Bristol wins, Douglas McWilliams was right, and why Exeter isn't quite it!

Bristol recognised as the fourth most inspiring City in the World ahead of London, New York and Paris. Take a moment to allow that to sink in. 

A lot of chat has gone on recently about Exeter's potential to achieve and get world recognition for great things. Part of that debate is about how to attract and keep skilled folk, particularly techie's in the city. Many organisations are scratching their heads. Sometimes together and sometimes alone to try and answer this question. In his book the Flat White Economy Douglas McWilliams lays out criteria based on economic data, to create the potential for tech City growth to happen. What surprises me is that some of the key criteria are mostly ignored. This is particularly noticeable here in Exeter. The criteria that attract and keeps techies in a given place include a large element of fun. Yes thats right, fun. Bristol won its award based not on it's ability to provide jobs or cheap housing. It won because it is fun, and has a large and active creative community. Who are recognisable in many cases on the World cultural scene. 

check out the criteria

 Where is Exeter's Banksy, Tricky, Roni Size or Massive Attack? (even these examples are out of date). Where are the cultural centres that would allow such creative talents to flourish? For all it's glitzy shopping arcades Exeter does not have even one 'cool' venue. Or even a decent hangout. The wealthy populate the few places in Exeter that are worth a visit. Not the struggling creatives. Even live music venues have  decreased. The few that remain are overcrowded.  Come on Exeter if you want to attract and keep skilled tech staff and other workers you need to be a lot more Bristol. That means creating serious cultural centres. Cool work hubs for artists and musicians. Theatres, galleries, multiple venues for new bands and much much more. The best things happen where strange worlds collide. Where 'not the usual suspects' meet and discuss and create. Right now in Exeter the same old people are talking to themselves and each other. Then patting themselves on their collective backs. This will change nothing! Exeter needs to be less superficial and much more inspiring. Check out the awards criteria in the link below.

Bristol Award
The Criteria: Here

Where are the future creatives? And what are we doing about it?

Only 1% of people on the internet are creators!

Creative tools past

Its an odd paradox that in an age where we have the most powerful creative tools in our hands most of us use them to do passive tasks. At best we might take a selfie, add a filter and post it in the ether. That is the endless stream of social media. yes we might well look back nostalgically at our efforts. But I suggest there are less and less people able and willing to make a living out of creating. Why is this?

First of all I guess the notion of jobs like photographer, artist, poet, writer, musician. Considered the creative roles appear diluted by digital technology and means of distribution. When I was a teenager if you wanted to take a photograph (my obsession back then), you had to and first save up for a decent camera. Mine was a Zenit E, followed by Canon AE and many more. Also the accessories as you gradually learned the trade of using different lenses for different reasons and flash in the dark etc. If you were a fanatic like me, you but a darkroom with a Durst enlarger. Struggled to create a space of total blackout where you could develop and enlarge your masterpieces. I was told that good print could last a 100 years or more. I wonder what digital archives will be around in 100 years?

Ingrained in that crazy slow learning curve was a desire to capture images that endured and pleased others. And master the techniques of presenting them. To exhibit was to bare your soul. The great and good came from far and wide to see, and if you were lucky purchase your efforts. You would number them to make them even more desirable. Oddly I've noticed a resurgence of people using film recently that might one day return to this situation. But I doubt it.

Like music and writing, the art of photography died with the digital camera. Music struggles on but the means of distribution have rendered earning a living as a musician almost impossible. Art is the last bastion. Struggling in its own way to stand out in the crowded space where social sharing and advertising increasingly co-exist. One in 11 jobs or 8.8 per cent of all UK jobs now falls within the creative economy, and one in six of all UK graduate jobs are also creative economy positions. This is seen as good, but as work opportunities decline and the traditional notion of work disappears with the coming AI revolution. The percentage is going to have to be a lot bigger! 

http://www.thecreativeindustries.co.uk/media/286867/cic_jobs_update2015.pdf 

Part of developing and autonomous, think on your feet, adaptable workforce is going to be all about stimulating and encouraging creative skills beyond the odd selfie. 

My self with Prisma - 5 mins of effort!

But how? 

At the moment our education system and every other facet of society pushes people towards the traditional view of 9-5 treadmill jobs. The new breed of hamsters, apart from a small minority, seem happy to follow. Disruption is happening in many aspects of society, bitcoin, crowdfunding, crowdsourcing, AI, autonomous vehicles. But not in traditional education. According to many commentators it kills creativity. This is something we need to tackle quickly. Or we will hive our future creatives to mindless silos nose to the grind wheel.

The solution is opening things up, yes even schools and colleges. Oh the risks I hear you scream. But as long as we keep closed systems, closed institutions and closed thinking, we will not stimulate the 'autonomy economy' of future creatives. 

My vision is that the best things happen when strange worlds meet. Co working hubs around the world are demonstrating this almost daily. what we need is to do this earlier, faster and cheaper to enable worlds to collide more often. Creative hubs, freely available to all are the answer. When I was a kid the library was my education, but they are no where  near cool enough anymore. We need spaces that are the epitome of wow. Designed to attract and throw together the cleverest minds of all ages and social strata. No government will support this as this kind of autonomy terrifies them. It is for our generation, those who know how to make stuff, to provide them for the future. 

Some light is starting to appear, we have hubs coming out of our ears in Exeter and conferences too. The problem is they are disparate and not in the centre. There is no one centrally placed Loci, I propose a quiet takeover and I have a target place! Watch this space...

