The Spark

13/9/06
Creativity is in my view an essential ingredient of Happiness so it is a common theme in this blog - be it music or art, film-making or interactive media, it is rich in Simple Pleasures.

I have just been to a talk by Matthew Bannister, formerly of Radio 1 and golden age GLR, on Creativity at the Rich Mix centre in Bethnal Green Road courtesy of Jez Nelson and Somethin' Else.

A lot of the focus was on experimenting, taking risks and making mistakes - all critical to innovation and covered in The Blue Movie and The Green Movie which I made in 1994 and 1996 repectively. Matthew spoke a lot about Chris Morris and his uncompromising risk taking, using clips from Blue Jam. He also quoted a resonant piece from ee cummings about how difficult it is to be individual in a world constantly pushing us to be like everyone else. It makes me think of that Mordillo comic strip: "We're all different!" "I'm not?!"

I think I've taken a few creative risks in my time - most appropiately with MindGym. My current commission, the mobile blogging bit of the Big Art Project, is fairly against the grain, I've had to fight hard for it so far - can't wait to get motoring on it with Alfie Dennan and co.

OK, so here's my Big Theory on Creativity, inspired by Andre Breton and the Surrealist Manifesto - one of the few useful things to come out of a Modern Languages degree. Creative energy comes from bringing disparate things together and trying to get a spark (etincelle) to jump (jaillir) between these two poles, things that don't ordinarily belong together. Bread rolls and feet in Chaplin's The Gold Rush. Narcissus and an egg in Dali's painting. A mouldy spillage and fighting bacteria in the case of Alexander Flemming. Hollywood movies and implementing ideas in that lost gem The Green Movie - a connection inspired by Elmore Leonard's Get Shorty.

It's all about making the Spark fly.

The value of the image depends upon the beauty of the spark obtained; it is, consequently, a function of the difference of potential between the two conductors. Manifesto of Surrealism , Andre Breton 1924