Vincent van Gogh and Tortured Artists

"The sadness will last forever."

The trope of the tortured artist, "the sometimes misunderstood genius who turns their pain into art, using frustrations with the world and their life as a tool to create the ultimate masterpieces," is actually quite an old one, tracing back to Plato's idea of creativity as "divine madness" (Neath, 2023). It continues to be found in the lives of many artistic figures, such as Sylvia Plath and Kurt Cobain (Neath, 2023). Perhaps the most famous example of a tortured artist, however, is Vincent van Gogh.

When people discuss the tortured artists, Vincent van Gogh is understandably one of the first examples to come to mind. van Gogh created exquisite works of art throughout his whole life while simultaneously dealing with extremely disabling mental illnesses (most commonly assumed to include bipolar disorder, among other possibilities), self-medication with alcohol, and malnutrition (Armitage, 2019). Even in the present, we cannot help but add a lens of pain and suffering to his art. In 2014, van Tilburg and Igou conducted a study examining how knowledge of an artist's "eccentricity" affects both people's perception of that artist's skill and their appreciation of the artist's work. In the first experiment of this study, van Tilburg and Igou found that participants evaluated van Gogh's Sunflowers more positively when they were informed that van Gogh had cut off his left earlobe than when they were not given this information (2014). The eccentricity of an artist led participants to believe that the artist displayed a greater authenticity and skill in their work (van Tilburg & Igou, 2014).

As someone who struggles with mental issues of her own, it is always disheartening to hear people dismiss mine and others' struggles simply because it supposedly benefits us in some dramatic, fantastical way. Creative endeavors can indeed be a perfect outlet for suffering that would otherwise be left unexplored; art therapy is a thing for a reason. What I find people tend to forget, though, is that an outlet is supposed to release this suffering, not fixate on it and exacerbate it. When we subscribe to the idea that great works can only come from great suffering, we limit ourselves to a palette of blood, sweat, and tears. To quote Diane Nguyen from BoJack Horseman,

...if I don't, that means that all the damage I got isn't good damage, it's just damage. I have gotten nothing out of it, and all those years I was miserable was for nothing. I could've been happy this whole time…is that what you're saying? What was it all for? (Bob-Waksberg et al., 2020)

When people desperately try to delude themselves into thinking their suffering is so beneficial to them that the pain becomes the point, they lose sight of the ecstatic beauty that could be granted to them if they could only seek out the light in their lives. Vincent van Gogh, for example, created some of his best-known paintings, such as The Starry Night and Almond Blossoms, while recovering in Saint-Paul-de-Mausole, an asylum (van Gogh Museum).

In The Creative Act: A Way of Being, Rick Rubin discusses tortured artists in "The Possessed," and I wholeheartedly agree with his opinion on it. Two quotes stood out to me in particular. First, "art does not unravel the maker, but makes them whole" (Rubin, 2023, p. 324). How can we possibly appreciate the gifts of the Source if there is no secure being to receive them? When our soul is so clouded and blocked by pain and agony, we must heal it before we can freely connect to the creative energies that flow through us. Second, Rubin says, "Whether you have a powerful passion or a tortured compulsion, neither makes the art any better or worse" (Rubin, 2023, p. 324). I believe this quote ties in perfectly with what Rubin says in "Implications (Purpose)": "There doesn't need to be a purpose guiding what we choose to make…When we're making things we love, our mission is accomplished" (Rubin, 2023, pp. 313-314).

Ultimately, Vincent van Gogh succumbed to his mental illnesses when he committed suicide at 37 years old. It is possible that if he had received mental health care that the present has to offer, he may have learned to coexist and manage them. Unfortunately, we can only treat him as a cautionary tale. Abandon the idea that self-destruction will somehow build something sustainable. Healing will bring you more lasting beauty than any self-imposed torture ever can.

https://postscriptpublication.wordpress.com/2019/03/04/van-gogh-and-romanticizing-the-tortured-artist/

https://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en/art-and-stories/stories/vincents-illness-and-the-healing-power-of-art

Bob-Waksberg, R., Calo, J. (Writers), & Bowman, J. (Director). (2020, January 31). Good Damage (Season 6, Episode 10) [TV Series Episode]. In W. Arnett, R. Bob-Waksberg, N. Bright, S. A. Cohen, A. Paul (Executive Producers), BoJack Horseman. Boxer vs. Raptor; ShadowMachine; Tornante Television.

Rubin, R. (2023). The Creative Act: A Way of Being. Penguin Random House.

