Filmmaker Jim Jarmusch on inspiration:
“Nothing is original…”
“….Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable: originality is non-existent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery – celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: ” It’s not where you take things from – it’s where you take them to.”
MovieMaker Magazine #53 – Winter, January 22, 2004
It may come as a surprise, but this quote comes from a very independent filmmaker, director, screenwriter, actor, producer, editor and composer who has an extensive history of original work in many mediums – Jim Jarmusch.
The spirit of his sentiment resonates with me, because in spite of the fact that I have been out of school for 30 years, I still consider myself very much a student.
For decades I have sought to saturate my eyes and mind with images, and experiences – I refer to this as ‘feeding my intuition’. This personal process has morphed over time.
Printed matter (books, magazines, catalogues, newspapers, etc.) are still a significant resource for me; but it’s become increasing clear that the digital world offers endless avenues of discovery and archiving. This can be a challenge for a non-digital native like myself, but with help I have found ways to capitalize on the endless amount of information that is available today. Pinterest is one such vehicle for ‘inspiration’.
One of the joys of Pinterest is that it provides a digital archive of images that I can catalogue in categories or on ‘Boards’. Over time my personal archive of pins has grown – today almost 17,000 pins. Crazy perhaps but totally consistent with my insatiable hunger for beauty, and ‘inspiration’, and certainly my ‘crazy’ pursuits pale in comparison to my friend Kenny Goldsmith.
Poet, author, former visual artist and teacher at the University of Pennsylvania, Kenneth Goldsmith has his own spin on ‘creativity’.
Goldsmith has taught courses at Penn entitled ‘Uncreative Writing’, ‘Interventionist Writing’, and most recently a course entitled ‘Wasting Time on the Internet’ – which has proven to be a very controversial.
It is difficult if not impossible to encapsulate Kenny in few words, as his approach is seemingly simple, but conceptually complex and rich (if you do not know about the early 20th century European literary and artistic movement of Dada, or cannot accept the unruly principles behind Dada, then Goldsmith’s work will most certainly be lost on you and you wouldn’t be alone.)
In his classes Goldsmith encourages “appropriation, theft, stealing, plundering, and sampling, with cheating, fraud, and identity theft all encouraged.” And in Goldsmith’s own many off-the-wall published works we can see and read the physical manifestation of the wondrous conundrums he sees as fertile creative ground in the late 20th, and now 21st centuries.
And if you think that his antics are some kind of clever joke, consider his countless accolades and honors: Kenny was the Museum of Modern Art’s first ‘Poet Laureate’, and was invited to read poetry at the White House including excerpts from his book ‘Traffic‘, a transcription of an entire year of traffic reports from 1010 WINS.
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What is most important in this ‘information age’, as least for me, is to keep an open mind and to remain curious. And to that end, this non-digital native is going to fasten his seatbelt and make certain that the airbags are fully operational as I keep my eyes, ears and mind open for what is ahead!
OPINION: it all comes down to one word, ‘ownership’ and how one can prove ownership of an idea; A great question but unfortunately one that is not easily answerable on ‘creative’ grounds. There are laws that protect certain types of creativity and yet make no considerations or rulings of ownership concerning other types of creativity.
An example: a major magazine used to copy one of our creative page designs to such exactness, we were able to place our page over the copied page and the fit was perfect, down to the fonts, placement and sizes used. There was, and still is, nothing we could do.
Years ago, another ‘original’ creative issue rose between the covers of Men’s Health and Men’s Journal, where one tried to sue the other, citing similarities between the red font type used on a white background cover and the possible confusion it caused among readership—the case was dropped.
In the world of photography, if I created and image that was in the same vein as an iconic Mapplethorpe, I could be sued. Recently photographer Sandro Miller and actor John Malkovich paid homage to several famous photographers and their iconic images, but they were safe from being sued because their work was purposefully an homage.
In the furniture industry there are knock-offs-a-plenty. So, J.Robert Scott’s Sally Sirkin Lewis, applied for and was granted a U.S. Utility Patent for her Ombré furniture finishing technique.
Which leads me back to ownership; outside of being granted a patent or copyright how do we define ownership, and what factors make up the basis of ownership.
Strategist Michael Porter wrote (and I am paraphrasing), that very little is original. The lightbulb and the computer are ‘original’ ideas. Exempting these discoveries, all we ever really ever do is essentially the same thing but in a unique way.
So the question or dilemma remains; can anyone claim originality for an idea or product by improving or distinguishing or reimagining what has come before… I think so.