Neighbourhood Creativity

Kevin Kelly’s article I linked to yesterday made one point which I have been thinking about and telling everyone I meet. The fact that you reading this, a weblog created by a non-entity, non-celebrity, makes that point too. And since you are reading it, you quietly believe in it too. The take-away in bold then is everyone is a creator. And every creator could have a willing consumer who would prefer consuming that particular creation more than anything else at that moment.

In a brilliant but slightly obscure article, Mark Sinker discusses the same thing comparing webcams/home movies with films and analyses why both find their audiences. Andy Warhol famously said that everyone would be famous for 15 minutes in the future. The low cost of video cameras converted thousands of people into creative filmmakers. I am not suggesting they would enter the film canon, but that they would be more interesting for some people than a canonized film.

And, of course, the weblogs. The power of a push-button publishing paradigm converted millions into active publishers. Taking a basic web link as raw material, they created content that draws millions like me. Nowadays, I see the world through their eyes and like to read Charvaaka more than most written stuff. Everyone has some wisdom to offer. Most were constrained by the lack of creative outlets. And for people who feel that weblogs are nothing more than conversation, I would put conversation as the profound act of creation. There are thousands of DJs, public speakers, and actors we know in everyday life. No wonder we like to spend more time with some friends than some books or movies.

Every time I think of homegrown creativity, I think of my grandfather. He was a professional teacher, but his hobbies included writing plays, writing songs, and composing them. I do not recall a single school function in which I did not sing any other songs but those he composed. We used to play games created by him.

Coming back to music, the spirit of Punk Rock and Hip Hop is very much that of a Do-It-Yourself. Hip hop wisdom says that only a few people can sing, but almost everyone can rap. Take a song, sample it, and rap on the top of that. No one took it seriously. Everyone wrote it off as a fad. But today, it promises to be mainstream music. Kelly thinks that the digital format of music would entice millions more to play with the music, create their own version, own stuff and redistribute it for other people’s consumption. And I am sure it would find its appreciators.

And afterall, what is creativity and creation? I think it is our natural response to the mysterious and threatening world around us. Creative output is our way of reacting to the world, trying to make more sense out of it. When I see Parth playing with his toys, I see him infinitely more creative than most people I know. Because he is still not constrained by that voice in our head which tells us that we can not play with things around us. The mass media staple substantiates this feeling, which makes us pure consumers since we can not do anything with what they are feeding us. The only control you have over television is the remote control. And that is why the game shows, the call-in shows find more viewers, viewers who want a part of the action.

So, which are your 15 minutes? And when are you giving me your next post?


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