Like so many of these little essays, this one is long past any kind of timeliness. In fact, it's only because I was rummaging around in my graphics folders that I found this graphic I created just after one of the six workshops we ran for the Creative Providence project.

Jack Templin, who by his own admission is not any kind of an artist or designer, sat on the panel focusing on the economic issues facing creatives. In his introductory remarks, he outlined something he had watched develop, and until he mentioned it, I had not put the pieces together. 

The basic idea is that the IT sector would not be as successful as it is had there not been a very strong artistic / cultural component to the city's social fabric. He went on to elaborate on what I'm calling The Super-Cluster - a set of incongruous sectors that all are somehow connected to the Arts cluster.

NB: This is a two-dimensional representation of an abstract concept. All sector have some level of connection to all other sectors.

Clearly, four of these sectors inter-relate organically. Design, culture, art and entertainment all share obvious similarities.

But technology and the green economy? How do these relate? 

First, bear in mind that this doesn't have to make sense. (Only fiction has to make sense.) Things are what things are. But there's are less obvious but crucial connections that link in these two crucial sectors. 

Entertainment and technology go together like the MP3 and the iPod. And you can ask any record company executive (if any still exist) about the profound affect that technology has had on that industry. (For me, it goes back to the mid-80s and the advent of affordable, high-quality multi-track recorders that worked with standard cassette tape. But that's another story for another time.) Also, geeks loooooove food, especially strange flavors from far away lands. In my mind, cuisine sits at the intersection of art and culture. It is a known fact that the quality of the cuisine is a key factor in attracting both creatives AND entrepreneurs. 

As for the green economy, everybody - or at least everybody I know - wants to do everything they can to move Rhode Island into a leadership position in sustainability. So artists create environmentally-theme works and designers make great-looking stuff for non-profits and entertainers perform at benefits, etc., etc.

When I look at this graphic, I see the future of our economy. Not the whole thing, but a measurable portion. If you believe in the mythos of the "cultural creative", then you must recognize the power of the Super-Cluster. 

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