Cornerhouse

Part of Keynotes

Writer, thinker and consultant Charles Leadbeater is one of the world’s leading authorities on innovation and creativity. Charles advises companies, cities and governments, and community organisations around the world on innovation strategy.

Following on from his acclaimed book We Think and essay The Art of With, Charles Leadbeater continues his exploration of the impact the web has on the way we produce, share and consume culture and what it means for our future society.

Culture is our ever-evolving store of images, texts and ideas through which we make sense and add meaning to our lives. Our culture, in the broadest sense, helps us to say who we are, where and when we come from. If culture gives us roots; creativity has a sense of growth and possibility. Creativity gives us a way to add to and remake our cultural stock: it allows us to escape being entirely defined by our traditions.

The rise of the web is changing both culture and creativity, both by having more culture more available than ever before to more people and by accessing cheaper, more powerful tools for producing the elements that make up our cultural references. We are in the midst of a series of cultural eruptions that are throwing up vast clouds of new self-made culture.

As a result, Charles Leadbeater argues that our culture has become both more creative and more chaotic, at times like a festival at other times like a civil war. In his talk Charles Leadbeater will examine the different parties involved in waging this civil war (or running that festival), what alliances and counter alliances are involved in shaping the cultural landscape of tomorrow and what direction the web’s influence on our culture is taking.