The Importance of Collaborative Creativity

March 31, 2007 · Comments

David and Matthew from G14TVWhen we think of art, we think of singularly creative people. We imagine a sculptor or a painter. We think of trouble genius or a colorful personality. But more often than not, works of creativity, especially those we might experience in our everyday life, have the hands and minds of several people mashed into the final product you see.

Olive Juice When I took my first self portrait of the day, I just took something from my nearby vicinity and added it to the frame. In this case, olives. Then, while looking on Flickr, I saw this photo by Jim Kirks:

Used utterly without his permission, by the way. But my point is that Jim’s photo made me think about how to do my own. Enter: Katrina. She came up with the idea of shooting my eye up close with my cameraphone such that it looked roughly in the same place as my real eye. The result:

EyeBall[Update]- Steve Garfield posted this in comments to my eyeball pic:

(photo credit Steve Garfield)

Katrina’s idea was better than what I would’ve come up with on my own. But then, we got even more collaborative. She came up with a few different photos to shoot, as once Katrina gets started, things really go faster and faster into a neat direction. She did this one of herself, after doing a smiley-face one that wasn’t as visually interesting:

Katrinas Face

And then, we hit upon the idea that I like the most of the whole bunch. Katrina’s idea, of course. Here’s what happens when people collaborate:

Eating Kats

The point is this: working solo will always net solo results. Working collaboratively will often result in bursts of creative leapfrogging, where the first idea is good, but the final idea is really interesting and inventive.

What’s your take?

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader.

ChrisBrogan.com runs on the Thesis Theme for WordPress

Thesis WordPress theme

Thesis is the search engine optimized WordPress theme of choice for serious online publishers. If you’re a blogger who doesn’t understand a lot of PHP, Thesis will give a ton of functionality without having to alter any code. For the advanced, Thesis has incredible customization possibilities via Thesis hooks.

With so many design options, you can use the template over and over and never have it look like the same site. The theme is robust and flexible enough not only to accommodate a site like ChrisBrogan.com, but also to enable the site to run far more efficiently than it ever has before.

  • @Chris... you caught me being lazy!
    OK... I've posted two pics!

    http://inkndoodles.com/2007/04/02/collaborative...

    -Rob
  • I love your way of thinking... so I had someone typr this for me while I dictated!! Brilliant!!
  • Sue
    The most fun I ever have is when I am creating something with other people. One person alone can create great things, of course. But two or more heads together make magic.
  • Jon
    That just made me miss writing groups.
  • Kat
    speed matters
    when ideas start going
    they explode
    brains bouncing really fast is cool

    if you wait a day to join in
    or even an hour these days
    pffftt
    it's past

    it illiminates the
    "gosh i'd do it, but i have to really think about it first."
    "Man i'm kinda busy but let me write that down."
    with fun creative bouncing
    it's like a wave at the game
    get up on the crest
    otherwise
    when you get up later
    well
    you'll be a dork with his arms in the air.

    creative bouncing
    get your pogo
  • Jon
    As I mentioned in some of my emails to you, I have been doing almost all of my creative stuff collaboratively for several years. I am 100% in support of this approach. Everything from making music to decorating my house for Halloween goes better with other people.

    In defense of going solo, however, I have found that my recent change in musical circumstance has led to a newfound love for going it alone. I'm setting up a studio and writing stuff I didn't know I had in me. It's been great. There's a lot to be said for running the whole show yourself.

    Which is not to say that whatever I produce couldn't then be turned over to outside parties with inspiring results.

    -Jon
  • seriously... i'm starting to have dreams of being eaten alive by chris brogan. or perhaps just chewed on. it's a bit scary. :)
    also, olives are gross. especially green ones. what the heck is a pimento anyway?
    hey, guess who's coming to nyc? it will completely brokify me, but i think it will be fun and totally worth it.
    see you next friday!
  • In the future, "gallery openings" will be done via SMS...
blog comments powered by Disqus

Previous post:

Next post: