Creativity is political

Every once in a while, I hear this from an artist or scientist or tech whiz: ”I don’t pay any attention to politics. I just want to make my art/ do my experiments/ invent cool new stuff.”

(Actually, something similar emanates from about 92 percent of everybody in the U.S., who just want to watch their fake reality shows, pound beers and buy $300 athletic shoes that they wear to cruise the aisles at WalMart, but that’s another case of willful ignorance altogether.)

My eyes tend to get stuck in the upward-roll position when I hear the oh-politics  statement from anyone who’s trying to produce something new. I guess it seems preposterous to me that a person clever enough to compose opera,  genetically modify food crops or devise digital dancing hamsters could be that clueless but, apparently, creative ability doesn’t always make humans self-aware.  

The fact is, every single creative act is political, because creativity is about changing things. Anytime you mess with what people are used to, you affect how they feel, think, act – toward you and your work, toward life and the world.  And what is politics?  The art of manipulating how people think and feel so they’ll act and react in particular ways.  

Notice how I said art.

But what I’m getting at is mathematical, too, in the rudimentary way that I am so much the master of. So here’s the super-associative property of human invention: creativity = relationships = politics. All you need for proof is to read Geniocity.com’s blog pages today and see how imaginative change creates customer satisfaction (Will Limkemann’s “The Constant Entrepreneur“), legal turmoil  (Peter Friedman’s “Ruling Imagination“), commercial warfare (Charlie Eby’s “Media Man“), and outright fiction in the struggle over the federal budget (Seth Rosenberg’s  ”Inexact Possibilities“).

Still don’t believe me? Make some creative change of your own today – anything, fix the coffee a new way – and watch how fast your inspiration gives a wedgie to someone else’s expectation.

Just try to handle it better than our elected representatives.

Find change – and not just beneath the sofa cushions

Creativity happens on a lot of fronts and, these days, all of them are important. With another Election Day facing us in the U.S., all registered voters here have the opportunity and duty to make sure that needed change takes place in our different levels of government, local communities and larger society.

Everyone who is eligible should vote – it’s one of Americans’ most effective ways of helping new ideas and policies take shape.  Today in Seth Rosenberg’s blog, “Inexact Possibilities,”  you can find out about key races around the nation and the new directions to which they may lead. 

But infinite other paths to innovation exist, as well, and you can explore some of those right here. Read  Matt Charboneau’s blog, “Arts-Entrepreneur Resources,” to find out how social networking offers the fresh, creative means for artists to publicize and promote their work, and Will Limkemann’s “The Constant  Entrepreneur” to learn useful and imaginative tips on managing small business of all kinds.

Take a look at how scientists’, artists’ and your own personal work or business products can be affected by evolving fair-use law, which Peter Friedman examines in “Ruling Imagination“  with perspective on the lawsuit brought against the ’80s Australian rock group Men at Work for allegedly using the music from “Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree” for their hit song  ”Down Under.” 

And keep an eye out for fresh posts from Terrence Spivey on the just-concluded National Theatre Conference in “Theater of Change“; Charlie Eby on a just-released electronic game in “Media Man“; and Len Steinbach on the latest connections between art and technology in “Culture-Tech Verite.”

You can change the world – it’s happening right now.

A creative, common-sensical bailout solution – again

My fellow Geniocity blogger, Peter Friedman, got exasperated Tuesday by the AIG bailout. Yesterday, he floated a solution to that absurdly Byzantine mess and it brought to my mind an e-mail that made the rounds last fall.

It was forwarded to me by a friend and I posted it in my blog of Oct. 10, 2008. Signed by “T.J. Birkenmeier, A Creative Guy and Citizen of the Republic,” it suggested, in essence, using the federal bailout money to help average citizens rather than the gi-normous conglomerates whose own rapacity had caused their collapse. Divide up the billions among ordinary Americans, Birkenmeier suggested, and let them use it for their mortgage payments, college tuitions, small businesses, vehicles, washing machines and all the other necessities they’re having trouble affording - thus supporting the banks, universities, manufacturers, stores, major employers and other organizations that are teetering financially.

The idea sounds sensible and fair, as well as ingeniously simple. I’d rather have my tax dollars go to keeping Americans in their houses, jobs and colleges than to sending some incompetent and grossly overpaid executives on vacations to visit their offshore bank accounts.  Wouldn’t you?

So Birkenmeier wanted to know, and I do, too – why wouldn’t that work?  Anybody? Anybody? Ben Stein?

A quick archaeological dig reveals the creative truth

I was blown away when I first saw Corey Vidal’s “Star Wars” tribute video a couple of days ago. What impressed me so much was not just how funny and clever a video it was – a sort of “Forbidden Broadway“-style parody for the sci-fi movie crowd - but how much skill it seemed to have taken for this one guy to have composed the words and the music and then sung all the parts himself, especially because he appeared to have about a five-octave range.

