Change can be difficult. We all have our favourite supermarket, a preferred route to work and choice of tipple on a Friday night. In many ways the world asks us to find the things we like and stick with them. Familiarity and safety can be a comforting feeling. However the problem occurs when we forget to stray from our path – I call this creative disruption and unapologetically love it.
Creative disruption is spectrum of uncomfortable truths that leads to new knowledge. When you feel disruption it is due to something unavoidable happening to you or around you. It’s an uncomfortable truth which demands new knowledge, skills and collaborations. I see creative disruption therefore as a process of empowerment. By shining a torch on something you become empowered to take action.
It very much connects to the arts. I heard someone recently describing art as finding truth where truth is supressed. A good piece of art should rattle you to the core. I remember seeing work during Glasgow’s Mayfest festivals. It often didn’t resemble what I understand theatre to be: actors pushed me, they fried meat at the top of huge platforms, a safe space became frightening, and a clown rolled a 20ft ball towards me. Art is a great disruptor. Something that should only contain questions can’t help but provoke you into action.
So why do I disrupt? I don’t do it out of badness or because I think I know the right answer. I do it because things could be reimagined if we only allowed ourselves to see what familiarity prevents us from seeing. It’s an experiment. We can have a hypothesis but also expect unknowingness.
It’s about accepting life is a constant state of flux. I would argue those who are alert and equipped to manage and shape change are those who live happier, more productive and meaningful life. To be in charge of change allows you to be less corruptible to a system that will happily change things for you. You can be swept away by a tsunami of fear or ride the crest of your own wave.
Paul 3rd Sep 2018
