hellohappy

Who’s interested in startups in the humanities?

On any given day, a quick glance at Techcrunch will be proof enough that a large number of entrepreneurs are eager to replicate the success of sites like Twitter, Foursquare, and Groupon by copying their business models and making slight alterations. Not that there is anything wrong with that. The concepts that these sites have made popular (microblogging, check-ins, group buying) have become integrated into other successful startups.

But I’m convinced that there is room for another type of startup: those that are more about the humanities than technology. Or better put, are an intersection of the two, with the humanities in the starring role and technology made its faithful servant. One part Dada and one part Jonah Peretti.

For me, the most interesting moment in Steve Jobs’ presentation that unveiled the iPad was a slide he showed at the end, that stated Apple saw itself at the intersection of technology and the liberal arts. But if you listen to his comments, it’s obvious that Steve’s using “liberal arts” very loosely (one might even say liberally). He explains the term as describing Apple’s goal of making their products accessible to everyone who picks them up. That’s good user experience, not the liberal arts. (I also can’t help but think that Steve was hinting at another goal: making Apple the dominant supplier for the artifacts of the “liberal arts”: music, movies, and books.)

Despite my breathless comments before its release, I haven’t bought an iPad and have no plans to. If I were to pick one reason, it would be this: I still buy and read paper books. Until I can get the complete works of Nietzsche in a beautifully typeset, DRM-free digital edition that I can share with whomever I please, I’m going to abstain. I don’t think eBooks on the iPad represent innovation in the humanities; they are just faster horses.

We need startups in the humanities precisely because a corporation — even one I admire as much as Apple — should not be trusted as the gatekeeper of the humanities. We need startups that push up against and break down boundaries. True innovation will not be a centralized distribution channel, but a revitalizing of culture produced at the edges, in opposition to, and as correction for, dominant culture. In other words, doing what great art has always done.

Who’s going to start and fund these startups? It might be out of place to seek VCs for these ventures, but I’m convinced that there is a large audience of both artists and technology-minded people who would love to work together. I am one of them. Let’s start a conversation.

This post started as an email to Caterina Fake, whose quick response encouraged me to re-write it for a general audience.

Philip Larkin responds to Epicurus

There is nothing dreadful in life for the man who has truly comprehended that there is nothing terrible in not living.

— Epicurus

This is a special way of being afraid
No trick dispels. Religion used to try,
That vast moth-eaten musical brocade
Created to pretend we never die,
And specious stuff that says no rational being
Can fear a thing it cannot feel, not seeing
that this is what we fear - no sight, no sound,
No touch or taste or smell, nothing to think with,
Nothing to love or link with,
The anaesthetic from which none come round.

— Philip Larkin, Aubade

This is the personal site of Chad Mazzola, a designer by profession, living in Cambridge, MA. You may be interested in browsing the archives, or visiting a random entry.

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