Manversation

During some recent web surfing I came across the site ikea hacker, in which creative individuals from around the web submit ways in which they have modified (hacked) various items from the discount furniture giant to suit their individual needs. This got me to thinking that, as with so many things in life, there is not a simple black-and-white dichotomy here between those who make things and those who do not make things. There is instead what I would call a “creativity continuum” of progressively more creative endeavors starting with the consumer of manufactured goods at one end and culminating in the artisan who makes these goods almost entirely from raw materials at the other.

This article is about my initial observations about those two end points of the creativity continuum and some points in between. I’m looking forward to researching this further and learning more about the myriad forms of creative expression that make up the human experience.

By categorizing things, I’m not trying to put anyone down or say “this kind of artist is better than that kind.” Any form of creative expression is potentially a rewarding experience and we all have to start somewhere

However, it’s been my experience that the further someone goes on this theoretical creativity continuum, the more control and creativity he or she gets to exert on the finished product. It’s the difference between building something like a guitar from a kit and building it from scratch. In both cases, you’re going to (hopefully) have a rewarding experience, learn something new, and have a creative outlet, but in building one from scratch, you get to make a lot more choices – what kind of wood to use for the fingerboard? Rosewood? Ebony? Something less traditional like Hard Maple? All of these choices add up to a finished product that is more uniquely “you” than it would have been had you built from a kit. On the other hand, building a guitar is a pretty ambitious undertaking and maybe the first time around it is better to build one from a kit. We all have to start somewhere and someone who builds a guitar from a kit can use the skills learned by that experience when building the next one from scratch.

Now, without further ado, the creativity continuum:

The consumer: This represents the least creative point of the creativity continuum. In fact, this category really isn’t part of the continuum at all. If the consumer needs something his first response is to buy a product to fit that need. Of course we are all consumers in at least some areas of our lives as it is increasingly difficult in this modern world to be able to fix everything that needs fixing or make everything we need. However, I often find myself thinking, “Is there some way I could make this myself or make do with what I have?” That kind of thought doesn’t even cross the mind of the consumer. He simply wants it and wants it now and is willing to pay for it. I’m glad there are consumers as they are an important segment of the market and often drive innovation and creativity by their demand for improvements to existing products or for products that do not yet exist.

The crafter: To me this is the next level up from the consumer. The crafter embellishes existing products with her creative touches but does not fundamentally change the product. For example, the crafter might see an old desk she likes at a garage sale and spray paint it black to match her existing furniture. I also include in this point of the continuum those whose medium of creative expression primarily involves assembling things that were not made by themselves, such as beaders and scrap bookers.

The paint-by-numbers artist: I’m not really sure where to put this one in the continuum. Besides the obvious example of someone who well, paints by numbers, there are other examples of this within other handicrafts. For example, there are woodworkers who will only build things from someone else’s pre-drawn and measured plans, and seamstresses who only make dresses from patterns. When I’ve asked woodworkers I’ve known that work primarily in this fashion why they don’t want to design their own pieces, the response typically falls into one of two categories:

1. Fear of the design process – they might not have an artistic background and aren’t quite sure how to get started with design or they fear that their designs will “look wrong.”
2. Don’t want to get in the way of “doing” the craft. In other words, for them the joy is primarily in the actual execution of the physical tasks of the craft, in this case the sawing or chiseling of the wood, the fitting of precise joinery, or maintaining a set of chisels with razor sharp edges. Design is viewed a secondary consideration or a chore they would rather outsource to someone else.

The hacker / tinkerer: This is a fascinating point in the creativity continuum and as I mentioned above, this is what got me thinking of this whole idea of a “creativity continuum” in the first place. Hackers or tinkerers aren’t totally of the consumer mindset yet they don’t make things entirely from scratch / raw materials like an artisan either. Instead, they take existing products and modify (hack) them with creative touches to suit their needs. Don’t relegate these folks to the ranks of the crafter or paint-by-numbers crowd though, it some cases the hacks they make to an existing product are quite radical and display a considerable amount of ingenuity, such as this one or this one from ikea hacker’s top 10 of 2007. I’m looking forward to doing more research into this category and as I do, it looks like I will find several subgroups within this category. For example, there’s an interesting branch within this group that hacks things primarily by adding some sort of electronic or circuit board-driven device to the item being hacked such as this mood lamp with LED lights and a programmable circuit board.

In addition to ikea hacker another website that seems to embody this philosopy is makezine – check them out, there’s some neat stuff on there that will perhaps get your own creative juices flowing.

The artisan: To me this represents the peak of the creativity continuum. The artisan is a master of one (or more) raw materials such as wood, metal, fabric or clay. From these raw materials, he creates original designs and executes them with the precision and care of an old world craftsman. He sets himself apart from others who work in his medium by designing his own original works of art (i.e. no paint-by-numbers here) and striving to continuously refine his craft. Within this group, you will find custom furniture makers, knife makers, pottery artisans and others who transform raw materials such as raw steel or rough lumber into works of art from their own hearts and minds.

At one of the highest levels, they typically have branched off from their original medium and learned at least the basics of a second or third raw material as well. Examples of this would be the knife maker who learns something about woodworking so he can make his own knife handles or the woodworker who learns about metal in order to incorporate gold leaf designs or patinated metal finishes into her woodworking.

At another one of the highest levels, they have traced their raw material as far as possible back to its source and thus exert even more control over the creative design process by obtaining raw materials that suit their craft exactly. An example of this pinnacle would be chair maker Brian Boggs, who is also an expert in the way trees grow and the processing of raw lumber. Mitch of the blog furnitude described some of his Mr. Boggs’s comments from a presentation at the recent Woodworking in America Conference:

Boggs harvests his chair parts from specific parts of a log. He described it as being similar to the way you cut up a chicken. You don’t take a whole chicken, cut it into slabs and cook it. If you did that, you’d get white meat, dark meat, bones and cartilage, organs and all the rest in each piece and it would be a mess. Instead, you cut off the wings, you cut off the legs, you cut out the breast and so on. It’s similar with a tree. He gets the back legs, which he steam-bends into the shape that is the signature of a Boggs chair, from the lower part of the tree. He gets slat material from higher up in the log. He gets front legs from quartersawn sections of lumber.

Indeed, with this knowledge of what part of the log will yield the best lumber, Mr. Boggs displays a considerable mastery of his craft and an intimate knowledge of part of the natural world around him. It’s a level that I hope to reach with my own work someday.

In the meanwhile, I derive considerable joy from the pursuit of many creative endeavors and I can’t imagine life without a creative outlet. How about you? What role does the creative process play in your life? Where do you think you fall on the “creativity continuum?”

Staircase photo by blakeimeson