Positive countercultures

In Backed we talked about why betting on countercultures makes sense.

In New Requirements we opened up on today's tensions and the resultant mass of counter-movements that have emerged to make a case for change, and found ourselves wondering if any of them offer a way to resolution.

Now it's time to look at one group in particular, creatives.

If the path to progress can't realistically be paved by the technologists, the fatalists, the radicals, or the new romantics, perhaps those who offer the most practical way forward are those who are animated by the spirit of creative counterculture?

Because these creative community clusters propose much more positive and viable futures, born out of the art of reimagining what's there.

These communities observe the same world as we do, and are possessed of the same tools we have, but they distinguish themselves in their capacity to apply the filter of creativity to turn that into remarkable, and often unexpected results.

This conceptually-skilled creative community finds expression and innovation in the practice of design, story, symphony, empathy, play, and meaning.

?When faced with a set of binary options they resist the convenience of a binary choice. Instead, their instincts call them to explore the path between them and around them, often finding points of connection and convergence that others don’t see. They navigate the zones of possibility between A and B, or 0 and 1, way- finding to explore new paths of reason, expression, invention, and of meaning.?

We find these communities across a wide expanse of practices, segments, and cultures. We find them in the arts, in applied sciences, in the physical realm of outdoor and sport, and also in industry. Through their creative lens they are able to look at climate, the outdoors, urban spaces, lifestyles, technologies, governance, systems and structures in new and different ways.

When a skateboarder walks through town they see potentials the rest of us don't.

When a photographer observes a landscape through their lens, they can capture a perspective that the rest of us miss.

A surfer looks at ocean swell in a way that is 180 degrees different to a sailor. Where a sailors sees caution a surfer sees an opportunity.

When an architect considers a landscape they see the negative space, and imagine new structures.

It is through this creative lens that we can find an alternative path to progress, one that does not hinge upon technological miracles, nor dramatic political overhaul, but new uses for existing structures.

Same infrastructure, new output.

The next era can only be the creative era. In an age of abundance, automation, AI, outsourcing, Asia and Africa, it is those who are able to synthesize disparate elements to find new patterns and create new potentials who will inspire new communities and mobilize new paths forward.