Patrick Kane: Showtime

     If you are a long time local of Chicago then it is near impossible that you haven't heard of Patrick Kane. For those who haven't, "Showtime" or "Kaner" as his nicknames were, is arguably one of the best hockey players to have ever played for the Chicago Blackhawks. Born in 1988 in Buffalo, NY, Kane had frequent exposure to hockey. His father was a season pass holder for the Buffalo Sabers so they constantly went and watched them play. Kane would practice his skills whenever he could, pushing to be better and better at hockey when he did. During his youth, Kane had broken one of his wrists. Rather than putting the stick down and properly resting, Kane worked on his backhands, which have proved for years to be a signature for him. He net the Blackhawks 3 championships in his 16 years for playing for the team, before briefly playing for the New York Rangers and then currently plays for the Detroit Redwings.

    While many would say that there is no creativity in sports, players like Kane show that there is. During any sort of adversity, he would work hard to find ways to improve. Obviously he worked around his injury, but he would also work with Jonathan Toews, another Blackhawks player, in order to work with the team and find any issues they would have on the ice. He also had many creative methods as he approached the goal, netting him some outstanding achievements, such as the youngest player to achieve 1000 points. Kane has also been a very key part in the 3 championship runs that the Blackhawks had, being one of the highest point scorers that the team had for all 3. The between years where the Blackhawks didn't win, Kane usually was injured or lacking.

    In Walter Isaacsons, "Code Breaker", Jennifer Doudna on her track to discovering CRISPR needed to collaborate with many others to work on finding the results they needed. Labs were ran worldwide and nearly 24/7 in order to perfect the idea. Kane had a similar route. Despite being a star player, hockey cannot be won alone. Again along side Toews, they worked together to captain the team into success. They helped with rigorous training in order to keep every player ready and performing. They did everything in their power to create a competitive but collaborative environment and worked day in and day out to keep the Blackhawks in top form. Kane's success in the Blackhawks and his lead on perfecting the team is what led to some successful performances and high skill for the team. All this is what keeps him up there amongst some of the all time greats.

Youth Lagoon - Whispers of Childhood

In The Creative Act, Rick Rubin talks of a “whisper out of time.” He walks his readers through the misconception that brilliant creative ideas always hit the artist like a thunderbolt. Instead, he presents them as oftentimes “little seeds:” an echo of a memory, an unexpected thought, a seemingly trivial insight that are cultivated and eventually bloom into a great creative project. 

This process can be seen in Youth Lagoon (real name Trevor Powers) album Rarely Do I Dream.

Born March 18, 1983, Trevor Powers is an American musician from Boise, Idaho. He began releasing under the name Youth Lagoon in 2010 and continued through 2016, creating 3 albums. Then he began using his own name before returning as Youth Lagoon in 2022. This year, he released Rarely Do I Dream, his 5th record total. What is so fascinating about this album in particular is the circumstances and “seeds” it was born from.

In a PNC live studio interview, Powers describes how this album came to be: he was visiting his childhood home after his latest tour for Heaven is a Junkyard, and while there, he found old family videos from when he was a kid. Powers explains that initially, he took the videos home just to watch them; because he had just came off of tour and was exhausted, he had no intent to do anything with them creatively. But, as Rick Rubin would point out, artists are not always (and often not at all) in control of how and when seeds of inspiration will root themselves and begin to grow. These family videos inspired Powers to create sounds and music that sounded like what it felt like to grow up for him in 1980-90s Boise. 

Powers does this in a multitude of ways on the record, some more surprising than others. 

One very noticeable and direct way he brings the listener in is by including audio clips from the original family videos and includes it in the music. The low quality, conversational snippets fill the music with a nostalgic quality that takes the listener back to simpler times.
Still, Powers includes unexpected elements that have the same purpose. He describes the stories he tells in this record as full of fairytales: there are devils and detectives. These are fantastical elements that are not an accurate depiction of his childhood, but he explains that it “weirdly felt like the truest way to immortalize these pieces of my family.” 

All of these elements get at what Powers considers to be one of the most important parts of creativity: specificity and personal connection. In the same interview, he explains how many artists are concerned that the more personal they get with their music, the less people will be able to relate and want to listen. His take is that the opposite is true, and his proof is in the fact that more people have connected with Rarely Do I Dream, the most personal and specific album he has created, than the ones he has released in the past. 

