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The Spark: Aesthetics’ balancing influence on western thought
Long ago aesthetics was valued and part of commerce, it is returning to that role again
reformulated and reborn. Its Gemini twin is the Sciences. The pendulum swings and does not judge,
but societies are benefitted or challenged according to which quadrant the pendulum is in.
For the purpose of this paper, we will look at Aesthetics as including art, music, literature that
are media for stories, folklore, and fairytales. Derived from the soul of an individual, the Aesthetic
drives him/her to perform or act in contribution to society as a whole. Science, on the other hand,
encompasses data, theory, and proofs in observable, measurable areas derived from the intellect, and
society pulls the scientist along in the direction of its interest. Both are seeking ‘truth’; however, they
define it through sensory experience. Society or at least one other person has to be in agreement that
the output is in fact what it says it is as art or science, so ‘the Spark’ is recognizable to all. Finally, both
question culture in an attempt to prevent negative impact on culture as the practitioner sees it. More
often those of both communities are at the whim of society for their paycheck. There are in fact more
similarities between the two fields than dissimilaries, yet history has put them at polar opposites in
competition with each other. This may be changing.
Looking at the model Tolstoy presented in his essay “What is Art?” in 1899, and the UN report
on Creative Economies, it is true that ‘Past is postscript’. Today the UN releases a report looking at how
creativity merging with economics. The Creative Economy report claims in its Foreword that “This
Report provides empirical evidence that the creative industries are among the most dynamic emerging
sectors in world trade.” So how is it that we balance spirit and intellect today? Though the west focuses
on intellect where “the development of modern culture is characterized by the preponderance of what
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one may call the ‘objective spirit’ over the ‘subjective spirit’” (Simmel, 1903), much of the developing
world is still greatly influenced by and value ‘spirit’ or ‘the spark’. Those in the North-West can learn
from the South-East to achieve better balance. And the South-East is struggling to retain the valued
Spark as technology encroaches and changes their way of life. So in analyzing the question of the role of
Aesthetics in balancing Science, can the balance be maintained by both paradigms?
Definition:
Down through history many have seen inspiration coming from the divine. In the Middle Ages,
the influential mystics were St. Bernard and Bonaventure (anyone who gets a kick out of Song of
Solomon is probably worth listening to). German mystics of the 13th century fitted their experience of a
mystical union with God as transcending the conscious acts of intelligence and will. They described the
experience as the ‘spark’ or ground of the soul [Eckhart, sermon 37]. Eckhart, Tauler, and Suso were all
Dominicans, therefore, essentially Christocentric in their presentation of this view. They saw their lives
as a balance of this ‘spark’ that is supra-rational —the Divine essence itself – with the intellect. Eckhart
presents his view in this way:
love and knowledge, which are activities of the soul and not the essence of the soul: it takes
place in the innermost recess of the soul, the ‘spark’ or scintilla animae, where God unites the
soul to Himself in a hidden and ineffable manner (Copleston & Eckhart, 1936, p 24-45).
It is higher than knowledge, higher than love, higher than grace. For in all these there is still
‘distinction’. In this power God doth blossom and flourish with all His Godhead, and the Spirit
flourisheth in God (Eckhard in Pfeiffer, 1857, 46, 3).
The active intellect cannot give what it has not got. It cannot see two ideas together, but only
one after another. But if God works in the place of the active intellect, He begets (in the mind)
many ideas in one point (Inge, 1899, ftnote 250).
Thus the ‘Spark’ is separate from usual life experience and brings creativity to it.
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The idea of inspiration coming from something greater than the intellect is also found in
Judaism. Rabbi Maimonides hints at the vision of the light body that is the Merkabah, or vehicle of inner
light formed from the hidden radiance of the soul, called Shekinah.
You shouldn't think that these secrets are fully understood by any of us. They aren't. Frequently,
truth flashes into us so we see like it is daytime, then concern and habit conceal it in form, and
we are in the dark again, almost as before. We are like people in the dark of night, with lightning
flashing repeatedly. For some here the lightning flashes continually, so they are always in light.
They see the night as day (Maimonides, 1190/2004, p. 6).
Sufi Muslims tell a story of a true lover who finds the Light only if, like the candle, he is his own
fuel, consuming himself. The word used is ‘Ruh’ or soul-spark, and the soul is described as the divine
spark within. Rumi distinguishes the spark from thought when he says, “Thinking gives off smoke to
prove the existence of fire. A mystic sits inside the burning. There are wonderful shapes in rising smoke
that imagination loves to watch. But it's a mistake to leave the fire for that filmy sight. Stay here at the
flame's core” (Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī, Coleman Barks (Trans). (1987). We are three: new Rumi poems. Maypop
Books, p. 18).
