What is an infinite game?

And why should you, as a creative professional, care?

Let’s begin with “finite games,” because that is what our commercial culture is all about.

There are a few exalted winners and vast hordes of losers/strivers. Here are just a few obvious examples of our national finite games:

The Super Bowl, World Series, the NBA playoffs, flipping condos, stock speculation, consumer marketing, the Oscars, Tonys, Emmys, Obies, Golden Globes, Nobel Prizes, Indie 500 and Nascar, Pulitzer Prizes, Wimbledon, MacArthur Genius Grants, Sundance Indie Film Awards and Hollywood deals, Olympic gold medalists, Project Runway, American Idol, Congressional filabusters, offshore drilling, and strip development…

Conversely Kevin Kelly, co-founder of Wired Magazine and digital guru, defines Infinite Games this way:

“The game is to keep changing the nature of change. And that infinite game is my view of holiness. You play the game not to win, but to continue to play to make room for all expressions of truth, good, and the beautiful. You are opening up the world to possibility.”

This was slammed home to me just a few weeks ago. My longtime music guru, Dan Kleiman, unexpectedly died of a massive stroke from out of the blue. He was just 55. Dan seemed in good health and in reasonably good spirits when I saw him last October in Philly.

He composed, performed, and handled the post-production of twelve of my award-winning experimental videos over a period of a dozen years:

http://artnothate.com/friends/dan-kleiman.php
http://creativeledge.com/video/index.php

One of the things we talked about (perhaps the one thing that we always talked about) was the apparent unfairness and arbitrary harshness of life in the creative economy. As middle-aged working creative professionals, we were both experiencing the frustration of always being on the edge of big things. As the saying goes, always a bridesmaid and never a bride. With the collapse of both the stock and housing markets, we saw a lot of our savings and net worth evaporate and the prospect of easy money disappear.

Dan was vexed by the possibility of many more years of creative struggle and the uncertainty of any financial reward. I was less worried about things and more sanguine about the future (at least at that moment) and tried to cheer him up with my usual philosophizing. In my circle of friends and colleagues, I am often the resident skeptical optimist. I adopted this cast of mind when dealing both with a serious chronic illness for nearly twenty years and a life-threatening colon lesion. For the most part, my health situation was not talked about, but was always the 800-pound gorilla in the studio. Consequently, I am genuinely grateful for the good days when there is energy and creative flow.

Recently, Dan and his longtime creative partner and singer, Phyllis Chapell, finished a magnificent CD titled “Vision of the Dry Bones.” It combined their virtuosity with Jewish, Latin, and world culture into a delicious and fully realized whole.

http://artnothate.com/friends/phyllis-chapell.php

It had a genuine artistic integrity that can only be achieved by decades of practice, experimentation, and committed creative collaboration. Here is a link to some clips from the album:

http://artnothate.com/friends/projects/dry-bones.php

One of the things that I mentioned to Dan last fall was that the web might provide artists (particularly musicians and performers) a modicum of immortality. One might yet be discovered posthumously on the Internet and find an enthusiastic audience that could span generations.

This did not give my gifted friend much succor or solace. He was still playing the finite games of the mercurial creative marketplace at our last meeting, trying to figure out how to get fame, fortune, security, and unconditional love through one’s art.

Now he is part of eternity…as we all shall be…sooner or later.

But let me leave you with images from a favorite infinite game—Nantucket Sailboats!

It was one of the very first videos that Dan and I worked on together.

http://creativeledge.com/video/mainely-creative/nantucket-sailboats.php

1. Believing that personal gain is made by crushing others;
2. Worrying about things that cannot be changed or corrected;
3. Insisting that a thing is impossible because we cannot accomplish it;
4. Refusing to set aside trivial preferences;
5. Neglecting development and refinement of the mind;
6. Attempting to compel others to believe and live as we do.

