The Groove Issue 19 - The Chain of Genius
Welcome to the nineteenth issue of The Groove.
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THE CHAIN OF GENIUS
Everything that is new and creative around us is the product of the evolution of old(er) ideas that have been twisted and upgraded by those who came after and turned those ideas into something else. A few weeks ago, I wrote that to innovate is human, and that humans are neurologically wired in a way in which we always crave the new.
Cities as the Original Sources for The Chain of Genius
Modern cities like New York, Silicon Valley, London, or Los Angeles generate more ideas, come up with more innovations, and have more creative people than several countries in the world combined. But this isn’t new. For example, Athens around 500 BC, and Florence between 1430 and 1530, were some of the most populated cities of the time, and became the breeding grounds of some of the greatest ideas and innovations still used today.
What happened and what continues to happen in those cities? And is it true even today that if anyone wants to be part of a bigger cultural conversation or an exciting environment that is inventive and innovative, one must live in a big metropolis?
According to Edward Glaeser, a leading urban economist and Harvard professor, he argues in his book Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier, that cities are actually the healthiest, greenest, and richest (in both cultural and economic terms) places to live. He also declares that thanks to cities, we have enjoyed progress in every possible area since the beginnings of civilization.
A remarkably interesting reason why this may be true is how people get inserted in “the chain of genius,” which is the continuum on how someone invents something great and passes those ideas to others around them. Today, even at the speed at which ideas fly on social media and on the internet, in-person human exchanges within the right infrastructure continue to be irreplaceable for creativity.
Florence’s famous Il Duomo, designed and conceived by Filippo Brunelleschi from 1418 to 1446. Brunelleschi's success can be attributed to his technical and mathematical genius, which he passed on to others like Donatello and Masaccio.
Florence during the Renaissance
In Florence in the early and mid-1400s, the super eccentric Filippo Brunelleschi developed the mathematical technique of linear perspective in art, which governed pictorial depictions of space until the late 19th century and influenced the rise of modern science. Masaccio was the first painter in the Renaissance to incorporate Brunelleschi's discovery in his art. He did this in his fresco The Holy Trinity, in Santa Maria Novella in Florence, which influenced other painters who came after him, such as Fra Filippo Lippi and Fra Angelico.
By moving around in Florence, Brunelleschi met Donatello and informally tutored him in goldsmithing and sculpture. Donatello used the linear perspective teachings from Brunelleschi and applied them to the low relief works he was carving. Each person was passing more knowledge and more discoveries unto the others by virtue of being in the same city.
Masaccio’s Holy Trinity, 1425–1427, at Santa Maria Novella, Florence, was painted following Bruneleschi’s teachings of the mathematical technique of linear perspective.
Paris in the 1900s
A different chain of genius was formed in Paris in the early 1900s. We have Dada, Surrealism, and Cubism born out of the philosophical discussions and art practices of Marcel Duchamp, André Breton, Max Ernst, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Georges Braque, and many others who happened to have moved to Paris or move to a different arrondisement inside of Paris, to be closer to where ideas were alive, changed, reproduced, and appropriated. They were friends and rivals, teachers and mentees, active participants of the cultural conversation.
Had these people lived in other places, communicated by letters, or didn’t ingest the vibrancy of the Paris avant garde and café society, they could have never attained what they did on their own, no matter their individual brilliance. The chain of genius was absolutely vital to their success.
Modigliani, Picasso and André Salmon in front of the Café de la Rotonde, Paris in 1916. Picture by Jean Cocteau
Hollywood in the 1920s
The first studio in Hollywood, the Nestor Company, was established in October 1911. Nestor was looking for cheap land, large spaces, and nice weather year-round. Four film companies: Paramount, Warner Bros., RKO, and Columbia, followed suit, as did several minor companies and rental studios. Actors, directors, producers, set-builders, costume designers, makeup artists and anyone with a dream and a desire to explore their creative abilities moved to Hollywood to be a part of this new bursting center of innovation that was producing work that demanded more people to be inserted in the chain of genius.
In the 1920s, Hollywood had established itself as the fifth-largest industry in the United States. By the 1930s, Hollywood studios became fully vertically integrated, as production, distribution and exhibition were controlled by these companies, enabling Hollywood to produce 600 films per year. By attracting the best and brightest people who wanted to be in the film and entertainment industry, Hollywood created its own chain of genius and planted a formidable seed of growth in a city that in 1920 had 577,000 inhabitants and today, 100 years later, has grown to a population of almost 13 million all over the massive geography that comprises the city of Los Angeles.
This was Nelson in 1911, the first motion picture studio in Hollywood. It lived on the northwest corner of Sunset Boulevard and Gower Street. A few years later, Nestor was acquired by Universal.
Is It Only Cities?
What if you don’t live in a big urban center? I think the chain of genius could be replicated with certain variations anywhere in the world. Fortune 500 companies like Walmart, CVS, Kellogg, and Hershey started in very small cities and have stayed true to the towns in which they were founded, helping their home base cities evolve, bringing job opportunities and talent and fueling growth. These founding entrepreneurs went the extra mile with their ideas in the unlikeliest of places and started their own chain of genius against all odds.
How could others do that too? Perhaps getting immersed in big-city cultures for small periods of time and generously pass on what they’ve learned from others to those around them. After all, the importance of sharing knowledge can’t be underestimated, whether the ideas sparked from people in giant concrete jungles or a tiny group of thinkers in a small town.
These realizations have made me ponder where and what I would be had I not moved to New York in 2000. I feel extremely lucky to have grabbed that opportunity and 21 years later, continue to evolve and change thanks to the chain of genius where I am inserted.
It is true that you are who you are no matter where you live, but if you happen to be in a stimulating city with all its benefits and its detriments, you already have the chain of genius all around you. Take advantage of it, and when in a very immediate future we are able to return to workplaces, entertain lively discussions with peers, learn new skills in person and participate of cultural exchanges, remember to add to and acknowledge your chain of genius.
Thank you for reading this far. Looking forward to hearing from you anytime.
THE EXTRA GROOVE
Read:
Brunelleschi's Dome: How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture by Ross King
In Montparnasse: The Emergence of Surrealism in Paris, from Duchamp to Dali by Sue Roe
Watch:
Florence, the Power of the Past, a documentary by David Grubin
Pablo Picasso and George Braque Go to the Movies, a documentary produced by Martin Scorsese
The Birth of a Film Industry: Hollywood and World War II. A short documentary by France24