Just finished reading Clay Shirky's Cognitive Surplus. I was hoping to find more. I was hoping to find out why we would want to create media, create our own digital documentaries. Instead I found a lot of other useful information concentrated on our desire as social creatures to share and communicate with others.
I suppose creating something is communicating but I'm not sure the desire to share what I've created is the total reason why I would want to create a digital documentary. That's a good end result, the fact that I can share it with the world but what about the process of actually doing it? Flow is all about process, being in the moment of doing something. Do we go see a movie for the sole purpose of talking about it with others later? I don't, perhaps others do?
I guess sharing on facebook is about being in the moment, sharing on facebook is the process, the flow experience of facebook is in the sharing, whereas documentary is all about story (and doco can't exist without story no matter what the delivery platform) and it is the story journey that is the process. In traditional doco the only way to get into the flow of the story is to watch whereas the flow of digital documentary can be to watch but also in the creating ... and the experience can be extended again through sharing.
Chapter 3 'Motive' began to examine why but still it was brought it back to 'The motivation to share is the driver; technology is just the enabler' (2010, p.79). I think I need to go back to the literature on creativity to fill in these gaps on what it is about creating that creates a flow experience for us.
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Maybe creating and sharing just are. maybe there is no external motivation, they just resonate within us, and we express them for the same reason we feel emotion or think thoughts. Most people I know who make film or TV don't do it for the money. They do because of an intrinsic sense of personal fulfilment that comes from tapping the knowledge/skills that they have acquired over time; the skill to record sound well, the skill to write a compelling script, the skill to direct performers, light a space so it doesn't look lit, edit a program so it holds an audience's attention... You could argue that in reality, none of these things have the 'doing' as the only motive, it's always as much the "look what I did" that is the payoff. But I sometimes wonder. Lots of people I know who do art are resigned to the fact the only payoff will be the sense of completeness it gives them, and anything extra is a payday.
ReplyDeleteThe idea that creating is somehow an end in itself is a pretty old concept. Post object artists are the ultimate expression of it. They destroy their creation as soon as they're complete, or work with temporary structures that can never be complete because of some external element (like a sand sculpture on a beach that only exists between tides).
I'm also led to thoughts on religious ideas about humans being part of a creator God, and our desire to create is a reflection of our true (divine) nature. Buddhists are the ultimate post object artists, when they create sand mandalas that are incredibly intricate and quite beautiful, but are swept away on completion.
I'm sure you could find a rationale for anything that makes us human; for why we feel emotion or think thoughts; why runners run or singers sing, but I think you're possibly pondering and imponderable.
Maybe creating is just just a thing we do because its a thing we do. Maybe being intouch with our nature is a flow type thing. Just ask Fred.
-Mike.
further on yours and Mike's thoughts on creativity, 'the mystery of love', love between a man and a woman expressed as the birth of a child, a family cottage business, insightful scientific discoveries, beautiful art and music - hundreds of examples of these - at some point ultimately benefiting society and souls of people ('the end') - but yes, that wasnt the motive behind their inspirations, Im sure. I remember a very kind comment someone made to me once which effectively transformed my mindset and shifted the needle on my Life navigation Dial - WE NEVER KNOW HOW, WHEN OR WHERE OUR CREATIVITY WILL give birth, mature and touch others in some way.
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