Also, it's more like an anti-scenius book, but I've always loved Francis Spufford's book 'Backroom Boys'. It looks at multiple 'scenius' moments of British innovation, including the Blue Streak rocket, the pioneering 3D game Elite, and the Beagle Mars lander. In pretty much every case, the UK failed to scale and benefit from the innovations in each 'scenius'. Which tells you plenty about the failures of British industrial polilcy.
Scenius is fascinating. Once the idea gets in your head, you see it everywhere. From the Paris of Cubism and Surrealism to NYC in the early 70’s; from Scenius makers like Tony Wilson or Bowie to Scenius places like the Bay Area. Thanks for the Stewart Brand tip.
I love the idea of Scenius, and think I was lucky enough to live through a low-key version - the Glasgow Art scene in the early 90s. Although the commercial heat at the time was in London, with Damien Hirst and the YBA crowd, I think Glasgow had a more diverse 'scenius', and the impact was huge - from the mid-90s to the mid-10s, pretty much every edition of the Turner Prize had at least one Glasgow Alumni on the shortlist. I was at Glasgow School of Art from 1990-1994, and it felt, partly because there wasn't any money in the city, like the music, theatre, media and art scenes were all interconnected. People were putting on gigs in their flats, and curating group exhibitions for their wardrobes. Jenny Saville, who graduated from GSA in 1990, now holds the record for an auction sale by a female living artist. The painting that got the record - Prop - was part of her degree show in 1990.
"Scenius" - yes. As a theatre history academic, the scenius of 5C BC Athens has long fascinated those of us of like mind. Equally, Elizabethan England and the rise of the early-modern theatre, kick-started by so many adjacent possibles that did. And so it goes ...
Also, it's more like an anti-scenius book, but I've always loved Francis Spufford's book 'Backroom Boys'. It looks at multiple 'scenius' moments of British innovation, including the Blue Streak rocket, the pioneering 3D game Elite, and the Beagle Mars lander. In pretty much every case, the UK failed to scale and benefit from the innovations in each 'scenius'. Which tells you plenty about the failures of British industrial polilcy.
https://www.faber.co.uk/product/9780571214976-backroom-boys/
Scenius is fascinating. Once the idea gets in your head, you see it everywhere. From the Paris of Cubism and Surrealism to NYC in the early 70’s; from Scenius makers like Tony Wilson or Bowie to Scenius places like the Bay Area. Thanks for the Stewart Brand tip.
I love the idea of Scenius, and think I was lucky enough to live through a low-key version - the Glasgow Art scene in the early 90s. Although the commercial heat at the time was in London, with Damien Hirst and the YBA crowd, I think Glasgow had a more diverse 'scenius', and the impact was huge - from the mid-90s to the mid-10s, pretty much every edition of the Turner Prize had at least one Glasgow Alumni on the shortlist. I was at Glasgow School of Art from 1990-1994, and it felt, partly because there wasn't any money in the city, like the music, theatre, media and art scenes were all interconnected. People were putting on gigs in their flats, and curating group exhibitions for their wardrobes. Jenny Saville, who graduated from GSA in 1990, now holds the record for an auction sale by a female living artist. The painting that got the record - Prop - was part of her degree show in 1990.
"Scenius" - yes. As a theatre history academic, the scenius of 5C BC Athens has long fascinated those of us of like mind. Equally, Elizabethan England and the rise of the early-modern theatre, kick-started by so many adjacent possibles that did. And so it goes ...