We Are All Creators

The “Architect” will no longer exist, but architecture will still remain. Technology will dispose of the architects and give birth to the “Social Sculptors.” The social sculptors shall be the new research scientist of interaction and event. There will no longer be exclusive rights to the brush that paints our world. Technology will not only bridge the gap between creator and user but will fuse them into one.

We are all creators! We manipulate the environment to better serve our needs whether it is a practical choice or an emotional expression. We select what items to own, which to have around us. We build, buy, arrange, and restructure: all this is a form of design. Through these personal acts of design, we transform the otherwise anonymous, commonplace things and spaces of everyday life into our own things and places. Through our designs, we transform houses into homes, spaces into places, and things to belongings.

There is a tension between satisfying our needs by purchasing a “ready-made” product versus making it ourselves. Most of the time, we are unable to make what we need, for we lack the time, tools and expertise. But when we buy someone else’s design, seldom does it fit our precise requirements. It is impossible to build a mass-produced item that fits every individual precisely. But suppose everything was so flexibly designed that it could be modified as needed. And supposed there was a way to create, test, modify and retest a design before actually being built. Technology will allow all of us to make our own prototype. Before the industrial age we either made all our own things or went to the local crafts-person that would make something to our specifications, often as we watched. But as the needs of society get more complex and specialized in this ever more technological, information age, it may be an unattainable dream that many of us would posses the resources required to design and construct the things required in everyday life. Nonetheless, it is not totally impossible to follow this route, and those who do will reap many benefits.

However, this is a far cry from the mass customization that allows all of us to choose from a fixed set of variables and alternatives, but has little or no real personal relevance, little or no emotional value. Emotions are inseparable and a necessary part of decision making. Everything we do, everything we think of are influenced by how we feel, much of it subconscious. In turn our emotions change the way we think, and serve as constant guides to appropriate behavior, steering us away from the bad, guiding us towards the good.

But let me ask you this. If we are all skilled in cutting and sewing fabric does the “value” of an Armani suit goes down? Is architecture merely fashion? Architecture is a beautiful art form. So, is architecture in the eye of the beholder? Is functionality and craftsmanship the ultimate gauge for good design? The best kind of design isn’t necessarily an object, a space, or a structure: it’s a process that is dynamic, adaptable, and innovative. The best designs are the ones we create for ourselves and in our own image.

In the past FM radio duties were split between the selector, who chose the records, and the operator, who played the records. Then, the selector and the operator became one: the DJ. In the DJ, we have allowed execution to overshadow ideas. We have perpetuated the notion that the soul of creation is in the technique, and that, lacking technique, we forfeit the right to create. Now, we can choose for ourselves. We have the technology. We shall create our own genre unique to each individual. Technique is overrated. Precedence is overrated. The pencil is overrated. Ideas are still important. We use the new tools around us: computer software, hardware, processors, laser cutter, scanner, the internet, virtual reality simulations, video games, digital camera, smart phones, tablets, etc. etc. These can be an extension of our creative minds. Anyone who thinks that creative freedom is something earned they are greatly mislead.

Professional designers can make things that are attractive and that work well. They can create beautiful products that inspire us and fall in love with at first sight. They can create products that fulfill our needs, that are easy to understand, user friendly, and that work just the way we want them to. But ultimately they cannot make something personal, make something we bond with. Nobody can do that for us: we must do it for ourselves. Laziness and fear destroys the creator in all of us. The creator we all once knew when we first started imagining new worlds in our minds as a child. It’s up to us to never surrender to the authorities of design and creation. Never fear judgment or failure. We are all creators!