“It can be easy to think that the more you zoom in on your life, the more alienating your creations may be, but it’s actually the exact opposite because the more that you make something truly about you–and that’s all you can do is tell the story of your own inner world–the more you honor that and stay true to that vision, the more it actually feels to everyone on the outside looking in [that] it’s about them because they can sense that personal depth.”

- Trevor Powers, PNC Live Studio Interview

I think Trevor Powers has a truly (mind the pun) powerful approach to music that is freeing for both the artist and the listener. He does not create based on what he believes his audience will enjoy or out of anxiety to release. Instead, he listens to the little seeds and whispers of inspiration even when it doesn’t seem like a good time, and he creates something that is starkly personal that appeals to each listener’s sense of self. 

Religious Creativity: Tye Tribbet

     Historically,  when religious ideology grows and changes, the practices evolve with it. Many customs can remain throughout the years but shift to fit the time period. In Black American christianity, the practices or worship people follow stem from the historical influence that brought it to them. Religious Gospel Music, as a worship form, comes from the roots of the slave hyms they were born out of and has evolved to take a newer form today.  One of the most prominent gospel artists of our time is Tye Tribbet. Known for his remixes on classic songs and his reinvention of gospel choir in hip hop style worship songs, Tribbet has pushed the boundaries of religious gospel music and produced his fair share of songs considered to be classics in the new generation. His songs carry many pieces of modern day pop, hip hop, R&B, and even rap music; which is becoming more common in new age worship songs. 

    Tribbet has won several GRAMMY awards in the gospel category and has dedicated his life to producing worship songs about " Jesus-focused music to start conversations, not condemn." This is a different approach to the religious mindset many people are used to that will condemn those who don't follow or don't follow correctly. It is important to note that in Tribbet's creativity to combine the genres into his gospel music he makes messages more known and easier for people to digest because they sound like music that might be consumed outside of a religious context. 

   

    I found it interesting how many similarities can be drawn from Tye Tribbet to Jennifer Doudna from Code Breaker. She utilizes pieces of well known information in science to derive experiments that get her to the end result of CRISPR with the help of her collaborative lab. Similarly, Tribbet uses pieces of well known music styles to create more outlets to share his religious message with the collaboration of several different singers (gospel choirs) and songwriters. Here is a link to one of Tribbet's more popular songs if you're interested: 

Jeremy Lin/Linsanity: Pain and Faith as a Catalyst for Change

 Jeremy Lin is an Asian-American former NBA player that most famously played on the New York Knicks in 2011. Lin’s huge impact on the Knicks and his seemingly abrupt rise to athletic dominance and world-wide fame created the term known as “Linsantiy”. 

However, Lin’s rise was not truly abrupt. 

Lin's journey was started out by constant and repeated rejection. He was undrafted and cut by two NBA teams. Without a job and a home, he was spending each night on the couches of several friends and family before getting a final, desperate chance with the New York Knicks. 

Lin stayed on the bench. However, in a tight game against the Nets, his team desperately needed players and he was put in to play as a last resort. Finally being given the chance he endlessly worked for, and on the last 10 days of his NBA contract, Lin put all his heart and effort into this moment. He scored 25 points, 5 rebounds, and 7 assists, leading the Knicks to a victory and left Madison Square Garden chanting for him. After this game, Lin would continue to lead his team to victory like an unstoppable blaze, even scoring almost 40 points against Kobe Bryant.

His immeasurable success after being on the brink of obscurity and a point of no return created one of the most inspiring "zero-to-hero" sports stories of all time. Lin being a devoted Christian, his faith taught him greatly about humility. It takes humility to endure all the failures that he did as an athlete. Lin’s belief and faith even through years of rejection and hardship was his secret weapon to keeping his head up and helped him grow and mature as a Christian and an NBA player.

In the book Faith, Hope, and Carnage by Nick Cave, the idea that pain is a catalyst for change is very prominent. After losing his son and using that grief to create music, Cave states, “Suffering is, by its nature, the primary mechanism of change. . . . God bestows upon us these terrible, devastating opportunities that bring amelioration and transformation”. This view links adversity to the unshakable motivation that drives creation, greatness, and success, suggesting that the pressure of loss and suffering forges a deeper desire for achievement.

Linsanity can be related to those ideas touched on by Cave since Lin’s story is often framed as a testament to working tirelessly, continuing to maintain belief in a dream despite every odd, and the undying resilience required to succeed even when the world seems like it is against you. 

