“When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other.”
The title is a quote from Eric Hoffer.
I’ve touched on originality before. I’ve lately been rolling around ideas about inspiration, interpretation, and impersonation. Not to mention imitation.
We are each influenced by everything we see. Taking inspiration from everything, including other artists, is a natural part of the creative process. Inspiration is essential, and it can come from anywhere. An artist incorporates that inspiration into their own vision (pardon my artsy fartsy lingo here) and creates a work that, while influenced and inspired by other things, is still truly an original work of art.
Botgirl Questi’s work inspired me to try my hand at visualizing my tweets as pictures. But my work looks nothing like hers. Her original work inspired and influenced my original work, but I didn’t imitate it. My work is 100% my own. Hers is no doubt influenced by others, as is theirs.
Imitation is a whole different thing. Imitation requires no original thought or creation- it’s simply copying the work of another. Imitation is rarely flattering to the work or the artist. Whether a visual artist or a writer- I can’t imagine being honored to be imitated. Instead I find it distasteful at best, and offensive every time.
Original creation is so rare and wonderful, it should be celebrated- not denigrated by imitation.
In a market of same shit, different creator, it’s exciting to see original works. Pandora Wigglesworth is one of the most original creators in Second Life. She recently released a Flesh Suit of human skin. (Thanks to Crap Mariner for the tip and the gift!) While Crap and I were both inspired by the same skin, our creations are entirely different.
Here’s Crap’s shot:
The skin is truly brilliant. I love the concept.
The hood is mesh and no mod, but it doesn’t need any modification- it fit my chinchilla and my human sized selves perfectly.
It’s not a pretty skin, but it’s not supposed to be.
Look away, my feet are hideous.
There is no way to prevent outright imitation, aside from never showing your work to anyone at all and where’s the fun in that? Instead, I hope to celebrate originality in my work and pay tribute to my inspirations.
Imitators can bite my ass.
Holy whatever. Ghosty has been joking all the time he’s a llama in a human suit. He really needs to see this.
My favorite quote on the topic (art and imitation) is from T.S. Elliot:
“Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different. The good poet welds his theft into a whole of feeling which is unique, utterly different from which it was torn.”
I love when people take some concept I’ve played around with and try it for themselves. And I love when I’m inspired to take someone else’s concept and experiment with it. For instance, I’ve tried a few family dialogue tweets, which is a format you introduced me to.
Inspiration is a world apart from imitation. Pep (But imitation is soooo close to irritation!)
That first, top photo could really be a poster for some new virtual world. Add a poetic slogan and sell it to somebody (not LL) to convey your idea.
Good job babe.
When Pan sent me this out of the blue, the first person I thought to tell was Whiskey – her chinchilla post a few months ago ponders form, identity, and expression.
-ls/cm
Thank you for your kind words. It means a lot to be appreciated and being called “original” in a world full of creators is greatly appreciated.
The hood is no-mod? That’s weird. I swear I made it +mod. I checked and double-checked. I think SL is being quirky with permissions again.
It just struck me that the imitation/inspiration question in visual art might also be understood from the perspective of cover songs. Although the chord progression, lyrics and basic melody are the same, there’s a vast difference between a tribute band version of a song and version by a real artist who reinterprets it in their own style. That said, there is a a real pleasure in covering a song in the style of an artist you really appreciate.