When I hear the word silo, I think of these things. I know in the midwest they can be single story structures, but you get the idea. A silo is a tall, cylindrical structure that holds a single set of
content.
This ties into the book by Pat Lencioni, Silos, Poltics and Turf Wars, which tells the tale of professional life that is isolated and non-participatory in nature. Lencioni's thesis is that the days of silos is gone. We need collaboration across paradigms and practices in order to stay current with innovation and exploration of ideas.
I didn't think much about this until I read this article today in the Austrialian News which detailed an idea that I think is interesting.
What if all arts considered themselves "un-siloed" and began cooperating across practices and paradigms? What if the music field didn't just consider themselves musicians, but interacted with actors and painters and poets? What if there were a cross pollination of ideas from different areas? Could it happen? Yes indeed! Just look at the Renaissance--where artists were doing such things. What do you think it would take for this to happen? What are the barriers that keep something like this from happening? Could our educational system benefit from such cross cultural experiences if only in the arts area?
The article is talking about reaching the cultural omnivore (for the layman--that is reaching the upper crust who are cultural consumers and have an interest in more and more about cultural things). Omnivore sounds like a dinasour that has gone extinct--but I think the thought here bears discussion.
Let the discussion begin. I think this is one that we could chew on for a while!
Do you see this happening anywhere?
This post is part of Watercooler Wednesday on Randy Elrod's site, Ethos.
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3 comments:
a wonderful thought!
Honestly Jim I don't think it will ever happen (unsiloing) until money is removed from the equation. In today's culture art=$. Unfortunately, the draw of a paycheck akin to Tom Hanks or Alicia Keys is what motivates youngsters to be actors or musicians. Long gone are the days of doing it simply for the personal satisfaction one gets in creating.
I wish that "unsiloing" was possible, but I agree with Danp - kids, teens, young adults, middle-age wannabes - they're all driven by the money or at the very least the fame which eventually leads to money. There are plenty of talented people living on the streets of Nashville, drinking their nights away, still waiting for that big record deal to come through for them. If our culture only understood the transformation power of the arts and the intrinsic value of creating art for art's sake, the silos might be fewer and more far between. You know, I really love the idea of Kalein. I think that Randy Elrod's vision for the future of the arts is and will be revolutionary someday in the formation of a new and powerful ethos for artists. I think that there are some true artists who truly love to create without boundaries or pricetag, but our culture puts a pricetag on them even if they don't want it.
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