Interpreting innovation: Design, Creativity and Art

Forward – dance me to the end of love (Francesco Izzo)

Pina Bausch
She was undoubtedly one of the 20th century’s greatest choreographers. She was renowned throughout the world for her
experimental, innovative, and unconventional productions. In her works, she brought together movement, singing, acting and
music with emotional content. Pina Bausch's vision for dance was ground-breaking: she conceived dance as an artistic
expression without borders, where dancers could move amongst the audience and musicians play on stage.
The American choreographer William Forsythe once said that Pina Bausch "basically reinvented dance. Dance-theater did not
really exist before she invented it. Pina Bausch established a turning point in contemporary dance, reinventing the language
and the meaning (the design) of dance.

What can management learn from dance? First, how to be creative. For a long time, innovation has been depicted
as a structured process. Choreography shows another way. Choreographers make something out of nothing. They
have a vision to communicate and share with audiences thanks to a team of dancers. Consequently, innovation
takes teamwork. Dancers put their safety in another's hands. And innovation managers should learn how to take
risks by trusting their teams. Moreover, dance teaches entrepreneurs and managers that discipline and
experimentation are the keys; that a choreography as well as an innovation project must bring together structure
and improvisation. Dance as a new product tells a story that must capture attention: it is a search for a meaning to
share with the audience (the market).

Introduction
This is a journey into the interdisciplinary innovation territory whose boarders are defined by three main disciplines:
design, creativity, and art. The decision to enter the debate comes from perception and chance.

Perception emerged by observing the evolution of innovation management literature. At the end of the last century
a technological perspective dominated the debate. In a context increasingly dominated by engineers and technical
managers, design emerged as a new attractor of sudden interest. All “design based” approaches present a double
character: they embrace the complexity of social-cultural ground sustaining innovation strategy and open a new
perspective on issues that have managerial relevance. But over the last few years, new keywords have appeared:
practice, participation, meaning and creativity. Creativity is becoming a pivotal topic, exhibiting a new and attractive
link between management and the world of art.

Chance does not imply abandoning a managerial approach but asks for deep re-thinking of how to tackle a series of
issues and questions that need to find better and more suited answers. Being cross-disciplinary is then a key
attitude, together with a strong focus on the process, where phenomena are analyzed and explained in their
temporal evolution, as part of a larger and more complex world of intertwined relations.

1. Managing innovation by design

1.1. Introduction
Design so far has assumed a significant role in management, both as a key competence used by designers to boost
the process of product innovation and as a point of critical re-alignment of the management discourse. A new
interest then emerged at the intersection between innovation and design, confirming Simon’s idea that the design
process can be seen as a means of approaching managerial problems.

Nevertheless, the role of design remains ambiguous. The debate on the role of design has created new tensions
between designers and managers and their retrospective models and framework.

Given the wide set of contexts where design finds its application, this work considers two specific design dimensions:
product design and process design.
 - Product design has been traditionally associated with numerous value dimensions, from the ideal unity of
usefulness and beauty to the aesthetic dimension of an object. The focus is on the set of properties of an
artefact, consisting in discrete properties of form and function. Product design is seen as part of an
innovative field of research and has some key advantages: it is large enough to include both physical and
immaterial objects and it considers the artefact as the integral complex of form and functionality opening
to the semantic dimensions of objects.
-
- But the artefact is also strictly connected with the process through which it has been realized. The design
process identifies the set of strategic and tactical activities for idea generation to commercialization, used
to create a product design. Each step of this process involves choices that are at the same time technical and
strategic, but also having a relevant dimension in terms of knowledge creation and learning.

The journey through the land of design starts from the definition of design as conceiving and giving form to
artefacts that solves problems (Simon). Here, design is a process that is fundamentally rooted in human life, where
everybody becomes a designer when they perceive a desire that cannot be satisfied by existing solutions.

More recently, design has been given wider strategic relevance, with major emphasis on its interdisciplinary
dimensions. Design is used as a strategic means, characterizing the processes of value creation, as in the design
driven model of innovation, where it is used to radically change the language of a product. It is based on the
relationship between the entrepreneur and designer. The design driven model is a strategic vision (the
entrepreneur) combined with technical competences (the designer)

But with the emergence of design thinking, design is meant as a set of rules and techniques whose application
boosts the process of innovation, thus improving the ability of different organizations to satisfy the needs of their
users. The process is rooted in the relationship between designer and users. Design thinking offers a unique
perspective: "a user-centered world where design is a box of tools that everybody can access and use to satisfy
their own unmet needs".

In both cases, design is adopted as a language, but in the first one it generates emotions through aesthetic and
symbolic dimensions while the customer keeps a passive role. In the second, it induces interaction, leaving room for
user participation and involvement.

