Strands of Genius: Attention Culture, Propaganda Posters, How To Find Out How You Are
+ our thoughts on: inspiration
WRITING FROM | Worcester Park, UK
WORKING ON | Desk research, interviews, thinking for a new client project
LOOKING AHEAD
July 26-Aug 15 | Worcester Park, UK
Aug 3-9 | Nashville, TN (Rosie only)
Aug 12-19 | Porto & Lisbon (Rosie with her mom)
Aug 19-27 | Malaga, Spain
Sept 14-21 | Provence, France
:: WHAT’S NEW & WEEKLY GRATITUDE ::
Hello, dear friends, it’s been a while, for me (it’s Faris), because I got the ‘vid again (yes despite wearing a mask and all the vax, because it’s a new wave and variant and I have been traveling again. Pando Year 3) and anyway it took weeks before I felt better.
But I have managed to get back on schedule, mostly, and can think again, or at least as well as I could before, or at least that’s how it seems to me, but how can we really tell?
Hope you are all doing well, feeling OK, enjoying your summer, or winter, however you can, wherever you are.
Getting back on track is hard, and gets harder as I get older, as weeks of inaction and trying to rest coupled with my previously-not-very-regular exercise regime (it’s yoga or running) fell back down to zero and now, well, I have to start again, building strength or flexibility or stamina or lung capacity.
It’s always the first day of … trying to be healthy, for me anyway. Tomorrow is another first day. And that’s OK. Day One, here I come, again.
We’ve bounced back from seeing our goddaughter, resting and recovering, catching up and our breath, and we’re enjoying a few days of suburban domesticity. (Don’t worry Dad, we put the bins out.)
We told the world we were done with the whole grieving thing, but the world dealt us a sudden and unexpected loss in the family. That means Rosie is taking an unexpected trip back home, and we’re both sending love and condolences to the entire Keil family. RIP, Mike. We’re gonna miss you.
This week, we’re especially thankful for:
Sibilla&Aran&Susa&Max&Lilly, Abdullah, Bernie, Maqboola, Matt&Oskar, Ramzi&Lyndsey, Janene, Alex&Collin, a garden, the Umbrella Academy, How To Stop Time (Matt Haig), The Personal Librarian, homemade porn star (ahem passion fruit) martinis, cheese plates, whiskey sours, loads of blackberries that Rosie keeps harvesting (she is bringing in more than 1.5lbs a day!), truffles on everything, & YOU.
:: THE LINKS ::
WARC ATTENTION ECONOMY PODCAST: THE CULTURE OF ATTENTION
Our friends at WARC let Faris hijack their delightful podcast WARC TALKS for a three episode series about attention since his book was published in a brand new updated second edition, and doesn’t everyone in advertising seem to be talking about attention nowadays? This third episode discussed the culture that has sprung up around the attention economy, and features insight from the brilliant Dr. Gwenyth Jackaway, a former media professor at Fordham University, Jared Grant, integrated strategy director at Publicis agency Le Truc, and Sara Tate, coach and ex-CEO of TBWA\London. (WARC)
PROPAGANDA AND POSTERS
The history of modern advertising is intertwined with the emergence of modern propaganda and the commercial creative industries. The Society of Illustrators (as opposed to painters or artists) was formed in 1901 and were approached during WWI by the US Govt’s newly formed Division of Pictorial Publicity to work on concepts. Interesting throughout, but especially for us today in advertising when it talks about how posters work. “The poster must play a great role in the fight for public opinion. The printed word might not be read; people might choose not to attend meetings or to watch motion pictures, but the billboard was something that caught even the most indifferent eye.”
It also features some interesting, useful communication concepts more broadly, about applying rhetoric rules to other media and the power of ‘personification’, which are one type of what we call ‘fluent devices’ today. “We readily accept the use of a character to represent an object, phenomenon, or abstract concept: Lady Luck, Jack Frost, and the new year’s baby are all examples of personification.” (Hyperallergic)
HOW TO FIND OUT WHO YOU ARE
At Genius Steals we think a lot about creativity and inspiration and influence - it’s right there in the name. This piece covers a lot of ground on the topic, quickly. There is no ‘real you’ because “a person is not a closed system that can be studied in isolation.” “It’s more useful to conceive of a person as an artist. On the journey toward becoming themselves, artists often begin by copying some predecessor whose work they admire” for “We’re mimetic creatures. We learn by imitating what excellent others have done before us.”
