Leading and Creating - a set on Flickr

David Deming, Sculptor and President of the Cleveland Institute of Art, contributed an interview to I-Open research about his work leading and creating.

The images tell the story of David as an artist, who with steadfast creativity, shapes the three-dimensional likeness of an inner soul with a personal signature that is warm and generous.

But between the stories of leadership and the re-making of spirits with tools and earth, lies the secret to innovation: creativity.

What can we learn from the disciplined habits of creatives? The efficiency? The destructionism? What can we learn from the doers who blindly transform ideas to projects feeling their way forward, to re-create education and re-wire government?

Be alert to the sights and sounds of creativity around you - these jewels, the assets that reside in every community and the most valuable of all social and economic investments to prosperity building.

Photos and their narratives by Alice Merkel

Listen to a series of interviews on
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Learn more about the Cleveland Institute of Art

Copyright 2010 Betsey Merkel and I-Open. Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works. Institute for Open Economic Networks (I-Open) 4415 Euclid Ave 3rd Fl Cleveland, Ohio 44103 USA

The Graphic Novel Gone Digital: Connecting A Global Conversation

The Graphic Novel Gone Digital: connecting a global conversation from I-Open on Vimeo.

Created by Betsey Merkel.

Daniel Goldman, pioneer in digital storytelling and distribution, designs comics in the long form of graphic novels.

Dan and I had a chance to spend some time together last spring during the Comic Book Camp hosted by the Aesthetic Technologies Lab at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio (kudos to Lab Director Katherine Milton and colleagues!).

In this complete interview Dan shares his passions and insights in life and work. He talks about the opportunity Open Source offers to release and connect the creative powers of virtual networks through digital platforms. By connecting a ubiquitous open conversation, Dan envisions a global, creative performance of beautiful still images and storytelling transforming a once almost sleepy publishing industry exclusively read by young males.

Dan builds industry innovation networks with digital tools to connect readers. By combining technology, storytelling and dialogue in new ways, he is accelerating the transformation of a shared global conversation founded on entertainment and based in real issues that matter.

Branding Stories: Digital Platforms Creating Exponential Business Shifts

Branding Stories: digital platforms creating exponential business shifts from I-Open on Vimeo.

Created by Betsey Merkel.

Dan Goldman, American writer, artist and designer living in Brooklyn, New York is best known for his pioneering work in digital mixed media illustration and online comics.

Dan and I talked at the Spring 09' Comic Book Camp hosted by the Ohio University Aesthetic Technologies Lab and the OU Print Department. His work is focused on building a digital platform to aggregate a global creative community. It is an example of strengthening individual creativity to transform a quaint medium and it's industry into a far-reaching communication powerhouse.

Dan's work invests primarily in I-Open's Innovation Framework category of Branding Stories. His work focuses on how we tell the important stories of human culture, in a heightened art form - something we can only accomplish by working together connecting the creative innovation of many.

I-Open builds networked collaborative communities. In this interview, Dan talks about the value of building virtual and face-to-face networks to revolutionize industries. Dan talks about his insight into the importance of establishing a philosophical groundwork in a networked community. The unwritten rules are: what you give is what you get and we are united by an amazing opportunity to create at new levels.

Dan understands the value of building online digital platforms to accelerate collaborative creativity; freeing creators from publishers and giving free reign to trusted, talented individuals. Again the unwritten understanding is, if the work is good and universal it will touch everyone.

Digital platforms allow direct connections between artists and their audiences. Such a level of ubiquity of work across many platforms accelerates the evolution of a formerly quaint medium to transform. By working across sectors, a digital distribution network will help cement what comics are now and will be in the future. In 50 years comics will have different set of expectations, and be shared as beautiful still images full of magic.

 

The Hardest Work Of All: A Story Of Connection, Passion And Love

The hardest work of all: A story of connection, passion and love from I-Open on Vimeo.

By Betsey Merkel

Dan Goldman, American writer, artist and designer living in Brooklyn, New York is best known for his pioneering work in digital mixed media illustration and online comics.

Dan and I talked at the Spring 09' Comic Book Camp hosted by the Ohio University Aesthetic Technologies Lab and the OU Print Department.

The hardest work of all when working within systems of open networks is to understand who you are. To develop a strong sense of self - and recognizing this as a life long pursuit - is critical. Core personal values help us to understand our place in the world as human beings and will determine our personal resilience and ultimate ability to share and recognize new opportunities.

In this interview Dan shares what is most important to him and how he sees himself, his work and those he is connected to in the larger context of spirituality, political and social systems.

Dan talks about his insights as a compassionate leader, a human being and offers sage wisdom for life, love, and living to anyone who cares to listen.

As a writer/artist Dan Goldman's work has appeared in Time, GQ, New York Magazine, Forbes and Wired. Known for his Eisner-nominated web-to-print comic SHOOTING WAR, he is a frequent speaker on both digital comic processes and online distribution, as well as a founding member of the celebrated web comics collective ACT-I-VATE. Dan is co-author with Michael Crowley, Editor, New Republic, of "08: A Graphic Diary of the Campaign Trail" of the 2008 Presidential election. http://www.dangoldman.net