To be fair, this little group is an outlier, one of the most influential creative scenes in human history. They were much more influential than most Creative Scenes. But that wasn't apparent in the beginning, which is the point. The Homebrew Club, including it's best known members Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs, created personal computers. Wozniak and Jobs founded Apple Computers, now Apple, which brought us the Macintosh, iPods, and iPhones, among many other innovations. A small group of creative people, a "creative scene," can have all kinds of effects, and even change the course of human history.
They were geeks when that was something everyone did not want to be. But they found themselves fascinated by eletronics, and the emerging technology of computers. Here's an interview from about 2004, with six early members of the 1975 Homebrew Club, in Menlo Park, California, including Steve Wozniak. These six geeks from the 1970's, and the others from their scene, changed the lives of nearly every single on earth. For real. That's how major of an effect a small creative scene can potentially have.
What is a "Creative Scene?" My definition of a Creative Scene is a group of two or more people, focused on advancing in some creative endeavor. Two kids in the back of a 3rd grade class trying to draw better airplanes than each other is a Creative Scene. A group of artists at a small indie gallery is a Creative Scene. The kids and staff working on a high school yearbook is a creative scene. A band, no matter how good or bad, is a creative scene. The kids riding skateboards, BMX bikes, and yes, even scooters,* at a skatepark, is a creative scene. Two women making Aunt Agnes' gooseberry jelly and selling it online, is a creative scene. Travis Patrana and the Nitro Circus lunatics is a Creative Scene. Todd McFarlane and the original posse that started Image Comics were a creative scene. Three 9-year-old girls in the front yard making up dance moves, is a Creative Scene. Amanda Palmer and whomever she's hanging out with at this moment, is a Creative Scene. One time Old School BMX freestyler Chris Lashua and his Cirque Mechnic is a Creative Scene. A blog or YouTube channel's creator(s) and their followers, are a creative scene. CBGB's in the 1970's, and later, was a creative scene. The group of Montreal street performers that created Cirque du Soleil, was a Creative Scene. The people riding BMX and mountain bikes at Sheep Hills today, is a creative scene. Gary Vaynerchuk and the people at VaynerMedia is a creative scene. Tyler Perry's movie studio in Atlanta is a Creative Scene. Yuga Labs, a hanfdul of artistic, former punk and hip hop influenced skateboarders and BMXers from Miami, that created the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT's, and the Otherside metaverse, is a Creative Scene. And yes, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, in their garage, Woz's cubicle, and Steve's bedroom, in 1975, were a Creative Scene... on that birthed Apple. You get the idea.
We all have some idea what an art scene or a music scene is. They are not only the artists or the bands, but the local gallery owners, the patrons who buy pieces of work or go see shows, the local arts organizations that plan the First Friday Art Walk, the local bars and clubs where bands play, and all the people playing roles who support these people and the scenes. Those are the best known kind of Creative Scenes.
There are scenes within scenes. There are better and worse scenes. Most Creative Scenes don't have any major influence, except to help people become more creative, and learn skills, either creative, ogranizational, or business-wise. A healthy creative environment, let's say a thriving city's creative community, has dozens, maybe hundreds, of loosely interconnected scenes, with many types of people playing roles in multiple scenes, moving between scenes, and bouncing off of, and inspiring each other. This type or creative environment separates a city like Austin, Texas from say Detroit, Michigan. Both have creative scenes, Detroit has been huge force in music from Motown to rock n' roll to early electronic music. But it's been devastated economically, and continues ot struggle as a city. Austin is peaking as a Creative Scene city, and currently thriving financially as a major tech hub city, where economic and creative Detroit's heydays were decades ago. But the cheap cost of living and post apocalyptic scenes of Detroit may set the seeds for more great Creative Scenes in the future. Time will tell.
This theme, Creative Scenes, is something I've been learning about since the 1980's, as a BMX freestyler, and ever since, through many creative projects, jobs, and experiences. I even lived in an indie art gallery once, back in 2005-6. That's where my Sharpie Scribble Style art technique was born.
Right now, in late 2022, I believe we are on the cusp of some of the biggest changes in society in modern times, which will take place over several years. Creative Scenes is where I'm going to focus my energy for the forseeable future. I've got a lot to say on the subject, so it's time to get to work. Buckle up, it's gonna be a crazy ride.
*As an Old School BMX guy, I love to make fun of scooter riders. And then R Willy came along... Damn him.