Frida Kahlo's La Venadita (little dear) and Other Works of Grief

 Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderon was a Mexican painter, which I am sure you know. She was an extremely influential artist whose works are known around the world. She is a household name at this point, when you say Frida Kahlo everyone knows who you are talking about. She was known for her vibrant, symbolic self-portraits that explored themes of identity, the body, and death. A lot of her work was influenced by traditional Mexican folk art, indigenous cultures, and European movements like Surrealism and Realism. Kahlo's art often merged depictions of the body, earth, and the cosmos with Mexican history allowing her to express her personal pain through art. We will be looking at some of her art that represents grief because like Nick Cave talks about in Faith, Hope, and Carnage grief influences a lot of work but also puts you in this sort of trance when creating. He created lots of music that is almost uncanny in sound which we can also see in Kahlo's work where she also examines grief.

                                                                Diego and I, 1949

Kahlo created this piece after her husband Diego Rivera had an affair with Maria Felix. This painting shows Kahlo's great anguish because Diego almost divorced her at this time. Maria was a beautiful film star and an intimate friend of Kahlo. She has loose hair around her neck which represents strangulation and it is obvious that the cause of her distress is her husband. Diego was always in Kahlo's mind which is revealed in her diary which a lot of is a love poem to him.

                                                 La venadita (little deer) 1946

"I suffered two great accidents in my life: one in which a streetcar knocked me down...The other accident is Diego", said Kahlo in an interview in 1951. Her relationship with Diego was deeply volatile that toggled between passionate highs and bitter lows. The latter were often inspired by Diego's insistent cheating and infidelity on Kahlo's part as well. Little deer represents her pain inflicted by the relationship as well as her immense physical pain from enduring numerous surgeries she underwent throughout her life.

Terry A. Davis: The Genius of a Schizophrenic Programmer

    Terry A. Davis was a software programmer, revered as a genius in the programming community for his solo creation of the operating system known as TempleOS. Davis's story presents a uniquely tragic yet novel insight into the mind of a man who was able to create one of the most novel and creative computer programs in history, all while dealing with the unrelenting symptoms of severe schizophrenia.  

    Davis worked as a software engineer for Ticketmaster before having a psychotic break that would change the course of his life and work forever. After being a staunch atheist most of his life, Davis experienced a Schizophrenic Episode after becoming increasingly paranoid, in which he began believing that God was talking to him through his car radio, telling him to drive south to Texas, where he dismantled his car in hopes of finding a tracking device. After the incident, he was found by local police and admitted into a psych ward in Arizona with the diagnoses of Schizophrenia and Bipolar disorder. 

    Luckily, his parents were able to care for him after his stint in the psych ward, fearing he might pose harm to himself or others. Now free from the time constraints of work, the programmer began creating what he believed God had revealed to him was his purpose in life: a program that allowed him to communicate directly with God. Davis worked tirelessly for 10 years on the project. Starting from scratch, he created his own computer program, coding language, and a complex universe of programs designed to allow users to experience direct contact with a higher power. To the average person, it may be difficult to understand how impressive and unheard of creating something like this is. To understand this feat, imagine creating a car from scratch. Not buying all the pieces and assembling the vehicle (which would be impressive in itself), but creating each component of the car individually, inventing new tools to work on the car, and then constructing it in a way and for a purpose no one had ever thought of. The operating system itself is akin to popular operating systems like Microsoft or Windows, which took years and a team of hundreds to invent. The "tool" he invented to create his programs was a coding language called "Holy C" a derivation of the traditional software called "C", which made his coding virtually unintelligible to most in the field of programming. 

    His creation, TempleOS, is a biblical-themed operating system which Davis believed was the "third temple" of the bible that God willed him to create during his schizophrenic delusions. The system included programs like a shooter game called "God's Revenge", a religious oracle that generated bible verses, and a flight simulator named "After Egypt" which served as a biblical allegory. These biblical references reminded me of musician Nick Cave's book "Faith, Hope, and Carnage," in which he discusses a particular infatuation he has with art that incorporates biblical imagery and allegory. He sees this art as not only interesting in itself but uniquely powerful for its ability to serve and honor a divine purpose above the physical world. 

In the study of creative psychology, there is a lot of discussion on how neurodivergence and mental illness can lead to extremely unique creative processes and products. Although Davis described schizophrenia in a YouTube video as "an illness of no hidden rewards," and no one would doubt the struggles associated with this type of mental illness, TempleOS is undoubtedly a testament to the ability for divergent thinking related to neurodivergence. Divergent thinking, where a creative comes up with an unconventional process or answer to a problem in their work, is particularly important to Davis's story.  

