Try to see something you've never seen before, describe a texture you've never felt before or hear a sound you've never heard in your life. By questioning yourself on this one simple idea, it can be proven that everything we do, every new idea we come up with is based on previous perceptual experiences. This so called 'originality' is merely us mixing existing ideas together. Now I don't mean to bring you down by saying you aren't original or unique. I only mean to redefine originality for you. Accept that whatever idea you came up with, you have somebody else to thank for coming up with the previous ideas that allowed you to create your own. The only reason you can make up a new word is because you have been taught how to read symbols that define the alphabet, and how to match particular symbols with sounds that others around you will understand. The key to originality is to mix other people's ideas that nobody has ever mixed before. Once you understand that idea making is essentially a form of remixing, and that there is no possible way for you to think of something that hasn't been informed by something else, you will be able to utilise originality. You can only be original when you understand that nothing is original. |