Written by Kwami Gudzi Agbeko, CEO Kraftotek
“Art is based on rationalization of vision” – Leonardo Da Vinci
In our bid to create a better physical, economic and social environment in our communities, we must tap into artistic experiences of merit, in order to achieve results which should serve as manifestations of the interaction between human creative resources and basic human needs.
There is a thin line between the “Art of Creation” and the “Science of Creation”. The former is the act or process of creative activity while the latter is the vital force behind the process. Art is the humane and civilizing agent in the process of creating things. Art is the process of making visible the invisible. Science on the other hand, presents and offers new perspectives to the creative process. In our national quest to create and induce positive change in the Development Agenda of Ghana, we need to come to terms, collectively, with the art and science of creation.
One cannot agree more with the assertion by Professor Atsu Ayee that “Leadership is getting things done. It is the ability to move people in new directions; lead them to places they did not know or they wanted or needed to go”. (46TH JB Danquah Memorial Lectures, Monday February 24TH). One may ask, which better method is there for making people see where they want to go, than visualizing clearly, the path on which to proceed? A picture, as it is often said, is worth a thousand words.
Our leaders may spew out volumes of economic jargons and numbers, but if we the followers cannot make any meaning out of these, we could hardly become champions of our own destinies. Consequently, we all get lost in this global forest and do not know which way to pass. We need to employ creativity to visualize effectively, the economic talk, in order to focus our collective mind on which way to go.
A vision, as the word connotes, is supposed to be visualized graphically for every Kofi and Ama to see, feel and share, as in the real sense of the word, not to be obscured in words and figures. National vision is the dream of tomorrow that needs to be designed effectively to achieve maximum delivery; the type of delivery that should enhance information flow, broader understanding of policy directions and coherence in handling governance issues across board. It takes a visionary conductor to bring out the best and cohesive performance in a musical ensemble.
The tendency generally is, for planners of our national development programmes to isolate Art from living experience. Most people tend to consider Art as a mere embellishment of an object without any intellectual value and not as a vehicle for packaging and projecting our national vision in a more graphic and comprehensive manner. In our part of the world, art and creativity is looked upon with a condescending attitude, whereas in the developed world, the subject is embraced as part and parcel of their evolving culture. The greatest restraining factor for technocrats whose role it is to transform our total environment is their inability to visualize their development concepts in effective graphic form. As a result, these concepts are hidden in voluminous documents, completely detached from the people, accessible only to a select few, who are forever pontificating on these concepts at the uncountable workshops, seminars and committees, punctuated by cherished tea parties, sumptuous lunch breaks and lavish dinners. At the end of the day, we applaud the grandiloquent words, leaving the works to fate and divine grace. Then we again prepare ourselves for the next Wordshop (workshop) at another cozy and exclusive location: a vicious cycle indeed. On the other hand, lack of proper visualization of our physical planning processes, since after Nkrumah, has resulted into the crude and chaotic situations that we find our cities and towns today.
Not too long ago, I had the privilege of watching with keen interest a presentation by one Professor Kwame Addo themed “Visions of Ghana, Dreams Designed for Development”. This presentation amply demonstrates the potential of exploring artistic experience for sensitizing our collective national psyche on our developmental needs and to facilitate a systematic framework and strategic approach to implementation of development projects. The package has been delivered professionally in a bid to graphically suggest in uncomplicated terms, the synthesis of ways and means to modernize Ghana and contribute to positive branding of our country based on factual data.