     His neurodivergence was not a minor trait, but instead what allowed him to interact with unique problems (such as how to create a program that will enable him to speak directly to God) and devise entirely new solutions (by creating an entire technological universe from scratch). The hallucinations and delusions that severed his connection with reality and the belief that God was dictating technical specifications like a 640x480 resolution and a 16-color display(which Davis believed established his covenant with God) were clearly not obstacles to his work. Instead, the "divine revelations" were as real as the code he wrote, directly fueling a decade of dedicated work and a creative product that was unheard of. This aligns with the long-documented and complex link between schizophrenia and creative output, where novel cognitive processes can often allow creatives to implement associations between their radically different reality and their work. It is consistent with psychological research that Davis's work, like that of many creatives with schizophrenia, can be difficult for others to understand and interact with in a meaningful way. Davis's genius was unquestionable, but the mental illness that, in many ways, moved him to create made his work so divergent from the scope of traditional technology that it had little use to anyone but himself. Nonetheless, the tragic and beautiful story of Terry A. Davis will live on in the memories of those who recognized his unique genius. 

Sources:

Alden, Winston. "TempleOS and the Strange, Sad Case of Terry A. Davis." Steemit, 12 Sept. 2017, steemit.com/computers/@winstonalden/schizophrenia-and-genius-templeos-and-the-strange-sad-case-of-terry-a-davis.

Steve Martin and his creative process

Steve Martin is known for movies and shows, but also for his stand-up comedy. Relating to comedy, he became famous for it in the 1970s. He would make appearances on Saturday Night Live and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. He started comedy because of his love for the art form and wanting to perform. As a child, he was influenced by Laurel and Hardy, along with I Love Lucy. His creative process for his stand-up comedy is craftsmanship, audience feedback, and a unique personal touch. He wrote his own material and relied on creating tension within his comedy. 

While relating to his acting, he started acting in the 1960s. The movie that he is most famous for is Father of the Bride, and right now most famous for the show he is doing called Only Murders in the Building. He created his creative process from his stand-up comedy days, which involved craftmanship, audience feedback, and a unique personal style.

In The Creative Act: A Way of Being, Rick Rubin talks in the book he talks about openness, which helps since Martin is very open to hearing what other has to say about his work. That is then used to help create better work for the audience. Steve Martin was the co-creator of the show Only Murders in the Building, so he added ideas. For example, he wanted three old guys who lived in a building to solve murders. Seeing it now, it seems he got feedback and took it to help him have two old guys and a younger woman in the show. He also wanted the murders to be presented at the end of the season, which are presented within the show. Given Rubin's idea of practice over product, it relates to Martin with how he worked to create the show, act, and stand-up comedy, which all require you to practice getting to the end product. Another thing that Rubin talks about is being intentional, which is what Martin is doing with all that he does in order for his products to be interesting to the audience. 

He's Been Here The Whole Time: Sam Reich and "Game Changer"

    Sam Reich was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1984. At age 16 he dropped out of high school due to clinical depression and began pursuing a career in acting, later moving to New York City and founding the comedy group Dutch West. In 2006 the internet comedy company CollegeHumor discovered Reich and hired him as their Director of Original Content, eventually being promoting him to President of Original Content. While in this role Reich founded CollegeHumor's offshoot production company Big Breakfast and moved CollegeHumor's video team to Los Angeles, California. In 2020 he bought a struggling CollegeHumor, including its streaming service Dropout, from IAC and assumed the role of CEO. The streaming service became so successful that the CollegeHumor name was dropped entirely in favor of simply being called Dropout in 2023. Reich now oversees the content being created for Dropout, participates from time to time in various shows, and hosts his own shows Game Changer and Make Some Noise. 

Sam Reich

     So, what is Game Changer, anyway? The premise is in the tagline: "The gameshow where the game changes every show". Every episode, Reich presents three or more contestants with a new game or puzzle and gives no explanation or context before filming begins. With a grand total of 7 seasons available on Dropout and an 8th having just finished production, the games have ranged from from a lie detector controlled by the contestants' partners to a queer single-day parody of The Bachelor to an election for Honorary President of Dropout. Even when old games like "Sam Says", "Make Some Noise", and "Secret Samta" are brought back, there's always a new twist that keeps the format fresh. A number of episodes have even spun off into their own shows on Dropout, such as the musical improvisation game "Official Cast Recording" inspiring Play It By Ear and the secret social deduction game "Tell Us About Yourself" becoming Dirty Laundry. 

