Austin Kleon talks SXSW, creative process

During the opening of his talk, Kleon relayed a story about a “silly dream” of redacting an article from The New York Times—a regular practice of his—that he was included in. He said the dream came true, but the article was not about his art or books.

“The article was essentially asking whether the conference at which I get to give a keynote address, whether it had jumped the shark,” Kleon said. “Is it over? Has it gotten too big?”

Kleon is the author of “Steal Like an Artist,” “Show Your Work” and “Newspaper Blackout.” He said he does not feel like the conference is over, but it does feel people attending the event could refocus on creativity. He said genius and creativity often is look at as an individual act, but Kleon likes to think of the creative process in a different way, calling it Senius.

“[Senius] just acknowledges that good work isn’t created in a vacuum and that creativity is always, in some sense, a collaboration,” Kleon said.

The term Kleon used for this connection network that supports creativity is Scenius, and Kleon feels that SXSW can support that type of collaboration.

“Now South by Southwest is nothing but a gigantic potential Scenius,” Kleon said. “But it will only work if we weave the network, so to speak, in a healthy way.”

Kleon characterized the obstacles to a healthy Scenius to a monster movie with two types of monsters: vampires and human spam. The vampires drain the other person’s energy, and human spam asks a person to pay attention to them without returning the favor.

“A Scenius cannot survive if it’s only populated by vampires and human spam,” Kleon said.

Another aspect that can get the way of a healthy Scenius at SXSW is the focus on the “next big thing” instead of investing the time and energy into something with more longevity.

“It’s very easy in this place right now and this culture to get caught up chasing that next big thing,” Kleon said. “Let’s not forget to chase after the things that last.”

To keep the Scenius whole, Kleon listed several practices and traits people can follow, including listening, collaboration, teaching and giving credit.

“That’s how we battle the infected—the vampires and the human spam,” Kleon said. “That’s how we live through our monster movie and save South by Southwest.”

Austin Kleon talks SXSW, creative process

During the opening of his talk, Kleon relayed a story about a “silly dream” of redacting an article from The New York Times—a regular practice of his—that he was included in. He said the dream came true, but the article was not about his art or books.

“The article was essentially asking whether the conference at which I get to give a keynote address, whether it had jumped the shark,” Kleon said. “Is it over? Has it gotten too big?”

Kleon is the author of “Steal Like an Artist,” “Show Your Work” and “Newspaper Blackout.” He said he does not feel like the conference is over, but it does feel people attending the event could refocus on creativity. He said genius and creativity often is look at as an individual act, but Kleon likes to think of the creative process in a different way, calling it Senius.

“[Senius] just acknowledges that good work isn’t created in a vacuum and that creativity is always, in some sense, a collaboration,” Kleon said.

The term Kleon used for this connection network that supports creativity is Scenius, and Kleon feels that SXSW can support that type of collaboration.

“Now South by Southwest is nothing but a gigantic potential Scenius,” Kleon said. “But it will only work if we weave the network, so to speak, in a healthy way.”

Kleon characterized the obstacles to a healthy Scenius to a monster movie with two types of monsters: vampires and human spam. The vampires drain the other person’s energy, and human spam asks a person to pay attention to them without returning the favor.

“A Scenius cannot survive if it’s only populated by vampires and human spam,” Kleon said.

Another aspect that can get the way of a healthy Scenius at SXSW is the focus on the “next big thing” instead of investing the time and energy into something with more longevity.

“It’s very easy in this place right now and this culture to get caught up chasing that next big thing,” Kleon said. “Let’s not forget to chase after the things that last.”

To keep the Scenius whole, Kleon listed several practices and traits people can follow, including listening, collaboration, teaching and giving credit.

“That’s how we battle the infected—the vampires and the human spam,” Kleon said. “That’s how we live through our monster movie and save South by Southwest.”