JAMES Limitation Feeds Creation
This posts comes from James Ellis. It’s a delight, James over to you.
JAMES ELLIS
It hasn’t escaped anyone’s notice that lock down has led to the world and their wife becoming content creators. Sarah from round the corner? Doing a podcast. Jake from uni? Vlogging. Jamal that guy you met when travelling? Cooking videos every day. This surge in the desire to create has not left me (or our family) unmarked. Here I am writing a blog post for a family blog, and I’ve been making videos for instagram. My mum made a flower arranging how-to the other day. My sister has been making reality content out of my travails electronic dating.
My instinct is that whilst this creative surge is unprecedented in my lifetime, it is also not surprising given the circumstance. Limitation, in my experience, generally leads to a surge in creativity. Many artists will choose to undergo voluntary limitation in order to force their imagination to work; shrink the canvas, limit the colours you allow yourself to work with, focus on seemingly simple subject matter. Sports coaches are well versed these days in “constraints based coaching” - where a constraint forces players to innovate or practice a new skill in order to succeed. Musicians may choose to reduce the number of instruments in an arrangement or give themselves a time limit to compose.
One of my favourite examples of this is from the mad mind of Dr. Seuss; a bet between Seuss and his publisher Bennet Cerf to write a book using no more than 50 words led to the bizarre and brilliant Green Eggs and Ham. Limiting the vocabulary at Seuss’ disposal led to creation. Limitation breeds creation.
I am not advocating the ongoing limitation of our life-styles purely for the artistic benefit it facilitates. I’d rather a (non-alcoholic) pint at the pub if I’m honest. Perhaps though, there is a lesson to be learned from this Corona fed creative boost. When we are at a loss in some way of what to do next, of how to continue creating, perhaps it is worth limiting our avenues rather than expanding them. We might even end up making something better than we ever thought possible.
