I think about creation and intent all the time.
Of late, the climate of panic/everything is fine/the world is on fire has caused a culture of capitalist creation. What I mean by capitalist creation, is that there must be a resulting profit from what we create. This may be financial such as money, it can be structural like creating a relationship with a new business, it can be social like creating a surge in followers.
This is a sign of the times we are in, and many of us are caught up in this catch-22 trap. For those of us who work in the creative sector, it goes hand in hand with social media and the algorithms that push our wares under the scrolling eyes of users. This has meant many of us have had to move to a capitalist creation business structure in order to even get our work seen.
Capitalist creation has fostered a system where creative outputs are now viewed through the lens of success via only the profit that it creates. This I think has created a stylistic numbers game, which has taken much of the joy we originally found in what we do.
I have been mulling this over, but it bubbled up into a concise stream of words after I heard a song. HAHA, by musicians Charlotte Adigéry & Bolis Pupul really struck me as anti anti-capitalist creation. The song is Charlotte Adigéry laughing to the beat of the track - artistically I haven’t heard anything like it - and it is polarising. I love it, I can’t get enough.
However, I don’t think it was created with capitalism in mind. Instead, it was created out of joy, inspiration, passion, and a desire to create something unique. As a result, it is bizarre and captivating. This is what creation should be like - and can be like outside of capitalist creation.
Many creators, myself included, have lamented the engagement we are currently working with online. Times are tough - and the numbers aren’t great. The maths isn’t mathsing - and truly that is not on us. Whilst it can be disheartening for creation to reach such a small percentage of our audiences - to give up is to let capitalism win - which is not going to happen on my watch.
The right people will see what we all create - they say your vibe attracts your tribe - and so I want to carry on creating as I wish because the right people will see that. So up yours capitalist creation. True creativity will always have the last laugh.
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