1.2. Designing the world of “the artificial”

Simon defined the borders of a new discipline, proposing the study of the world of artificial objects as opposed to
the study of natural science. The world of “the artificial” identifies the intervention of human beings in satisfying
those needs that cannot find an appropriate solution in the world of nature. It aims at defining how the world
should be and not just observing how the world is regulated by the laws of nature.

The world of artificial sciences defines the domain of design, and is based on two main conceptual blocks : needs
and artifacts. Needs are gaps, states of absence whose presence triggers a process of conception and
implementation of satisfying solutions. An artefact can be defined for its being the result of an intentional and
authorial process of creation.

In a continuous process of need satisfaction, the world thus became progressively replenished with new artefacts,
and it is now almost impossible to separate the world of the artificial from the world of nature. We have identified
four indica that distinguishes the artificial from the natural; hence, we can set the boundaries for science and
artificial:

1. Artificial things are synthetized by human beings. Simon underlines that all human beings are involved in
the process of design and that it is implemented through the act of synthesis and combination. The sum of
parts is assembled in a coherent set.
2. Artificial things may imitate the appearance of natural things but may lack the reality of the latter . Design
is imperfect and lacks the perfection of nature. It gradually approaching the satisfaction of human needs
through a process of trial and error.
3. Artificial things can be characterized in terms of functions, goals, and adaptation. Where functions are the
practical functionality of an artefact and goals represent their final aims. Simon also recalls the adaptative
 nature of the artefact. Adaptation meaning the reciprocal condition of fitting between the artifact and its
hosting environment. Given that we design artefacts to fill gaps, they should be conceived to dynamically fit
the context.
4. Artificial things are often discussed in terms of imperatives as well as descriptives. These terms identify a
set of scientific rules and processes guiding the design process, and designers are asked to make choices and
define the functioning rules of the artefact. Thus, taking the task of describing reality as it should be.

But Simon’s approach does not consider the process of design as a set of practices and knowledge emerging from
the daily action of the professional designer. A focus on this perspective is at the center of re-positioning practice at
the center of the design discourse. This is an idea that will prevail in the design thinking approach.

1.3. From artificial as authored objects to artefacts as meaningful products

Even though Simon defines the process of design as a pervasive activity, literature on innovation and particularly
that on product innovation focuses more closely on the physical and technical dimension characterizing the process
of design. This emphasizes the importance of concepts such as product architecture, platform, and modularity.

At the beginning of the new century, management discourse found a new interest in the symbolic dimension
underneath the physical ace of the product. Design acquired a new perspective, being identified as a process of
sense making, which opens new possibilities to the process of product innovation.

Products can be defined as artifacts designed by human beings to satisfy their purpose and needs, meat to
function in a certain context and embedded in it, both socially, historically, and culturally.

Based on the cultural diamond of Griswold, products could be represented at the center of a set of relations
connecting different actors and incorporating different patterns of knowledge and value.

The horizontal axes show the connection between firms and

customers through the process of production and consumption,
whereas the vertical axes describe the source defining the
product.

At one end technology delimits the knowledge embedded in

choosing architectures and components, while at the other end,
the socio-cultural context contributes to making sense of the
product in terms of its connections with the context. Products
are designed as a set of technological choices and meaning.

This underlines the intricate nature of products, which can be seen as artifacts resulting from a process of human
design affected by the interplay of technological and socio-cultural dimensions.

1.4. Products as semantic artefacts: design as making meaning

Products have been recognized as drivers of meaning and symbolic contents, overcoming the world of basic needs
and commodities to enter the realm of complex and more articulated desires and experiences. The model of design
driven innovation redefines the meaning of design. For them, design is to make representations of the world.

If technology and market are the main drivers of the innovation process, design is seen as a third and strategic
dimension whose aim is that of assigning new meaning to existing or new products. Given this assumption, the firm
develops its innovation strategy on two main axes.
 The vertical axes define the world of functionalities and
represent the classical distinction between radical and
incremental innovations. Radical improvements are
introduced as descending from modern technologies, while
incremental are the result of satisfying specific needs
expressed in the market.

The horizontal axis introduces the dimension of meaning as

a new kind of innovation. Market pull innovation identify
products and experiences that adapt to the existing
evolution of socio-cultural models, while radical new
meanings are created by those innovations that can induce
a change in terms of the model of socio-cultural perception
and consumption.

The interplay of the two axes defines a space where three main types of innovation are placed.
- In the extreme lower left corner, the classic market pulls projects appear as incremental changes at both the
level of functionality and meanings.
- On the upper left corner, technological push are those products resulting from radical modern technologies,
those products come from the redesign of meaning.
- Starting from the lower right corner, design driven innovation represents the redesign of meaning,
incremental in the lower part and increasingly radical at the top. Design driven innovations are those where
the combination of modern technologies and new meanings creates a radical change of meanings.
 In the upper right corner, design driven innovations merge with technology push innovations. They
produce radically new meanings, changing the processes of consumption.

