curious patterns #23
On global cultural policy futures, artist discoverability, and the politics of design.
curious patterns is an email newsletter on all things culture, impact and sustainable development, written by Kai Brennert from edge and story (LinkedIn).
Thanks so much for sharing your content devouring preferences in the last curious patterns. Looks like a podcast is in order. Let’s see what we can do there 🚀
Welcome friends at Leeds University 🇬🇧, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú 🇵🇪, European Commission 🇪🇺, Creative Innovation Centre CIC 🇬🇧, UNESCO 🇫🇷, African Visual Artists Associates 🇺🇬, Università della Svizzera italiana 🇨🇭, Arcada University of Applied Sciences 🇫🇮, Ikaranta 🇳🇪, NalandaWay Foundation 🇮🇳, culture Solutions 🇧🇪, terre des hommes 🇨🇭, Arts for Good Foundation 🇭🇰, Zurich University of the Arts 🇨🇭, House of Fairy Tales 🇬🇧, The Acting Academy 🇰🇭, and the United Arab Emirates’ Prime Minister’s Office 🇦🇪
🇰🇭 A little something on cultural preservation, arts censorship, cultural policy, and generational differences in Cambodia. Written by me, trying to be smart.
🤖 If anybody still had any doubts, most of your current AI tools are culturally biased. This map illustrates nicely what data your AI sees, and it’s shockingly unsurprising.
🇸🇦🇦🇪🇶🇦 The UAE will not just be the host of COP28, they also channel insane amounts of money into arts and creative industries. So do Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
📚 More debut authors, more women, more genre diversity, more boundary pushers – the trends in African literature we saw in 2022 all point to a bright future.
🍚 From the CIA via Indonesian art collectives to last year’s documenta clusterf*ck, Panthea Lee wrote a beautiful, nuanced, and personal article examining collectivist art.
🥳 As we tend to paint our potential futures in rather apocalyptic colours, a probably much under-researched aspect of degrowth is how to have fun with it.
✈️ Data storytelling at its best. This time: the colonial roots of indigenous tourism in Asia. Ready for an ancient agricultural action adventure anyone?
🖼 Now this is how I wish I had learned art history back in the days. Absolutely lovely Southeast Asian art history books for children done in an inspiring collaboration.
🇵🇭 The Philippines want to set up a creative economy working group at ASEAN. But wait a minute… it’s a trade undersecretary presenting this idea to economic officials.
💪 Flexing acronyms and jargon is every development worker’s favourite thing. The OECD updated its sus dev evaluation gold standard glossary so you can flex, too.
🌍 Pop culture, land governance or heritage restitution – pick your poison. The Jahazi Journal has it all. One of my go-to resources for culture in East Africa.
👾 Artist placements in public policy teams. I live for this stuff! In my mind, that might even be the only way out of our current global misery. Keen to hear what comes of it.
🏛 All the way down to individual SDG targets, ICCROM is sending a whole lot of great resources to embed sustainability in cultural institutions our way. Cool stuff!
🇳🇬 A fascinating Nigerian conversation on anonymously designed objects, a mobile kiosk for Coachella, the ridiculousness of design sprints, and the politics of it all.
🔮 The Future of Culture and Development?
Today, I am sharing a little something, the wonderful Ama Ofeibea Tetteh of Chapter54 and I recently put together for a keynote provocation. For a Swiss networking event for organisations working at the intersection of culture and development, we were invited by Helvetas. Shout-out to Regula Gattiker and Nadja Buser! The overall idea is still a bit rough and it might develop into something bigger later on, but for now, sit back and relax…
🗓 January 26, 2043
Today is January 26th, the year is 2043. Through decades of tiresome advocacy to recognise the value, the strength, and potential of culture, it is now firmly positioned at the heart of policy and very much embedded in developmental work. Society’s approach to development has also moved on to become more holistic, human-centred and inclusive. Whilst we have moved in leaps and bounds ideologically, there are still gaps to close concerning our responses to shared global challenges such as climate change and conflict. Nonetheless, using arts and culture to do so no longer seems so far-fetched. In fact, much of what was once considered experimental and conceptual is now embedded in governing structures and strategy.
I just made it back into the city before nightfall. Yes, our vehicles are solar-powered. Yes, some of them are self-driving. But somehow I am still not keen on trusting that the roads are maintained properly. Potholes are as deep as ever. Anyway, my trip to the new Garden for Community Imaginaries was absolutely worth it. I’m totally blown away by how easily experimentation and traditional knowledge, arts and tech, and our community values in general come together to really dig deep into the most complex of challenges. Who would have thought that the farmer, the extended reality artist, and the biomimicry scientist could grow and secure this hyperlocal food system? I mean, it’s bleak out there. Decades of rising temperatures, desertification, and lithium mining have severely messed up that place. But then again, who even is just ‘a farmer’ anymore? Everyone is an artist. Not just in Beuys’ social sculpture kind-of-way but really quite literally. After these years of financial, mental, environmental, and emotional austerity, we seem to have found our way back to the most authentic form of artistry: imagination!