The premise of "One Year Later"

    Reich most often attributes the success of Game Changer and Dropout as a whole to the people who work there, cast and crew alike, and that care shows. Before beginning a new season of Game Changer begins filming he takes stock of what the cast members are comfortable doing for the show, and if a contestant is uncomfortable with the direction an episode is going in, they have the right to call a time out and stop recording to discuss problems. In 2023 Dropout began profit sharing for the first time, where anyone who had been paid any amount of money by the company- cast, crew, and even talent who auditioned that year- received a share of the total profits. Even as an outsider looking in, there is a camaraderie between the Dropout folks that make the shows a joy to watch- and even more fun when Sam inevitably sticks three unfortunate contestants in yet another psychological torture trap of a game. 

One of the aforementioned psychological torture traps

    In Culture Care, Fujimura introduces the idea of "border stalkers", people on the margins of groups that have a capacity for leadership and bringing people of different identities together. Reich has discussed that, despite initially wanting to make acting his career, he has gradually gotten further and further away from being an actor as he moved from director to producer and finally to executive. He sees his role as providing a space for all kinds of performers to come together, make each other laugh, and just have a good time. I believe that he fits the role of a border stalker quite well, and as a regular Dropout watcher myself I can't wait to see what he comes up with next. 

Sudan Archives: Redefining the Violin

     The first time I heard a song by Sudan Archives was last year in my dorm when my roommate played “Nont for Sale” while we were studying. I was immediately captivated and curious as it sounded like no other music I’d heard before, consisting of an R&B flow/beat but also featuring violin at the same time. I started diving deeper into her discography and loved so many of her songs as they are so unique and unlike anything I had heard before. 

Brittney Parks first started experimenting with playing violin over self created loops whenever she had time between jobs and would upload them to SoundCloud, not taking it too seriously. She began making music under the name Sudan Moon, but after moving to LA went by Sudan Archives, as she is known today. In an interview she recalls her introduction to electronic African music through picking up a vinyl of Francis Bebey and loving the music. She dove deeper into this, reading and researching West African fiddle music, pushing her to keep producing and playing violin while blending it like Bebey did. When she was younger, she picked up violin by ear in church but was not interested as much as playing it in a “classical” way, so when she found West African fiddle music it inspired her to play her own way, not as an accompaniment but the star of the song, sometimes aggressive and other times soft. 

In an interview with Brittney, she described how she comes up with her music. She said she usually starts off with a melody in her head, and runs to her violin to record that part of the song. From there she uses loop stations and other music software applications to capture her melody and how she wants it to sound. She doesn't think in terms of “classical violin” or “pop violin” but rather plays how she feels while interconnecting both electronic and West African fiddle music in her own creative way. She describes her music as a cultural fusion, drawing from classical composition, Sudanese fiddling, Irish folk, and trap beats. She is not afraid to break barriers in her music, and is an incredibly creative and innovative musician. 

While Brittney Parks and Jennifer Doudna are creatives in very differing fields, they still share some similarities in their creative processes. They both went into fields wanting to create something new and never done before, for Brittney that was to use violin in a way that was not classical, and for Jennifer that was to create an accessible way to read and rewrite DNA. They challenged the limits of their fields, bringing these new ideas in and experimenting until they were satisfied with what they created. They both relied on experimentation for their work, for Brittney that was through trials of making different beats and layering it with violin, and for Jennifer that was working in the lab and conducting research that each time got her closer to discovering CRISPR. They are both incredible creatives, questioning what music could sound like and what science could look like through their innovative lenses.

Grant Perez: From Youtube Covers to International Tours

    Grant Perez is a Filipino-Australian singer, songwriter, and musician who is widely known for his blend of an energetic yet smooth mix of pop, indie, and jazz sounds. The songwriter’s most notable song being “Cherry Wine”, which has over 200K listens on Spotify alone, is one of Grant’s first singles off his first album “Conversations With The Moon” which was released in September of 2021. As of lately, he has been touring around the United States, Australia, and Europe. 

    Grant got his first exposure sharing song covers on Youtube from his home. From his bedroom, he began to grow his fanbase and supporters and from there, he slowly began writing on his own singles and eventually began releasing albums. With the rise in popularity in his works he got to open for the band Rex Orange Country’s tour and even landed an interview with Teen Vogue. Grant dives into how he creates music and what is generally the process and what his inspirations are. He describes how his Filipino roots inspire a lot of his sound as it “is all smooth and it’s all about love”. He believes that his sound comes from soft rock, from bands such as The Eagles and Bread mixed with sounds like Usher’s and Musiq SoulChild. Grant dedicates a lot of his inspiration and success to his family as they were the ones who helped initially push him to create and share his music and sound to the world. 