The framework proposed here by Verganti gives a more integral representation of the dimensions through which
the firm can add value to a product, discarding the traditional approach and opening to an idea of radical innovation
based on the control of languages through which radically new messages can be attributed to existing products.

The model's point of interest lies in the interplay of the two dimensions of value – technology and meaning - as
drivers functional and semantic design. A belter strategy tor the firm should consider both dimensions, exploiting the
possibility to radically change the market even with small technological investment. About what are labeled as
"design inspired innovations".

Swatch
One of the most suitable examples of design inspired innovation is represented by Swatch. This specific type of watch was
designed to create a synergic advance on both axes. From the point of view of its technology, it incorporated major changes
at architectural level (modular) and regarding components (interchangeable) and production processes (modular assembly).
At the same time, the watch also uses poor materials (plastic), bright colors (fashion) and a coherent communication strategy
(fun) to propose a massive change at the level of meanings. Swatch changed the concept of the wristwatch, moving from the
image of a tool for measuring time to that of a fashion accessory. It was the result of design driven innovation given impulse
by the interplay of three major drivers: technology, market, and design.
Adopting the above framework, swatch could be placed in the top right-hand corner as a successful example of how design
can boost technological and market choices, designing a long-lasting product that is radically new in terms of meanings and
languages, even though it does not introduce any new functionality.
As a final consideration, the model finds a better application in the world of "design industries", where the process
of sense making is under the major control of the designer, while the consumer perceives the object of design as
part of a process of self-construction guided from the outside. The acceptance of the superior role of the designer
thus influences the acceptance of suggested meaning, making this a special case in the context of innovation.

The signs used to mark an artefact give back a significant role to the aesthetic language, even if "empowered" as
part of the more complex process of meaning construction. It could be said that whereas language integrates
technology and market to offer radically new opportunities of consumption, the firm needs to find new sources of
inspiration and dialogue to nurture this new attitude.
 Here the brain of the entire process is the entrepreneur who
inspires strategy and visions future products. Nevertheless,
entrepreneurs need the operative support of the designer,
whose role is to connect the firm with the surrounding world
and enable technology through a process of meaning
construction.

Thus, the designer is placed next to the entrepreneur,

codifying the language coming from the surrounding
environment. The socio-cultural context is the habitat in
which the firm defines and performs its strategy. The
designer should play the fundamental role of communicator,
capturing fresh stimulus and drivers of radical new meanings.

This part of the framework has therefore double and opposite effects. On the one hand it opens new and interesting
perspectives on the complexity of the network of interdisciplinary visions and knowledge that become critical in the
process of meaning and technology making. On the other hand, it leaves many unsolved questions about the
process through which the designer and the firm should manage this process, given a context characterized by the
vast variety of languages and their tacit nature.

1.5. From design driven to design thinking: how design becomes designing
If the design driven model emphasizes the value of the sign as a distinctive mark on a product, design is also
conceived as a process of “making planes of something”, identifying a set of phases and decisions adopted in the
process of finding a solution to a given problem.

The process of IDEO (founders of the design thinking process) takes attention back to the process of designing as a
process of finding stable solutions to human problems. In this perspective, designers lose the role of sense maker
and speaker for the entrepreneur, repositioning themselves as receiver and translator of needs and desires coming
from the market. In the classical process of market driven processes, market identifies a mass of differentiated and
passive customers, whereas in the design thinking approach, market is defined through an in-depth process of socio-
cultural investigation aiming at letting real and fundamental needs emerge.

This process is focused on the human side of the process, where human beings and needs take the place of
customers and demand, it is a human centered design. If all this is true, the unique way to reach the goal is by
adopting an ethnographic approach to research. Here design is not an aesthetic configuration or a process of
meaning construction, but it is a culturally based process.

Kroeber defines culture as patterns, explicit and implicit, of and for behavior acquired and transmitted by symbols,
constituting the distinctive achievements of human groups, including their embodiments in artefacts. The essential
core of culture consists of traditional ideas and especially their attached values. Culture systems may, on the one
hand, be considered as products of action, on the other hand as conditioning elements of further action.

In this perspective design becomes "humanistic". Humanistic then defines a broader and holistic perspective of the
functionalities attributed to a certain artifact, and the designer acts to connect the firm with the social and cultural
context where needs emerge. In this process, technical and creative competences embodied by the designer are
combined with human and strategic vision: empathy, cooperation, optimism, and willingness to experiment. The
designer becomes a social researcher.

