On Originality
We live in an age where the whole world’s creative efforts are available to us in high quality bites on the internet. Do you ever get that sinking feeling that everything you might ever dream up has probably already been dreamt up by one of the other 6.75 billion inhabitants of this planet?
At the same time, ‘original’ ideas are probably the most applauded and sought-after components of both artistic and non-artistic products.
These facts lead us into a mistaken quest for ‘originality’. Usually we feel successful in this quest if we manage to create something that feels ‘original’ in the same way the last ‘original’ thing we came across felt to us. Perhaps we have made something truly weird, or something shocking, or something that merges two genres or concepts in a way that we have come across before. Maybe what we’ve made is pretty obscure, and its meaning – and meaningfulness – is hidden behind a kind of conceptual-cool mirage.
But true originality doesn’t involve trying hard. It isn’t the result of a series of stabs in the dark. Rather, true originality, the kind that leads to artistic products that leave a deep and personal impression on your audience, comes from your own origins.
What I mean by this is that to make original work, what is needed is not an accumulation of experience of other ‘original’ ideas or a searching outside of ourselves for something truly new and fresh. It is actually an emptying out of all the accumulated layers of ideas, images and opinions from ‘out there,’ and comes from our own immediate truth.
No two people have the same mind, the same experiences, the same historical and social context. No two people have the same personality, beliefs, values, desires and fascinations. To be original, you just have to be who you are. That is the simple truth. Your life’s work is to create the first thing you think of, the thing that is staring you in the face, the thing that is you-and-only-you, the thing that is so obvious to you that it seems like it must be the least original idea there ever was. That is the truly original, meaningful and effective thing that you can create.
So if you ever find yourself worrying about originality, do whatever feels least original, the biggest cliche, even if it means straight-out copying of something you have seen. I once set out to copy Cindy Sherman and ended up having a ball of a time making photos and film that were definitely all about me.