I mean, take a look at this thing:

I should have wondered a little harder about that basso-to-first-tenor tessitura because, on checking around You Tube to learn more about this musical prodigy, I discovered that Vidal didn’t write or sing the piece at all. Instead, he acted and lip-synced to an existing song by the musical-comedy group Moosebutter.

A couple of additional mouse clicks revealed a video that Moosebutter itself had made in response to Vidal’s:

And it’s even funnier than the first one, right? By this time, what I had begun to wonder was how big and messy a lawsuit this situation was going to spawn, because Vidal’s video had become a nominee for a 35th Annual People’s Choice Award. So I went looking for Moosebutter’s web site and found the following:

FAQ About Star Wars – there’s a lot of confusion about the origin of the Star Wars song, since many people are attributing it solely to Corey Vidal. Here is information to clear up the misinformation, which we have little hope that the people who need it will read it.

  Music is from 6 different not-Star Wars movies, all written by John Williams.

• Words are paraphrased or directly from the original Star Wars trilogy, by George Lucas, et al.
• Song was arranged spring 1999 by Josh Slagowski and Bryant Smith, original members of moosebutter, in Salt Lake City, UT. Parts were re-arranged later by Mister Tim (Tim Y. Jones)
• Song was recorded in 2000 by Josh, Bryant, and Tim, and re-recorded in 2002 by Tim, Chris, Glen, and Weston, the new cast of moosebutter.
• There have been almost 50 different cast members of moosebutter since 1999, including subs and special guests. About half of those have sung Star Wars.
• Corey Vidal contacted us in summer 2008 to ask permission to produce his video. We said yes.
• WHAM BAM internet explosion.
• Corey is lip-synching to the 2002 studio recording of moosebutter. It was recorded at June Audio, Provo, UT. Corey filmed his video in his kitchen.
• moosebutter filmed their response video in November 2008. Corey was the most vocal supporter of us producing the new video, and he graciously posted it to his popular YouTube channel to generate more views.
• At the time of posting, Corey’s video has more than 3.2 million more views than moosebutter’s. That’s because Corey is cuter, and smells better.

So nobody’s suing anybody, apparently. Which is amazing and great, because this is how creativity is supposed to happen: Someone gets an idea from someone else’s picture or play or song or book and does his or her own take on it, using it in degrees that range from subliminal inspiration to big recognizable chunks embellished or twisted or inverted in some way.

And no person gets bent out of shape about it, including the “original” artist. I use quotation marks in deference to my fellow Geniocity blogger, Peter Friedman (see his Colbert-themed blogs for Jan. 13 and 14), who frequently writes about how pointless many copyright-infringement suits are because every creative person borrows in some way from those who came before. 

It’s true in this case, too - the Moosebutter guys of course boosted the “Star Wars” lines from George Lucas and the music from John Williams (neither of whom evidently raised a fuss); both Lucas and Williams famously reference earlier works in their own, including Frank Herbert’s “Dune” series, the operas (and leitmotivs) of Richard Wagner and scads of others. And those guys borrowed from earlier guys ad infinitum.         

You can’t stop creative people from being influenced by each other’s inventions and turning them into something of their own, because that’s what creativity is, whether it’s artistic, entrepreneurial or scientific. Talented actor-videographer Corey Vidal did this the right way, by asking permission first and giving credit afterward; talented musician-parodists Moosebutter did it the right way by graciously giving permission first and humorously one-upping Vidal afterward. Turns out both Vidal and Moosebutter were nominated for that People’s Choice Award.

Score: Lawrence Lessig , Peter Friedman and artists, 3; Stephen Colbert, a goose egg as big as his mouth

Creative Nerve: What It’s Really Like to Start a Business

Legally creative. Many changes are coming to Geniocity.com. Any business needs to grow and evolve, but especially one championing imagination and innovation, so we’re working hard to turn this site into a place where you can expect to find something fresh and different every time you visit.

To that end, I’m proud to announce that Peter Friedman, associate professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Law, will join our roster of bloggers starting Monday, Aug. 2.

Peter, who specializes in legal analysis and writing at Case (click here) and regularly guest-teaches in such disparate places as The Netherlands and Detroit, will write for Geniocity.com about the creative cutting edge of the legal profession.

For those of you who think the law and creativity are separated by continents, if not galaxies, let me point out that technology, government policy, social trends and other forces constantly require the law to adapt in unforeseen ways. Look what Internet access has done to copyright law: How will artists get paid for their work if everyone can find music, pictures, writing and video for free on the Internet? Consider the questions that surveillance technology – security cameras, satellites, GPS-equipped cell phones and cars – raises about our constitutional right to privacy. And which locker room – men’s or women’s? – should an as-yet-surgically-unchanged transsexual be required to use? 

A furiously changing world demands some pretty inventive thinking about the rules we live by. Peter will explore that thinking and unveil the latest, fascinating twists reshaping our legal landscape and our lives. 

So look to Geniocity for briefs of a different cut.  And that won’t be all.