We are all artists, in the creation of ourselves, defining who we are as an inevitable product of all of our unique complex of influences. “Writers don’t read the way civilians do. Civilians read to enjoy. Writers read to steal” - Ahem, well, yes, exactly - steal away, chums! (The NYTimes) but this is a gift link so don’t worry about the paywall! (Thanks to Fergus!)
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:: WHAT WE’RE THINKING ABOUT: INSPIRATION ::
Inspiration is a perennial topic in all creative disciplines. The Brooks article linked to above mentions another very good piece by Ian Leslie’s excellent Ruffian newsletter called How To Be Influenced, which in turn highlights on the key texts by by literary critic Harold Bloom called “The Anxiety of Influence”. As both point out, choosing what you are influenced by and recognizing that influence are key skills, not just for artists but for all of us.
Inspiration is derived from the Latin to breathe in, (like in re-spire or respiratory) because that was the model of creativity that operated for most of human history. Ideas were bestowed on mortals by the muses, like Clio, the muse of history (who the awards are named after) and Calliope, the muse of Epic poetry. The most highly prized art was so important we ultimately get our modern English word for it directly from all the muses - we call it music.
We had ideas when the muses breathed them into us - or later the monotheistic deity. It was this idea that Locke was trying to dislodge with his idea of a tabula rasa, a blank slate of a mind filled through sensorial experience.
Inspiration are the inputs to creativity, the elements to be recombined into new ideas. Inspiration is not necessarily inspiring, however. Sometimes we don’t know an idea is inspiration until we come to a particular project, we graze ideas, linking them to semantic networks of association in our heads, and then (hopefully) they are there as needed when the time comes.
To be inspiring is different. “Something or someone that is inspiring is exciting and makes you feel strongly interested and enthusiastic...” (Collins) but there is also a sense that it causes you to feel “confident above yourself and eager to learn or do something”. (Cambridge)
There is an emotional feeling and sense of motion, which when coupled with the right inspiration, leads us to new ideas.
This is why creative briefs can be uniquely challenging things to write and deliver, because they must provide both the right inspiration and also inspire the creatives into appropriate action. These are not the same thing and can easily be confused.
Entertainingly, those working with AI creative tools have found a similar challenge begin to manifest. A startup called PromptBase “is looking to let “prompt engineers” cash in with an online marketplace that sells these finely tuned phrases.”
What is a ‘prompt engineer’? Good question.
“Prompt engineering is a concept in AI that looks to embed the description of a task (like generating art of furry creatures) in text.
The idea is to provide an AI system “guidelines” or detailed instructions so that it, drawing on its knowledge of the world, reliably accomplishes the thing being asked of it.”
So…prompt engineers are planners, ‘finely tuned phrases’ are propositions and the whole process is a creative briefing. 😉
Charlie Wurzel highlighted a couple of pioneering prompters in a recent newsletter:
Two of my favorite DALL-E 2 prompt creators are Jason Scott and Andy Baio. For the last few weeks, they’ve been posting delightful, interesting images. Here are some that I love:
The two have entered into an informal competition of sorts. Baio seems to build out some of the more interesting photorealistic renderings, while Scott is constantly trying to break DALL-E 2:
What about you? What inspires you? Where do you get inspiration?
:: AND FINALLY… HOW A 5 PERSON TEAM MADE BLOCKBUSTER SPECIAL EFFECTS::
We’ve already effused about Everything Everywhere All At Once, which just grossed $100M worldwide on a $25M budget. But how did they make something that looks so distinctive with so much visual creativity so affordably? Well, here’s how - it’s very inspiring. And inspirational.
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rockON,
faris & rosie & ashley | your friends over at geniussteals.co
@faris is always tweeting
@rosieyakob hangs out on instagram
@ashley also writes for deaf, tattooed & employed
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It's called Genius Steals because we believe ideas are new combinations and that nothing can come from nothing. But copying is lazy. We believe the best way to innovate is to look at the best of that which came before and combine those elements into new solutions.
Co-Founders Faris & Rosie are award-winning strategists and creative directors, writers, consultants and public speakers who have been living on the road/runway since March 2013, working with companies all over the world. Our Director of Operations is nomadic like us, our accounting team is based out of Washington, our company is registered in Tennessee, and our collaborators are all over the world. Being nomadic allows us to go wherever clients need us to be, and to be inspired by the world in between.
Hit reply and let’s talk about how we might be able to work together :)