Every Ending is a New Beginning

I’m delighted –but also a bit sad- to announce to you that we presented the final results of the project to our commissioner today. Now that the Research Report, the Project Plan, the Course of Action and the article for Colin’s Uncover Magazine are handed in, we’re all very satisfied with the outcome and the process as a whole. I’ll might even miss the project and the lovely team I was working with but as they say; every ending is the start of something new (only if the Mayans were wrong though)! So yes… for the members of Bridge this project has ended today. However, the process of Social Innovation does not stop and the network we set up with be sustained so that the solutions can be realized eventually. We created a Facebook page that will function as a platform for everyone who is –and wants to be-  involved in this project so if you’d like to share your opinions and ideas or if you just like what we did; go to http://www.facebook.com/bridgeresearchagency (and press LIKE)! If anyone of you is interested in receiving more information about the documents I mentioned earlier, please feel free to send an email to  Bridge.researchagency@gmail.com!

Below you can find some slides of our final presentation:

Final Presentation

Creative Network Session 2.0

The Idea

The Concept

Mission

Vision

Target Group

Comments on Networking

What Now?

Stakeholders

Facebook Page

Thank You

Merry Christmas

Bridge Research Agency

The Final Report

And last but not least, this blog will NOT die! You don’t have to worry cause we are planning to continue writing, as we all enjoyed sharing our ideas and progress with you here! We might not post every day, but there are definitely some interesting developments going on we can’t keep to ourselves… Curious? Stay tuned!

A.S.

Calling for help by visual culture: Room wanted!!

Those who have read and heard a bit about our project knows that we will try to solve a societal challenge by means of visual culture… A bit vague? Well, I’ll give an example by means of a videoclip. I came across a very funny, clever and creative example of how to solve a societal challenge, in this case the lack of housing in Amsterdam, by visual culture. This guy, Kasper, is trying to find a room in Amsterdam, but did not succeed so far. I believe the video is spreading all over social media at the moment and the fact that I am writing about it as well tells me that using visual culture to get your message across can work pretty well!

Another video that drew my attention is the video ‘Share your green piece’ by Greenpeace, that won the Dutch Greenbusters Award. When having a good look at the video it looks like it may have been filmed on a very low budget, however the video is nice to watch and the message is not less powerful.  Please have a look at the video below and see how you can ‘Share your green piece’.

We’re always interested to hear about any creative and innovative ideas to solve our problems within the food sector. Any thoughts? Don’t hesitate and contact us now!

Madelon

Expressing your thoughts through Art: Exhibitions in the East of England

As you might have noticed by the limited blogs over the last week, it’s the Autumn break in The Netherlands! I would however like to share a very cool exhibition I went to today at the East Coast of England:  Walton-on-the-Naze.

It took a lot of zigzaging and bumpy roads to get there, however once you’ve arrived you can’t miss the Naze Tower. It is based on a cliff which already increases the excitement, however the tower might look a bit ordinary at first. Once you’ve entered the tower and climb up the stairs you’ll find three different exhibitions spread out over six different floors of the tower. All artworks were made by East Anglian artists.

There was one exhibition which I personally liked most. They were called ‘Mixed Media Paintings’ by Sarah Baird. Next to the beautiful paintings she made on wood, I really liked the small parts of text that seemed like newspaper titles and articles. I think she tried to make a point by expressing that point in her work, which I think is always very intriguing but she expressed it in a very subtle way. One painting only had an inspiring quote, another painting had actual parts of a newspaper article, which were (as far as I know) about banks and big companies making a mess of our welfare  I must say that these were all my own interpretations of her work, however isn’t that the fun thing about art?

Below are some pictures I took during my visit.

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Photo of The Naze Tower on cliffs retrieved from NazeTower

A few more things about the tower: Around the tower and the first two floors are arranged as tea rooms. One floor is arranged as a museum of the Walton-on-the-Naze area and if you climb all the way to the top of the tower you have a great view of the town and the coastline. If you happen to visit the East Coast of England (Essex/Norfolk), you should definitely pay a visit. Have a look at their website and the webpage with information on the different exhibitions all year around.

Sarah Baird has a blog too! Click here to have a look what she’s been up to and other work she has done.

Madelon

Help needed: Art projects of your interest!

I will start this blog with apologising to our non-Dutch speaking followers as I came across a website which is only in Dutch. At first I wasn’t sure whether to share it with you because I want everyone to understand it, but I liked this initiative that much that I decided to do anyway and I’m hoping to hear about similar initiatives around the world!