These clear-eyed and crystalline words were written over 2,000 years ago by one of ancient Rome’s most revered and influential legislators. I often muse on these six points and try to embellish his simple litany of human blindness and stupidity…to no avail. The “Art Not Hate” project is a response to point five— it attempts to refine and develop our perception of both others and ourselves in the mix and mayhem of life. But, ironically, creative people can be as prejudiced and spiteful as those who do the world’s more mundane work (think Michael Richards [aka Kramer] on African Americans, and Mel Gibson on Jews). Nonetheless, when we create with others who are different from ourselves, there are inexplicable moments of empathy when we know that the person next to us shares our feelings and fate…and we are changed for the better.

Some scientists believe that our planet is entering another cycle of dramatic climate change. We could be facing a protracted period of sweltering summers, raging hurricanes, and erratic weather patterns. Many people also believe that this dire situation will be intensified by the industrial world’s addiction to fossil fuels.

Whether or not the bad news about the weather is true remains to be seen. But our precious world remains a place of changing beauty. Mountains rise up and erode; islands emerge and submerge; rivers flood and go dry…

The Mundo Caliente print series and video explore the aesthetics of global warming through paint, pixel, and hot latin music. I hope that my media stimulates your thinking about this global conundrum.

We are proud to be part of the www.blogactionday.org experience.

Click on the links below for some surprising sights and sounds —

http://www.creativeledge.com/video/mundo-caliente.php

http://www.bobcreates.com/artwork/prints/

I enjoy big picture creativity conferences that promote art, design, and broad themes of personal and social transformation…it is so much better than the gritty and grubby grind of real life. Clever, accomplished, and basically well-meaning people have center stage rather than the peripheral roles of wise/fool, crazy/genius, or expendable expert.

There were five things that distinguished this conference from the other more glamorous gatherings like TED and PopTech:

1. No over-hyped celebrity presenters repeating their pet cosmic theories ad nauseum. (Even the keynote talk delivery by best-selling author Elizabeth Gilbert was punctuated by gentle self-deprecating humor, and stories of her life as a diner waitress in Philly and under-achieving and least favorite child in a family of Connecticut uber-achievers)


2. Limited to two days at a highly accessible location.


3. No-frills registration for $75 that is nearly identical in experience to the full $225 registration — minus two mediocre lunches.


4. Focused on practice rather than just blue-sky possibilities.


5. Was in a city that was genuinely on the ropes for decades but has transformed itself into America’s #1 creative economy metro area. (I say this because Philly has very affordable housing, a considerable number of well-paying creative jobs, stellar academic, cultural, and nonprofit sectors, and a $10 Bolt bus ride to NYC.)

The following items are my personal highlights from the summit. They include intriguing web links and some of the more memorable ideas that went in one ear and did not go out the other.

• Civic Innovation Lab in Cleveland
  Their creative ventures start-up funding model is astounding!


• Jane McGonigal (director of game R&D at the Institute for the Future)
  The institute has been key creative player in Silicon Valley for over 35 years. The presentation was made via Skype from California. Although Jane was sick, she made a marvelous impression.
  
  Institute slide shows:
  Epic Win (Why Gaming is the Future of Learning)
  http://www.slideshare.net/avantgame


• Favorite thinkers and designers and communities for learning more about happiness hacking, alternate realities, and game design:
  
  Nicole Lazzaro
  
  Clay Shirky – "Cognitive Surplus"
  
  Edward Castranova – Synthetic Worlds & Exodus from Reality
  
  Tara Hunt
  
  BJ Fogg
  
  Gamasutra
  
  Alternate Reality Gaming Network
  
  DIGMA (Design Industry Group of Mass)
  Promoting the Massachusetts design economy
  The Design Industry Group of Massachusetts (DIGMA) is an initiative of the statewide design industries to organize and promote the Massachusetts design cluster as integral to the state's economy. DIGMA enables diverse design industries – including advertising, architecture, graphic design, industrial design, interior design, landscape design, and specialized design services such as fashion, textiles and lighting design – to speak with one powerful and influential voice.
  