The Embrace warmer project

The Embrace Warmer project was developed as class work where students faced the problem of designing a device for
avoiding neonatal hypothermia that would cost a fraction of the price of a state-of-the-art incubator. After visits to hospitals
in Nepal, and many in-field interviews with doctors, nurses and mothers, the initial idea of designing a low-cost incubator for
health care structures was modified into a portable cradle to use at home. Immersing themselves in the context, the team
identified the real problem: mothers needed a tool to protect their premature babies outside the hospital where they could
not stay for too long.
 Assuming a design thinking perspective, the project focuses on identifying
a gap in terms of unmet needs, entering deeply into the multidimensional
facets of its emergence, and finding the best feasible solution to fill this
gap. This means the design space is defined by the intersection of three
major areas: people, technology, and business.

Each of these dimensions defines major aims of the project, in terms of

desirability and usability (what people want and use better), feasibility
(what technology makes possible) and viability (where business is
sustainable).

Given this premise, the design thinking process has users' needs at the center and is staged in three major phases
aimed at: gathering data about user needs, generating ideas, and testing.

In the IDEO experience, “great design” focuses the attention of solving problems and connected with our lives in
contemporary times. The proactive through which the projects becomes real is based on a few key words:
involvement, experimentation, and ethnography.

- Involvement means that designers work in interdisciplinary teams, involving the final user in a process that
is highly open and participative. Designers are not relevant as creative individualities but as multiple voices.
- Experimentation means that the innovation is based on experiments, tests on “raw and dirty” prototypes.
- Ethnology identifies the approach of research, where direct experience and immersion support the
definition of users’ behaviors.

The entire process is grounded in experimentation,

participation, and inclusion, and creativity is acknowledged as
a common resource for everybody, and not just a professional
competence. Design thinking thus proposes a model of
creativity that is accessible (most people are born creative)
and available (IDEO has developed a set of tools to implement
this approach).

Coherently with this approach, the user occupies a central and

participative position in the innovation process, where the
designer is now completely embedded in the context, and
customers become users and participate actively in the process
of co-creation.

1.6. Design as making sense of a participative process: a story from architecture

One thing emerging from what we have said is the double relevance of design. Design is a language to make sense
of the world, but it is also a process to find feasible solutions to the problems urging human life.

The two approaches to design propose a radically different model of value for the process of innovation. Whereas in
the design driven frame it is grounded on the relationship between the entrepreneur and the designer, in the
design thinking discourse the model is strongly rooted in the relationship between the designer and the user.

In the world imagined by the design driven model artefacts or consciously and perfectly designed to succeed in the
market thanks to those who have strategic vision (the entrepreneur) technical capabilities (the designer). In this
perspective participation remains low, the user is a passive receiver of a message produced elsewhere, and the
value proposition is based on the strategic relationship between the entrepreneur’s vision and the designer’s
interpretation.

Both the approaches share the common context of innovation and that innovation needs to be strategically driven.
If the innovation strategy finds support in the language of design, then all the design thinking tools become of
greatest importance to support to the process of innovation. Nevertheless the designer cannot substitute to the
entrepreneurial vision and the needed to be strategically driven. Therefore, more than design driven innovation, a
model of strategy driven design seems to emerge.

Incremental housing
One of the most famous projects of Aravena and his "do tank" studio is related to social housing, a problem connected to the
huge increase in people coming to live in big cities in search of better economic and social conditions of life. The design space
Aravena faced was defined by some major constraints often characterizing the projects of social housing:
- the cost of the land, usually three times more than social housing could sustain;
- the scale of the house, with a gap between the needs of the inhabitants in terms of square meters and the
possibilities to sustain it financially in its entirety;
- the need expressed by people to join the project, choosing the best solutions for themselves.
Considering these limitations, Aravena and his studio chose to try a project of participatory design aimed at involving users in
designing and building their houses.

To summarize, what is the role of the entrepreneur and what is the role of the designer? Is innovation driven by
design or is design a strategic competence? These questions can be answered only by considering that both the
approaches share the common context of innovation, and that innovation needs to be strategically driven. If the
innovation strategy finds support in the language of design, then all the design thinking tools become of greatest
importance to support the process of innovation. Nevertheless, the designer cannot substitute the entrepreneurial
vision and the need to be strategically driven. Therefore, more than design driven innovation, a model of "strategy
driven design" seems to emerge.

2. Creativity, innovation, and art

2.1. Introduction
The notion of creativity is defined as the process through which an agent, both individually and collectively, can
create an idea or a solution to a certain problem. This idea should be at the same time new and valuable. We have
said that creativity is one of the key ingredients of the innovation process. This is evident in the Darwinian theory of
creativity which mentions two main stages: a blind phase where the idea is generated and a selection stage where
the best idea out of many is selected and then further implemented.