    For Grant, he attributes much of his rise to popularity to his single, Cherry Wine, which is by far his most popular song. Not only that, but it is also his most notable worldwide successful song. In addition to this, he is thankful for how this song has helped bridge a connection between him and his community. Similarly, In Makato Fujimura’s “Culture Care”, he insists on how art can act as the bridge between communities. In this case, between Grant Perez and whomever listens to his work. But in addition, a bridge between people’s emotions and an outlet for others to seek strength, comfort, and confidence in. Grant Perez’s mix of creations of love and heartbreak songs alongside his musical inspiration from soft rock, Filipino, pop, indie, and jazz roots create an outlet for him to share his love of music and be a safe haven for others to share and partake in. 

Listen to Grant Perez's Most Listened to Single: Cherry Wine !

George Orwell: A Warning to Future Generations

 

  

  In 1984, George Orwell uses art to shape long-term cultural consciousness and create a warning for future generations. He uses dystopian storytelling to not merely critique the contemporary political climate, but to warn future generations and shape cultural understanding of oppression, truth, and surveillance. 

    

    Makoto Fujimura addresses this type of art in Culture Care, "artists can think generationally, providing for a stronger foundation for deeper reflections in culture". By thinking beyond their moment in history, artists can pave the way for future societies and help them listen to history's warnings. 

    Orwell goes beyond his current culture to caution future societies about totalitarianism, surveillance, and language manipulation. He added concepts to global culture, such as Newspeak and doublethink, to shape how future generations discuss power and authoritarianism. Orwell gave future generations a vocabulary for oppression that would be used by creators to keep exploring political climates. 

    Similar themes of surveillance, authoritarianism, propaganda, and loss of individuality appear throughout the media that followed 1984. Works such as Fahrenheit 451, The Handmaid's Tale, and V for Vendetta present societies under extreme control, visions that once seemed like dramatic hypotheticals. Yet, as we examine modern political climates and technological developments, these once impossible warnings begin to become very apparent and realistic. Audiences are reminded that Orwell's concerns extend far beyond fiction. 

Farah Khan: A Love Letter to Bollywood

Om Shanti Om is considered one of the most celebrated films in Bollywood entertainment. It became the highest grossing Hindi film of the year when it was released in 2007. The film is a love letter to Bollywood with its nostalgic references, chart-topping soundtrack, star studded cast, and fantastical storytelling. It stars the named "King of Bollywood" Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone in her debut role. All this lead to Om Shanti Om winning the award for Best production design at the 55th national film awards and becoming a defining Bollywood film of the 2000s. All of this is under the directorial leadership of Farah Khan.

Farah Khan on set with lead actor Shah Rukh Khan

Om Shanti Om was only Khan’s second film after releasing her directorial debut with Main Hoon Na in 2004. Khan has been on the creative team for multiple other creative works and it was while she was working on the musical Bombay Dreams that the idea for Om Shanti Om came to her. She felt that the concept of the musical, a poor boy becoming a star, was unrealistic and this led her to add one of the biggest twists of the story: reincarnation. The movie focuses on a young struggling actor named Om and the way that he does become famous is after he dies and is reborn as the son of a successful actor. Khan created a fun and welcoming environment on set with many actors speaking fondly of her after their time on the film. Many lines in the movie were not in the script and were improvised by the actors instead showcasing Khan's willingness to listen to all voices apart of the project. 

Lead actress Deepika Padukone in the number "Dhoom Taana"

Om Shanti Om is an incredible genre-bending tale that manages to combine romance, drama, action, and comedy all into one musical masterpiece. The vibrant colors and staging gives the film a whimsical appeal that brings fun while the underlying tragedy of the story remains. The music and dance of the film captures the audience with its elaborate group numbers, romantic duets, and heartbreaking motifs. In The Creative Spark, author Augustin Fuentes writes on page 226 “We also dance. The movement of bodies is rhythmic, and sometimes arrhythmic, fashion…can be used to relieve stress, to flirt, to reinforce social bonds, and to tell stories.” both dance and music are used effectively in all of these ways in Om Shanti Om. 