Now, tomorrow I’m going to meet with the Forum of Holistic Wellbeing and Regenerative Practice. I am so glad we made away with all these ministerial silos here. Bloody distraction. Our citizen’s assembly will explore patterns of individual, collective, and ecosystem healing. Healing from environmental decay, migration traumas, violent resource skirmishes, and heritage destruction. And healing has so many dimensions that we will need to look at: the physical, the mental, the emotional, the cultural, the ecological, the economic, the communal, and so many more. So glad there will be a performing artist guiding our patternsensing and sensemaking exercise. I also hope my fellow citizens will appreciate the learnings from our guests. Because I also invited some partners who have been through similar things. Different places, different contexts – same humanity, same biosystem.
🗓 January 26, 2033
Today is January 26th, the year is 2033. Despite global strategic efforts and the most post-recession funding we have ever seen, the world has just failed to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Whilst the result did not come as a surprise to all, a quiet rumbling in the background is beginning to have more resonance centre-stage. There is now comprehensive data on the shape and growth of the arts and culture sectors globally and after a challenging period for traditional Western-led academic institutions, new curriculums for education have emerged from Artist-led interventions and pedagogies from the global South. These new approaches centre imagination and curiosity and are becoming more embedded in mainstream education. Thanks in part to new perspectives of young leadership, it is becoming increasingly difficult to tell the story of a better society without Arts and Culture playing the role of the main character.
Today I was reminded of those internet memes that we found inspiring in the 2020s: stay curious, stay playful, stay weird. Ha! If those kids I met today knew what we were up to back then, they would have roasted me hard. This new curriculum the government has been implementing for the past few years really hits the spot. Play, imagination, curiosity, and philosophy from all corners of the world. They focus on interdependencies, conduct experiments, and use creativity and storytelling as their methods. There is a whole new criticality and care I see in these youngsters. They don’t centre themselves and they stay weird. I guess what we manifested back then is slowly becoming reality, despite the SDG bellyflop.
But you know what, maybe the reason we didn’t achieve the SDGs is not just because of its inherent political-diplomatic-negotiation BS dominated by rich countries. Maybe it’s because we didn’t consider culture. I mean it. Using public expenditure as the only indicator of culture might not have been the most insightful move. Kudos to all the initiatives that went out there to design responsive, localised frameworks, collect relevant data, and then make it free and accessible. It helps us to measure but also re-think how arts and culture as a sector with wide-ranging impacts contributes to social transformation and development.
Development … when I hear the term ‘development’ these days, I immediately think of expanding one’s own mind, re-learning the lore of the land, re-wiring our brains constantly to make sense of the new technologies, and appreciating scientific and imaginative discoveries. And most of all, collectively find our place in this world, being part of a mutual living organism that strives to replenish and do better. I think I will sleep better tonight, knowing that my children, and their children, and their children will live more safely on our shared planet and get to use the full extent of their histories, identities, and creativities. They are the ones that get to embrace humanity’s role, not as THE species but as ONE caretaker in a complex system full of life and wonder.
🗓 January 26, 2023
Today is January 26th, the year is 2023. Very much a symptom of post-covid communication, hybrid working is still a popular option and is often leveraged to convene diverse groups together virtually and in person. It’s in these convenings that we are reminded of just how common the challenges we face are despite our different contexts. In some spaces within the developmental field, culture is still seen as more of a promotional tool or vector through which to deliver development initiatives only. In most places there is still some level of difficulty in really defining what culture is and its inherent value, especially to those who feel they sit outside of it as a sector. There are also still disparities between who gets to develop their artistic expressions and cultural identities free from the ‘duty’ of only doing so in response to localised social challenges. Amongst certain shining national examples and others not doing so well, there certainly does seem to be an appetite to collaborate and create a more inclusive and sustainable ecosystem to work both in and with culture.
Funny that. Switzerland of all places really seems to have their shit together. I went to a network meeting today with a bunch of representatives from development agencies, arts organisations, and the government, but also artists and other folks that are really keen to put more intention into their work with arts and culture in international cooperation. Weird how I still believe that concerted policy action is still the way to go, despite its glacial pace. And I’m not even talking about the political ice cream flavour of the day. The idealist I am. It’s about time we recognise that using artists as cheerleaders of WASH campaigns or making arts organisations implement democracy campaigns alone doesn’t get us very far. There is SO MUCH MORE. Really, I’m very hopeful that with the energy and vision in this room today, we can really start to shift the conversation, push the envelope a little, burn down the … well, let’s keep that for another day.
