Any culture culture is born from blending, from encounter, from clashes. Conversely, it’s from isolation that civilizations die. Octavio Paz
Since the disappearance of Neanderthal man (about 100,000 ago), there is only one human species on earth: homo sapiens, sapiens. Aborigines from Australia, Hopis from New-Mexico, dwellers from large European, American and Asian cities, Hans from China, Inuits from Greenland, nomad shepherds from Sahel, Berbers from North Africa, Zulus from South Africa, managers from Singapore, traders from Cairo or Dubai, hunters-gatherers from Amazonia, all of us have the same genetic heritage. And yet what diversity, what cultural richness!
There is no human being without culture, peculiar to man is to be civilized by and with his fellow creatures. In languages coming from Latin, the world culture takes rather the meaning of expressing oneself and cultivating the arts. In Latin, colere means to take care, to practise, to exercise, to develop …
It’s a formative and exciting field of multiple and necessary experiences. It enables us to live better while sharpening our thinking and our creativity through co-operating with others. It helps everybody widen their personality by enriching their sensibility, exercising their reflection, opening themselves to the richness of the world. It makes people grow in humanity because the smallest creation acts as an antidote to the barbaric impulses and reveals human diversity : “to be cultured is to be nurtured by others’ cultures”.
For culture is never still, any “cultural object” moves people and creates an active relation whatever it is: refusal, curiosity, discovery, enthusiasm… It gets people upset, it shakes them up and enables them to “better understand their situation in the world” (JP. Sartre).
World Citizens offers five major types of action in this field: create, write, represent, suggest, and invent.
Invent
In order to invent, to create something, you need more than expressing some spontaneous “ideas”. To be more than an intuition, and really exists, an act of expression, a “cultural action”, or an artistic work, is subject to physical constraints and rules.
Getting the idea
The emerging ideas do not follow a logical order; they appear by “association of ideas” after a complex inner journey, which is peculiar for each individual. To be understood by others, we must adopt the “logic” which is common to all and move from glimpse to design.
It is also good to wonder about the ideas that came up. Are they useful ? Are they innovative? What can we expect from them in terms of enjoyment or benefit? What do they require from us in terms of learning or strength?
This is not to get discouraged before you start, but to not undertake what is beyond your forces or conversely to use a hammer to crush a fly!
Designing
The action once decided, we must plan, organize, anticipate and classify the different stages of the process of production: documentary research, calendar, organization chart, looking for outside expertise, acquiring required technical skills and know-how, etc..
Implementing
Whatever the quality of the preparation, we cannot pass from the project to the implementation without encountering unexpected obstacles and unforeseen incidents! Therefore, any project must be sufficiently precise and complete so that we can analyze and overcome the challenges and flexible enough to evolve without damage during the implementation process. Create always requires compromises between the “ideas” and their materialization.
Combining
Any cultural action requires to combine several means of expression: no circus performance without music, no “one-man show” without mime … Combinations of texts, colors, music, lights, gestures, etc. are the best way to be innovative.
Telling
Whatever the means of expression (even for an exhibition) if we want to be attractive, we must “tell a story”, develop a scenario, explain when and where, distinguish a “hero” (person, group, object, idea), show actions and obstacles, reach an outcome or a conclusion …
Know how and make people know
It is usually helpful to seek support, technical or financial, to find places and identify the conditions for using them, to obtain authorisations and to build partnerships …
Finally we must make people know what we are doing, by communicating about the event, and obtain that a “public” comes!
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