Benched Week 58: a singular idea

Perhaps it was the gray blanket of clouds overhead.

Or the solitary gull that posed for me.

Or the final bloom on a rose bush, vainly defying the coming cold.

For one or all of these reasons, I found myself on a bench under the looming, dramatic cluster of the GM towers along Detroit’s riverfront feeling a bit melancholy.  There was a sporadic sprinkle of rain and a trickle of people passing nearby – an occasional lone jogger or cyclist.  It was the right setting to be by oneself.

 

My thoughts, however, were on collaboration.  On the flight, I read a chapter of Creativity Inc., a book by Ed Catmull, one of the execs of Pixar, about lessons learned in building their innovative culture. I’m sure I’ll come back to it in these posts, but what struck me in this sampling was the power of collective creativity.

A breakthrough at Pixar during the time of Toy Story 2 was that “getting the team right is the necessary precursor for getting the ideas right.”  Why? Because “ideas come from people. Therefore, people are more important than ideas.”  Catmull explains, “…too many of us think of ideas as singular, as if they float in the ether fully formed and independent of the people who wrestle with them. Ideas, though, are not singular. They are forged through tens of thousands of decisions, often made by dozens of people.”

Think of it: dozens of people coming together to puzzle out the creation of a work of art. 

Intriguing, don’t you think? Sure, that makes sense for a movie.  But can it be applied to a painting or a drawing?

A friend’s son tried this on street level, pulling off   of performance art where the passing people became the artists.  He called it a continuous drawing: for over a day, a piece of graphite was kept moving on a huge canvas wall.  Anyone walking past was invited to take it for a while to add whatever fancied him or her. The accumulated image was startling and complex.  Random, yes. A bit gimmicky.  But sublimely interesting.

So here’s my question: what can we create together?  You and me.  Not just you, singular.  You, plural. Us together.  Social media is fertile soil for collaboration.  How can we join our varying skills and interests and ideas to fashion something unique?

Maybe it’ll be a piece of writing, like the story our family once tried to write, with each member taking a chapter.  (Given up quickly, alas.)  Or could we assemble a montage, with each of us contributing an image? How about a group doodle?

Share your ideas with me. Let’s put our heads and hands together.