Richard Feynman's Scientific Method

Richard Feynman was a Nobel Prize-winning scientist who creatively worked to make developments involving quantum electrodynamics, the superfluidity of liquid helium, and the decay of particles. He famously articulated the scientific method and applied it to his own groundbreaking discoveries. The first step is observation, and using that observation to develop a question. When Feynman and other physicists were studying particle movement in the 1930s and 1940s, they ran into the problem that the result of interactions between electrons and photons was infinite answers, which wasn't physically possible. He then went into experimentation in order to produce his Feynman diagrams, breaking down the the interaction between particles step-by-step. These diagrams allowed him to make mathematical predictions of how the particles could interact. The accuracy of his discovery earned him the 1965 Nobel Prize in Physics.

In The Creative Spark chapter "Scientific Architecture," Fuentes discusses the approach to the scientific method and how it is a creative process. Typically the scientific method begins with an observation about the world, and creativity is sparked when the curious observer proposes an explanation, experimental method, or guess that seeks to explain the wonder. Fuentes writes that "the goal of science is to develop the best questions and improve our understandings, not to know all the answers" (249.) The process is very important, as experiments work to continually disprove theories rather than define a certain one as law or fact. The more experiments that are considered "failures," the closer one gets to finding a more probable explanation. Feynman encapsulated Fuentes' idea on eliminating possibilities to discover a more accurate explanation by taking the answer from infinite answers to a very accurate predictive method.

Similarly, Feynman stated that "if it disagrees with experiment, it's wrong," highlighting his use of the scientific method to test against reality and what is known. Pushing the limits of "known knowledge" in order to discover new techniques is how creativity is applied to science. Lots of his experiments were rooted in skepticism, encouraging other scientists to doubt what is considered known. Feynman used the scientific method that Fuentes described in his observation of electrons and photons and his experiments in particle interaction. His creativity is evident in his creation of the Feynman diagrams, his mapping of particle movement, a method to describe these interactions that was before unused by other physicists.

Jerma985: Empowering the chat

Jeremy Elbertson, better known by his online alias Jerma985, is a content creator known for his unique and innovative steam and video ideas. Jerma switched from creating gaming-based youtube videos in 2016 and began livestreaming on Twitch. What distinguishes him from his colleagues is the diversity in the content he streams and his willingness to fully commit to bits that come up during his streams. He often goes the extra mile to physically act out scenarios and edit his camera setup, interrupting whatever he is doing in order to creatively explore the comedic potential of an in-game moment or chat comment. Streamer-chat conversation is a big part of Twitch streaming, but Jerma takes it the extra mile by making conversations with chat the priority and treating the game he’s playing as secondary. In the 2020s, Jerma started putting on and streaming big events with high production value, most notably his 2021 livestream, The Jerma985 Dollhouse.



The Jerma985 Dollhouse was a three day long event during which Jerma lived in a prop house and the chat was able to vote for him to take action. This upends the typical Twitch model of the streamer having control over the stream and the chat just being able to watch and donate. Instead, the chat makes the choices and controls the direction of the stream, as if he was a character in a video game which the chat was playing. The visuals and mechanics of this control were based on the life-simulation game series The Sims. This viewer-artist reversal of control is reminiscent of performance art like Marina Abramović’s Rhythm 0 (1974), in which the audience was able to use a variety of pleasant and harmful objects on the artist in any way they chose. During the dollhouse chat’s decisions started out helpful, keeping all of his stats up, but quickly trended towards putting him in comically and fantastically unsafe situations, like being thrown through a window, fighting a fire, or being mauled by a man in a bear outfit. Due to chat being in control, there was no clear way of knowing which direction the stream would take. Jerma’s creative process involves a dependence on improvisation, only making a general outline for the event instead of a script to account for this unpredictability. This paid off and the stream was a big success, winning the award for Best Streamed Event at the Steamer Awards.





Jerma also believes in people fostering their own creativity. He noticed it was difficult to find royalty-free greenscreen videos of people doing things, so he created his own pack of greenscreen videos of himself and released them for free. They are comedic, but the idea is that they would be a resource for people to make their own projects and pursue their passion for video editing without being blocked by paywalls or a lack of content. Some of them have even made their way into corporate videos. In The Code Breaker, which focuses on Jennifer Doudna’s development of CRISPR gene editing technology, the author mentions biohacker Jo Zayner. In 2018, Jo injected herself with CRISPR designed to knock out the myostatin inhibitor, theoretically increasing muscle growth. While she has been criticized for unsafe practices and unsubstantial claims, Jo also sells at-home CRISPR kits for people interested in learning the fundamentals of gene editing. In this way, both she and Jerma place importance on improved accessibility for the general public in their respective fields.