Post Office Politics (2008)

Due to the sad closure of a local Post Office I was able to salvage this sign which had been left abandoned and discarded in a side street. I took it back the HQ of the Creativity Manifesto, re-wired it and turned it into a "Ready-made work of art" as a tribute to Marcel Duchamp. It is now being used as an evening wall light in the reception hall. It always provides an interesting point of conversation for evening visitors. It sums up our creative social philosphy. Be creative, don't waste anything, and try to solve social, economic, and political problems through innovation, ideas and creativity. Recycle the old into something new, useful, and beautiful; without changing everything, and without wasting money.

Creative Notes.

The Government is closing down hundreds of local Post Offices with little regard as to how this affects local communities in terms of identity and social cohesion. The fact is, small local Post Offices provides services that no other public outlet does. On the community side (as I know from the local Post Offices in my area) these local hubs of community interaction often provide a communal place for neighbours and newcomers to chat, ask questions about local issues, and bring a local sense of familiarity and belonging; this is especially true for the elderly who have often spent many years going to one branch and built up community friendship and networks through doing so. If I don't use mine for a few weeks it is noticed by the staff who often enquire about my health! Such community concern and social politeness is sadly disappearing in many govenment services, and in many communities, which is not helpeed when the Govenrment closies down post offices which are exactly the type of "community centres" which could help sustain Communities. The Creativity Manifesto (along with of others!) regards the Government Policy of local office closures as financially short-sighted and detrimental to the long-term benefit of UK Society community cohesion at a time when we should be doing as much as possible to encourage social interaction not social segregation. I wonder how long it will be before they start closing our local libaries as well.

David. A

CableTable

(Davids' Table, Acrylic: Wendy Pammant 2008)

Creative Notes:

A few week ago after an evening at a private view at a Gallery in Shoreditch, London there was an informal gathering of artists back at The HQ of The Creativity Manifesto. We felt very honoured and flattered that some of those who attended thought it significant enough to take some photographs during the evenings discussion. We have recently received this photo from one of the p-art-cipants that night who has since started a small series of paintings from images she captured that night. As you can see, our tables and furniture and everything else we use is mainly from recycled materials. We have found that these empty cable rolls (or whatever they are called!) come in very handy as small tables, which we often use to write ideas and doodle thoughts on, and then simply paint over, and use again. We love this painting and everyone who has seen it at the HQ says it looks better than the real thing! We wish Wendy well with her future art plans and thank her for her creativity. We have no doubt she will do well in her future career as an artist.

Art, Environment & Activism

PLATFORM's 2009 course with The University of Birkbeck

"The Body Politic: Social and Ecological Justice, Art, Activism" is now ready for enrolment. It runs from March to May, a mix of Wednesday evenings and two
weekends in London.

www.platformlondon.org

Creative Notes:

In 2005 The embryonic Creativity Manifesto enrolled on this course which combines environmental issues with art and activism, and it was one of the most awakening experiences our varied creative, political, social, art education which so far has absorbed courses and experiences at five Universities, several colleges, and adult centres of education. We hope that in the future this all contributes in some way to the development of groundbreaking creative ideas in the education department of The Creativity Manifesto.

We have recieved an email about the 2009 course so here are some brief details. We recommend it for anyone interested in how art can play a significant wider social and political role in transforming the world. The experience and knowledge gained on this course has played a significant role in the creative strategy and social art practices of The Creativity Manifesto.

Kitchen Cupboards (2008)

Here at the central HQ of The Creativity Manifesto we like to keep things interestingly visual even within the daily process of 'ordinary' everday life; and realising doors on cupboards was a complete waste of time (unless you wish to hide things), as people often forget what is behind which door, so we solved the problem by taking all the doors off the kitchen cupboards so we can see where everything is immediately. Thus, saving time and energy (by not opening the wrong doors), and also providing an more interestingly visual colourful treat for the eye which keeps constantly changing. A veritable landscape of organic culinary change.

Agustina Valli (Artist)

The Creativity Manifesto would like to apologise to Ms.Agustina Valli from Argentina, we were looking forward to meeting her last Saturday in London, but unfortunatley we could not due to unforeseen circumstances occurring for two members of The Creativity Manifesto. The Police turned up at thier house for making too much noise during the construction of a metal installation, so we had to move thier work to another venue immediately, once we had convinced the Police that thier unusual construction was not some strange form of terrorist device!
We hope this picture of a Christmas tree will make you smile and forgive us.

Preliminary Notes On An Exhibition (2009)

These are some preliminary notes for our next creative exhibition art event, which will take place in 2009. We don't yet have a working title for it but it will have a core multi-dimensional and conceptual element to it. As with all things we give them the initial title of "Project...followed by the first letter from the name of the core creative facilitator: e.g Project 'E' (Emily Delgado) and then the event evolves over a period of time into the finished title and show, this allows the ongoing creative process to develop organically with events and social, aesthetic, and political processes within the World around us, as opposed to setting a fixed title and complete idea construction, and then methodically working towards that end as a closed creative process. It is a open and fluid process creative process rather than one that is fixed from the start, it is holistic as opposed to linear.

Outsider Musicians.

The other night (Fri)a couple of musicians came to the HQ to 'hang out'. At the weekend the progress of The Manifesto tends to wind down a bit (unless we need to use the time to work on a project!) So we let them, gave them a bowl of home-made soup and then had a chat about what unknown musicians get upto on the weekend when they are not gigging about London, or working in some decrepid backstreet studio. Apparently musicians smoke and drink tequila slammers quite often on weekends, so we put some music on the sound system and let them do thier 'thing'.

We took a couple of photos to document the evenings occurence, and then
talked a bit about the relationship between art and music, which in our experience is fraught with difficulties due to the egos of both creative camps. It is not beyond the realm of an creative art event to incorporate both camps into a successful aesthetic experience. The art is in ensuring the right practical, social, and creative conditions can occur (community & communication), within the right environment (venue/space) to allow everyone thier creative space/freedom to perform and express themselves on an equal platform of mutual respect.

In order to understand the difference between an individual focus of the creative ego and an community focused creative ego, The Creativity Manifesto recommends you consider reading a book called: Connective Aesthetics by Suzi Gablik which is in tune with our overall philsophy.