There can be no artistic creativity without boundaries.
This is not the boundary that you might be thinking of – not the financial prohibitions or censoring issues on a film.
These boundaries are the internal checks and controls creativity relies on. A great graphic design or artwork cannot use too many words. A readable content piece cannot carry 100 images to do its job. You cannot halt a musical performance to explain what the instruments are trying to do.
Not to mention the constant challenge of creating something that needs to be highly relevant, timebound, and universal enough to live on independently. These unwritten rules drive creative skills to look for subtler ways to get messages across. So creative artists know how to respect restrictions and work around them.
‘Work around it’ is key here, mainly because creativity is a shapeshifter. It can change shape and form to accommodate imposed rules or question/critique the rules.
Creativity is a natural migrant.
When faced with actual judicial borders, its natural instinct is to wonder what lies beyond it or simply ignore their existence. Neither works. Ultimately, creative talent ends up at the mercy of strangers writing laws in a cold, fearfully clean room. And although these rules serve higher purposes, the truth is they often generate emotional and intellectual barriers. For no reason at all, we don’t ‘get’ what people living far away seem to enjoy anymore. We don’t think farther than our backyards.
We tend to call places ‘homes’ to the ideas and art forms that originated there; it’s touching and understandable. What we miss, however, is recognizing that creative impulses have no home.
Creativity and borders live, flourish, and die within our minds.
Sometimes they’re two sides of the same coin.
Sometimes creativity is the horcrux that divisions unintentionally make.
No, it’s not simple because our own imaginations, desires, and prejudices aren’t a good vs bad issue. They’re incredibly complex experiences. We wish we could tell you that InCommon will make frontiers and borders obsolete and ridiculous, but it’s not that kind of a story. Differences are what we have in common. Perhaps, down the line, we can convince you that differences are magnificent, and life can only be worthwhile when we celebrate our differences instead of avoiding them.
For the moment, we are no more than a humble register. We register every little dream, anxiety, and superhuman effort creative minds make. Talent is a gift, but under many circumstances, it can feel like a burden. When you don’t find the right outlet. When you don’t find validation. When you’re not properly stimulated by the work you do. Clichéd as this may sound, our message to them is ‘We’re there’.
Every time you come up with something wonderful.
Every time you come up with something ordinary.
Every time you have doubts about your incredible talent.
And as faithful registers, we hope to show how our thoughts create artificial patterns.
It’s completely possible for an artist in a forgotten South Asian locality to make remarkably lifelike recreations of New York or Budapest.
Differences don’t need to become divisions.
To that end, we are also little bridge-builders between creative talent and people all over the world who can appreciate and explore that talent. This is not only our mission; it’s also a rough itinerary for a thrilling journey. The journey where we find ideas in the most unexpected places and send them towards their glorious fulfilment.
And this is just Day One.
