Florian Cramer, The Fiction of the Creative Industries

The German artist Gerhard Merz said in 1991 that "creativity is for hairdressers". Professional artists and designers never had a high opinion of the word "creative" and the people bearing it on their business cards, from creative directors to creative consultants and creativity trainers. An exception perhaps was Merz' colleague at the Dusseldorf Academy of Fine Art, Joseph Beuys. Anticipating much of today's community art, he embraced the notion of creativity in its broadest sense and sanctioned any type of socially constructive work as art. And Merz, while making a sound point against romanticized artistic subjectivity and the overall stupidity of the word "creative", was a highbrow art snob dismissing the lower crafts.