Artists and intellects alike acknowledged that their inspiration came from something higher than
themselves for hundreds of years.
The Schism:
Artists, musicians, and writers were valued for tapping the spark and sharing the end product
down through the Renaissance until the Enlightenment hit. “The artist must create a spark before he
can make a fire and before art is born, the artist must be ready to be consumed by the fire of his own
creation” (attributed to Auguste Rodin). From Spinoza and Leibniz onward, the rational and outward
intellect took over the spark and inward gained insight successful separating the two. After that time, it
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has been much more difficult for artisans of all sorts to make a comfortable living as the intellect and
science were valued over the aesthetic.
The discussion of the interaction of inspiration in art and science continued as thinkers struggled
with their life experience and the societal values, and they countered Enlightenment thinking from
a philosophical standpoint. Schiller (1794) describes the controversy:
Intuitive and speculative understanding took up a hostile attitude in opposite fields, whose
borders were guarded with jealousy and distrust; and by limiting its operation to a narrow
sphere, men have made unto themselves a master who is wont not unfrequently to end by
subduing and oppressing all the other faculties. Whilst on the one hand a luxuriant imagination
creates ravages in the plantations that have cost the intelligence so much labor; on the other
hand, a spirit of abstraction suffocates the fire that might have warmed the heart and inflamed
the imagination (Schiller, 1794, Letters upon the Æsthetic Education of Man, Kessinger
Publishing 2004, p. 13).
In the 1800s, men like Tolstoy explained and proposed alternative perspectives to aesthetics and
science.
A balance: Tolstoy
Tolstoy commits a section of “What is Art?” focusing on the interaction of art and science. “Art
is an organ of human life, transmitting man’s reasonable perception into feeling” (p.183). In his
proposition, art’s future goal is “uniting the most different people in one common feeling, by destroying
separation, will educate people to union, will show them, not by reason, but by life itself, the joy of
universal union reaching beyond the bounds set by life” (p.184). Art’s role of lifting humanity, places it
on a higher plane than science, but not as a substitute for it, but as partners in directing society. The
symbiotic relationship is described in this way:
True science investigates and brings to human perception such truths and such knowledge as
the people of a given time and society consider most important. Art transmits these truths from
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the region of perception to the region of emotion. Therefore, if the path chosen by science be
false, so also will be the path taken by art. Science and art are like a certain kind of barge with
kedge-anchors which use to ply on our rivers. Science, like the boats which took the anchors upstream and made them secure, gives direction to the forward movement; while art, like the
windlass worked on the barge to draw it toward the anchor, causes the actual progression. And
thus a false activity of science inevitably causes a corresponding false activity of art (1899, p.
174, italics mine).
Science is “the new human spiritual activity” (p. 174) in Tolstoy’s time. And he cautions that it is
“the study of that which interests us – is science …the only real science—is harmful in that it diverts
attention from the really important subjects to insignificant subjects” (p. 176). He continues by pointing
out what should be the goal of science:
We need only look around us to perceive that the activity proper to real science is not the study
of whatever happens to interest us, but the study of how man’s life should be established, -- the
study of those questions of religion, morality, and social life, without the solution of which all
our knowledge of nature will be harmful or insignificant (p. 177).
And he concludes that “only then will art, which is always dependent on science, be what it might and
should be, an organ coequally important with science for the life and progress of mankind” (p. 182).
The Shift:
It is possible that such great thinkers as Albert Einstein have finally led us back to valuing
Inspiration, Creativity, and Innovation. Without a doubt the greatest intellect of the twentieth century,
Einstein credited his results as being generated by creativity and imagination, and he valued fairy tales
as an aid to intellectual development.
- “The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination” (Einstein, 1931, p. 97).
- “I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important
than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world” (Viereck, G.S., 1929, p. 117).
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- “The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art
and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand
rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed” (Einstein, 1931, p. 44).
Perhaps the horror of what science has led civilization toward in the war machines and the atom bomb
have made humanity reconsider its ‘spirituality’, refocus on the Spark, and recognize that some things
are greater than ourselves. Simmel in 1903 saw that
the person resists to being leveled down and worn out by a social-technological mechanism. An
inquiry into the inner meaning of specifically modern life and its products, into the soul of the
cultural body, so to speak… Such an inquiry must answer the question of how the personality
accommodates itself in the adjustments to external forces (1950).
