The ecology of urban creativity
Some of my professional work involves designing creative methods for gathering and analyzing information and ways to summarize and display the results.
I did some work with Clear!Blue, a communications company, that had a contract with the Detroit Renaissance Foundation to identify and encourage the future of commercial and artistic creativity in Detroit. I helped design and implement a number of activities that a task force of local creative professionals used to explore the past, present, and future of Detroit's creativity.
![](http://workingcreativity.com/recent/DetroitCreativityHistoricalForcesDec07.png)
I asked the creative task force to identify the major forces shaping Detroit's creativity over the last 100 years. I took their answers and created a chart that grouped these factors into positive and negative forces.
![](http://workingcreativity.com/recent/CreativityInDetroitCurrentHighlightsDraft1.png)
We asked the task force to identify the current creative highlights of Detroit--people, companies, activities and places. I used this information to create a chart with fifteen creative categories.
![](http://workingcreativity.com/recent/DetroitGroupSummaryx.jpg)
We asked the task force to identify the most creative places and locations in Detroit and its suburbs--places with creative energy and creative activities. The map above summarizes their responses for the City of Detroit. The map below summarizes their responses for the area surrounding Detroit.
![](http://workingcreativity.com/recent/MetroAreaGroupSummaryx.jpg)
![](http://workingcreativity.com/recent/VisionsOfDetroitsCreativeFuture.png)
The task force then projected current and anticipated factors and forces into a variety of possible directions or paths for Detroit's creative future.
I did some work with Clear!Blue, a communications company, that had a contract with the Detroit Renaissance Foundation to identify and encourage the future of commercial and artistic creativity in Detroit. I helped design and implement a number of activities that a task force of local creative professionals used to explore the past, present, and future of Detroit's creativity.
![](http://workingcreativity.com/recent/DetroitCreativityHistoricalForcesDec07.png)
I asked the creative task force to identify the major forces shaping Detroit's creativity over the last 100 years. I took their answers and created a chart that grouped these factors into positive and negative forces.
![](http://workingcreativity.com/recent/CreativityInDetroitCurrentHighlightsDraft1.png)
We asked the task force to identify the current creative highlights of Detroit--people, companies, activities and places. I used this information to create a chart with fifteen creative categories.
![](http://workingcreativity.com/recent/DetroitGroupSummaryx.jpg)
We asked the task force to identify the most creative places and locations in Detroit and its suburbs--places with creative energy and creative activities. The map above summarizes their responses for the City of Detroit. The map below summarizes their responses for the area surrounding Detroit.
![](http://workingcreativity.com/recent/MetroAreaGroupSummaryx.jpg)
![](http://workingcreativity.com/recent/VisionsOfDetroitsCreativeFuture.png)
The task force then projected current and anticipated factors and forces into a variety of possible directions or paths for Detroit's creative future.
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