The website I’m talking about is online platform voordekunst.nl . If you haven’t heard of this website already or did not have a proper look at all the different projects to be found on the website, I will explain it to you and I hope you will pay a visit! Voordekunst.nl is a  website that enables professional but also amateur artists who started a project to share these initiatives with anyone who would like to support them financially.

Projects that can be found on the website vary from music to debate, from fashion to mime and of course: Visual culture (In Dutch: Beeldende kunst). The thing I like most is that anyone who has a creative idea  is enabled to realise this with the help of people and companies who believe in this idea. Whether you’re a big company with interest in art, a family member of someone who is working on one of the projects or just someone like me who feels empathy for people who try to get a message across by approaching people in a creative way: anyone can support them. A donation starts at only 10 Euros with a maximum of 750 Euros.

The first project I liked in particular is the one below. Maybe not relevant to ours but no less interesting! FYI: It has English subtitles.

I also came across a project that is pretty relevant to our project: The importance of the pollination of bees, regarding food (We lose bees = we lose food!) They say it’s a cross-over art and environment festival. No English subs this time but I don’t think you really need it so please do have a look!

For more information about Voordekunst, the different projects, how to support them or if you would like to enrol your project, have a look at their website: www.voordekunst.nl

Madelon

The influence of artwork or the phenomenon of record heads….

I would like to dedicate this blog to something that I am particularly fond of, music. I have always loved music and bought many CD’s and even some vinyl. Next to the music being an art itself, the artwork in my opinion has a very strong influence on the record. The art work reflects the intention of a record, it can become a symbol for the record and sticks in people’s minds. We probably all remember these records, because of their artwork:

Next to the well known artworks, there are many records by smaller bands with impressive and very creative artworks, like this one:

Touche Amore – Parting the sea… (designed by Nick Steinhardt)

Besides enjoying to buy records with great artwork and owning some of my own, I have friends that own shelf’s full of vinyl: vinyl with great artwork designed by creative people. I have the honor of being friends with some very creative talents from all over the world, working for example for companys like Smog Design in Los Angeles, who design covers for famous artists like Britney Spears, Katey Perry and Disney movies like Brave. You should check out their portfolio, it’s impressive. Click here to visit their website…

While we are on the subject of records, I came across something interesting a while back and have been fascinated and amused at the same time ever since. A phenomenon with many different names: sleevefaces, record heads, LP Portraits: People cover a part of their body with an LP sleeve to create an illusion. They create funny and/or authentic pictures with different record artworks. There is a book about this form of art, as well as websites, flickr pools and millions of pictures all over the internet.

These are a few of my favorites that I found over the time, to share exclusively with you:

If you are interested in looking at some more sleeveface, LP portraits or record heads you can find the flickr pool here, the website here, a tumblr here and the google picture search gives you a great choice of pictures.

You could also go ahead and buy the book, I am definitely going to do the same. Enjoy! SH

Innovation by Nature: it’s everywhere

We have been writing about art, music and photography that can be a great inspiration to daily life. If you are not convinced by these sectors I have an alternative for you! I came across something that we might forget and don’t appreciate enough: Nature.

Biomimicry; Innovation inspired by Nature (biomimicry.net 2012) makes us aware that the answer to questions and the solution to problems is often around us, we just have to look closely. Janine Benyus is a natural sciences writer, innovation consultant and author from America who wrote several books on this topic and already gave an inspiring talk at TEDtalks in Monterey, California 5 years ago. To watch this talk click here.

You might  wonder, what has all that to do with creative industries and where are the artists? Well, my message with this blog is that the artists are around you. The artist is nature, among animals. We’re trying hard to come up with innovative ideas and we’re always seeking for something new to ‘solve problems’. Sometimes we need to take a step back and have a closer look at all the amazing things that nature has invented without our help.

Have a look at the examples below to get convinced by this thesis and convinced by the power of nature.

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(Sources: webecoist.momtastic 2011 & inhabitat.com 2012)

One of the examples I personally liked was the train inspired by the beak of a kingfisher. Usually when a ultrafast bullet train from Japan would exit a tunnel it caused turbulence and made a loud booming noise because of the air pushed out by the train. Kingfishers are known for diving in to the water quickly to catch a fish; there is no splash whatsoever because of the sharp shape of their beak. Applying this shape to the train solved the turbulence and booming sound it always used to make when leaving a tunnel. Another problem solved by the help of nature! (webecoist.momtastic.com 2011)

For more information click here. Biomimicry can also be applied to agriculture. Click here to find out how!