This is very difficult for a person raised in the North-West with the high value of independence. To
consider a need for inspiration from outside one’s self is to admit that there is a lack within. Yet if the
perspective is changed just slightly, a reasonable view shows that we are a part of all that is around us
and that we are richer for being a part of and gaining insight from the world and each other. “At times
our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think
with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us” (Albert Schweitzer, 1965, p. 108).
External influences and people are vital to our internal individual development and thinking.
What took the place of pure science and reason was development or progress. In this new
century the failures of progress are being seen (Easterly, Collins, Sachs), just as the failures of science
were being seen in the early parts of the last century. The focus and pendulum swing is again on
Creativity and Innovation, “Just as energy is the basis of life itself, and ideas the source of innovation, so
is innovation the vital spark of all human change, improvement and progress” (attributed to Ted Levitt,
HBR editor). Business Week introduced the “Creativity Economy” in 2005,
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The Knowledge Economy as we know it is being eclipsed by something new -- call it the
Creativity Economy. Even as policymakers and pundits wring their hands over the outsourcing
of engineering, software writing, accounting, and myriad other high-tech, high-end service jobs - not to mention the move of manufacturing to Asia -- U.S. companies are evolving to the next
level of economic activity.”
Business books fill the stands with titles such as Managing Creativity and Innovation (Harvard Business
Essentials), Breakthrough Zone: Harnessing Consumer Creativity for Business Innovation by Roy
Langmaid and Mac Andrews, Edison on Innovation: 102 Lessons in Creativity for Business and Beyond by
Alan Axelrod, and The Secrets of Successful Team Management: How to Lead a Team to Innovation,
Creativity and Success by Michael West. A new perspective is required and reconceptualizing old ways
of doing business is vital.
As we talk about the foreshadowing of a whole economy based upon creativity and innovation,
the dawn of the ‘Creative Age,’ as the Nomura Research Institute put it, we are more acutely
aware of the importance of reinventing our business strategies, our corporations, our
communities, our schools, our housing and land-use policies, and more. Nothing can remain the
same if we are to survive, let alone succeed, in this new global economy (Eger, 2007).
Coming full circle, aesthetics and economics once more merge.
So the UNCTAD proposes in its Creative Economy Report 2008 (CER) that developing nations, the
South-East, can join the developed world, perhaps even leap-frog it, by forming innovative Creative
Economies. The accompanying International Conference on Creative Economy for Development
objective is “to promote the effective use of creativity as a source of wealth, a means of generating
employment, and a significant factor in poverty reduction.” During this Conference in 2008, two NGOs
from Africa, Maison des Jeunes de Kimisagara from Rwanda and the Lake Victoria and Nyansa Creative
Arts Association from Kenya, were invited to participate in a partnership with a Brazilian NGO, Ação
Comunitária do Brasil do Rio de Janeiro (ACB/RJ), to develop a pilot experience based on the creative-
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economy principle of sharing experiences in order to put into practice what had been discussed (p. 36).
This is a beginning.
Many South-Eastern epistemologies originally attributed ‘science’ to the mystical, and art
brought the mystical into every day existence. Necessity for most in the developing world is the mother
of invention, and this is seen in what they are able to do and create with very few resources. The focus
on a heritage of traditional stories helps carry values into the present day. Even China is finding it needs
a moral center to avert the destructive side of capitalism; it has chosen to revive Confucian principles
(Tang, Yijie, 2007). Unity and inclusiveness of all parts of life is also found in Buddhist thought. All these
aspects contribute to Creative Economies and can serve developing countries in joining the global
community.
In the merging and emergence of a new economy, the developing world can once contribute on
an equal level. The convergence of human capital, cultural, and social capital with institutional capital
forms creative outputs that are economically viable (CER, p. 34). Creative Economies, however, require
a certain type of person, the Entrepreneur, who transforms ideas into successful businesses. And it is
work done in community. This is the way that Africans understand and operate, and the new tool is the
computer.
The emergence of low-cost PCs gave rise to a powerful network that has transformed
opportunities for learning and communicating. The magical thing about this network is not just
that it collapses distance and makes everyone your neighbour. It also dramatically increases the
number of brilliant minds we can have working together – and this scales up the rate of
innovation to a staggering degree.
As more and more of the world's information, commerce, and communications moves to digital
form, it will open the door to a new world of connected experiences that link our interests and
our communities into a seamless whole that extends across home, work, school and play.
