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Aesthetics play an important role in the creative economy. Many of our products and contributions are in the field of aesthetics. The American author Virginia Postrel explains “that the ‘look and feel’ of people, places, and things are more important than we think. Aesthetic pleasure taps deep human instincts and is essential for creativity and growth.”
Especially aesthetics of places and areas have gained traction in the past years. In local and community development the terms “aesthetic” and “creative” are often combined to generate visions of highly energetic, bustling places where life is blooming, and neighborhoods are thriving. Creative aesthetics is becoming an instrument in upward revaluation. But why is that so? In this little three-part series, I’m going to look at it.
I suppose it was Richard Florida who first pointed out the intensifying connection of creative industries and local development. In his book “The Rise of the Creative Class” Florida says:
Access to talented and creative people is to modern business what access to coal and iron ore was to steelmaking. It determines where companies will choose to locate and grow, and in this turn changes the way that cities must compete.
The rise of the creative Class, Richard Florida 2012, p. 186
According to Florida the creative industries will be the shaping force of the future. This makes creativity and access to creative people a major factor in the competitiveness of a city or region. Creative cities seem to be the big winners of the years to come.
But apparently, we creatives don’t want to settle just anywhere. According to Florida and many of his fellows creative cities must have the proper look and feel to thrive. Say: A sort of creative aesthetics.
This brings me to the question: What is creative aesthetics about? And why is all the talk just about creative cities anyway? What about rural areas?
Table of Contents
What does creative aesthetics mean?
“Aesthetics” is the formal study of art, especially in relation to the idea of beauty while the word “creative” refers to producing or using original and unusual ideas.
The word aesthetics originates from ancient Greek and describes the study of sensual perception. By this definition, everything that somehow touches or provokes our senses – no matter if it’s ugly or beautiful, pleasant or disturbing – is aesthetic.
In science the term aesthetic is used to describe the features and characteristics that determine how we perceive and assess things. In daily life though the term is mainly used to describe beautiful or pleasant sensual stimulation. When we say something is aesthetic, we often mean that it is tasteful, stylish or good looking.
All these definitions are tied to visual perception. But it doesn’t mean that aesthetics is predominantly a visual thing.
Creative aesthetics goes way beyond optical or visual aspects. It can be a driver of development; it can create an atmospheric ecosystem and it can provide an economical breeding ground.
Most importantly: Creative aesthetics is not exclusively tied to urban areas. It can also develop and make an impact in rural areas.
Creative aesthetics – the “look and feel”
The British urbanologist Charles Landry explains:
A creative milieu is a place – either a cluster of buildings, a part of a city […] or a region – that contains the necessary preconditions […] to generate a flow of ideas and inventions.
The Creative City, Charles Landry 2008, p. 133
These “necessary preconditions” are often in the atmospheric field with characteristics like:
- Diversity
- Heterogeneity
- Individuality
- a broad cultural mix
- Tolerance and open mindedness
- Freedom and space
Summed up these aspects create a certain “look and feel” in an area or neighborhood. At its heart are often places for interaction and exchange like bars, cafes, and other watering holes. Here people can meet and build communities. This interactive field is where learning and innovation processes can take their start.
In this process the global cafe scene has become symbolic of creative aesthetics. Starbucks style pictures with free spirited, funky creative professionals typing away on their MacBooks seem to be the first thing that comes to mind when you talk about creative places or aesthetics.
In general perception you could get the impression that coffee shops have become the heart and cornerstone of the global creative economy. To quote Charles Landry:
The cafe culture has become a significant feature of creative milieux worldwide.
The Creative City, Charles Landry 2008, p. 135
Really?
We could go into a lengthy debate now whether this cafe scenario appeals to you or not (it doesn’t to me to be honest). But the interesting question is: Why cafes of all places?
Charles Landry has a simple answer:
Cafes provided daily points of contact for [creatives]. They formed tightly knit networks where ideas, knowledge and technical expertise were circulated. Cafes were melting pots where distinctions between class and rank could be overcome.
The Creative City, Charles Landry 2008, p. 135
It’s often banal aspects that make all the difference.
