In this opening segment of the Art. Short Bites podcast (Episode #11), host Virginie Glaenzer conducts a rapid “tour de table” with four guests, each offering a concise self‑introduction and stating why they are drawn to the intersection of art and organizational well‑being. - John Caswell runs Group Partners, helping senior executives visualize future scenarios. He frames art as a catalyst that shifts mindsets, behaviours, and relationships, thereby enabling executive change. - Fatemi Banishoaib describes herself as a “business artist” and founder of the creative lab Renew Business, which blends art and business to “renew” current models. She asks whether embracing the artist within each person can transform business, society, and the world. - Andy Smolik (London‑based, former Google employee) studies fractal patterns in life and applies them to organizations, cultures, and nations, treating them as artificial life forms. He suggests that recognizing these patterns reframes how art can influence organizational dynamics. - Unnamed writer‑speaker (referred to as “Christopher”) identifies as a writer who feels society’s awareness is impoverished, especially in response to crises like COVID‑19. He seeks richer, more complex ways of thinking and wonders what artistic perspectives can add to societal problem‑solving. Virginie ties the introductions together, noting the blend of art, fractals, and visual storytelling that will shape the ensuing discussion. The segment establishes the participants’ expertise, their core concepts, and the thematic framing for the episode’s deeper exploration of art’s role in organizational and societal transformation.
Chapters
Before we begin our conversation, let's begin as we always do with what I call a tour de table and have each of you tell us your name, what you do, and why you're interested in this topic. Please try to be brief and keep your introduction to a minute. So let's begin with John.
Well, hello, I'm John Caswell. I run a company called Group Partners. My interest in this topic is that I help senior executives visualize their future. So it's a mixture of conversation and art, and the, the big prize there, of course, is that the outcome of that is a different mindset and a different behavior and a different relationship between people, which is hugely valuable, which completely is at odds with the normal lives they live. So I see art as a catalyst for making change happen and improving the lives of executives. So I'm very happy to be here, looking forward to the conversation.
Great, thank you, John. Fatemi?
Hello everyone, my name is Fatemi Banishoaib. I define myself a business artist, as I say. And I founded a couple of years ago a creative laboratory called Renew Business where we actually bring together art and business so that we can renew the current business model. And the fundamental question I ask my clients and myself every single day: can we transform business, the world, society if we embrace the artist within each and every one of us? And I hope we can get a glimpse of what that looks like in this podcast today.
Great.
Fantastic. Thank you for being here. Andy?
Yes, Andy Smolik. I'm based here in London. I spent 5 years at Google, but I'm off involved now with a series of startups. What I like to study are the fractal patterns that exist in life and understand more deeply how we orchestrate value in organizations. I look at organizations and cultures and nations as artificial life forms. And if you understand that the same kind of fractal patterns that we have also apply to those organizations, then this discussion in terms of understanding art and its role with these organizations takes on a whole different framing.
Okay, so we're mixing together art, fractals, and visual storytelling. So that's going to be an interesting discussion. Christopher?
Yeah, I have no idea who I am or what I do. I'm always intimidated by people who know. And can answer in a minute. I guess it's another way of saying I'm a writer. And I kind of read and write and think for a living. I mean, right now what I just can't seem to get off my brain is this sense of how impoverished our awareness of reality is. Um, I mean, you, and you look at things like how the public response to coronavirus, but really so many crises that seem to just occupy our brain in society at the root of all of them to me seems to be the, the, the kind of disconnectedness with which we go through life and conceive problems and actions and solutions. Yeah, and poverty is, I guess, the word that I keep coming back to. I just feel like our awareness is in so many ways impoverished. And so the flip side of that is looking for, so how do we enrich that? How do we grow spaces? This kind of vanishing habitat where we can be and think and act in, you know, just far richer and more complex ways. And, you know, from there it's almost like an obvious step to say, so let's really listen and learn about what does the artistic perspective bring that we're missing.
Very nice. Well, I can't wait to get in this conversation. So a week ago, several presidents of countries around the world have declared a global health emergency due to the coronavirus, which we were just talking about. Interestingly, today we're going to be talking about the role of art in the well-being of an organization. And it seems to me that what we're experiencing on the outside is really a personal crisis on the inside. The current business model for our organization and of our work at large looks to me like it's been designed on the premise of an assembly line. So roughly about after 150 years, it's easy to agree on the fact that we've reached a point where it's no longer working, just by looking at the reality, right? Our energy consumption is causing climate change, we're sick and healthy, fat and depressed. So the way we work as well as the way we think about work has reached a point point of no return and it's time to think and do things differently, which is why I'm so eager to start this conversation with Fatemi, who is going to lead us into considering another way of looking at work. Because after all, why wouldn't we practice the arts in the workplace to resolve the illness affecting businesses? So if you'd like to lead us into this conversation, it's all yours.
