Kat Cizek and William Uricchio: Co-Creation

We all do things with other people. We design things, we write things, we create things. Despite the fact that co-creation is all around us it can be easy to miss because creation gets assigned to individuals all too often. We’re quick to assume that one person should get credit thereby erasing the contributions of others.

The two of us have a distinct interest in co-creation because we co-create everything we do. We co-created Sonder Studio, our speaking engagements, our workshops, our design projects, and our soon-to-be-published book, Make Better Decisions. We’re also interested in how humans can co-create with technology, specifically artificial intelligence, and when that is a good thing and when that might be something to avoid.

To dig into these interests and questions we talked with Kat Cizek and William Uricchio whose upcoming book Collective Wisdom offers the first guide to co-creation as a concept and as a practice. Kat, William, and a lengthy list of co-authors have presented a wonderful tracing of the history of co-creation across many disciplines and societies. The book is based in interviews with 166 people and includes nearly 200 photographs that should not be missed. We hope that you all have a chance to experience their collective work.

Kat is an Emmy and Peabody-winning documentarian who is the Artistic Director and Cofounder of the Co-Creation Studio at MIT Open Documentary Lab. William is Professor of Comparative Media Studies at MIT, where he is also Founder and Principal Investigator of the MIT Open Documentary Lab and Principal Investigator of the Co-Creation Studio. Their book is scheduled to be published by MIT Press on November 1st.

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Thanks to Jonathan Coulton for our music