The Lab: Creativity and Culture
The Labis a wise and bracing call to arms, a handbook for channeling our creative selves in the early twenty-first century. For anyone hoping to unleash their inner innovator, David Edwards is essential reading (Carl Honoré, author of In Praise of Slowness and Under Pressure)The Labexactingly and enjoyably describes the process of building a "funnel shaped" institution devoted to process—the node of a network that ceaselessly promotes innovation by finding the common thread that links artist and scientist when they're truly creative (as in this book). (Jay Cantor, author of On Giving Birth to One's Own Mother: Essays on Art and Society)When artists and scientists come together, cheeks gets rosier, voices go up a few notches, eyes sparkle. They are eager to learn from each other. Just as David Edwards maintains, true innovation can only happen where science and culture intersect, and it is time for this millennial truth to become a pillar of our educational system. (Paola Antonelli, Senior Curator, Architecture and Design, Museum of Modern Art)[Edwards'] enthusiasm is infectious. He comes across as a free-spirited inventor and educator. He is also a pragmatist, conceding that an emphasis on the creative process, and a high tolerance for failure, may make it harder for inventive researchers to achieve financial autonomy. In these austere times, Edwards takes a firm stance on the importance of the imagination. (Jascha HoffmanNature2010-11-25)The Labhas done much to shake up ideas about the science-public nexus. (Graham FarmeloTimes Higher Education2010-12-16)