P6
History and Innovation What it means to unfold history forwards On a hot summer afternoon in East Anglia I had my first drive in a new Tesla fitted with autonomous (driverless) technology. Harvest had just taken place and with hands off the controls the car skilfully navigated the twists and turns of the country lanes between wheat fields. I was reminded of the test postulated by Alan Turing in the 1950s (Manchester University) in which machine intelligence gains a complexity to imitate human intelligence. Artificial intelligence (AI) is developing in a number of fields with opinion divided about whether AI extends or threatens human thinking and our democracy. As well as constructing our lives in the context of intelligent machines human thinking is also subject to threatening macro forces such as, climate change, big data, political regimes, chemical weapons in Salisbury and military action in Syria. There can be no better time to reassess what it is that drives the best of human endeavour and distinguishes it. One thing that is clear is that humans are at their best when their capacity for creativity and innovation is unleashed in a supportive context of freedom of thought and enquiry. I am reminded of our ethos here at UEL to “enrich lives in the context of society and nature”. Innovation takes place in a context and we can think of this as its own short, medium or long term history. So, as creatives, how do we relate to history? In his novel The Great Gatsby, Scott Fitzgerald ends the book with a reflection on the central character Gatsby: “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch our arms further . . . And one fine morning— So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1926) This invisible force bearing us back into the past is surely what we have to fight against. I would argue that as creatives we are unfolding history into an unknown future. It is through our creative endeavours and innovations that we assist the past to unfold embedded with our human values. Only in this way does innovation not attempt to replace the past but to unfold the past forwards. It is precisely in this approach that innovation
can extend and enrich our society by integrating with our values. At the moment I would argue that there has never been a more important time to be studying and bringing forward ideas. It seems very clear that we are in a period of rapid change and with so many nations failed or spiralling towards failure the need to harness change through innovation linked to a virtuous value system has never been more apparent. Surely it must be this constant struggle that defines human thinking at its best. Universities therefore have a key role to play leading innovation in the 21C. Here at UEL I am indebted to our students and staff who have worked ceaselessly throughout the year to research and make proposals for such a wide variety of project work and to provide a supportive environment for this innovation to be nurtured. The complex nature of our work however means that we have to work across boundaries. I am therefore delighted to be a part of the new department of AVA which brings together the architecture and design programmes with the visual arts programmes. This new clustering will allow many new synergies to enrich our work. In the light of this new clustering I am delighted by the many varied activities of students and staff. I am also very grateful for the support given to us by many sponsors and practitioners. In particular I would mention the STO foundation, sponsors our international lecture series, who have through international practitioners visiting the school done so much to enrich the design conversation of the students and staff. I would also like to thank the practitioners who contribute to the national lecture series including the Architecture Society lecture series, the Detour Ahead and the Art Lecture series. These lecture series have considerably enriched the thinking that drives our work. I would like to thank the students who have assisted with these societies including the president of the student society Daniel Kiss, with Dalcimaria Nunes Cardoso, Nick Franklin, Andrei Rudi Szepocher, Fabio Jose Magalhaes, Andreea Camelia Ciuc and Julian David Roncancio Luna. We are also very grateful to the practitioners who have been mentoring students and offering placements on
