you know it when you see it
Monday, July 17, 2006
Anyone who has followed the narrative thread of this blog so far knows that FogStock is putting the majority of our corporate and creative energy into visualizing the so-called Creative Class. And then, perhaps, monetizing the results of our efforts.
But what are we really talking about when we say Creative Class?
Here in Portland, the Creative Class is one of those indefinable buzzwords that is simultaneously meaningless, yet everyone knows what you mean when you say it. In actual practice, you can take a little bit of the theory of the Creative Class proposed by economist Richard Florida, add in a few visual elements that revolve around artmaking and musicianship and kitschy recreational activities, and wrap the whole thing up in a glimmery sheen of micro-enterprise entrepreneurship.
Then maybe you’ll be getting pretty close to defining the indefinable, at least the way we undefine it in Portland.
But there is another dimension to this discourse, one that resists the temptation toward trite visualizations. The Creative Class might be a popular buzzword on its way to overuse, but it is also a compelling metaphor for new and powerful currents in our practices of commerce and communication.
posted by fogged @ 2:41 PM