  Piedmont Triad Partnership
  Marketing our region to the world
  These tar heels have a lot to teach us about integrating and scaling up creative economy programs.

Miscellaneous musings and factoids:

No one believes advertisements anymore — that is the power of social media — but we tend to believe our friends and relatives.

There is creativity without drama and reward — in fact, it is the norm, not the exception.

Celebrate the creative spirit, not the creators.

Entrepreneurship equals prosperity for a region.

You don’t need to outdo your every achievement.

To break a writer’s block, take an acting or drawing class.

Follow your curiosity — not your passions or bliss.

Beware your pitch/robot mode of talking to another human being. Everyone wants to be a person, not a client.

Money for any start-up venture is as much a burden as it is a blessing.

Never give away free food or booze to attract potential members to a group.

Yes, there can be double bottom lines — one for profit/loss and the other for social good.

Ancient Greek dice games were created by the ruling class to distract the starving masses from their hunger in times of famine.

All games have well defined rules and boundaries; a cooperative community; a shared space for competition; time to play and experiment.

It is okay to screw up, but don’t lie about it online — you’ll get caught.

Grammar, spelling, and syntax still matter.

Make something that is genuinely hard to copy.

Attention span is 2.7 seconds for a young person, which translates into a 140 character text message.

People who take digital photographs for fun are more likely to visit a museum than the average citizen.

Senior corporate management extols the virtues of creativity but does not like to hire people with fine art backgrounds for staff positions.

If you only listen to your own voice, you’ll drown.

Privacy died 30 or 40 years ago.

Be a niche marketer/producer/provider to get rich — the generalist is seldom missed.

An artist’s book art and print project by Bob Barancik that explores gut reactions to the made-in-America financial meltdown. It is part of the CreativeLedge traveling exhibitions program.

View art folio at bottom of entry

The color red has a variety of immediate associations. They include anger, embarrassment, passion, robust health, warning, and war.

Red Tape makes us think of mammoth, convoluted bureaucracies that define our post-industrial society. This can include the department of motor vehicles, health insurance claims departments, the post office, the Pentagon, most social welfare programs, the juvenile justice system…

Red Ink means financial insolvency and bankruptcy typified by the state of California, the “Big 3” Detroit automakers, investment banks like Bear Stearns that are no more, virtually all airlines except Southwest...

Red Light indicates big trouble ahead. If you see it on an ambulance, fire truck, police squad car, traffic signal, or on a car dashboard, your adrenalin and blood pressure shoot way up. We prepare to act as if it is a matter of life or death.

Red Faces mean someone got caught red-handed with their fingers in the cookie jar, or in an adulterous erogenous zone. The number of supposedly respectable legislators caught figuratively and literally with their pants down is too lengthy for my simple blog entry.

When I think of the American financial meltdown at the end of W’s second presidential term, all I see is red. I am furious at Wall Street, Congress, Alan Greenspan, Phil Graham, Robert Rubin, Angelo Mozilo, Henry Paulson, and the rest of the incompetent government/corporate kleptocracy…and a mass media that abetted and glorified all the “masters of the universe” before their inevitable fall from grace and public adulation.

But most of all, I am angry at myself for not seeing the red warning lights sooner.

The wildly inflated home prices and the promiscuous availability of credit cards were strobe lights that should have alerted us to the dark night of an impending economic collapse.

Any functioning, gainfully employed adult knows that there is no free lunch, and that even giant redwood trees don’t grow into the stratosphere. Most of us should have taken most our chips off the roulette table (aka American stock and real estate markets) before the final spins of the wheel of misfortune.

But few of us did.

My “Seeing Red” art box and print series is something of a creative Rorschach ink blot that explores my mental state — and tries to reach some sort of catharsis or closure.

The artistic release of pent-up emotions has provided me with some (temporary) peace of mind amid the financial wreckage. And the bound-and-boxed images provided a sense of closure and control.