Why creative aesthetics is important
In fact, what characterises creative spaces is the good possibilities for spontaneous and informal communication. To foster creativity and innovation people need to be able
- to get input and inspiration from others
- to get interdisciplinary impulses and to experience diversity
- to access inspiring places and spaces
Of course, there are some hard location factors that need to be right first. If a place doesn’t have broadband connection or transport link and if it doesn’t allow market access, it’s probably out of the game no matter how cool it is.
But the days are over when these factors played the key role in the selection process.
No matter how good the infrastructure of a place – the atmosphere, the local colour and the creative aesthetics are crucial for the attractiveness of locations. Therefore, creative aesthetics have become a crucial factor. Therefore, it’s important to understand that (creative) aesthetics isn’t just a visual zeitgeisty thing.
The communities that creatives are attracted to do not thrive for traditional economic reasons […]. A big part of their success stems from the fact that they are places where creative people want to live. [They] provide the integrated ecosystem or habitat where all forms of creativity – artistic, and cultural, technological, and economic – can take root and flourish.
The rise of the creative Class, Richard Florida 2012, p. 186
To sum it up: A creatively aesthetic environment facilitates stimulation, inspiration, and interaction.
How creative aesthetics have become a bargaining chip in location competition
In the last decade creative aesthetics has become a very influential phenomenon in local and regional development. Research shows that the impact of our creative environments reaches way beyond the creative economy itself.
Our creative milieus create interfaces to help society connect with their area of living. They foster courage, involvement, inventiveness, and entrepreneurial spirit. In our creative surroundings we take on questions like: What makes a good life? With our creative spirits we encourage and empower people to actively shape their environment.
Therefore, creative aesthetics is an increasingly important location factor for every economic region – may it be in urban or rural areas. Quoting Richard Florida again:
[…] technological and economic creativity are nurtured by and interact with artistic and cultural creativity.
The rise of the creative Class, Richard Florida 2012, p. 6
All forms of creativity feed off each other.
The rise of the creative Class, Richard Florida 2012, p. 158
[…] as the fundamental source of creativity, people are the critical resource of the new age. This has far-reaching effects – for instance, on our economic and social geography and the nature of our communities.
The rise of the creative Class, Richard Florida 2012, p. 7
In effect the creative economy and creative aesthetics have become an instrument in the upward revaluation of locations.
You can see the effects in cities like New York or Berlin but also in many other so called “creative places” around the globe. They are melting pots where you meet interesting, likeminded people and where opportunities and inspiration seem to be waiting at every corner. There also seems to be an endless offer of cool working spaces.
Slowly outgrowing the cafe scene, in the last years we creatives have turned to slightly run-down and forgotten neighborhoods. Those rough and “unfinished” places seem to be just waiting for creatives to breathe new life into them.
I get a thrill every time when walking into such a space. My head just starts to hum with ideas and opportunities. It’s what we creatives do – develop new and unusual ideas for things that others just walk past.
But there is also a downside to this, and it is called gentrification. It’s the process by which a place, especially part of a city, changes from being a poor area to a richer one, where people from a higher social class live.
As an effect the creative economy over time often gets priced out of the districts it has helped to rebuild. But that’s another story…
Creative aesthetics – for cities only?
Most of what I have talked about so far is connected to cities and metropolitan areas.
Truth be told: Even as a thorough country pumpkin I gravitated to cities and creative urban areas at the beginning of my professional journey. According to Florida, this is no co-incidence:
Cities are not just containers for smart people, they are enabling infrastructure where connections take place, networks are built, and innovative combinations are consummated.
The rise of the creative Class, Richard Florida 2012, p. 188f
Rural environments are no easy place for creative spirits. At it’s not just because in many rural places broadband connection is wobbly and public transport hardly worthy of mention.
The biggest trouble for rural areas is their lack of creative aesthetics. Their atmosphere, their look and feel often don’t radiate what we creatives seek to settle and prosper.
Even if you were born and raised in the countryside, knowing how to get by here mentally and economically, you might think twice before setting up camp here as a creative professional.
But it seems like things are changing slowly. For example: In Germany the “Netzwerk Zukunftsorte”, a rising network of creatives, has started to take on rural spaces that got desolated after the fall of the iron curtain. They gave new use to old buildings and brought new life to decaying villages. There are many more examples around the globe.
But it’s still hard for rural areas to develop and foster a form of creative aesthetics. In Part 2 of this little series, I’m going to talk about why.
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