Welcome Francesco, sign into the Guardian with Facebook

How is crowdfunding changing culture?

Kickstarter's most successful projects suggest the creativity we value is interactive, rather than aesthetic, says Patrick Hussey

The crowdfunding projects we part with our cash for suggest a profound cultural shift. Photograph: Dougal Waters/Getty Im ages

Crowdfunding has developed from a digital quirk to a powerful tool this much we've talked about. But there is something even deeper going on with this new model, one that's less predictable than civic participation and far more disruptive. Kickstarter itself is changing under the influence of digital culture. At first it was about making established forms of art. Film was big documentaries about organic community vegetable gardens were not uncommon. Now that is changing. It is becoming a land of gadget makers and gamers. The first million dollar project on Kickstarter was the Pebble watch. This device made technology wearable and Bluetooth enabled. It was creative but it wasn't art; it was a product. After this came the amazing success of the computer game Double Fine, which raised $1m in under 24 hours. Debatably this was art (for my money it was) but still very much a mass-market, digital product. Is it possible that crowdfunding is telling us something rather profound that the most important and popular form of creativity at this point in history is not 'useless' art, but digital invention? I think it is. Take a look at the particular nature of the digital creativity that is getting funded in such grand style. Stompy the Giant Spider is a great example. Another is the recent phenomenon Ouya, which is at first glance a technologically underwhelming games console. Both projects are notably Open Source, unlocking them from proprietary systems so developers the world over can contribute to robot coding and game production. When Kickstarter started out it decided not to prioritise (or curate) which creations were most important. It stayed away from the term 'art' and spelled out its mission statement as a new way to support any kind of 'creativity'. The public would decide what was important and increasingly their dollars are veering away from art to invention. A profound shift is under way from the aesthetic to the interactive.
guardian.co.uk/culture-professionals-network//crowdfunding-changing-culture-kickstarter-projec 1/6

This new communal instinct can do amazing things like route around the warping influence of capitalism and digital platform wars. Look at projects like Open Trip Planner. This takes a bit of unravelling but basically the benefit of good maps on smartphones became endangered by Apple's titanic battle for market supremacy with Google. Apple are attempting to strip Google products like maps from iPhones and this left users with crappy transport info Open Trip Planner is the communal answer to a hierarchical fall out. Crowdfunding, then, is doing two important things that other forms of funding struggle with, changing our culture in the process. Firstly, it is fostering the new 'maker' culture with projects like Stompy and Makey Makey. This latter 'invention kit for everyone' (and others like it) will surely play a part in the culture of innovation that UK state funders such as Nesta are desperate to ignite. In other words, crowdfunding is possibly the best place to bring art, technology and the economy together. Scroll to the bottom of WeFund's home page for more evidence of this with its Equity start-up fund or look at the brilliant Zombies Run! app created with Orange Prize winning author Naomi Alderman. Secondly, it is a crucial method for routing around non-existent state funding or market influence that is stacked against public good in either the digital or physical realm. Where this is all going is anyone's guess. For some crowdfunding is a flash in the pan, even problematic, force. Scour the web and you'll find the start of crowdfunding satire such as KickStriker, the site that came out of Clay Shirky's university class, or this cartoon in the New Yorker. For me though, crowdfunding represents something amazing the gamification of progress. The internet is pointing us in the right direction and crowdfunding, with that digital hallmark of mashing capitalism, communism and cats into one, is certainly getting to places other funding forms are too slow to reach. Read Patrick's blog on the new crowdfunding landscape here Patrick Hussey is digital campaigns manager at Arts & Business follow A&B on Twitter @arts_business and Patrick @PatrickRiot This content is brought to you by Guardian Professional. To get more articles like this direct to your inbox, sign up free to become a member of the Culture Professionals Network. Previous Blog home Next

Ads by Google
Learn Italian easily Online, efficient and fun. Try it now for free! babbel.com ICIC 2012 Berlin Intern. Conference for Scientific + Patent Information Professionals www.haxel.com New Bob Dylan Art 2012 Handsigned by Bob Dylan. Buy now Free Worldwide Delivery www.originalartshop.co.uk

Comments
12 comments, displaying Oldest first Staff Contributor
Open for com m ents. Sign in or create y our Guardian account to join the discussion.

