Welcome to the 201st insertion of DEMUR®, an analytical series highlighting the intricacies of the artistic world and the minutiae lying within. In this episode, we dig in search of the artist’s motive, looking within to discover why we create and the necessity for creative innovation.
At its core, innovation is a characteristic possessed most evidently within human cognition. Pushing our formally primal selves to improve and design in hopes of survival, by nature we yearn to get better, in both social and materialistic ways. From the founding days of speech to the very iPhone this article is read upon, we’ve continued to create in light of function and expression, yet lack motivation in necessity.
With accessible sources of food and shelter, the challenges that once burdened our kind have been lifted for many. Prompting a surplus in extravagance, wealth and time, we’ve shifted our perceived sense of self, no longer busy hunting and gathering, but instead on managing our own psyche. While a gift, this luxury has altered our motivation from a mandatory standpoint to that of will, changing not only what we create, but why and how we approach it.
Encouraging many artisans to lean toward psychological works rather than traditional instillations of beauty, we’ve seen an increase in brutalist and maximalist designs. Rooted in premise, pieces like ‘Can't Help Myself’ by Sun Yuan and Peng Yu (video below) have garnered mass infamy not for the construction of an automated broom, but for the story and intent behind such a harsh structure.
In essence, freedom has granted us the opportunity to create because we can, not because we have to. Allowing us to become invested in ourselves, we express through art as a caveat for unspoken emotions, for a deep love of skill or perhaps because we simply want to. There’s always a dream or passion in the shadows of invention, be it the chase to “make it”, or the hunger for greed, but our fuel is entirely individualistic and integral to the human race.
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