In the design driven model, individual creativity plays a crucial role in the process of meaning construction,
coherently with the romantic image of a creative leader, a sort of artist who can catalyze the necessary resources
and competences to drive change. Where change is based on the introduction of radically new meanings, creativity
needs to be further supported by the exploration of new contexts for research.

With the design thinking approach, the focus shifts to problem solving methodologies, and creativity reinforces its
role in the innovation discourse. Here the creative dimension has two characteristics: it is a collective condition
(today's rapidly changing environments, the complexity of problems requires solutions that combine the knowledge,
effort, and abilities of people with diverse perspectives) and refers to a process of recombination (innovation does
not start from nothing but is nourished by large exploration of different contexts, in terms of problems and solutions.
Innovation is therefore a re-combination of previous solutions to new contexts), which is socially and culturally
contextualized.

Cultural production becomes a driver for "orienting ideas", a way to make sense of the organization. Cultural and
creative organizations are the places where innovation is a continuous process of change, and where the tensions
between market and novelty, commercial aims and radical changes find a solution. As a result, new fields of
investigation emerge, where the traditional focus on market and technology is accompanied by increasing attention
towards the artistic and cultural domain, perceived as the place where creativity is at the center of the process of
value creation.
Moving back and forth on this trajectory, the process of innovation is
observed through new lenses. On the one hand, the necessary
ingredients of innovation are still there, representing the technical
and commercial sources of any innovative process. On the other
hand, the innovation strategy finds its completion in the process of
interpretation. This is based on the capability to control the creative
process, entering new contexts of action: the world of design and the
 broader context of cultural and creative industries.

2.2. The interplay between creativity and innovation

In a perspective of innovation, creativity can be defined as "the production of novel and useful ideas in any
domain", where two issues emerge: a) an idiosyncratic combination of novelty and usefulness; b) two dimensions
remaining in the background: the subject gifted with creative quality and the object embodying the effects of the
creative process.

2.2.1 Creative actors

Who is creative? Individual creativity can be expressed thanks to the policies pursued by the organization that
reinforces and sustains the expertise and skills of individuals through a set of practices, making resources available
and designing an adequate system of organizational motivation. Individual creativity therefore becomes the first
step to achieving organizational creativity, whereas the organization is not only able to sustain a single employee in
the creative process, but also retains and socializes the value produced.

2.2.2 Creative processes

But how do change and usefulness find a possible and fruitful combination? If the creative essence seems to lie in
opposition to preexisting situations, this combination is quite complex. In a philosophical perspective the existence
of tradition is seen as a necessary condition for the creative process. Creative idea emerges in the presence and not
absence of certain behavioral routines aimed at constraining, restricting, and occasionally even "killing" creativity.
Creativity therefore is part of a routine dynamic, where the routine itself becomes the center of the analysis.

2.2.3 Creative products

At the end of the process, creativity can be studied through its final outcomes, but how is the degree of novelty and
usefulness embodied in the output evaluated, and who oversees the process of evaluation? From the point of view
of the intensity of novelty, two different approaches emerge. On the one hand, novelty is seen as a matter of
degrees, depending on whether the product of the creative process is totally or partly new. For example, Boden
identifies three major kinds of novelty: a) combinatorial, in the case of unfamiliar combinations of familiar ideas; b)
exploratory, when there is exploration of a conceptual space; c) transformational, if the conceptual space is
radically transformed, opening a space for "someone to think thoughts that they could not have thought before".
Novitz contends with this idea, suggesting that radical creativity can be identified only in the absence of a
conceptual space, when the agent is able to create a new one. On the other hand, the debate underlines the
difficulty of defining a clear dimension of innovativeness whereas creativity remains an unpredictable process
depending on the context and the perspective of the observer. Creativity is therefore a socially situated concept,
identifying a collective process that in unforeseen moments happens to exhibit singular points of disruption in
relation to previous traditions.

2.2.4 So, what is the relationship between creativity and innovation?

Creativity is perceived as a generator of innovation latu sensu, in products, processes, organizations, and even in
the wider socio-economic system where new business models emerge as concrete expressions of a model of creative
economy. Considering just these first indications, creativity and innovation tend to overlay, but some major
distinctions should be underlined, and the two concepts can be divided. First, while a creative process is a possible
and valuable ingredient of any kind of innovation, an innovation could emerge even without a creative idea, just
like the realization of a project that is well fitting to the context in terms of market responsive ness.

Secondly, the creative process could be an individual experience, not even directed at producing any kind of
innovation, but just an experience to satisfy the personal aims of the creator. On the contrary, an innovation is
always the result of a coordinated group of resources and competences collectively organized around a specific
project.
 2.3. Analyzing creativity in the world of art
2.3.1 Who is the creative agent?
The first question opens a discussion on the role of the artist as a creative individual. The question can be analyzed
at micro and macro levels.

