Abstract: We will explain and discuss several experiences where artistic and creative practices can drive ambitious scientific research. We will focuss on topics and actions directly related to complex systems science to exemplify all their potentialities. We will describe how participatory strategies, public engagement, community processes and wide multidisciplinary teams are able to transform an ordinary research activity into a complete experience where impact and outputs are multiple, diverse and long-lasting. The list of actors involved should necessary include artists, designers, public agencies or administrations, and then must also take place in uncommon places such as museums, cultural spaces and public spaces. Working with many actors and building tailored-made research collectives have the capacity to raise shared concerns, to address societal challenges in a novel and innovative way, and to enhance the value of the results by publicly discussing and sharing the whole research cycle.

Abstract: Few attempts have been proposed in order to describe the statistical features and historical evolution of the export bipartite matrix countries/products. An important standpoint is the introduction of a products network, namely a hierarchical forest of products that models the formation and the evolution of commodities. In the present article, we propose a simple dynamical model where countries compete with each other to acquire the ability to produce and export new products. Countries will have two possibilities to expand their export: innovating, i.e. introducing new goods, namely new nodes in the product networks, or copying the productive process of others, i.e. occupying a node already present in the same network. In this way, the topology of the products network and the country-product matrix evolve simultaneously, driven by the countries push toward innovation.

Abstract: In the world of artistic production there is a constant struggle to achieve fame and popularity. This fierce competition between artistic creations results in the emergence of highly popular elements that are usually well remembered throughout the years, while many other works that did not achieve that status are long-forgotten. However, there is another level of importance that must be considered in order to have a more complete picture of the system. In fact many works that have influenced the production itself, both due to their aesthetic and cultural value, might have not been or might not be popular anymore. Due to their relevance for the whole artistic production, it is important to identify them and save their memory for obvious cultural reasons. In this paper we focus on the duality between popularity and significance in the context of popular music, trying to understand the features of music albums belonging to one or both of these classes.

Abstract: By means of user-generated data gathered on Last.fm, an on-line catalog of music albums, we define a growing conceptual space in the form of a network of tags representing the evolution of music production during the years. We use this network in order to define a set of general metrics, characterizing the features of the albums and their impact on the global music production. We then use these metrics to implement an automated prediction method of both the commercial success of a creation and its belonging to expert-made lists of particularly significant and important works. We show that our metrics are not only useful to asses such predictions, but can also highlight important differences between culturally relevant and simply popular products. Finally, our method can be easily extended to other areas of artworks creation.