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Already, a new generation of technology is transforming expectations for how we will conduct
business, communicate, access entertainment and much more. Increasingly, people envision a
world of anywhere access – a world in which the information, the communities and the content
that they value are available instantly and easily no matter where they are (CER, p. 17).
Entrepreneurship seems natural to the African milieu and perhaps the same powers that
motivated the entrepreneurs at the turn of the 20th century in America are at work in the global South
today. To reflect the growing number of African entrepreneurs in business today, and to showcase to
the world Africa's limitless intellectual and economic capital, The African Network
(http://www.theafricannetwork.org/) TANCON theme in 2009 is “Fostering African Entrepreneurship”.
Certainly with a few skills and tools, young Africans entrepreneurs can contribute significantly to their
nations’ growth.
The Creative Economies encompass workers at all the stages of development from: (a)
creation/ conception – where the development of an idea or concept takes place; (b) production/
reproduction – the stage at which an idea or concept is developed further then packaged; (c) marketing
and distribution; and (d) consumption. This could mean many jobs, but requires numerous skills as well.
The areas addressed by the Creative Economy Report embrace many different fields of creativity with
various ways of categorizing them:








Design
Creative design is expressed in several ways: through the creation of decorative luxury items
such as jewelry, by the uniqueness of a functional service such as the architectural design of a
building, or as utilitarian mass-produced goods such as an interior object.
Creative services
Publishing & printed media
Heritage goods and services
Visual arts
Audiovisual
Performing arts
New media
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CER, p. 37
One example given in the Report included:
The city of Popayan, Colombia, was appointed as the first UNESCO City of Gastronomy and it
provides quite a different model for development. It has made extraordinary strides in
formalizing its informal gastronomy industry. By facilitating space and other facilities, imposing
mandatory hygiene regulations, and publishing widely circulated restaurant and food surveys
that include even the smallest food stands, Popayan has invigorated its economy and provided
jobs and income to many people through the conscious support of this subsector of the creative
industries. This newly discovered transparency and openness to the world are giving individuals,
families and communities in Popayan the opportunity to come together and celebrate their
distinctive recipes, rituals and ingredients within an international forum (p. 20).
The focus on Africa in the section called, “Africa Remix: Contemporary Art of a Continent” is
easy to imagine since “economically distressed countries such as Mali, Mozambique, Rwanda or Zambia
have significant production and consumption of cultural products such as music, dance, crafts and visual
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arts” (p. 44). Ghana, Mali, Nigeria, and Senegal integrated culture into their Poverty Reduction Strategy
Papers (PRSPs) as “major axes”.
The PRSP for Mali links culture with religion, social harmony and security as a major axis in the
country’s poverty reduction strategies. This is in recognition of the potential of Malian culture in
promoting traditional and religious values with a view to creating a climate of social harmony
and security (p. 45).
As mentioned before Africa has entrepreneurs, art that values traditions, the drive to gain
benefits from developing countries, and a community focus. Can she compete in the contest and not
just succeed, but teach the North-West how it can be done?
The Challenges:
The biggest question is whether or not the Creative Economy will grow significantly enough to
make a difference for Africa. Currently it is only 3.5% of total world exports (CER, p. 115). Is this
approach for developing countries truly competitive or just novel?
Significant hurdles for African countries to succeed in the Creative Economy include proper use
of resources, training and recruiting talent, and advocating and implementing policies. The CER points
out how this can happen in the ‘omnipresent’ dimensions of education, work, leisure, and
entertainment. It goes on to show the need for a ‘society-inclusive’ dimension that integrates public
and private sectors as well as all social classes – Africa still needs to address these areas. The
‘Intertemporal’ dimension includes the past, present, and future time in consideration and inclusion for
economy development. This would allow cultural and historical values to not be lost, but reinforce the
need for policy in the areas of economics, technology, culture, and society. This multi-dimensional
approach is also multidisciplinary to include culture, labor, trade, technology, education, and tourism as
seen in the figure below. The attempt is to balance the creative with the technological and economic.
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CER, p. 35/59
Examples of the hurdles in the value chain of the music industry include:
African artists who have successfully penetrated World Music and who have been recorded
locally need intermediaries in order for their work to be distributed internationally, so the
commercial value of their success is not necessarily retained within their countries. This lack of
understanding extends not only to role-players within the industry but to the industry and
government, where commercial goals and objectives of cultural policy collide over the purpose
of the support and where role-players see themselves in competition with one another (p. 64).
