//EDITORIAL ADDICTLAB
LAB RESEARCHER JAN VAN MOL I must admit I have some sort of love-hate relationship with governments and politics. In short one could say that politics - and power - are part of a top-down system, whereas creativity is a bottom up process. Innovation is thus a tricky task, since the ones with the power to change do not always have the future vision, and vice versa. Can we meet somewhere in the middle? To make things even worse, the creative minds might seem to come from a totally different planet. Artists living on a cloud, others with their heads in the sand, you get what I mean. Setting up brainstormings with both sides often results in severe culture shocks at the beginning of a session. It is therefor that I need to express my sincere gratitude towards the people from ANB, Agentschap van Natuur en Bos, being a governmental body with all the power ànd restrictions that entails, to overcome this mindgap, and commission an Addictlab project to generate ideas and inspiration on how to make our cities more green.
TO CREATE AND TO SHARE, THAT’S HOW A THOUGHT BECOMES A CONCEPT THAT EVOLVES INTO IMPLEMENTED CHANGE. The groenlab.com research has different outputs: firstly a white paper with recommendations on the ANB organisation, its structure, and ideas or greener cities. Secondly, a public book - the one you are reading now. And, thirdly, a book that will be printed and distributed to all Flemish cities and communes. This, together with the knowledge that some of the ideas actually will be implemented, makes it one of our most rewarding labresearches ever. jan@addictlab.com
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I am convinced that facilitating creative processes enhances social, cultural, aesthetical and environmental thinking.
Addictlab is not an anonymous crowdsourcing concept, but a collaborative process using online social media methods and IRL sessions with invited individuals. These are people we know because of other Addictlab activities. Their individual strengths are important, as is their ability to work in a collaborative environment. We talk about curated crowdsourcing.
Addictlab’s Creative X-Ray is a curated crowdsourcing methodology involving clients knowhow and invited labmembers. The labmembers are selected based on their creative skills, ability to think out of the box and to collaborate, and their personal interest in the matter at hand. I therefor need to thank all of the following people for their amazing braincells. Marleen Evenepoel Jeroen Nachtergaele Dirk Bogaert Filiep Cardoen Marcel Vossen Hilde Schelfaut Arnoud De Coen Tom Embo Boguslaw Witkowksi Frederic Boonen Dirk Abbeloos Nathalie Hunter Alexander Geijzendorffer Han Mannaert Thomas Valcke Linda Schailon Karim Schneider Karin De Bruyn Guido Everaert Dirk Wynants Inge Vanluyd Veerle Verbakel Mark Van den Broeck Sabine Clappaert Dieter Quaghebeur Damian O’Sullivan Anna Quentin Sander Spolsoel Saskia Videler Tim Vanheers Eric Van Den Bruel Giovanna Massoni Martine Cantillon Bjorn Gielen Koen Aerts Tim Guldentops José Priesta von Bonhorst Niki Vranken