Everything is manageable. All the rough edges, wild brush strokes, agitated emotions, fit perfectly inside a sturdy and economically crafted box. When closed, the wild things are out of sight and conveniently out of mind.

Creativity has transformed threatening external events into some amusing visual stimuli.

I hope that these red visions will stimulate your thinking about your personal finances and strategies for coping with a world of both great economic uncertainty and surprising creative opportunities.

Technical Credits:
Box and binding / Scott Mullenberg
Digitial Print and Photoshop Consultant / Brad Erickson

To close, here are some intriguing web links:

Reversal of Fortune
Vanity Fair

Subprime Banking Mess
YouTube

This American Life: The Giant Pool of Money
NPR

8 really, really scary predictions
Fortune

A field guide to economics and finance blogs
The Boston Globe

Finessing a Recession!
CreativeLedge

Bankers Reaped Lavish Bonuses During Bailouts
The New York Times

Let’s start with some ridiculous riddles:

How do you make a small fortune in Florida real estate?
(Start with a big one.)

Why is Florida a large part of the American Dream?
(You have to be asleep to believe it’s real.)

Where do you find Floridians with the biggest smiles?
(In North Carolina.)

Why is Tallahassee located in Florida’s panhandle?
(Because the rest of the state is in the frying pan.)

What is the new official state song of Florida?
(The Tennessee Waltz.)

Why won’t an alligator ever bite a member of the Florida State legislature?
(Professional courtesy.)

These days it is really hard to be an optimist about Florida’s prospects, and very easy to write cynical humor about the sunshine state.

Most of the current mainstream images about Florida conjured up by the national media are of the “big bang” and “barely audible whimper” variety.

The former evokes images of a devastating hurricane with ensuing urban looting, followed by droughts and raging wildfires and more home foreclosures and homeless families.

The latter vision is less cinematic but equally distressing. It includes a slow but steady deterioration of civic virtue, public services and infrastructure…coupled with a continuing exodus of both educated young people and affluent 50-something professionals.

As a person who currently lives about four months of the year in New England and the Mid-Atlantic, I can assure my fellow Floridians that these regions are also in a hell-in-a-hand-basket mode. But the Sunshine state is paramount to the American Dream even when we are not asleep…while much of the northern tier of the country is in the American nightmare of seemingly permanent economic decline.

When Ohio factory workers become unemployed, or young college grads from Indianapolis get diplomas but no suitable job offers, or retiring white- and blue-collar workers in Chicago get access to their retirement accounts, many head down here.

It is inevitable that Florida has become a land of disenchantment. Like the failed and disillusioned Ponce de León and his doomed quest for the mythical Fountain of Youth, dreams quickly evaporate under a harsh and unrelenting sun.

As Lily Tomlin may have said, “Reality is the leading cause of stress among those in touch with it.”

All the problems of 21st century America are writ large in Florida. If these national conundrums cannot be solved here, it is unlikely that they will be resolved anywhere else in the country over the long term.

Are Florida’s political, academic, media, and business elites up to the job of effectively restructuring just about everything in the state to be competitive in a global economy?
(This is a rhetorical question without a written answer.)

That is why ordinary taxpaying citizens and authentic grassroots organizations will be vital to the prospects of our state. There is really no one else to keep our decision maker’s feet to the fire and eyes focused forward. This is especially true now that Craigslist has permanently crippled our daily newspapers and decimated its cadre of hard-nosed investigative reporters.

The key challenges facing Florida can be arbitrarily grouped into a number of categories, but they really form a single mishmash. That is why I’ve run them all together without bullet points or commas:

Preservation of our aquifers and wetlands Revamping of building codes in response to global climate change Affordable hurricane insurance premiums The reversal of negative demographic trends Improving race relations Mass transit Dedicated funding of education on all levels Development of a “new urbanism” in response to sprawl Public healthcare and insurance options Crime control Humane juvenile justice system Better child welfare Tax reform Homelessness and Affordable housing

In this blog entry, I hope to explore the emerging role of Cultural Creatives (CCs) in the creation of positive and doable scenarios for our state’s future.