Infrastructure needs also include local studios for recording and factories to produce CDs and publish
music. The other area that is yet largely undeveloped is Internet distribution (p. 103). These are just
some examples in the area of music.
In the area of art, convincing the North-West to buy the creativity of the South-East is yet
another challenge. For many it does not fit their aesthetic appreciation. Some have argued, for
instance, that African art does not exist because the traditional objects that we might consider to be art
do not meet the Kantian requirement that the objects only serve an aesthetic imperative. In other
words, something is only art if it has a kind of purity to it, and is considered in itself, rather than in its
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cultural or social context. Clarification of cultural understandings such as this may need to occur for an
exchange to be beneficial on both sides.
Tourism is the third largest money maker in the country of Mali, but the influx of tourists is
eroding the local cultures and arts and contributing to only a few pockets. Is the cost worth the
benefits?
The Dogon are a people group (450,000 worldwide) of the country of Mali that live on cliffs that
run 200-300 miles north-south. They live as they have for a millennium since they first migrated to the
area. Their art and traditional practices are an integral part of their daily life, have influenced artists
such as Picasso, and are displayed in the major museums of the world (see metmuseum.org – Works of
Art). According to the World Tourism Organization (2006), the number of international tourists has
increased from 40.000 to 200.000 between 1990 and 2005. Tourism has encouraged the preservation of
local way of life of the blacksmiths and cloth making with modifications (Hoffman, 1997, p. 168) and
revealed to the world a rich cosmology of a ‘primitive’ people (Griaule, 1954). The Dogon leadership
structure is one of elders that meet to determine village issues and enforce the cultural value system
through storytelling and ritual. However, with tourism, there is little supervision of the guides or
artisans due to the lack of ‘manpower’ and the relatively large amounts of money there is to be made.
Obviously it’s going to affect the leadership structure and value system of this tribe. Since the money is
now in the hands of the young, 20-something guides, this system is being overturned with the young
men having the power to decide where the money goes and how it is spent and which stories are
perpetuated and proliferated (often incorrectly) to a world audience. “It is no longer the family or the
community that is proprietor and caretaker of resources, but the individual who is responsible for his
own survival or demise” (Hoffman, 1997, p. 153). The elders in their phlegmatic, fatalistic way shrug
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their shoulders and say, “It is just the way it is.” Can the Dogon access the resources to enforce
measures required to keep the tour guides accountable, to resolve conflicts over the sale of cultural
artifacts not facsimiles (van Beek, 2003, p. 21) and how traditions are modified (Hoffman, 1997), and to
keep tourism from destroying the very reason tourists come to the area? A forum of elders may go
some distance to meeting this need. Developing new industries, partnerships, and knowledge can help.
How do the Dogon put limitations on access for outsiders and yet allow or create access for all people to
see the beauty that is Dogon?
Conclusion:
While the North-West thinks about how to do Creative Economics, the South-East practices it
and are driving to succeed. Are Creative Economies closer to Tolstoy’s direction of how “man’s life
should be established”? Are aesthetics finally rebalancing western thought and therefore allowing
world-wide inclusion? Only time will tell as the pendulum swings. The wise person seeks the balance
between Aesthetics and Science, the soul and the intellect, and preserves and values the Spark.
----
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References
Copleston & Eckhart. (1936). History of philosophy / Die deutchen Werke: erster Band, Meister Eckhart's
Predigten, p. 24-45. Stuttgart-Berlin.
Eger, J. M. (2007). The master of fine arts degree is now the new M.B.A. San Diego Business Journal, May
14. (also http://www.govtech.com/gt/articles/100427).
Einstein, A. (1931). Mein Weltbild In Patrick, G. & Chapman, F. (1935). Introduction to Philosophy.
Einstein, A. (1931). Cosmic religion: with other opinions and aphorisms. New York: Covici-Freide.
Griaule, M. and Germaine Dieterlen. G. (1954). The Dogon. In African worlds: studies in the cosmological
ideas and social values of African peoples. Daryll Forde (Ed). London: Oxford University Press,
pp. 83-110.
Hoffman, R. (1997). Tourism and the Dogon sculptor. PhD dissertation. UCLA. UMI No. 9811458.
Inge, W. R. (1899). Christian Mysticism. Lectures at Oxford, 1899. Ftnote 250.
http://www.archive.org/stream/christianmystici14596gut/14596.txt)
Pfeiffer, F. (1857). Die deutsche Mystik. 2 vols. Leipzig, p. 543.
