Singapore – International
by John Howkins
The Brazil-born, Harvard-educated, co-founder of FaceBook has been based in Singapore for over a year and is frequently seen visiting the sights and meeting local entrepreneurs. Eduardo Saverin has been keeping quiet since the launch of ‘The Social Network’ …
Creativity is for Everyone
by John Howkins
We’ve come a long way. In the 1960s, David Ogilvy, one of the grand old men of advertising who co-founded of Ogilvy & Mather and was surely a model for the fast-living honchos in the hit TV series, ‘Mad Men’, said his employees must never use the word ‘creative’ to…
Singapore – Digital Cities
by John Howkins
I happened to take part in the first commercial video-conference link between London and New York. We looked each other in the eye, talked and laughed and felt we were at the beginning of a new era. We could be anywhere, preferably on a beach, and have instant video communication …
Learning to be creative is not an oxymoron
by John Howkins
Talent often seems the most marked characteristic of creative people. It seems obvious that creative people have a special talent that ordinary people lack. But recent research suggests talent is only one of the requirements for a creative economy and probably not the most important one…
Harnessing The Power Of Innovation
table talk with Tim Brown
BRITON Tim Brown was in Silicon Valley, California, at the right moment – when computers were made available to all by basing computing on how people received, stored and trashed information at their office desks. Mr Brown, 47, who was then an industrial designer in Silicon Valley…
Art Stage Singapore
by John Howkins
The launch of Singapore’s first international art fair in January sent a signal to local artists and an even stronger signal to those people lucky enough to buy and collect outstanding art. Visitors could buy works by Ai WeiWei, China’s radical artist who last year won Tate Britain’s premier commission…
When protecting your creation is as important as the creation itself
by John Howkins
Some 13 to 16 year old school children in Singapore recently held a competition at making a clay sculpture. In my experience, it’s hard to get through school without playing with clay every week, although these children were unusual in having their own Facebook page and access to 3D digital rendering…
Singapore: A Creative Buzz
by John Howkins
The diary of young film-maker on a recent afternoon went something like this: meet with her agent and manager, in separate offices; go to approve her new video promoting a French fashion accessory; check uploads to YouTube; look in at the opening of her new exhibition; dinner; and a party…