Strands of Genius: Escape Through Music, Creativity As A Weapon, Is Reading Books Morally Superior To Other Media?
Guest curated by Enya Buchenau
Each year we aim to highlight 50 creative thinkers that have inspired us by giving them the opportunity to guest curate this newsletter, Strands of Genius. This edition is guest curated by Enya Buchenau, Branding Executive for Gaucho.
:: A BIT MORE ABOUT GUEST CURATOR, ENYA BUCHENAU ::
LOCATION: London, UK
PLACE OF EMPLOYMENT: Gaucho
I am Enya: a German / Irish twenty-something living in London; a proud supporter of anything weird; and a harsh critic of root beer fudge. If you’ve never had root beer fudge: Don’t. I am in that slightly unsettling stage of my life where I have accepted the fact that I will never have affordable housing and where people start having babies on purpose rather than by accident. Other than that, I recently graduated, found a job, and have caffeine running through my veins at an alarming rate - so life is good.
As of lately, I am a Branding Executive for the restaurant chain Gaucho, which is ironic as it just took me three tries to spell “restaurant”. I e-met Rosie and Faris during my postgrad degree in Advertising at UAL where they set topics for our final major project. Even though I didn’t actually pick any of their suggested topics, I must have done something right, as they asked me to be a guest curator!
I researched how we can create better music and brand partnerships, which I did by successfully creating a prototype partnership between Mahogany Sessions and Airbnb. If you click here, you can discover a roadmap for more creative partnerships that include elements of escapism, nostalgia, intimacy and connection, as well as tools of storytelling, immersive experiences, and fan involvement. Despite the heap of shite we see in the world of brand of band partnerships, there is a lot of potential to develop and innovate this beautiful landscape.
Editor’s Note (Team Genius Steals): Over the years, we've worked with Paul Caplan who is a Course Leader MA Advertising at London College of Communication. This year we're so excited to be introducing you to some of the students who've recently participated in his program. Their dissertations were thought provoking and have us excited about the future minds of our industry. Thanks for curating some great links, Enya!
:: THE LINKS ::
ESCAPE THROUGH MUSIC
While working on my Brands & Bands 2.0 project I was fascinated by the element of escapism through music. I felt inspired by this beautiful piece of writing I found on Medium, which talks about music as a tool for escapism. Even though I studied escapism during the pandemic, I truly believe it will remain relevant in a post-pandemic world and yields endless possibilities for brands to connect with consumers.
While we might not look to escape the confines of our home during lockdown anymore, there will always be an urge to escape from negative headlines, anxious thoughts or boring routines.
Music does not only serve as a tool for transportation into otherworldly escapes and past memories, but it teaches us how to dream, use our imagination and it “opens a new universe filled with infinite possibilities, stories and experiences”.
Now is a time for artists and brands to expand their vision beyond traditional partnerships and tap into the feelings that music can evoke. (Medium)
CREATIVITY AS A WEAPON
A new platform called “Creatives For Ukraine” has emerged and encourages the global creative community to visually represent current events and share artwork that “gives a face” to the War in Ukraine. It’s truly amazing how people have found inspiration in the face of war by voicing their support through powerful weapons such as art and love.
Indeed, great suffering triggers great passion and drives people to create incredible work. This is something that has always fascinated me so much about suffering itself. Etched into my mind is a quote by Desmond Tutu: “nothing beautiful comes without a measure of pain and frustration.”
Going forward we can see suffering as an opportunity that serves as an instrument for developing compassion and acts as an extensive driving force that unites people globally. (Creatives for Ukraine)
IS READING BOOKS MORALLY SUPERIOR TO OTHER MEDIA?
I was brought up by a family of bibliophiles, who taught me that reading is the key to knowledge and technology will rot my brain. Therefore, I always believed that people who read are smarter.
However, recently I stumbled upon the podcast “No stupid questions” where Stephen Dubner and Liz Shuler discuss if we should feel guilty if we don’t read books. As someone who regularly feels guilty for not reading enough, I was intrigued by the question of whether reading books really is morally superior to other media. It is interesting to hear Stephen’s point of view who has written books but is also a radio and podcast host. He argues that watching and listening can be far more superior at times as in the writing process a lot of contexts can get omitted. In truth, hearing a quote can be far more powerful than reading it. (No Stupid Questions)
Looking for more from Enya Buchenau? Those enrolled in The School of Stolen Genius will receive a deep dive from Enya in their inbox shortly! You can access all our expert interviews for SOSG here.
:: AND NOW… SOME FAST FAVORITES ::
:: Game :: Bananagrams
:: City :: New Orleans, LA
:: Book :: The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
:: Podcast :: My Dad Wrote a Porno
:: Album :: OK Computer - Radiohead
:: MAHOGANY SESSIONS ::
Over the past few years, I have spent hundreds of hours listening to Mahogany Sessions and I have discovered incredible new artists through their channels. Hopefully, you will also be able to find some joy by listening to their music productions.
Thanks for reading! Don't forget to put on some good tunes today.
You can reach me on Twitter or via LinkedIn.
Enya Buchenau
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It's called Genius Steals because we believe ideas are new combinations and that nothing can come from nothing. But copying is lazy. We believe the best way to innovate is to look at the best of that which came before and combine those elements into new solutions.
Co-Founders Faris & Rosie are award-winning strategists and creative directors, writers, consultants and public speakers who have been living on the road/runway since March 2013, working with companies all over the world. Our Director of Operations is nomadic like us, our accounting team is based out of Washington, our company is registered in Tennessee, and our collaborators are all over the world. Being nomadic allows us to go wherever clients need us to be, and to be inspired by the world in between.
Hit reply and let’s talk about how we might be able to work together :)