Business life is rarely smooth sailing for new start-ups. Amidst market saturation and a thousand and one competitors, only certain characteristics, attributes and mindsets are left to determine those that will and won’t survive...
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An exploration of creativity, technology and the culture of identity
Apathy has a way with the modern world; we adjust. From raising the ‘end is nigh’ sign, our arms become tired. We don’t really believe in the sentiment, nor are convinced of our ability to speak out against a movement that we cannot feign to understand. For many, those that voted for Brexit – and similarly for Trump in the US – are the elusive unspoken, quietly living amongst us, but beneath the platform of social media. Until the unveiling of their collective power, their existence was pushed aside...
Read MoreMany of us are institutionalised by our existences; they may not be good for us, but in a world where money decorates who we are, it’s enough to feel comfortable and know we’re keeping to the path. It’s rare, but we do also have triumphs of individuality – moments in which we glimpse something through the trees that is worth taking the risk for. Relationships, passions, loves – a finite tableau of ever-tantalising objects that many of us will yearn for, but seldom dare to reach...
Read MoreOur consumption of mass media, often masquerading under the guises of culture, is forcibly gluttonous. That’s not to say we don’t desire a portion of it, but our psychological want far exceeds our appetite, or ability register that which we’re presented with. The change in cultural consumption can, in fact, be correlated to the change in food consumption...
Read MoreIn a world of political disassociation, in which the elite and non-elite are suspended in two entirely different realities, social media has become a device for humanising political figures and creating relatability. Our politicians share the same social space as our friends, our families and our favourite products...
Read MoreIn our turbulent, unstable, querulously rebellious society, it’s no longer cool to be seen shaking hands with big business. By channelling the voice of business interests, Cameron did himself few favours – even if his words and warnings were on the mark. The irony that eludes many spectators is within what Trump currently represents versus his personal history. Whilst being an infamous businessman himself, the blusterous equivalent of our Alan Sugar, his movement symbolises a distinct detachment from a world controlled by the business elite...
Read MoreIt’s not an opportunity for inspiration; it’s an opportunity for a selfie. Such is the pervasiveness of social media that many of us are unable to exist within a moment. Moments, in fact, serve only to perpetuate a self-image – a branding – easily framed by the perfectly angled photograph, wherein the select shade of the sun amplifies the features and attributes we most desire to expose, and renders in shadow those that we do not. We do not marvel for the sake of a cherished memory; we marvel for how an event may be represented to our friends and peers, and the return benefit gained on virtue of being physically present. Each day, we deposit into a shared fiction, one which narrates how we must live...
Read MoreTrump's visceral, pithy speeches, wordplay, catchphrases and general lexicon are engineered not to manoeuvre himself around a political contest, but to pitch his own brand of politics. Anybody watching his first presidential debate will have seen two contenders each playing their own game; the two halves of the stage are divided by more than political party allegiances. It is the division between new and old politics. We’ve seen something similar in Britain...
Read MoreWhat our parents fail to teach us is what it takes to break from the rules, or stem the flow in the river, is a strength and mental defiance unknown to most. This challenge is not only an active act, of refusing to live as those around us, but a passive one – one automatically entered into the equation behind each decision and action, to the point that our behaviours are self-defined, uninfluenced by the ‘should’ and ‘supposed’...
Read MoreIn Western society, efficiency commonly trumps questions of right and wrong. We are far less concerned with whether an action is just, when it is profitable. Scores of jobs are made redundant each year in low-skilled industries, where the labour can be better done by a computer, be it a ticket machine or robotic arm...
Read MoreIn the purest sense, any individual is capable of a creative act, of producing a thing that hasn’t been produced before and which sets a new curve. To say an individual isn’t creative is akin to suggesting they have no imagination. And if somebody is unable to imagine a reality outside of their immediate (even if only one compelled by their hopes and desires), then there’s something seriously afoot...
Read MoreFor many, Brexit was such an exception. Ignoring, for a moment, the argument that many voters dismissed economic warnings as political blathering, Britain’s choice to leave the EU (or vote to do so) represented a rare moment in which visions of the future were filled with something more than dollar signs. The result shocked not only the nation, but the world – it was a rare moment of defiance, and a break in the order of things...
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