Is self-isolation making you more creative?
The Innovation team at Instinctif harness the best of the future to deliver market-leading ideas in the present. The team’s specialism spans digital strategy and marketing, data & analytics, and strategic brand. This fortnightly update shares top tips to help you foster creative and challenge the status quo and summarises the news that matters.
Creativity, boredom and Coronavirus
Coronavirus has restructured almost all elements of our everyday lives with quarantines and lockdowns, leading to some us growing bored or frustrated. During this tumultuous period, it is important to see the silver lining and stay inspired. We take a look at how the art industry is adapting to this pandemic and how boredom may be creativity’s best friend.
Virtual art
The Art industry is really suffering during this pandemic. Yet, its importance was highlighted when representatives of Australia’s diverse arts institutions sent an open letter to the Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison encouraging him to “issue a public statement recognising the value of our industry to all Australians, and the debilitating impacts of COVID-19 on the arts, cultural and entertainment industries and the creative sector as a whole. This message would affirm your commitment to the livelihoods and the infrastructure that inspires the nation.”
Making good use of the time we spend away from our desks is key to keeping ourselves inspired and our creative juices flowing during this difficult time. The world’s museums may be closed for the foreseeable future, but that has not stopped organisations getting involved in the #MuseumFromHome campaign, highlighting the power of social media and the online world.
Many museums have opened up their doors to the wonders of virtual reality, this includes; taking a virtual reality tour of the Anne Frank House, roaming the galleries of the British Museum and virtually standing in the grounds of the Louvre.
Londonist has provided a list of 23 of the world’s most famous museums you can explore here.
Boredom and self-isolation
Will boredom during self-isolation lead to creativity? According to Dr Sandi Mann, a researcher at the University of Central Lancashire, in The Times yesterday, as global boredom strikes us, we will get ever more creative: “We’re already doing things differently — socialising, doing business and even exercising using online platforms. And the surge in creativity over the next few months is going to be as big as any other period in history. It’s the same level as you might see in a war — but this is a war where we’re all on the same side.”
Celebrities, from the popstar Selena Gomez to the children’s author Jacqueline Wilson, are saying this is a time for creativity to blossom. Wilson has even suggested we could all become budding writers by keeping a private diary to express ourselves – perhaps one meaningful way of using our newfound free time.
An article in World Economic Forum, has stated that the lockdown has provided a time for us to be more creative. They have found that boredom creates moments where your brain becomes hungry for stimulation, which drives you to search your mind for something and this inspires creativity. In other words, will our boredom, restlessness, and constraint enable us to think of new ideas to create a better future?
Top stories
Social media, Tiger King and community
One of the greatest strengths of social media at a time like this is helping people feel a sense of community.
Recently, people in the UK and US went crazy for a Netflix show called Tiger King about an embattled roadside zoo owner’s rivalry with a cat rescue owner. The show was crazy, chaotic and people couldn’t believe what they were seeing – in a way that almost reflected the current coronavirus crisis.
As soon as it launched, people started creating and sharing funny memes and thought pieces about the show on WhatsApp and celebrities started weighing in on Twitter and Instagram with their opinions as to who was guilty for the various crimes exposed or inferred to on the show. As Forbes wrote “we’re all having the same collective experience of this story, isolated, but as a community”. Social media activity around the show gave everyone an excuse to laugh, gasp and feel part of something larger.
It’s not just discussing TV shows or speaking to relatives on online channels that has been keeping people sane. People have shown extraordinary support for their community through social media, especially with small businesses. Many small businesses have been using social media to communicate with their followers and let them know what services they’re offering – whether that’s at home deliveries or asking people to buy vouchers to utilise at a later date. Many of these updates have been shared by individuals in the community urging their connections to support and get involved.
People have also been setting up charitable initiatives in their own time to help support others – whether raising money for the elderly through selling bracelets online or sharing surveys urging the government to take action on critical issues affecting vulnerable communities. The momentum these posts have gathered has been quicker than wildfire, and people have jumped at the opportunity to get involved, share and connect with others on the issues affecting them.
Whilst it’s undoubtedly a tough environment, social media has enabled us to experience the uniquely human need to feel part of something and support others when we can’t do it in person.
Tool of the week
Online. It’s where we live now. And our new landlords, the social media giants, are furnishing their platforms with updates to make us all feel more at home.
Facebook-owned Instagram has added a new Co-Watching feature, which lets users video chat with friends while browsing through the app together. It’s social isolation, with an emphasis on the ‘social’.
Top tip
This week’s tip comes from Innovation’s Account Director, Ellie Day:
It’s not a TV series, or a yoga channel, but in the absence of an abundance of pasta on supermarket shelves, this poem from Brian Bilston made me laugh. Then share it with lots of people. Then re-read it. It’s recommended for some light relief, in these starchy carb-free times.