The words “rewire“ and “machine“ sound as mechanical as a lever or a pulley. “Creativity“ on the other hand, is all about ideas and imagination. Put these words together, and it sounds like a contradiction in terms. How can a machine be creative or a creative be in any sense automated, and on top, why would you attempt to “rewire“ something so disjointed? 

For the second year in a row, Kris Hoet (CIO at Happiness, Global Head of Innovation at FCB Global) assumes the role of curator of the ADCE Festival. Through a careful selection of guest speakers for the ‘Rewiring the Creative Machine’ lecture series, Hoet turns the focus on the creative transformation and how it is leading to new ways of coming up with great ideas:

“When thinking about the theme for the festival, it all starts with looking at the key challenges facing our industry and market. And then, I specifically think about everything that relates to creativity of course, as it’s true to the core mission of ADCE.

One key question I think many people in the creative business are asking is what the evolution of creativity will be. We read a lot about the possible influence of AI or automation on creativity but it’s not always clear how that is going beyond the mass production of assets and it is still vastly different from coming up with a great idea though. Saying that it will never be possible for a machine to have ideas is probably pushing it, but we’re clearly still far away from that happening. Good news? Well, it also doesn’t mean that the toolbox for creativity is changing just as fast as everything else in the world so you cannot stop but wonder how that could or should influence how we come up and develop ideas.

There is no clear answer, but since there are so many opinions, it’s worth raising the question in the creative community and share some of those opinions and personal experiences as a basis for conversation. That immediately explains how we curated the speakers. All of them have voiced either a strong vision related to the question and/or have unique personal experiences of doing things a bit differently.

It’s funny how robots and automation are the first thoughts that people have when you talk about the transformation of the creative process, disregarding any necessary evolution or change that may just involve people working a bit differently. That includes looking into new forms of collaboration, experimentation, art forms, etc. I’m an idea person, I love creativity and its messy and chaotic nature, and wonder how we can apply the changes around us to make the messy even more magical.

So, ‘Rewiring the Creative Machine‘ will be all about the transformation of the creative process. It has a nice bit of tension on its own between machine and creativity, and that’s obviously on purpose. I don’t know what the answer is, what we want to do on November 9th is ask the question, share opinions and hopefully discuss.”

 

— Kris Hoet, ADCE Festival’s Curator

 

‘Rewiring the Creative Machine’ is the thread running through the ADCE Festival’s conferences, workshops and networking opportunities. Tickets are now on sale, with special discounts for students and ADCE members.