But, oh boy, change is so needed. Some 150 Ministers of Culture and UNESCO now declared culture a ‘global public good’, which is promising. Do we need a standalone culture goal for sustainable development, though? Think about it, climate change is increasingly biting us in the butt, and we are fast asleep at the wheel leading conceptual debates of whether culture means identity, a way of life, heritage, creativity, or just the arts. The heck – even the World Bank says that working with the culture sector is difficult because WE cannot even articulate what culture means, why we are even relevant. On the other hand, it’s the World Bank, who am I kidding?!
I think ultimately it comes down to understanding – for yourself – what culture means, what potential and power you see in arts and culture, what it does to you. And then you need to understand what it means to other people, what their life is like, what they dream of.
IMPACT
🏙 Dataviz galore beyond charts. I really love this design walkthrough by Voilà: on how to avoid (boring) charts and give the information user something else to work with. For example, an isometric map, in layers, with zoom-ins and coloured highlights to illustrate climate change vulnerability of infrastructure. And, voilà, your storytelling is now playing in an entirely different league. Here is the work in action.
💃 So you think you can dance … statistics? When working with data, I would say it’s helpful to regularly refresh your understanding of what we might have learned back in STATS101 years ago. If you’re anything like me and keep looking up the definition of variance, you might enjoy this dance interpretation of statistical concepts by The British Psychological Society. Old but gold.
ART IN BETWEEN
🇰🇭 It doesn’t exist, so let’s build it ourselves. That’s what Cambodian contemporary arts trailblazers Sa Sa Art Projects thought and simply added another brilliant way to support the local arts community to their portfolio that already boasts exhibitions, residencies, courses, workshops, sales facilitation, and open studio space. DIY culture meets collectivity.
CCVA is an online directory of Cambodian contemporary artists. You can browse individual artists’ profiles, get lost in their amazing work, fall in love, get in touch, and buy loads and loads of their art. Or just admire and remember their names.
RESEARCH | REPORTS | TOOLKITS
🇮🇳 Wanna know what’s going on in India these days? If you can look past this standard-Word document Calibri crime, the Creative Industries in India Mapping Study offers two pretty interesting deep dives on crea-tech (animation, VFX, gaming) and design for sustainability since there is some crazy growth happening in these sectors in India. The analysis of geographical centres of certain creative industries is also insightful, especially since the pure numbers don’t tell the full story – Delhi and Mumbai take home the crown, surprise surprise. The report’s wider sector scan is rather superficial, unfortunately.
My personal highlight is found in the first part of the report as it illustrates the mind-boggling number of bodies involved in policymaking for CCIs in India. The sheer size and diversity of India make data collection and concerted policy action incredibly difficult (or even just the dissemination of schemes available), and widespread informality is probably not helping, either. Have a look, it’s fascinating.
If India’s cultural and creative industries are a mystery to you, you might want to skim through this decent industry primer for one of the biggest players in the world.
WHAT ELSE?
Okay, you might spot a bit of a theme here in this section. This year, I will make my work at edge and story more intentional and invest more in grounding my practice in terms of values, visions, methods, and theories. And the further I dig into sustainability as a framework, I feel its growing insufficiency for what I believe is necessary. Here are some resources I am currently devouring because they are so rich in ideas and visions. I hope you find them useful, too.
🌱 Flourish is a podcast that accompanies a book, not replaces it. I haven’t had a chance to get my hands on the book either, so don’t worry. The podcast alone with its brilliant mix of guests is inspirational enough to infuse our minds with disruptive ideas from architecture and economics to philosophy and rooftop climate activism. However, I did manage to meet Sarah Ichioka, one of the authors and hosts of Flourish, in Singapore last week, and she is as wonderful and inspiring as you might expect. Full recommendation!
Side note: Probably the first thing I did after listening to this podcast was to go out and buy Kate Raworth’s Doughnut Economics. I am currently reading it through an arts and culture lens – so stay tuned.
💗 Endless Vital Activity is going down a very similar route podcast-wise. Invite a bunch of super bright folks for conversations around the future of our planet and humanity. Season 3 so far has looked at biomimicry, meta-systems, hormonal cycles, and climate reparations. Nothing new in terms of format, but so very enriching.
🥾 Sentiers is a free weekly newsletter curating fascinating articles and adding thoughtful commentary on technology, society, culture, and potential futures. It can get quite dense at times, but then again we must face these potential futures heads-on if we want to play a relevant part in it. It’s a great newsletter that I should honestly dedicate more time to in my weekly reading schedule. (h/t Nadim)
OPPORTUNITIES
24 Feb: AFD Digital Challenge (call for projects on digital technology for cultural and creative industries)
15 Mar: Allianz Foundation Fellows Program (call for applications)
Please forward this newsletter to a friend, and do reach out: kai@edgeandstory.com