Freedom confined

Freedom and creativity are funny things. Creativity seemingly can’t exist without freedom, and yet, an infinite amount of freedom does not lead to an infinite amount of creativity, but rather to a… blockade. It’s as if I don’t know where to start or what to do when there are no confines that will define the boundaries of my creative freedom.

Boundaries come in many forms. Many times, most of the times, they are the tools we use. The canvas, the colours, the brush, they set the boundaries of what I can paint. Music and writing might seem to be boundless, but yet, words, language, notes, instruments, all these are limits as well. And oh, how limited words can be. There are no words for the most fabulous things, no words for how I love, or how I am loved.

And yet, I need these boundaries. They are the ground upon which I can build. I like being restricted in the tools I use; it gives me the feeling of being able to concentrate on the creation instead of searching for other tools. Thus, I love prims. It is true, they are very limited in shape and form, and yet, these limits incite me to press the boundaries to create the best possible things within them.

For the exact same reason I shunned sculpts for a while. They were amorphous, seemingly unlimited, and hard to handle. It was only when I learned of their limits, that I started to get interested in them. Also, for the same reason, I do not like Blue Mars, and remain skeptical towards mesh import. The fear is that of being overwhelmed with an infinity of possibilities and capitulating at the complexity of the material and the haziness of my own vision.

When I build, I don’t even know what the result will be like. I start with a very blurry idea of what I want to make, sometimes just something like ‘a brick warehouse’ or ‘a deco bed’.¹ And I am grateful for the limited possibilities, that give me something to hold onto and a dim glimpse of an idea of what it could look like.

I also heavily rely on the ideas of others. Images of existing objects, or builds of others, serve as an inspiration and objects of study. This is where my profound objection to ‘closed source’ creativity sets in. Creations serve as much as a tool for other creations, as they are useful as completed works. I don’t even think any creation is ever finished, as there will always be someone building upon what we have made.

Thus, I can not understand the notion of wanting to restrict the rights to use and examine creations. I might not be alone; the statements of creatives on the copyright debate are astounding – or rather, the lack thereof. I see my own creations as blueprints, as pieces and tools for others to use and build upon themselves. It is natural to me to give them out without restrictions.² Our creations, just like the tools we use, should not be restrictive. Because every work is a tool.

I also don’t think this is contrary to making money with them. Even though I – for personal reasons – don’t want to make money out of the things I make³, I – naively – believe it is possible to sell free things. Some things are better than free.

If I could chose, I would like to build a society where the only restrictions are in the tools themselves, and not in the ways to use them.

1. which I yet have to make [↩]
2. I like to be remembered as the one who made these tools, but that’s a amenity in itself. [↩]
3. which may or may not change at some point [↩]