metal&gin | (a weblog by craig t mackenzie)

I’ve become increasingly aware just lately of the importance of personality in creativity, especially in creativity of a visual manner. As i’ve been exploring generative art, and indeed as I have been tied down in the purely functional and rational world of investment banking (i’ve been working on a large application for JP Morgan, forcing my mind to wonder over the possibilities of aesthetic creations, whilst drenched with the harsh and bleak reality of investment banking) I have come to appreciate (more concisely) the relevance, importance and potency of personal interpretation in most things creative (especially visually aesthetic creativity).

What is “Personality in Creativity”???

When I talk about personality in creativity what I am talking about is the way in which individual human beings are capable of understanding, relating to and ultimately experiencing things in a completely different and abstract way from one another.

I think my understanding of this has become most prevalent in recent times, you see I bought my boyfriend a digital SLR camera for his birthday (a rather nice Canon EOS 400D) and I couldn’t help but notice that often I would find a shot or scene that I thought was worth capturing, the interesting part is that sometimes my boyfriend wouldn’t feel the same way (more often than not he would, or he was just humoring me, who knows!) It was through these continued and often random occurrences of indifference over what was considered aesthetically pleasing that I arrived at my ephinpy of revelation.

The Ephinpy of Revelation

My revelation was one of appreciation for the individual, in the same way that I would attack a pragmatic problem or a technologically challenging task from a certain perspective, my boyfriend, your girlfriend indeed your [whoever] or (especially) another person will see the same problem / aesthetic from another perspective.

It is indeed the way in which we as creative individuals are able to see, analyze, appreciate, and then (finally) form preferable, concise resolutions to aesthetically or mentally challenging problems.

I’m using the perspective of pragmatic and aesthetic creativity interchangeably, you see this is the way in which I (creatively) perceive a challenge, it is an aspect of my personality and something which is as unique in its execution to me as the very fabric of which I am formed.

The Very Fabric of Which we are Formed

This is the point, as obvious at it seems, I’m trying to make, The way I will solve a problem, the way I will view an aesthetic, even the way in which I will appreciate sound, touch, taste… It’s all unique to me. As is the way you will react to these stimuli.

As obvious as it seems to say this out-loud, I sometimes think there are a great deal of people in the world that need reminding that you should view this “with your own eyes”, be that with your actual eyes, or a perceived sandbox of conformed rationality, it should be your spectrum of creativity (or rationale) that paints the answer, not an emulated or derived palate of someone else’s expression.

“A Derived Palate of Someone Else’s Expression”

When I talk about this I’m not saying that people shouldn’t learn, be inspired by and ultimately study others work to gain a better understanding of a particular field of creative expression (far from it, indeed I believe that it is often only possible to understand and therefore form a creative expression about a given problem / aesthetic, if you have first studied and understood how peers would approach the same problem)

What I am saying is that it’s important to move beyond this. Take what you have learnt, apply it and reiterate. Your creativity will then be peppered with the nuances of your personality, and ultimately you individuality.

This drunk rambling was bought to you buy 6 pints and 2 shots of tequila. Thank you.