Photo by Adrianne Koteen
Diy days NYC 2013 kept transforming from one idea or a declaration to another of “LEARN something new, DO something different and SHARE everything with everyone”.
SHARE: ideas with the world in a disruptive, constructive and playful LEARNING environment, in order to DO something to create great impact. That was the core message I took away from the mosaic that was created by all the contributors at diy days. Here are some sound bites:
PROCESS (Little Bets by Peter Sims): how to achieve Creative Entrepreneurialism. What’s the starting point of achieving a dream? The world is uncertain and we cannot predict outcome, so Peter found that the most successful businesses are founded on being experimental and focus on discovery. They start with little experiments & recognize the small wins. Keep building on those small wins; then focus on little bets. What does your business evolve into? The outcome of the small affordable bets & losses are valuable stepping-stones to larger success.
My favorite share was from Alexa Clay’s and Kyra Phillips’ the “MISFIT FACTORY” and their misfit economy: innovation on the edges in a world of NO rules (www.misfiteconomy.com, @misfitseconomy) :
Their tagline says it all, “What do pirates, terrorists, computer hackers and inner city gangs have in common with Silicon Valley? Innovation.”
Trying to document innovation in places no one has of yet documented, you come up with “Incredible things + social good + breaking rules = misfit economy”.
The things you can learn from rule breakers on how to be innovative. You might call it the dark side of innovation but it teaches you how to stop trying to be perfect, because then you start being more innovative. It also teaches to work together. Take the Entourage Effect: What happens when we invest in the ideas of other people? By definition entrepreneurs are surrounded by people who make them who they are. Social capital is decoupling your ego in your entourage and getting off the dependency of one person, making it more democratized. The feeling you want to foster in this group is one of no boundaries; creating informal deep connection.
Another of Alexa’s and Kyra’s discoveries was “The art of the hustle,” which creates resilience. Harvesting these insights they cultivated a way to redeploy these misfits. Why, you ask? They know how to navigate uncertainty, rely on a strong community and create things with little or no resources. This can give us insights on how to innovate frugally and inspire more socially empowered movements.
The Misfit team also found that 1/3 of people in these corporate environments sabotages their work environment. These people are seen as corporate misfits. We as a pervasive DIY community could be watching out for these misfits, in order to learn & build new ways of inspiring broader strokes of creativity. Could this model define true Creative Entrepreneurialism?
BE PHENOMENAL: (http://phenomenalwork.com)
Our ideas are the product of our experiences. It’s about letting go and listening to the world around you! Capturing the sounds and visuals for Inspiration. Finding freedom of expression phenomenally!
Brian Clark talked about Phenomenology as the unlocking of “others” storytelling. Think of the other person’s POV; think of the audience first. Perception is key; without observers or observation we have nothing. It’s that illusion of choice, in reality it’s collaboration and a social experience in sharing and listening. We now see that one of the most powerful forms of media & marketing is based on fans; fans attract and build the fan base for a powerful draw.
For example let’s start an art movement. Where is the Internet's version of an art movement? Is it the art of a start-up or DIY; perhaps the entrepreneur is the new artist!
SHARE COLLABORATIVE CREATIVE PROCESS:
Ele Jansen shared early results of her ethnographic research on creative processes and suggested that open collaboration takes fostering a circular trust economy, where everyone ideally gives more than they take. Creating an informal economy comes with a new relevance of attribution and autonomy, level benefit and generating affect are central to make such an environment productive. A quest for models that outlive meritocracy requires social contracts.
Ele’s traversed several conditions of the creative process. Ending on the paradox of freedom and constraint, her last chart read like an equation:
Creativity + discipline = limitation
Creativity – discipline = chaos
Creativity + Self-discipline = Growth
PURPOSEFUL PLAY:
Colleen Macklin gave a wonderful presentation about purposeful play.
“A self-actualizer is a person who is living creatively and fully using his or her potentials. Almost All creativity invokes purposeful play.” – Maslow
Rule + Play = Gaming, so to Play is to Push the Rules!
“The well-played game, A player's philosophy in a world where everybody wins”
by Bernard De Koven
The New Games Movement in the ‘70s evoked a huge transformation in being with others
and expressing oneself freely! It was a key moment in time when all peoples saw the potential of being creative! This was the forefront of disruptive and a misfit culture that makes for a wellspring of who and what we are today!
PURPOSEFUL STORYTELLING: The “my sky is falling” an ARG or live theater experience at this year's NYC diy days. This experience was analyzed by the Harmony Institute (harmony-institute.org ), their team works on measuring and understanding entertainment + data analysis = big data storytelling (social science framework: comprehension, attitude, response). They are using something that was developed by the MIT Media Lab called Affective Q Sensors (Emotional Arousal Measurement); data driven storytelling is transformed into emotional relevance and its impact! Their findings were effective in showing people’s different or similar emotions and reactions of the impact of the story and interaction of characters throughout the live experience.
As a creative misfit myself, I think we should focus on a evolutionary creative process liken to transmedia storytelling where the audience controls the growth and aggregation of content and context? Yet, there is a constant structure based on media touch points, story arc & gateways.
Diydays NYC 2013 was a refreshing reboot: transparency, freedom, recharge, make new, rebirth, a new view, broader understanding of how we all can be the misfit, disrupt the world and learn, do, share phenomenally!