The Social Alchemy of Collective Genius

A series of hosted conversations and experimental inquiries

[I’m publishing this to both Substacks, please forgive the duplication if you subscribe to both. It crosses both spheres of relevance.]

For the past couple of years I’ve been thinking about the Italian Renaissance centered in Florence, Black Mountain college in North Carolina, and the Chelsea Hotel in NYC in the 1980s through the lens of an inquiry into the social alchemy of collective genius.

For those of you who might be familiar only with the first reference above, Black Mountain College was a very tiny liberal arts college in Black Mountain North Carolina that existed for a mere 24 years, and yet produced a mind-boggling number of the most luminary creatives of the second half of the 20th century in the United States. (Here are the alumni of the school.)

The Chelsea Hotel in NYC was organized as one of the first co-operatives in the United States. Its builder intentionally created a very diverse community that included the craftspeople who had worked on the building and numerous artists. At various times in the building’s history its inhabitants have included a who’s who of international artists, musicians, and writers. Albums have been composed at the Chelsea, songs written about it, and numerous interactions between artists, musicians, and writers have happened there. (See Legendary guests of the Chelsea Hotel.)

I have been looking at the contextual recipes for this alchemy of collective genius with the eye of a map-maker. I’m interesting in faciliating conversations about the ingredients required to get this kind of thing happening on purpose, the applications of which are extremely broad. Some of this is about the neurobiology of connection, and much of it is about the creation of context.

I’ll be hosting an inquiry into this on Zoom for 5 days next week, June 9-13. Cost is only $300 for the 5-day inquiry.