Madelon

Saving energy and money: an award-winning idea

The last few weeks of the project have been all about research into the field of food, water and energy waste and getting inspired by creative ideas to tackle this societal challenge. One organisation stood out in terms of inspiring others to become greener by thinking outside of the box.

It can be difficult to estimate and programme the exact heat and energy needed for the optimal  production environment. Greenhouses often deal with air temperature that is too hot for their crops or flowers and need to open windows and doors to get rid of the heat.

An orchid greenhouse in Andel, North-Brabant, came up with a much greener solution which also reduces the energy invoices of their neighbours. Butterfly Orchids will help heat up the new next-door pool with their excess heat. This creative and innovative solution to energy waste has won them the title of ‘Green Company of the Month’.

The award of ‘Green Company of the Month’ has been handed out to Butterfly Orchids last week on 7 September 2012. The title will be delegated to another company next month, who will be or has been an inspiration to companies to become greener just as Butterfly Orchids.

Becoming green and saving money is very much possible with inspiration and novel thinking. Every little helps and we hope to have inspired you!

Madelon

Source: Information and picture based and retrieved from the article ‘Butterfly Orchids ‘groen bedrijf van de maand’ by ‘OnsBrabant’ on 13/09/2012 from http://brabant.nl/actueel/nieuws/2012/september/butterfly-orchids-in-andel-groen-bedrijf-van-de-maand.aspx

All these fancy words…in a nutshell!

Social innovation, creative industries, societal challenges, subsectors – these are all fancy words, but what do they mean?

Well, first of all, these are going to be the key words during the next few months and you will probably come across them on a regular basis on this blog. So why not explain them briefly?!

Social innovation is a process to formulate solutions for societal challenges – such as food, water & energy supplies, climate changes, ageing society, health; you name it – by means of new strategies, concepts and ideas. The key in social innovation is however Co-creation, working together and utilizing creativity. Out-of-the-box thinking is the main input for new types of solutions. This is where the Creative Industries enter the stage.

Creative Industries is an umbrella term for anything that has, in one way or another, to do with creativity and entrepreneurship, out-of-the-box thinking, networking, talent and skills – you see, it is a broad field we are operating in! This is why the Creative Industries can be divided into different subsectors, such as music, design, fashion and visual culture; these subsectors are to be combined with societal challenges in order to develop sustainable and new solutions for social problems.

During the next couple of weeks, we are going to focus on one societal challenge and one subsector and will bring representatives of these parties together to brainstorm, to think out-of-the-box and to create solutions.

Not so easy to put all these fancy words in a nutshell! But here’s some literature we recommend on this topic:

Social innovation: what it is, why it matters and how it can be accelerated by Geoff Mulgan with Simon Tucker, Rushanara Ali and Ben Sanders for the Oxford SaÏd Business School. Have a look at this working paper here http://eureka.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/761/1/Social_Innovation.pdf

GZM

Where Good Ideas Come From

In this first blog we would like to tell you a little bit more about our project and what you will be able to find on this page in the upcoming months. As the title already says, we are connecting Creative Industries and Social Innovation, but what exactly are we working on?

First of all, the commissioner of this project is COLIN (Connecting Creative Organisations Linked in Networks). Colin operates on the intersection of education, government, businesses and research and focuses on the added value of creative industries as an important source for innovation. By creating links between creative sectors and economic sectors, innovation is stimulated and the creative economy of Brabant, which is a province in the Netherlands, is enhanced. In previous years Colin has carried out research on creative factors that determine the settlement choices of creative industry branches, social design and the European Capital of Culture. Research is bundled in a magazine called Uncover and we, Bridge Research Agency, will be writing an article for the new edition of Uncover.

During the previous week we have been discussing possible combinations of societal challenges or problems with a subsector of the Creative Industries – basically, we have been researching, discussing and sharing ideas. If you want to know where good ideas come from, have a look at this interesting video by Steven Johnson: 

In the upcoming months we will be bringing parties together in order to create new networks and come up with innovative content for Uncover. If you keep an eye on this blog you will be able to find interesting videos, articles, websites and updates about the project. We hope to see you back on our blog soon!

A.S.