Data, data, everywhere

With just under a month to go until the release of The Creative Condition, my front room is a sorting office as I race to reward my Kickstarter backers with their advance copies of the book. I did, however, pause for a few hours of the Friday afternoon on which the palette of books arrived so I could take a copy to my local, buy a pint of ale, and sit and stare at the decade's worth of work in my hands.

As I reflected on the mazy, unpredictable, inprescribable, serendipitous succession of events that brought me to this moment, I felt giddy about the battles ahead. The battles to challenge the damaging perception of creativity - which belongs to every human - as mere artistic talent, and elevate its role in facing our collective challenges.

Only full trust in that serendipity - based on feelings and instinct - made the book possible. That doesn't fit in a spreadsheet, and it flies in the face of the commodification of creativity. This is the name of chapter 7. This commodification is an asphyxiating paranoia brought about by the ubiquity of data and its subsequent misuse in education, business, and just about anywhere else that creativity might otherwise thrive.

Referring to Ofsted's routine crass and clumsy fingering of otherwise fertile turf for creative growth and effective real-world learning, primary teacher Tom Brooks reminded me of the saying: 'Weighing the pig doesn't make it fatter.'

In the chapter, I talk at length to former illustration degree course leader Steve Wilkin, and co-founder of applied art and design collective Tomato, Graham Wood - who both share a disdain for the misuse of data, and both bring great value to the chapter and book. I also particularly loved this excerpt from a newsletter by Sir John Hegarty :

The physical examples [of using inappropriate tools] are absurd. But in the digital sphere, we’re a lot more lenient when it comes to selecting the incorrect tackle. The worst offenders are those who obsess over the power of data – specifically, its ability to predict and measure things that were unmeasurable before. Research and evidence are fundamentally important, but we’re so enchanted with the capabilities of data that it’s started to feel like we can’t come to a decision without the reassurance of a stat. This is a problem – an emphasis on what’s been prevents the imagining of what might be.

It is something we all share the responsibility to challenge. The battle will not be easy. After all, humans fear what they do not understand, and creativity is infamously uncertain. But I've since left the pub, and my belief in our ability to eventually see the immense value of a broader appreciation, understanding, and complete embrace of creativity is strong.

The Creative Condition is out April 11th and available for pre-order now.

Signed paperbacks here, and ebooks here. Audiobook coming later in 2024.

Listen to The Creative Condition podcast here.