How much reality can we cope with?

 

There it was! One minute I was responding to a post about Pokemon Go suggesting that its a  stepping stone to full Virtual Reality and a way to get people interested in Augmented Reality (I'm totally surprised it doesn't yet have AR adverts. Then good old Google (speculation alert) are alleged to be working on, get this, a mixed reality version of Google glass!
Well I never. The question is how much reality can we take? It seems to me that people aren't yet ready for full on VR, unless they're queuing for a Japanese VR porn convention that is. So the middle ground is as ever to get people interested/addicted via a game. Well done Nintendo, you've certainly achieved that. Wish I'd had a few shares in the old Wii factory but alas I don't. Apparently it's been so successful it's outstripped Sony!
So what next? Well careful what you wish for, a number of commentators have been fixated about the internet of things, smart cities and augmented advertising. But they have taken their eye off the good old smart phone as the vehicle for this. Also of course the possibility of wearables if Google gets it's way.
TThis video from Hyper Reality thanks to Keiichi Matsuda (Above) gives a sneak preview of what might happen to your phone or indeed your glasses. Is it a case of glasses half empty or glasses left full? You tell me...

Hyper Reality 

Cool Brittania - not anymore it isn't

Everyone's going to Brexit! 

Everywhere I go since Brexit I hear people discussing their desire to leave Britain. this is particularly evident among young people. I was in my favourite coffee shop and as always earwigging conversation. The young and interested who would have or voted remain are discussing Brexit. Not in the way you might imagine. Far from the infighting, xenophobia of politics.  They are discussing the exciting opportunities and sense of cool offered by big European cities. 

The primary target of this discussion is Berlin, itself the target of unrest lately due to gentrification. The young and the interested are rebelling. Cool Britannia, a tardy phrase coined by Blair and his cronies. When they'd finally, all too late woken up to the value of our creative industries, is dead in the water. Despite the best efforts of our film, music and creative arts industries worth £10 million an hour to the UK.  Britain is about to leech it's best creative minds. Selfish class ridden UK will become a desert wasteland of disaffected youth. Because those with the skills and abilities will realise that Shoreditch isn't it. Just take a tour of any major European city and you will sense the confidence of youth. Not for them the hang ups of class barriers for start ups. Not for them the labels of immigrant if you attempt to put yourself forward. Its a badge of honour to be well read, well dressed and entrepreneurial in the most happening cities in Europe. 

Check out wired magazine's hottest 100 startups and you will see the diversity of ideas and experience. It may be the baby boomers that built stuff, but it is generation Z who are using the tools to greatest effect. 

 It will be generation K who will be the test of Britain's ability to retain a skilled   society. Able to compete as independent individuals against the best in Europe. Douglas McWilliams 'Flat White Economy' describes how skilled immigrants saved London from going under in the last recession. Now Brexit has done it's worst, who will save London and the UK in the next one? The talented immigrants will leave, chased out by xenophobia and hatred. The skilled and independent generation K's from the UK will flee in their droves. I for one will mourn the loss of both. The creative youth that make our society so special. And the brilliant migrants I've met who've enriched my life and the life of our cities so much. Cool is elsewhere, just take a look at football, clothing, bikes, music, clubs, film, science, design and art if you don't agree! 

Bring out your flaneurs

Yes it's true, the Flaneur is back! 

Well, theoretically at least they've never been away. That aside let's go back a couple of hundred years and explore the notion of flanerie. According to Wikipedia the original translation from the French is stroller or lounger. But drawing on the work of  the great critic Walter Benjamin it becomes much much more. The urban explorer, adventurer and documenter of the city.

Hiding in plain sight

So What?
In the past few weeks of part time working I've discovered many friends who are in one way or another flaneurs. What I've learned is that they, far from lounging and sauntering have a huge amount to offer the city. Because they document and photograph things that the average person just doesn't see. They are also passionate about living histories of streets and locations and people. This is amusingly echoed by the creation of an Exeter monopoly game. I can reassure my flanerie that their discoveries in this city will almost certainly not appear on the famous game board. They are far too interesting and unusual.

Why not you say?
The reason for this is it requires time and local inquisitive enquiry to discover the hidden stories of a city. No amount of scant location picking for a game can possibly uncover the treasures they reveal. As ever the sadness is the people rushing by in their relentless hamster wheel existence do not value the city. They certainly  would not appreciate the importance of flaneurs.

Ah the things you see!

What can we do about this?
I believe the key thing is to provide outlets to enable the products of flanerie to come to the attention of people who want to see and know. Yes that's right the inquisitive ones. The Phoenix in Exeter is sadly lacking as an arts centre (insufficient art taking place in my opinion). But does occasionally have local photographic exhibitions. Trouble is they tend to be by people who are 'just' photographers. Not that I'm dismissing the wonderful photographers of the South West, far from it. But they are not flaneurs, they do not all document the minutiae and miscellany that make a place special and significant.

Who are they?
If you want an example, local author, song writer and flaneur extraordinaire,  Steve Harris's Facebook images and blog articles are a great place to look.

Make me happy!
I't would delight me if you can identify others and share them with me here.
A recent financial times article cites Exeter as a draw for entrepreneurs looking for work-life balance. It is a brilliant city, but to my mind they don't know the half of it! Do you?