SPN Big Omaha SlideDusty Davidson was our surprise creative presenter for Arthaus11 Series One Event Three. Among many concepts Dusty introduced, the group discussion was particularly animated around a founding principle of Big Omaha: that collaboration among people of diverse disciplines of thought and activity accelerate serendipity in the landscape of creativity.

I am a firm believer in serendipity’s role in the creative process (see my essay on conversation here, referring especially to Steven Johnson’s thinking). Moreover, we believe that Big Omaha’s impact on the potential for creative serendipity relates not just to its acceleration, but also to its amplification. That small imaginative possibility rapidly becomes a large creative reality.

michelangelo_creation_of_adamDusty’s comments opened the group’s thinking to the applicability of Big Omaha to everyone and anyone of a curious mentality. If you have your eyes on the horizon and sense that ideas are almost within touching distance, then conversation and collaboration will bridge that divide.