At a micro level, the focus is on the single artist, the person who can play a creative role, realizing novel and useful
recognition in their professional network. Artists are then asked to choose if they want to be mainstreams,
mavericks, misfits or, adding a fourth category, amphibians. They are mainstreams if they reproduce conventions,
mavericks if they fight to modify them, misfits when they create new conventions or, finally, amphibians if they can
walk on different sides of their professionalism, moving from the core to the periphery, from art for art's sake to
commerce. The focus therefore shifts from the single artist to a class of creative people.

According to the macro perspective suggested by Florida, creativity becomes the node of a system of place
marketing where cities and neighborhoods compete to attract high quality resources, thanks to their tolerance and
cultural quality. The aim is to regenerate the territory and boost economic development.

2.3.2 What is the process between creativity and innovation?

The second level of analysis refers to the process of artistic production. Traditionally, the processes through which
artists conceive and implement their artistic ideas have been observed with wondering admiration, being
approximated to a divine intelligence. The artistic process remains something that cannot be fully grasped from the
outside.

This image could evoke the romantic idea deriving from Kant, who identified in artistic genius the capability of
acting without being governed by rules. On the other hand, the creative process has also been represented as a
repetition of gestures that are sequenced by rules and methods.

The development of a creative idea, as underlined in Osborne, is therefore a process of knowledge creation that
can be represented as a continuous evolutionary process of learning punctuated by a certain number of
discontinuities. These discontinuities represent the moments in which the idea emerges, the final product of all the
moments experienced by the artist in the past, and a starting point for further refinements.

2.3.3 What is the final product?

The nature and quality of the artistic product is the third level of the analysis. In literature two major approaches
are adopted to analyze how artists and creatives support their new products, changing norms and conventions. On
one hand, the institutional approach aims at observing how the rise of a certain artistic language was sustained or
contested by core members of an institutional setting. On the other hand, social network theories focus on social
interaction dynamics, observing the movement of the artist between the core and the periphery of its network to
sustain a new product.

Without entering an in-depth analysis of these two diverse perspectives, a different issue to explore could be the
question of the materiality of the artistic creation in which the meaning is reified giving shape to an artifact that
relates to the audience.

2.4. CAO FEI project: artistic and organizational creativity

Whose utopia
Whose utopia is a project by Cao Fei, a young Chinese artist. The artist investigates the behaviors of rural populations
previously living in the south of and then hired to work in the plant, with dramatic effects on their past and future lives, A
combination of positive and negative elements influence the workers, who abandoned their original villages to migrate to the
industrial city in search of better conditions of life. As a result, they experience a condition of detachment from their personal
histories and perceive the friction between the expected good conditions of their future lives and the strengths of their
working days. The melancholy generated by abandoning their families is exacerbated by the harsh conditions of the plant,
 where they must live, cohabiting with others in dedicated dormitories.
The artist askes the question "what are you doing here", answered by using a teamwork approach to critically discuss and
reinterpret the concept of TPM (Total Productive Maintenance). Starting from the classical managerial tool used in lean
thinking to improve plant maintenance, the artist focuses on a different idea, interpreting TPM as the acronym for Team,
People, Motivation.

The traditional managerial tool is radically re-imagined as a process that asks the workers to use their personal
capabilities and artistic attitudes to reflect on their role in the production system. The focus shifts from machinery
to people; from the idea of success and efficiency the artist moves towards the concept of fun and enjoyment.

Desires, aims, fears, and constraints inspire the work of each team, supporting the creation of a final performance
given in the plant itself. Cao Fei interprets team working, a classical organizational pattern, in a radically new way,
rethinking the complex nature of contemporary production systems, made of flesh and blood, other than rules
and machines.

2.5. Creativity at work be cautious

The ambivalent nature of creativity emerges as the effect of a double condition. On the one hand, creativity is a
powerful and attractive idea in connection with subjects such as innovation, change and disruption; on the other
hand, creativity is also seen as a value per se, not considering the question of defining its borders. As for other
mainstream concepts, creativity has been adopted as an ideal accelerator of economic and social value, assuming a
central position in European policies.

Despite the great interest and the vast number of programs dedicated to it, some authors underline the lack of
adequate creative outputs while big corporations tend to move in the opposite direction, pushing their managers to
work with fewer resources and in less time, not really changing the model of value creation. Considering all these
ambiguous conditions, any attempt to simplify the complexity of a phenomenon that is socially and culturally
situated risks being short-sighted and useless, as in the case of the 3Ts model of creativity proposed by Florida. The
framework states that in the presence of talent, technology and tolerance in a geographic region would be able to
attract the creative class.

