Friday 30 September, Battle of Ideas Festival, Victoria & Albert Museum
James Woudhuysen will be speaking at the V&A Friday Late debate Idea factories? Manufacturing and making in the 21st century (one of the Battle of Ideas Festival Satellite Events) on Friday 30 September. There is no cost to attend the event. James notes:
In Britain, illusions about the creative economy die hard. Artistic creativity does not require the investments or the long-run budgets demanded by R&D in manufacturing, and especially in services. Britain’s designers and artists love to flatter themselves about their importance, and politicians are far too ready to reciprocate. The result is that the ‘creative’ potential of China is underestimated; the technological possibilities with Britain’s not-dead-yet manufacturing sector are forgotten, or exaggerated; and changes to behaviour rather than in technology are seen as the solution to backwardness in infrastructure, private services and public services. What creatives need to rally round is the cultural struggle for innovation that leads to more and better ‘stuff’, more and better intangibles, and more and better science. These signs of progress are indivisible, whether they come from Shoreditch or Shanghai.
The chair and speakers are:
David Bowden, coordinator, UK Battle Satellites;
poetry editor, Culture Wars;
TV columnist, spiked
Sandy Black, professor of fashion & textile design & technology,
Centre for Sustainable Fashion, University of the Arts London;
author, Eco Chic: the fashion paradox
Daniel Charny, senior tutor, Royal College of Art;
director, From Now On;
curator, ‘Power of Making’, V&A
Dr Paul Reeves, principal software developer,
Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks R&D; former senior researcher,
International Automotive Research Centre, University of Warwick
Angela Saini, freelance science
journalist; author,
Geek Nation
James Woudhuysen, professor of forecasting and
innovation, De Montfort University; co-author,
Energise! A future for energy innovation
Matt Warman, new technology journalist,
Daily Telegraph
If you Tweet about the event please use the hashtag #battleofideas. You can also add the event to your calendar from the shared event page.