For Maritime Professionals
Why should maritime industries cooperate with the creative and artistic fields?
Traditionally, artists have been included in industry work processes such as brainstorming and other idea generation activities
– not to forget the already infamous ”thinking outside the box” phrase.
Artists can also bring about confrontation, create friction, break taboos, and provoke by speaking the unspeakable – a bit like the court jester. Jesters speak out truths that no one else dares tell, to kings and other powerful persons.
Artists can also apply their artistic core competencies and practises e.g. for visualising challenges or dramatizing different situations, such as service processes and negotiations.
Other possible benefits from engaging artistic thinking and activities:
- Creating rapport, a sense of “hygge”, when people meet for the first time
- Artistic means can be used to diminish hierarchies
- Generating a positive sense of inspiration for teams.
The Innovationtool.fi website has been built on an assumption that industry, the maritime as well as other, can benefit from artistic thinking, especially in innovation work. The scenario is that an artist, or creator, or representative of a creative field, works as a facilitator, or moderator, for a group of people involved in innovation work. The tool aims at opening up questions that organisations can work with – it is up to the artist to enrich the experience for the participants.
The IRM-Tool is a source for inspiration and provides some background material for innovation and for moderating innovation workshops. The tool aims at providing some common ground for creators and industry representatives alike. The material can be used with or without a moderator.
This homepage can thus also be used for small get-togethers to inspire innovation-related discussions over a cup of coffee. Choose a topic, have a look at the material and begin discussing, e.g. using the questions in the text. It is not always necessary to have a moderator – e.g. an informal, company-internal, innovation leader can just as well prepare for a discussion.
The IRM-Tool project has focused on the maritime and creative industries. Both can be divided into subcategories such as shipbuilding and transport or film and music. The wide spectrum of subcategories is presented in these two videos:
As can be seen in the video, also the maritime industries are, and have been, creative. One could, a bit playfully, say, that bringing the creative industries together with the maritime, hopefully would speed up processes from what is illustrated in this illustration.
Students participating in the IRM-Tool project have begun to create lists of tips for what to think about when working with representatives of the mentioned industries. The lists are not complete and need to be built upon. So, from you experience – what should be included in the lists of tips?
Why, how, and when can artists be engaged in industry processes? Listen to a discussion with artists Heini Aho and Oona Tikkaoja (in Finnish).
In case you want to find an artist to co-operate with, contacting a local arts promotion center is a good idea. Taike.fi is a good starting point in Finland. Hashtags used in this project: #irmtool #luovameriteollisuus #maritimecreativity #kreativsjofart #taideosanaorg #asiantuntijanataiteilija #taidekehittää