The spark, the spread and ethics: Towards an object-orientated view of subversive creativity

Abstract

This paper articulates the subversive and political potential of an object-orientated view of urban creativity. Drawing upon object-orientated philosophies, it further develops the political and subversive potential of the creativity rhetoric to argue that nonhuman material agency is an important factor in propelling subversive behaviour into sustained political change. By focusing on the agency of objects and their ability to challenge our own behaviour in the city, the paper posits a three-stage articulation of subversive creativity; the spark, the spread and ethics. From this, the paper argues that creativity can be posited less as a mechanism of change that is all too often co-opted and reappropriated by normalising forces, but as a subversive force that has a potential to create alternative and sustained political subjectivities.