as language, beliefs systems, customs,
myths, music, scientific knowledge or political ideas. And as
mentioned above, culture also involves shared ways of behaving,
such as participating in religious rituals or organized sports. These
shared modes of thinking and behaving all constitute non-material
Culture is Material
or intangible culture. - Material culture also comprises all the
hardware of social life, that is, all the material and physical
products of society: buildings, computers, IPods, bows and arrows,
DVDs and DVD players and all forms of technology. Technology
consists in the material application of knowledge, scientific or other.
What is Culture?
What is Culture?
What is Culture?
Are cultures intrinsically resistant to change?
What is Creativity?
Creativity is the act of turning new and imaginative ideas into
reality. Creativity is characterised by the ability to perceive the
world in new ways, to find hidden patterns, to make connections
between seemingly unrelated phenomena, and to generate
solutions. Creativity involves two processes: thinking, then
producing. If you have ideas, but don’t act on them, you are
Creativity
imaginative begins with
but not a foundation of knowledge, learning a
creative.
discipline, and mastering a way of thinking. You learn to be creative
by experimenting, exploring, questioning assumptions, using
imagination and synthesing information. Learning to be creative is
akin to learning a sport. It requires practice to develop the right
muscles, and a supportive environment in which to flourish.
Associating: drawing connections between questions, problems,
or ideas from unrelated fields

Questioning: posing queries that challenge common wisdom

Observing: scrutinizing the behavior of others to identify new

ways of doing things

Networking: meeting people with different ideas and perspectives

Experimenting: constructing interactive experiences and

What is Creativity?
Innovation
Personal
Imagination
Unique
Making
Original
Thinking
Differently
Passion
Seeing
Outside
New
Emotive
Symbolic
Madness
Vision
Is creativity disruptive to
society ?
Art
The most prevalent form of creativity that manifests itself in
society is art.

Art is not only paintings, but films, music, street art,

posters, plays, and even design, in the form of architecture
and urban planning.

All of these forms of art, or art forms, share a close

relationship with as well as provide a mirror to the society
and culture in which they exist.

In stable societies, in many cases art serves to reinforce the

status quo, or gets supported by patronage and becomes
homogenized to serve a national narrative.

What happens to art, and what is its role,

when the fabric of society, and culture itself,
is ripped apart?
Europe before World War I
The Pre-war Art
Pre-war Art
Europe after World War I
Dada!
Dada!
Dada!
 Dada!
International in scope and diverse in artistic output, Dada was an artistic,
literary and intellectual movement of the early 20th century that was
instrumental in defining Modernism.

The Dada movement, launched in 1916 in Zurich by poets and artists

such as Tristan Tzara and Hans Arp, was a direct reaction to the
slaughter, propaganda and inanity of World War I. Independent groups
linked by common ideas sprung up soon afterwards in New York, Berlin,
Paris and elsewhere.

These various groups did not share a universal style, but rather were
connected by their rejection of idealism, stale artistic and intellectual
conventions and modern society’s unchecked embrace of ‘rationalism’
and ‘progress’.

They condemned the nationalist and capitalist values that led to the
cataclysm of the war and employed unorthodox techniques,
performances and provocations to jolt the rest of society into self-
awareness.

The absurdity of Dada activities created a mirror of the absurdity

in the world around them. Dada was anti-aesthetic, anti-rational
and anti-idealistic. Key figures such as Marcel Duchamp
disturbed the art world with his ready-mades such as Fountain
Dada!
“Every work of art arouses differences of
opinion. Some like it, some don’t; some like
it more, some like it less.

A person’s chance disposition determines

on which side he will fall.

But in the case of the new art the split

occurs in a deeper layer than that on which
differences of personal taste reside.

It is not that the majority does not

like the art of the young and the
minority likes it, the masses, do not
understand it.

Faithfully adhering to definite

aesthetic norms, they are disgusted
at the new artistic values which this
piece of art proposed to them.”
The Rise of the Modern
The Rise of the Modern
The Rise of the Modern
The Rise of the Modern
The Death of Utopia
The German Diaspora
The New World
The Progressive Artists Movement
The Progressive Artists Movement
The Progressive Artists Movement
The Progressive Artists Movement
The Progressive
Artists' Group, PAG,
was an influential
group of modern
artists, mainly based
in Bombay, from its
formation in 1947.
Though it lacked any
particular style, there
might be said to have
been a move towards
a synthesis of
influences from Indian
art history together
with styles prevalent
in Europe and North
America during the
first half of the 20th
Century,
including Post-
Impressionism, Cubis
m and Expressionism.
The Progressive Artists Movement
The PAG was inducted into Modernism by three refugees who
fled Nazi Europe to India.

Walter
Langhammer

Emmanuel
Schlesinger

Rudy von
Leyden
The Progressive Artists Movement
The founders of the Progressive Artists Group often cite "the partition"
as impetus for their desire for new standards in India, starting with
their new style of art. Their intention was to "paint with absolute
freedom for content and technique, almost anarchic, save that we are
governed by one or two sound elemental and eternal laws, of
aesthetic order, plastic co-ordination and color composition."
The Progressive Artists Movement
The Progressive Artists Movement
MF Hussain and the Hindu Right
Postwar United States
Postwar United States
Postwar United States
Postwar United States
Postwar United States
The Red Menace
The Red Menace
The Cold War
The Cold War
Tune in Drop Out – The Age of Protest
Tune in Drop Out – The Age of Protest
Tune in Drop Out – The Age of Protest
Postmodernism and Commodification
Postmodernism and Commodification
In the 1980’s, the theory of post-
modernism was developed.

“Postmodernism is what you have when

the modernization process is complete
and nature is gone for good." Frederic
Jameson.

The relationship between postmodern

theories and the new configurations
of power in the world market are fully
intertwined. The relation to "late
capitalism" to commodity / media /
entertainment capital:“ Aesthetic
production today has become integrated
into commodity production."

Postmodern culture is often characterized

as an era of "hyper-representation," in
which categories such as "the thing itself,"
the "authentic," and "the real," which
were formerly considered the objects of
The 21st Century
Today’s world is increasing
intertwined and homogenized.

There are global convergences in

the arts, architecture, and fashion.

Most of you would not look

different from a person your age in
New York, Berlin, Johannesburg, or
Buenos Aires.
Increasingly, we are living in a
digital mind space that free of
history and time.
There is an increasing tendency to
find the shortest route to a
solution.
Elegance, history, and authenticity
are often sacrificed for the image
or spectacle.
This creates myths and a
distortion of history which can
have lasting consequences.
Conclusion