Many of us have become jaded critics of creative culture. The rapid pace of innovation around the world keeps our collective expectations forever on the rise, that bar inching just a bit higher everyday. We can’t help but find ourselves let down by creative ideas all around us. This is for all of us who gripe about how bored we are with our iPhone 4’s, impatient for the reveal of the next one. And for all of us who thought: “Watch The Throne was good, but I expected it to be better.”

We are insatiable consumers of creative culture – charmed by the unexpected, starved for original ideas, restless for the next best thing. It keeps our inner sensationalists thirsty for the outrageous — unscripted TV meltdowns that turn into #winning internet memes, meat dress couture, or bedazzled big bird muppet Grammy performances. Many of us can’t be convinced of something’s creative value unless it scandalizes, shocks and awes. We are prejudiced against the subtle, the intuitive, the familiar – all because it is not “original,” we argue. But what is originality? Just the word conjures up outdated notions of firsts like “original recipe” claims on pancake packaging. We think of originality in a nostalgic purist light, as if certain ideas were conceived in vacuums of influence. Even Aunt Jemima got cooking tips from someone, or even more likely inherited her “original” recipe. Read More