In high school, a good friend's mom used to remind us that nothing ever changes and it never gets any better. This piece of childhood memory, made me think about creativity and how difficult is has become when faced with access to too much information.
Case in point: Check out this blog You Thought We Wouldn't Notice - it's great chronicle of people ripping off other people's ideas. Technically, it is about Art Law in the U.S., but it also exposes how difficult it is to create new ideas.
Without the right process (a careful mixture of seclusion and external stimulation) you end up surfing and copying. And, of course, as the point of the blog, it is easier to get caught when you do this. We are constantly cataloging the visuals of our internet surfing, which creates many more moments of "familiarity." Today, we are rarely uncomfortable with our surroundings because we are constantly create and filtering our surroundings.
But on the creative process, too much stimulation leads to "all the good ideas have been taken" thinking. Too much seclusion leads to lack of relevance.
I'm working on an article about Sustainability as a Simulacrum (a copy without an original) so reproduction and simulation are top of mind these days.
Coincidentally, I have been looking at Battle Jackets quite a bit as a cultural badge, and the blog mentioned above has a post about Nike ripping off designs from this site: TShirtSlayer
That's how it works these days. Our worlds are folding in on each other.
Comments