Maimonides. (1190/2004). The Guide of the perplexed. Barnes and Noble.
Rūmī, J.D. & Barks, C. (Trans). (1987). We are three: new Rumi poems. Maypop Books.
Schiller, F. (1794). Letters upon the æsthetic education of man, Kessinger Publishing (2004).
Schweitzer, A. &Kiernan, T.J. (1965). A treasury of Albert Schweitzer. Citadel Press by arrangement with
Philosophical Library.
Simmel, G. (1903). The Metropolis and mental life. Adapted by D. Weinstein from Kurt Wolff (Trans.) The
Sociology of Georg Simmel. New York: Free Press, 1950, pp.409-424. Retrieved from
http://www.altruists.org/static/files/The%20Metropolis%20and%20Mental%20Life%20(Georg%
20Simmel).htm and also see Google Books.
Tang, Yijie. (2007). The contemporary significance of Confucianism. Frontiers of Philosophy in China.
Volume 3 (4), December, 2008, pp. 477-501. Translated by Yan Xin from Jianghan Luntan
(Jianghan Tribune), 2007, (1): 5–14.
Tolstoi, Lyof N. (1899). The complete works of Lyof N. Tolstoi. Aline Delano (Trans.) NY: Thomas Crowell
& Company.
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UNCTAD. (2008). Creative Economies Report. Retrieved from
http://www.unctad.org/en/docs/ditc20082cer_en.pdf
van Beek, W. E. A. (2003). African tourist encounters: effects of tourism on two African societies. Africa;
73, 2; International Module, 251-289.
Viereck, G.S. (1929). What fife means to Einstein. The Saturday Evening Post Vol. 202, 26 October, p.
117.
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Appendix:
CER p. 208
Alphadi: The fashion caravan
Seidnaly Sidhamed, alias Alphadi, was born on 1 June 1957 to trader parents in Timbuktu, Mali. One of
nine children, in Niger he grew up in the company of his siblings and liked to put makeup on his sisters
and mother. He also studied the makeup of actresses in Hindu films. At a young age, this designer-to-be
was already intrigued by everything that could enhance and better showcase feminine beauty. In Niger,
however, fashion was taboo for boys. While his father had envisaged that Alphadi would pursue a
medical career or work in the family business, following graduation from high school, Alphadi went to
Paris to study tourism. In this centre of fashion, he was able to attend fashion shows and he also took
night courses at the Chardon Savard atelier. Once he had completed his studies, he accepted a director’s
position at the Ministry of Tourism in Niger, but he still had a passion for fashion. While working at the
Ministry, he continued to perfect his fashion skills by receiving in Niger professors from Chardon Savard.
In 1985, two years after having decided to devote his life to fashion, he presented the haute couture
fashion line that he had created at his first fashion show, which was held in the City of Light during the
International Tourism Tradeshow. From that time on, Alphadi has had many successes, including the
Best African Designer award from the Fédération française de la couture et du prêt-à-porter in 1987. His
fashion shows are familiar worldwide – in Abidjan, Brussels, New York, Niamey, Paris, Quebec, Tokyo,
Washington. In 1999, he expanded his label by creating a line of sportswear called Alphadi Bis. With
Wrangler, he also created Alphadi Jeans, and 2000 saw the launch of l’Air d’Alphadi, the first perfume by
an African couturier.
After twenty years of a career in fashion, with fashion shows organized all over the world, boutiques in
Africa, Europe and the United States and, most importantly, an internationally respected brand, Alphadi
is one of the most well-known African designers from the continent. Warm, very affable and
experienced, this artist is ever ready to talk about his field. Inspired by the rich traditions and colours of
Africa, Alphadi “firmly believes that fashion and culture are the industries that can lift Africa to the ranks
of prosperous nations”.
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General public at: http://www.unctad.org/statistics, or www.unctadxi.org/creative .
After cotton and gold, culture and tourism are our main resources.
Other thoughts that don’t ‘fit’:
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Definition of knowledge – dynamic, capitalism and profit making, quality -> no room for mistakes and
learning.
Collaborative knowledge creation – impediments, having to learn how to do it. Whether or not to love
someone enough to lead them through (love past insecurities, build on strengths), no way can do the
work without team member (Alison, Dr. Tony). Rules of engagement with those of differing cultural
backgrounds. Understanding worlds to create a unified perspective. Multiple modality.
Knowledge – and billable hours. Recognition if not compensated.
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