A2: Keyword "Creative Class"

Keyword Amsterdam Group B: Creative class


Art has been veritably invaded by life,
if life means flux, change, chance, time, unpredictability.
- Scot Burton, American sculptor, 1960s

The (originally socioeconomic) concept of "creative class" defines the process in which more and more lay people stop behaving as passive consumers, and turn into active creators of meaning. They connect, exchange idea and... take action!
With the emerging technologies and Social Media trend, both innovation and creativity become mass activities.


Frozen Grand Central, "mission" by Improv Everywhere: over 200 people freeze in place on cue in Grand Central Station in New York. In their own words, Improv Everywhere is an "improvisation troupe which executes pre-planned "missions" which usually involve socially awkward or unusual situations."

Sometimes, this architecture of collaboration is set out to experiment, or even to provoke the mainstream.


Anonymous protester wearing a Guy Fawkes mask posing with police

Mature, Anne Nicole S. (1999), photograph of the Mature-series celebrating senior beauty by Dutch photographer Erwin Olaf


In any case, amateurs challenge the authority of so-called "experts". It appropriates, mixes cultures and codes, and creates new forms, identities, subcultures. This ensures the irrelevance of formal criteria. Who needs professionals anymore?
By taking the risk of crossing borders, amateur communities glue pheriferic networks and start the battle for pushing them on the central stage.

We wonder, if the creative class becomes mainstream, won't this destroy its own purpose of being?



Type Experiments, by New York-based graphic designer and typographer Stefan Sagmeister