#CultureReset — Imaginal cells
“When a caterpillar enters its chrysalis, it dissolves itself, quite literally, into liquid. In this state, what was a caterpillar and will be a butterfly is neither one nor the other, it’s a sort of living soup. Within this living soup are the imaginal cells that will catalyse its transformation into winged maturity. May the best among us, the most visionary, the most inclusive, be the imaginal cells — for now we are in the soup.” — Rebecca Solnit
We are in a moment of immense change. At this time, emerging from the crisis, we need art that reflects our shifting world. The pandemic, the climate crisis, and the Black Lives Matter movement have initiated calls and exposed space for new structures to emerge. There is an urgent need to accelerate change in the cultural sector — to rethink our processes, to embed greater relevance and representation, and future-proof art and culture.
The wonderful Culture Reset programme launched this summer, “a practical rapid response programme to inspire more relevant and impactful cultural organisations and practices.” A group of 192 arts and cultural producers, makers, and directors across the UK are coming together to explore questions around this. How do organisations connect more meaningfully with context and communities? How do we realistically make radical change happen whilst dealing with the crisis? How do we put engagement and relevance at the heart of our artistic programmes?
As a participant in the Culture Reset programme, I’m writing a series of posts to openly share ideas that emerge in response to its excellent resources and discussions with the cohort. Here are some of the key themes and questions I’m hoping to explore and expand on over the next weeks:
Creativity and digital innovation
Creativity allows us to imagine, to make sense of the world around us, and to thrive. Technology can open up new possibilities and approaches to creativity. We are no longer bound by brick and mortar as our route to make and experience culture. What opportunities might emerge from new kinds of cultural infrastructure that mix live and digital in entirely new ways? What new approaches for artists and makers might come from working with emerging digital formats — virtual reality, augmented reality, AI, spatial audio? How might technology open up pathways into the arts for a broader range of creative collaborators and bring in new voices from diverse backgrounds?
Art as a creative process
Art is not fixed, it evolves forwards. We can develop creative processes that are iterative, experimental, and pivot to different formats. We can move away from cultural production that has a linear trajectory, to a process with the creative idea at its heart, that can evolve into different outputs. Unexpected, extraordinary ideas can emerge from experimentation when not tied down to a fixed path. How might we start to privilege the process before the end result? Revealing how something is made — particularly when that course has had many twists and turns — provokes a richer experience and empowers other makers.
Convening and ecosystems
Art has convening power and can bring together different worlds. We need to look beyond our sector to a broad network of collaborators and voices. Ecosystems are more resilient, more exciting, and more dynamic than monocultures. New kinds of art need new voices and approaches.
Artistic and entrepreneurial
More than ever, we know to sustain our sector we need a diverse landscape of funding and investment. We need to create opportunity, to be nimble and entrepreneurial, to bring together sectors. What other sectors can we learn from and partner with to strengthen the arts?
There is so much uncertainty now. But this uncertainty allows space to break from the systems and structures that no longer serve us. We don’t know how this future will develop and what shape this will take. And right now life is hard for many people. But we know this is a vital opportunity to reflect, to reassess, to reimagine.
“We live in a universe that is alive, creative, and experimenting all the time to discover what’s possible.” — Margaret Wheatley
Sam is currently the Senior Producer of Audience Labs at the Royal Opera House, an innovation initiative bringing together pioneering artists and next generation technology to create new kinds of opera and ballet experiences. Previous to the Royal Opera House, Sam produced contemporary exhibitions at the Victoria and Albert Museum, and before this at Museum of the Moving Image in New York. Sam was the co-founder of the Bristol-based arts organisation Compass Presents, creating immersive environments, enhanced screenings and interactive encounters.