The “Visions of Ghana” presentation, initiates the audience into a world of seeing, feeling and sharing at close range, graphic representations that expose the vastness of resources Ghana is endowed with and the developmental challenges that need to be overcome in order to harness their full potential. What this presentation does to me personally, is to act as a catalyst, to help me develop the strength of personal commitment and say to myself that “YES, GHANA CAN”. The show stimulates in my memory, the persistence of hope for a brighter future. The complete presentation consists of a physical model of central Accra re-planned for the near future, audio-visuals and a large map of Ghana titled “I See a Land” as well as some models and pictorial renderings of built environments that he envisions from his dreams. Particularly, the model of future inner city Accra is an ambitious project displaying cutting edge concepts requiring innovation and boldness, designed to enhance circulation and inject sanity into the built environment of central Accra. The purpose of this presentation is not aimed at reinventing the wheel, but merely the employment of creative knowledge to visualize the varying development plans that have been lying on the shelves for all this time.The whole idea of this presentation is deeply rooted in the concept of creative development that seeks to activate a new spirit in the individual citizen and revive the much desired hope and cultural regeneration needed to effect a well ordered change in our total environment. It is a fact that true Art in whatever form, imitates and projects the quintessence of order, harmony, beauty and rhythm found in nature.
The truth is that as Ghanaians, we have not yet come to terms with our destiny as one people and to develop a sense of appreciation of who we are and what resources we have. Our mindset is massively blurred by partisan politicking instead of focused on ethical values of development. This awareness must of necessity, be profoundly influenced by the creative artists of the time. It is through this sensitization that a meaningful developmental programme for future growth can be achieved and shared collectively. Such meaningful visual analysis and artistic rationalization of developmental issues, form considerable basis for the thought processes that go into resolving development challenges in the advanced countries that we are so eager to catch up with. If we, Ghanaians, fail to recognize the crucial role that visual creativity could play in our national development agenda and instead allow visual illiterates with limited imagination to hijack the role of packaging and projecting our national Vision and Image, then we should be ready to live eternally with poor results. It must however be noted that a creative person may not necessarily be a visual artist. He/she may be anybody quietly wending his/ her way through life, who is set apart largely by his/her power of imagination and insight into the nature of things.
I have always been amazed by the sheer force of creativity in “Asterisk”, a nickname Professor Kwame Addo earned at the College of Art (KNUST) in the late seventies, before proceeding to Rhode Island School of Design in the USA, to read architecture and environmental design. The profundity of his power of imagination and freedom of thought, the critical observation of his immediate environment and his keen eye for detail, his intuitive feeling for form and beauty, his revolutionary mind and workman attitude; ambition, perseverance and a strong will for the expression of an aesthetic impulse, comprise the essence of his being. Professor Addo insists on tagging the “Visions of Ghana” presentation as a work of Art. However, I must be quick to add that it is not Art for Art sake, but art imbued with enormous purpose.
In conclusion, let us refresh our minds with this quote from Albert Einstein, “Imagination is more important than knowledge”. Imagination is, of course, the dynamic force that makes change happen in the world all over, more than static knowledge cloaked in decorative garments of MBAs, MFAs, LLBs, PhDs and so on and so forth. History is replete with imaginative persons, some of whom were ordinary folk, who postulated change in the world view and the way of doing things in their societies, but met with stiff resistance from the contemporary scholars of their time. However, the world eventually changed for the better through their daring ideas. Mention names like Leonardo da Vinci, Nikolaus Copernicus, Galileo Galilee, Gregor Johann Mendel, Otto von Guericke, Robert Mayer, Antoine Laurent Lavoisier, George Stephenson, our own Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Apostle Kwadwo Safo of Chriso Asafo fame, the leading impressionist artists of the late nineteenth century and the great contribution of Gropius, Klee, Kandisky and many others of the Bauhaus School of artists and designers since the first world war. How long are we as a country, going to resist youthful imaginative persons with holistic views and pragmatic ideas and continue to cling ourselves to lackadaisical, haphazard and wasteful methods of managing our national affairs?
Once upon a time, there was a popular Bedford truck plying our roads with the inscription, “Time Will Tell” boldly written on it. Certainly, we have reached a destination as a people, where the signs clearly point to the fact that the time for charting a new and creative road map towards achieving our national vision is now! It is time for the Movers and Shakers of Ghanaian politics to grant the role of shaping our national development agenda to the Makers and Shapers of Vision.
A previous article by the same author here
The Radical 