Recommend? (4)
guardian.co.uk/culture-professionals-network//crowdfunding-changing-culture-kickstarter-projec 2/6

PleaseFundUs 17 August 2012 10:47AM Patrick, What other innovations would you like to see developed within the crowdfunding sector? You have spoken about Kickstarter working with civic organisations, but isn't "crowd" funding about harnessing lots of smaller bodies to make a bigger difference? Crowdcube are making a massive difference in the investment world for smaller companies trying to raise finance through equity crowdfunding, spacehive are concentrating on community projects. Is there a space for collaborative sharing combined with crowdfunding? Recently Banktothefuture released a statement promising to combine all the elements of peer to peer lending, funding, debt finance and equity investment. How can you see it all tying together? PatHussey 17 August 2012 11:20AM Well crowdfunding has entered so many areas of life and taken so many forms I was trying to concentrate on what it means for 'culture'. With microlending sites like Kiva older than Kickstarter you could even argue that was the original crowdufunding site and it is a good one. Some feel it brings up issues around cultural imperialism and transplanting capitalism but I still think good. I believe Chris Unitt has been trying Kiva out. Where it is all going? I have no idea . I have seen it fund cancer treatment, art, science, business, toys, digital - I saw one girl crowdfund getting her genome sequenced. It seems like an utterly rampant force making small differences where the goverment or market cannot be bothered. Will it have a scandal soon? No doubt, someone will get greedy and misadvertise. Will we see a project liberals will disapprove of, like weapon dev or something genetic? Possibly. The whole equity issue is one I am really underinformed about though this article is interesting http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/on-smallbusiness/crowdfunding-sites-prepare-for-equity-basedinvestments/2012/08/15/cd460164-e31a-11e1-ae7fd2a13e249eb2_story.html My feeling is that this, and this is very crowdfunding, could serve to make finance and investment seem more normal and reachable for all. It will have all sorts of other implications but that is good. I love how it mashes up capitalism and socialism. I love how it can fund what the crowd really want. I think it will be a tool for breakthroughs and the open source. Like Ouya it could create a digital, open eco system and possibly sustain. Even more amazing is App.Net - essentially and open source 'for the world' social network that is crowdfunding it self. Will it sustain bricks and mortar? I doubt it. That is surely what tax is for. However I also think it might change tax. If we can choose what we fund online why not choose what we give taxes to online? An

Responses (0) Report Share

Recommend? (2) Responses (0) Report Share

guardian.co.uk/culture-professionals-network//crowdfunding-changing-culture-kickstarter-projec

3/6

old idea but I think crowdfunding may connect the dots and create a movement. PatHussey 17 August 2012 11:38AM For those wondering Zombies Run! Was created by SixtoStart and it is essentially a QS (quantified self) app. QS is an area I think the arts could explore for digital income streams. Also founder Adrian Hon wrote this post re crowdfunding and The Big Society - well worth a read Jimmy48 17 August 2012 2:28PM The first million dollar project on Kickstarter was the Pebble watch. This device made technology wearable and Bluetooth enabled. It was creative but it wasn't art; it was a product. After this came the amazing success of the computer game Double Fine, which raised $1m in under 24 hours. Debatably this was art (for my money it was) but still very much a massmarket, digital product. Is it possible that crowdfunding is telling us something rather profound that the most important and popular form of creativity at this point in history is not 'useless' art, but digital invention? So we can conclude: 1) More people are interested in popular culture than the more academic arts 2) People will pay more for electronic devices than for a film or game (the crowd funded electronic projects you cite were essentially advance sales) - This is not news Jimmy48 17 August 2012 2:42PM Sorry i feel my first comment was overly cynical. But I do feel that the largest projects may give a distorted view, and that a distinction should be made between people who are giving money in order to get a product before everyone else and at a reduced price and people who are enthusiasts funding something they want to be made without expecting much benefit from it. GrahamBarker 17 August 2012 2:59PM Your comment about 'the culture of innovation that UK state funders such as Nesta are desperate to ignite' had me smiling. Nesta is a bunch of complete time-wasters who pay themselves handsomely but have no interest in innovation in any grown-up sense - only in promoting themselves and a few faddish, lightweight projects. When it comes to creating a culture of innovation, Nesta is part of the problem, not part of the solution.
guardian.co.uk/culture-professionals-network//crowdfunding-changing-culture-kickstarter-projec 4/6

