HipstaMATIC, INSTAgram, Garage Band. The names say it all. Choose your creativity adventure. We are genetically modified girls living in a genetically modified world.
How far does original creativity and imagination go? To a click of an iPhone app button? Looking at my FB news feed, almost everyone has an instagram album – ordinary photos get a makeover, making you look twice. This made me think about the evolution of the arts – specifically photography, music, and, of course, writing.
Photography
An older friend of mine is a doco cameraman by trade. This man knows what it’s like to hold hardcopy prints, negatives and dark room chems in hands. He is also in love with his digital SLR camera. I asked him if the transition from film to digital photography affected his career at all. He said it certainly made it easier – easier for his workload to edit and process photos, and easier for others to enter the trade. But one still needs somewhat of a good eye and spontaneity to take advantage of good lighting.
Now digital takes that extra 10110011 step. Even my blurry, one-finger shot out of a moving car’s window looks ‘arty’ and ‘hipster’ thanks to my iPhone’s apps. Seems like this good eye is capable of being easily replicated; or rather a bad eye is capable of being easily disguised. What do photographers think? Does this annoy you that people are proudly uploading their instant photos and others are oohing and ahhing over this obviously ‘breathtaking’ baby?
Music
Love electronic music, just look at my recent gig posts. I was asked recently to create a band because I had Garage Band on my Mac. Now, I “play” the drums but sticks and skin does not maketh a musical artiste. Of course not anyways, as Garage Band will make a drum beat for you, just insert the time signature you want. Yes, you still need a good ear for what sounds good, even if you don’t even know what a time signature is, but this is similar to my photography woe. Are we making creative aspects using less than creative means, and realizing only a limited aspect of our own creativity?
Writing
Now, let’s bring it back to me – of course. What about writing? Seemingly, it’s one of the last of these 3 arts to be cheated ripped off evolve. What substandard version will replace the traditional art of writing and storytelling? It’s already started with the Twilight series and those Christmas books where you insert names into a system and PHOOF you get a ‘one-of-a-kind’ book. [Provided your kid has a one-of-a-kind name, because only the names of these stories are changed.] Despite the inane takeoff of the Bella and Edward monstrosity, the masses have yet to take over the art of writing. Though I don’t waste time trolling on blogs, I think one could sniff out the foul stench of poor writing quicker than instant photos.
*This blog has been thoroughly anti-perspiranted*
So is the digital evolution of the arts inevitable? Perhaps it will only be the true writers who will document how we will soon be read by our eyeballs – whether it will be a compelling read, only time will tell.
