Much has been made about innovation, especially in Kitchener-Waterloo. This area is well known for its rapidly growing, successful tech sector. What's new, what's next? Innovation and collaboration often go together, but what about exnovation?
In my research for more information about exnovation, I discovered that the term was coined in 1981 by John Kimberly, and the process has become a popular strategy across various organizations. The main consensus was that exnovation purges existing practices to allow an organization to adopt different and fresh thinking to new innovation activities. Exnovation can also be an opportunity to improve existing practices.
On January 12, I attended the opening reception of Exnovation, presented by Collective Identity. Collective Identity is an open collective of professional artists in Waterloo Region established for the purpose of mounting a show of original, multi-disciplinary professional arts with a regional focus. The hope of the collective is to revive a regional annual (or biannual), to build solidarity, and celebrate our talented and committed community. The collective is in its second year. This year they are showing the work of 36 artists in partnership with THEMUSEUM. In this partnership, they pay artists fees through generous donations, and sell the work where artists keep 100% of the proceeds of the sale. This show demonstrates exnovation as a working concept that can be applied to creative and artistic practice.
Being an artist is generally a solitary profession. The artist controls their own work and is responsible for the end result. This show highlights the collaborative work of 36 amazing local artists.
Previous blog interviewee LT Dougherty has several pieces in the show. When I met with her in November for our interview, she had been waiting to find out if she was going to be part of the show and she had mentioned that she was (understandably) nervous to see the end result of any of the finished pieces. She saw the finished pieces for the first time with the rest the opening reception attendees. It was really neat to stand back and watch her reactions.
I wasn't able to get any good pictures of #Binders, a short film and the collaboration between previous blog interviewee Jennifer Gough and Mitch Mommaerts. I had to circle back to this one a few times as there was always a large crowd, and I when I finally had a chance to sit down and watch, I could see why. It was beautiful and very well done. I hope #Binders will be accessible later for global viewing.
Some of my favourites from the show:
"Untitled" by Desiree Lichty.
"Untitled" by Desiree Lichty.
release - number 6 by LT Dougherty& James Nye
release - number 7 by LT Dougherty & Meghan Sims (both are previous blog interviewees)
"Linear Conversations" by Barbara Di Renzo & Dominique Cinq-Mars Delay
from left: Processing, The Call, Help, It's Complicated, Processing, Bound, Day In & Day Out
"Linear Conversations" by Barbara Di Renzo & Dominique Cinq-Mars Delay
from left: Speak Up, Processing, Listening, My Story, Road to Freedom, Processing, ...
"Non-Euclidean Poetry" by Ryan Brooks & D.H. McKee
The show runs until February 26th. If you go, let me know what your favourites are.
Story and photos by Glodeane Brown
Header photo from the Collective Identity Facebook page.
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