Imagination is art, music, poetry, philosophy and drama, and she needs the freedom to exist
Are we witnessing the death of Imagination?
By Sophie McKeand
In this twenty-first century of plenty, to say that we are witnessing ‘the death of Imagination’ would seem to be an absurd statement. Never before have we been subjected to so much Imagination. It is everywhere. It pours into every aspect of our post-modern lives. Films, theatre, music, art, computer games; stories of love, reality, war, and utter shit, chatter away in our creative sub-conscious, a babble of noise, a melting pot containing the endless bounty of the human Imagination.
We have created the technology to store billions of games, pictures, stories and songs. From the X-box to the i-pod to the internet, Imaginings, thoughts and emotions created by thousands of artists are poured out into cyberspace to vie for our attention. In galleries, art is now selling for sums of money that nobody could have possibly Imagined. We collectively spend billions of pounds/ dollars/ yen producing and gobbling up the fruits of the Imagination.
Doesn’t all of this indicate that we are a society that places a huge value on Imagination?
But – and here is the real question – when was the last time that you were asked to truly Imagine - to question the status quo? When did you last want something that was not already available?
By consuming commercial art and popular culture are we not simply limiting ourselves only to that which has already been thought by somebody else? And if this has been given a monetary value then it has already been ‘approved’ by somebody else. Has it become almost impossible to think how you might think if it wasn’t already done for you?
Imagination is art, music, poetry, philosophy and drama, and she needs the freedom to exist. These are the cornerstones upon which we build our ideas, our society and our future. The Romantic poet PB Shelley said that “Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the World” and if you take this to mean that it is artistic vision that shapes us, our culture, our existence, then he is most definitely correct.
How do we marry this with popular culture on TV today? Why are programmes like the X-Factor so damn disappointing? It is not the TV crews hovering like vultures to pick over the bones of the ‘failures’. Nor is it the baying crowds.
It is the contestants themselves.
That they have some talent is undeniable. What is disconcerting, yet indicative of today’s popular culture is that these ‘artists’ have often written none of their own songs, or are certainly not encouraged to perform their own work as there appears to be an unwritten acceptance that anything they might offer will be a dismal cacophony. Could their own creations be so wretched, so vile that millions of people immediately tune out to watch ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ instead? It’s certainly a risk that no TV bosses are prepared to take.
So instead, the same tired old lyrics and melodies are re-hashed, regurgitated and repeated over and over again whilst the contestants are harangued for ‘not being original’.
Contestants queue with their pre-designed dreams in hand, waiting for somebody to make them a star as the audience gaze on, pinning their own dreams to someone they’ve never even met. Our next generations are being groomed to wait for somebody to make them famous. ‘A celebrity’ is now an acceptable answer given by children when asked ‘what do you want to be when you grow up?’ They, as with the X-Factor contestants, are taught only to dream that, if they fit the mould, if they look the part, if their weight isn’t too offensive then they might become famous - one day.
The Imagination reaches only as far as the possibility of escape from the banal, humdrum, vapid existence that is everyday life.
This is not the same as creating art, as true Imagination…
Which leads to the question that must be asked – ‘Are we witnessing the death of true Imagination? - Have we killed her?’
The answer is ‘no'. Absolutely one hundred percent not. Anyone who takes time to scratch beneath the surface can only be filled with hope that the vacuous, witless, moronic art that is ‘popular TV culture’ has an antidote.
For example, there is a real sense of originality, of uniqueness, of true creativity to be found in the art of North Wales. It is an unlikely coincidence that this region is compiled of many, many small towns, each with their own individual history, culture and story. These pockets of communities that exist in the shadows of ancient mountain ranges do not encourage, or accept the homogenisation of thought or culture.
Artists in this region do not tend to produce art in order to attain money or fame as honestly, there isn’t much of either to be found in such a fragmented area. This means that the motivating force for creating can only be ‘to create’. Venues are often small, intimate, and attended by an audience that has had to travel for at least half an hour if they want to see anything that night.
When you have people who are producing poetry, music or art of any description, purely for the love of creating, the results are profoundly exciting. This freedom from commerce allows the artists complete intellectual autonomy; art is created for art’s sake; 'l'art pour l'art' – in its truest sense.
In turn there is total freedom for the Imagination. If there is no commerce, if there is no pressure to conform, and there is nothing to conform to, then this leaves the artist with nothing – nothing but the limits of their own Imagination and the art that springs from it.
Comments:
Ann the poet - 7th Feb 2009
Thanks Sophie I enjoyed this article. It seems that North Wales is similar to Cumbria, there is a lot of talent but separated by mountains and distance, it's always fantastic to visit one of the intimate evenings put on by musicians or poets. Sometimes I go into schools to run workshops. Teachers tell me the children don't often get a chance to be creative but I am always impressed by their imaginations and creativity. I hope soon creativity is a larger part of the national curiculum or even just a larger part of children's school lives. Thanks for the food for thought :)
Gwilym Morus - 8th Feb 2009
A good book that expands on the Imagination: 'Imagination is Reality' by Roberts Avens (Spring Publications, 1980)
