fredag den 9. november 2007

Innovation i humanistisk perspektiv

Den mindst kendte af de gymnasiale uddannelser er HTX, en af de to erhvervsgymnasiale uddannelser (HHX, Højere Handels Examen; HTX, Højere Teknisk Examen).

Jeg vil i kommende blogs causere over HTX stilling i det danske uddannelsessystem. Min baggrund er, at jeg underviser og er studievejleder på HTX.

Jeg lægger ud med et kort oplæg, som jeg for nylig holdt for såkaldte Commmenius-elever der mødtes på HTX Køge omkring Innovation. Commenius-projektet er et EU-projekt, hvor elever og undervisere fra en række europæiske lande mødes omkring fælles temaer, altså her Innovation.

"Hello! My name is Jesper Skovlund. I teach media, communication, and Danish language and literature. And futher more I am a Youth councellor. I´m educated at two danish Universities, at the Faculty of Arts. Maybe that’s why I have been asked to say a few words about innovation in a humanistic (not a humanitarian) perspective.

Among other things criticism in the humanistic tradition is very strong. Therefore my humble contribution to this conference is a critical view at the term “innovation”.

The first thing that springs to Your humanistic mind when You’re confronted with the term “innovation” is, that it has become another word for creativity. Creativity has been taken over and developed by the trades and industries. You could even say, that the trades and industries in recent years has been very skilled in using creativity as production-value so to say. That’s why the trades and industries among other things talks about Storytelling and the Creative Class. That means, that creativity to day first of all means something that at best ends up as a product on the market.

But that has very little to do with creativity in its originally sense. Creativity is defined as, and I quote the famous webside answers.com: “the ability to see something in a new way, to see and solve problems no one else may know exists, and to engage in mental and physical experiences that are new, unique, or different. Creativity is a critical aspect of a person's life, starting from inside the womb onward through adulthood.” Unquote.

My point is that the term innovation alters creativity in its original sense. Once upon a time creativity had value in it self, today it has only production- and market-value. Creativity to day is something that you weights and measures – and call it innovation.

So the question is: What are the consequences when there is no creativity but innovation?

Maybe someone would say: ´There is no problem. What really matters is innovation not creativity. Innovation is a matter for trades and industries, for society, it´s a public matter. But creativity is a private matter.´
Maybe so, but if You try to answer, I´m sure that we have to cope with the fact, that the freedom and even the spirituality, that we used to see as a crucial part of creativity, that this freedom and spirituality we can´t take for granted anymore, when it comes to innovation, or if we insist of leaving creativity to private life.

This has to do with our mind and our language. In many ways you could say, that we don´t have words for creativity in its basic sense right now. Or you could even say, that we can´t cope with things that doesn´t cost anything or isn´t useful for us. Some would see a solution of this problem in nostalgia – in something that never was. And some would try to use an old language that really doesn´t capture the life that we are living right now. But the real challenge, not only for a humanistic old chap as myself but also for You, is to reinvent the creativity in spite of a language, that are oriented towards production- and market-value. I don´t know how you do that – maybe you do!? May the creativity be with you!

Thank you!"