Musician and producer Brian Eno's two quotes beautifully encapsulate the idea that creativity, originality or innovation seldom originate from the individual artist or genius but grow out of new connections and interactions among people in a community. In his book, A Year of Swollen Appendices, Eno refers to historical examples of the scenius from, for example, the New York City art scene in the 1970s or the Harlem Renaissance, where groups of artists, musicians, creatives and thinkers, through their interaction in physical common spaces, influenced and inspired each other to cultivate new cultural and artistic expressions.

This idea of scenius is alluring and an idea that fits well into how we should understand the potential of collaboration in systems. We can point to similar scenius movements outside the realm of the arts. A good example is the New Nordic Cuisine movement in Denmark that blossomed in the mid-2000s, where chefs and food experts met through creative experimentation and developed new values and practices around the meal. These new ideas of food were kicked off with the co-creation of the New Nordic Cuisine Manifesto in 2004 by frontrunners from the gastronomy scene who met to innovate and experiment on the future of Nordic food. The manifesto committed actors in the Danish food industry to promote local, natural and seasonal produce as a foundation for cooking in restaurants and at home.