The entire discussion of creativity is affected by one major tension between the aim to find and preserve a toolbox
of good, even if not best, practices and the exploration of radically innovative solutions. This is a classical paradox in
organizational literature where it identifies the goal to combine two opposite aims: the replication of patterns of
actions and solutions that already proved their efficacy and the continuous search for a point of rupture and
learning that creates an advantage in the competition.

In other fields of research, the question becomes how the interplay of preservation and tradition can be supported
using objects – artifacts, archives, prototypes - that become part of a system of routine dynamics. Creativity is
therefore defined as "a natural part and consequence of enacting routines, just as structure is a natural part and
consequence of creativity".

3. Moving back from art to the world of innovation

3.1. Introduction
The third chapter follows the traces of artists and arts related experiences as a field of investigation to re-think the
position of design in the context of innovation. In the context of artistic and cultural production, where products are
symbolic constructs in balance between market satisfaction and art progression, innovation is a key strategic
process.

The context of art is distinctive in three respects: (1) it maintains a particularly pronounced focus on creativity and
the production of novelty, and (2) it is concerned with the introduction of novel ideas and concepts that are de-
coupled from immediate utility of profit motives (3) the artist's communication and persuasive efforts must rest on
other means than proof of practical usefulness or profit potential.
The central challenge of creative industries, like many industries, is ensuring continuous innovation. Given this
interest, research in management is approaching the world of art along three main trajectories. A first path
originates from the recognition of art and artistic practices as a dominant field of research for the investigation of
creative processes. A second trajectory is connected to the new interest in symbolic and meaning contents as part
of an innovation strategy. A third trajectory is the one connecting art and entrepreneurship. On this subject two
major questions emerge.

The first one relates to the emergence of entrepreneurial attitudes in the behavior of the artist. Creative urgency,
an aptitude towards breaking rules and the combination of strategic wisdom with operational capabilities are some
of the dimensions connecting the artistic experience to the entrepreneurial experience, in its first stages of
development. The artist has been recognized as a rational and able entrepreneur other than a radical innovator.
What is extremely attractive is the perfect combination of creative thinking, entrepreneurial wisdom, and managerial
practice, all summed up in the same person. The artist, then, can be assimilated to the Schumpeterian entrepreneur
as far as the will to break the rules disrupting the market with radically innovative ideas is concerned, but is also able
to stay in the market.

The second question concerns a more recent phenomenon, represented by those artists developing their artistic
ideas in an entrepreneurial project. Pushed by the financial urgency deriving from the extreme and unavoidable
reduction of public funds, contemporary artists are experiencing increasing hybridization of roles.

All these trajectories invite management scholars to observe the artistic and creative experience as a special place of
experimentation and a source of interpretation of the processes observed in the organization, especially those
relating to innovation.

3.2. Art-based spaces of interpretation

3.2.1 Ambiguity: on the need to embrace the project
Ambiguity has a long tradition in strategic management where it describes the complex processes through which a
combination of resources and competences are exploited to build a position of competitive advantage. Causal
ambiguity does not let the observer understand how a certain process works, and how the results relate to the
sequence of use of resources and employment of competences. And partly ambiguous is the process through which
artists synthesize their idea in a final output.

The ambiguity emphasized in the artistic process of creation suggests two considerations on the innovation process.
The first is about the process of idea generation and development and its traditional representation. In a traditional
approach, the process is represented as affected by several cognitive biases that severely affect decision making,
whereas for the design space it is gradually reduced to the selection of a limited number of alternatives. The
innovation process can be represented as a process of progressive and inevitable reduction of the design space and
of ambiguity reduction, where focus is on making the right choice in the initial stages of the process.

We must distinguish the linear trajectory from the liquid state of mobility. On the left-hand side a linear trajectory
characterizes a process where each stage works on the refinement of the idea selected in the previous one. On the
right-hand side, the architectural process is characterized by continuous movement back and forth, while selection
does not imply a definitive reduction of the design space, and any promising idea can be introduced and developed
until the very last end of the process. As a second consideration, ambiguity has a value in terms of keeping
competitors at a distance and maintaining a unique position toward them.

When the process is open until its conclusion, competitors are unable to understand and forecast what the future
solution will be. Imitation then becomes more difficult whereas the final variety of solutions offered in the market
could be greater if the process were built in collaboration with the customer.

3.2.2 Interpretation: from talking to communicating

With the increasing importance of symbolic dimensions, the design of products has worked intensely on the use of
language to attract customers. The "design driven" approach captures this tendency, including the semantics of
products in the language of management. Nevertheless, the approach is not completely successful in many respects.
The model remains intimately connected to the design industry where it originated, and the discussion of language
stays on the surface, not even facing the question of defining the nature of this language. That is why we are going to
look at interpretation as an aim to discuss the process nature of language.

