Complex Systems Creativity Workshop

The organisers of a workshop that will run during the 2016 Conference on Complex Systems have extended the following invitation to the Future Earth community:

We would like to call your attention to an event on the side of the 2016 Conference on Complex Systems in Amsterdam entitled "The determinants of creativity and innovation in science, art and technology.”

The workshop is highly relevant for the Future Earth scientific community. In the accord with the mission and vision of Future Earth, the workshop will address the fundamental basis for developing just and equitable solutions to the complex challenges societies face.

The workshop will be held September 20, 2016 at Beurs Van Berlage, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and the deadline to apply for short presentations is July 4, 2016, though those who wish to attend and engage in discussions may register beyond the deadline for paper abstracts.

The workshop will gather scientists from many different disciplines (physics, mathematics, computer science, biology, social sciences, arts, etc.) to address fundamental questions about how people express their creativity and innovate both at the individual and collective levels.

Innovations are key factors in the evolution of human societies, since they represent the primary motor to explore new solutions in ever-changing and unpredictable environments. Following Ken Robinson, creativity can be though of as the process of developing original ideas that have value, while innovation as the process of putting new ideas into practice. From this perspective creativity and innovation are seen as applied imagination, and as such, they are becoming progressively more and more crucial to help us, as individuals and societies, to face the challenges of our complex world. The largest fraction of the mankind, in fact, will soon adopt technologies that have yet to be invented or have jobs that do not exist.

This calls for a commitment of the wider scientific community to generate new concepts, new solutions, and innovative learning schemes through which a much-needed breakthrough for finding solutions for global challenges. It also requires engaging diverse publics in understanding the complex challenges facing society. Fortunately, the same technologies through which information is produced, diffused and shared, can turn into new, highly valuable tools for self-education and lifelong learning, including new game concepts for home, school and public venues.

The workshop will represent the opportunity to investigate the determinants of innovation processes and their evolution, progressing in their mathematical modelling, understanding their function and identifying the most thriving contexts (institutions, social organizations, business models, etc.) for creativity and innovation.

On behalf of the organizing committee:
Vittorio Loreto
Ilan Chabay
Pietro Gravino
Bernardo Monechi
Vito D.P. Servedio
Francesca Tria