Recommend? (0) Responses (0) Report Share

Recommend? (4) Responses (0) Report Share

Recommend? (2) Responses (1) Report Share

Recommend? (1) Responses (0) Report Share

PatHussey 17 August 2012 3:48PM Some more on Open Trip Planner here.

Recommend? (0) Responses (0) Report Share

PatHussey 17 August 2012 3:52PM Response to Jimmy48, 17 August 2012 2:42PM Hey Jimmy, nah don't worry criticism is good. I suppose the point I am making is KS and the popularity of digital/product projects on might force opinion to change. That art, digital, interactive, product are words/concepts that can come together. And also that (although it is nascent) perhaps open source invention is taking over what used to be the preserve of art as being the most 'meaningful thing' society can produce. You can't have shift that without digital or crowdfunding. activefree 17 August 2012 8:42PM Glad to see a post about how crowdfunding is changing culture. Another behavior that we're paying attention to at LoudSauce, a platform for crowdfunding ads that matter, is how users' choices about what they fund is actually a way to express their identity. What we share and "like" says something about who we are, but our hypothesis is that the kind of messages or projects that we put money towards will continue to become a much deeper and important version of our online identity. Here's to voting with our dollars for the culture and economy that we actually want in the world. =) LittleRichardjohn 18 August 2012 2:11PM When GlobalHat is finally launched, it will be another route around the fiscal middleman. What will be the Arts Council's response I wonder? Will it stipulate that all future grant applicants are also registered with a crowd-sourcing site in support of their claim? And is it a short step from that government department to the DHSS? HelsDunleavy 18 August 2012 7:12PM Great article, and great to see such coverage in the guardian. Even if crowdfunding evolves dramatically its clearly not a flash in the pan. Disappointed you didn't include The Oatmeal and his recent successful crowdfund in reaction to the legal fight with Charles Carreon would fit right in this article. Plus there's the current campaign he's doing for a Tesla museum. As a huge Oatmeal fan I'm biased, but they seem like great examples of the interactive potential here. Maybe it beckons another article?

Recommend? (1) Responses (0) Report Share

Recommend? (1) Responses (0) Report Share

Recommend? (0) Responses (0) Report Share

Recommend? (0) Responses (0) Report Share

guardian.co.uk/culture-professionals-network//crowdfunding-changing-culture-kickstarter-projec

5/6

Along with no doubt loads of other campaigns utside the box campaigns I don't know about... PatHussey 18 August 2012 7:29PM some more stats for business/startup crowdfunding 'Number of crowdfunding sites jumped 60 per cent globally in 2011' 'Startups around the world raised $1.8 billion through 453 crowdfunding sites in 2011' http://www.itbusiness.ca/it/client/en/home/News.asp? id=68264 taken from Nesta report http://www.nesta.org.uk/home1/assets/features/the_venture_crowd
Open for com m ents. Sign in or create y our Guardian account to join the discussion.

Recommend? (0) Responses (0) Report Share

2 0 1 2 Gu a r dia n New s a n d Media Lim it ed or it s a ffilia t ed com pa n ies. A ll r ig h t s r eser v ed.

guardian.co.uk/culture-professionals-network//crowdfunding-changing-culture-kickstarter-projec

6/6