Exhibitions and museums

In the context of exhibitions and museums, two different models can be identified. In the first approach, the communicator
(the curator) uses a certain number of media (labels, videos, lectures, and others) to transmit a message to a passive receiver
(the visitor) who thus increases their own capital of knowledge. There is no space left for interpretation.
In the second approach, communication is represented as a two-way flow of messages where two communicators
reciprocally interact, sharing a process of sense making. This is made possible using both the art object and the context
involving labels, videos, and all the other tools supporting the conversation between the two actors. Visitors thus become
users, while the curatorial top-down language is substituted by open interaction that induces conversations and role-playing.
Interpretation plays a fundamental role in the experience of Palazzo Strozzi but is ambiguous in the design driven approach.

According to the model, if in the past products were conceived as functioning goods, in the world of experience
products become a sum of functionalities, emotions and symbolic contents.

The idea of a combination of functionalities and meanings where the latter are made from emotional and symbolic
value does not change the passive role of the user. The entire process is in the hands of the firm that controls the
interplay between technology, language, and needs. Emotions are not added to traditional functions but result from
the language used to implement the exhibition's functions. Emotion is generated through an open language that is
chosen coherently with the curatorial research project.

Design can be used as a language to generate emotions through aesthetic and symbolic dimensions or to induce
interaction. These two configurations represent extreme positions of what design can be in terms of capability to
satisfy the market. In between there are many intermediate situations where a diverse openness of the language
produces diverse types of products. The quest for active participation and interpretation through user involvement is
at the root of cultural and artistic processes, where the process of sense making is perceived as a shared experience.

3.2.3 Experience: learning from music

Antiruggine
Mario Brunello, internationally renowned cellist, took the decision in 2007 to rent a former industrial space, and use it as a
place devoted to hosting cultural activities. This space is in Castelfranco Veneto, his hometown in Veneto, and takes the name
of Antiruggine. Since its opening the former shed has become a creative hub for artists, creative people and performers from
different con- texts, albeit with a prevalence of musicians. A composite group of novelists, journalists, architects, designers
and visual artists completes the long list of classical and contemporary performers.
All the events are designed according to a common frame: an initial presentation of the artist, the performance (usually a
short piece), interrupted by explanations, curiosities and short stories about the author, the execution, and other possible
"secrets" engaging the audience in a process of discovery.
Everything ends in a final conversation with the artist, accompanied by the possibility to interact individually with him, pose
further questions and make conversation. The night ends with home-made cakes prepared by the friends of Antiruggine and a
glass of wine offered by one of the affiliated sponsors.

The last point of discussion is represented by a third word: experience. Based on this double exchange between the
audience and the performers, Antiruggine is a place offering a perfectly designed experience fundamentally based
on two main blocks: product functionalities; language and sense making. The language used throughout the process
is based on a combination of technical knowledge and emotional elements.

The story of Antiruggine underlines the importance of experience as comprising knowledge and emotions, where the
latter are used to drive the audience in the acquisition of what could be perceived as a technical and complex
content and become easily accessible in a situation of emotional involvement. But the experience is also a two-way
moment-of exchange, where both the parties interact and artists receive precious feedback and reinforce their
position, strengthening their relationship with the audience. This is a case where experience is designed also to
sustain the market.
 3.2.4 Conclusion and open questions
 User centeredness, strategic vision and a new relationship between design and management

A first emerging issue relates to the question of finding the right balance between the world of design with its strong
user centeredness focus and the strategic vision embodied by the world of management. The point is the
relationship between design and management.

Design has become a multipurpose tool, to be used for improving customer satisfaction, changing educational
programs and urging managers to cope with the creative dimension of their organizations.

Community therefore has a double meaning, and while the community of customers (or users) is crucial to gain
market success, the community of professionals, both inside and outside the organization, is even more important
to maintain the strategy and sustain the entrepreneurial vision.

Strategy therefore leads the process, whereas design does give voice to the market supporting strategic vision
through a process of co-interpretation.

 From interpretation to education: context-based process of knowledge production

These artistic experiences emphasize the relevance of informed markets to sustain the offer both in quantity and
quality. This is probably the reason why design thinking, where the customer is strongly involved and made active, is
so attractive in the context of management education. The toolbox offered by this methodology supports the
process of knowledge creation and offers the audience - be it a group of managers, customers or school pupils - the
right approach to be actively engaged in a process. Nevertheless, participation also demands interpreting reality,
sense making and creativity.

The good practice of design thinking needs to be framed in a model of interpretation, which is rooted in a certain
vision of the world. In the design driven model, the entrepreneur offers this vision, but artists have divergent and
potentially disruptive perspectives which could offer new insights.