I start with four reasonable (but depressing) assumptions:

1. Health insurance will cost the independent creative business person as much or more two years from now…and the cost will continue to escalate over the next decade.


2. There will be no meaningful reform or regulation of Wall Street…and one can expect another, but far more serious financial meltdown, within the next decade.


3. Urban sprawl will continue to spread over much our remaining wetlands and precious undeveloped coastal areas…this is all that the entrenched and politically potent business interests know how to do.


4. The Pentagon will be fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for the foreseeable future and beyond…while a demoralized and resigned public diverts its attention to spectator sports and video games.

On a somewhat rosier note:

I posit that CCs will soon have a collective epiphany via social networking technology. Many will realize elections are relatively easy to win with savvy branding and a catchy tagline, but that does not automatically translate into effective governance and public policies. Apparently, quite the contrary.

CCs will finally step away from their computers and become real political grassroots players in both political parties.

Virtually all of the state’s problems require both real community dialogue (that includes deep listening rather than mob rants) and practical design solutions. For too long, the only voices behind the closed doors of power have been lawyers, lobbyists, and one-issue political ideologues. Unfortunately, most of these people represent the most divisive, inflexible, and wrongheaded minds in the state.

Conversely, many creative professionals are eager problem solvers with an appetite for ambiguous situations, a penchant for paradox, and a strong desire to give coherent form to the chaotic cacophony of life. Most CCs can do what the body politic cannot…

We can flexibly play with different points of view in changing circumstances without cracking-up (most of the time), create things and experiences of real economic value (at least on our good days), and have a global outlook (especially in food).

In terms of some practical ideas, here is an array of personal and collective items for your consideration:

• Volunteer to do creative stuff in the public schools.
  
  The combination of direct experience and real role models will start to create a future constituency for a homegrown creative economy in Florida. The stark reality is that there is currently not enough political will or public money to adequately fund widespread art, design, music, dance, and theater education for our young people.


• Support objective science education in public schools.
  
  If theocrats eliminate the study of evolution (or water it down as just another faith-based theory), a majority of our young people will not be educationally equipped for the global economy. Also, the most advanced and dynamic bio-tech corporations and research institutes will avoid our state like the plague. It is commercially applied innovative technology that generates real wealth, rather than bogus bucks found on Wall Street and cookie-cutter strip malls and condo development.
  
  It is these genuine profits that can sustain high-quality cultural institutions and creative professionals. And it looks like the biological sciences will be driving force of the 21st century.


• Think both nationally and globally in your personal marketing efforts.
  
  The web has made the successful promotion of independent creative services a viable online option. You might be surprised to find that other places will pay more for your applied talents than Tampa Bay. It is a far better bet than a state lottery ticket.
  


• Create a “Florida League of Cultural Creative Voters.”
  
  The proposed FLCCV would provide a simple and objective “scorecard” of each state legislator’s voting record on key cultural and creative economy issues. Each year, a lawmaker would receive an annual overall numerical rating on his or her support of the league’s written agenda…and many of us would cast our votes accordingly.
  
  CCs would be a highly visible political block, and politicians of both parties would think twice before cutting critical arts, education, and environmental funding in closely contested elections.
  
  Organizationally, it could be modeled on the Maine League of Conservation Voters.
  


• Read the last two chapters and epilogue of Dr. Gary Mormino’s “Land of Sunshine, State of Dreams: A Social History of Modern Florida.”
  
  Gary is the distinguished director of the Florida Studies Program at USF/St.Pete. He understands the state as well as anyone and how it became what it is.

I am ending this blog entry with one of Gary’s key ideas about our particular peninsula and peculiar brand of paradise:

“But Florida has always been more about tomorrow’s possibilities than today’s realities.”