02.13.21
What does it mean for someone to create something? What does it mean to not create? What is creation during these times, in a world where art is generated and images are mass produced? This question has bee nsitting in my notes app for a month or so, and I have yet to fully get a grasp on the subject. The definiton of 'create' is to bring something into existence. The whole idea of bringing something into existence is a question that I don't think I am equipped to answer, but I will attempt to put some framework around the concept. God was good at creating, if you believe in the Christian God. God brought Adam into existence and used Adam's rib to produce Eve. (Now, this isn't where I want to talk about 'Creationism', because that is a religious idea and I am not questioning who created man or how man was created). This is the essence of creation if we use this as a demonstration of a pure instence of bringing something into existence. We can also think about when a child is born, they are brought into existence. My logic follows the path where I ask myself the question: Is the first thought that child speaks into existence an original creation? So this brings us to the idea of originality, which is what I want to focus on. This child that has just been introduced to the world is now having thoughts and sometimes creating physical objects or manifestations of these thoughts. Are these manifestations original? I think they are. I think that these manifestations are products of the child's environment, experiences, and consciousness. I think that this child is producing original thought and producing original thought because of it doesnt know anything besides its own manifestation. I think where we run into real trouble, is when this child becomes aware of other thoughts, ideas, and manifestations that aren't its own. It is hard to say when this starts, but it could start within a week of the child's birth, or a few years. No matter when the period of realization begins, this is where the water becomes merky with outside influence and pressure. Now the child is thinking how its ideas compare with others and how its actions are influenced yb the actions of others. The ability to completely disregard outside influence is almost impossible, especially in the era of social media and internet influence. Deeming the originality of a creation or manifestation is quite difficult and many people deal with this problem everyday. Fashion designers are accused of stealing every week and the question always comes up about which designer had the idea first or whos idea is the original. I think that this is something that we can never really resolve, but I do think there is something to be said about due diligence in presenting an idea as an original. We can do a lot of research on whether something has been created before, and I believe that is all we can do. To conclude, I believe there are still original creations, but these are just hard to uncover in the era of information overload.