When I think of creativity, I think of art; I think of a new song never heard before, an abstract painting that makes one stare deep into its individual strokes, a novel with an unforgettable plot, the list could go on and on.
Someone commented on my first post regarding how one defines and realizes true creativity.
Is there really such a thing? True creativity? How does one come up with a creative idea?
As an artist, I get my creative thoughts going with an inspiration or multiple inspirations. Normally this inspiration comes from music, my friends, and objects or activities I notice on an average day. Sometimes my inspiration is from a verse that I read in the Bible that morning; my inspiration comes from everywhere. Where inspiration is, creativity is sure to follow.
That brings me to my next question, originality. How does originality and creativity work together? What is originality?
According to the WordNet Search, originality is “being as first made or thought of.” So if a work of art is created straight from our thoughts, our creativity is original? Thoughts?
Enters the World Wide Web. How does this lovely creation affect how we think and how our original creativity is presented to the viewer?
At the click of a button, we can surf the vast expanse of YouTube and learn how to do anything from making an intricate graphic on Adobe Photoshop to building a hovercraft in your garage.
We can view the millions of pictures on Photobucket or Flickr.
We can follow blogs that introduce new ideas that we may never have thought of without reading their daily posts.
With all of these inspirations, we slowly begin to lose view of the line that separates inspiration from plagiarism.
Just as technology changes around us, so does how we receive inspirations. Does that mean I can copy an exact painting and call it my own original piece? No. However, I believe we can get inspiration from those art forms we see on the Internet.
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| Starry Night Vincent Van Gogh |
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| Collaboration by 8th Graders inspired by Starry Night |
Inspiration or Plagiarism?
Awesome video created by cirkuit100
I can definitely say that I am on of those people who is not good at creating. Whether it be a painting or a project idea, my brain automatically goes to something I've seen or heard of before. Still, I agree that we can find inspiration from other people's work, as long as we are careful. I really relate to this post and loved the points you made about plagiarism vs. inspiration.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely love the examples you used. They definitely speak very clearly towards your message. Even mashups have become popular nowadays, and all they are is essentially the work of others. However they all retain some extraordinary uniqueness and certainly creativity.
ReplyDeleteI really liked you're post. Its very strange to think of all the things we see around us and contemplate whether its been done before. Quite nerve racking, but altogether interesting to think about.
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