Scenius, or communal genius (with my own examples)

Scenius, that greater genius that comes from a particular community, is something I have thought about alot. If you haven’t heard of it before, I can recommend the following on it:

• Further notes on scenius – Austin Kleon: Austin has written a number of posts on the topic
• The Technium: Scenius, or Communal Genius: not surprisingly, Kevin Kelly has ideas on it too.

Here’s what I think are some great examples of it in the 20th century:

• The Harlem Renaissance (photo above from it)
• The Dada anti-art movement
• The Solvay Conferences
• Bauhaus
• Paris between the Wars (1918–1939)
• The Manhattan Project
• The New York art scene mid-century and New York in the early 80s
• The Seattle music scene in the 90s

I am sure you can think of many more.

Each are great examples of very smart, very talented people coming together for an extended period of time. When they did, what they produced was special and associated with that community they were associated with. As the cliche goes, the sum was more than the parts.

This doesn’t mean you can only have genius appear communally. You can. If anything, that’s more of the norm. But when you have geniuses associating and working together, you have something really special.