We have the power to Imagine Better

J.K. Rowling, author of the amazing Harry Potter books, said, “We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.”

Last night I attended a midnight showing of the last Harry Potter movie to grace our theaters. As with all of the previous movies and books I shared an anticipation for what was about to be witnessed. As with many of the folks of my generation that grew up reading the books and subsequently the movies, I was ready to witness something more than a typical movie. To be quite honest it didn’t matter if it was good (all it needed to be was not horrible) because a community had developed nationwide around these magical tales, we were all ready to experience the community and story again.

From what I have been told about live theatre (not the movies I mean), and what I have learned and witnessed in live theatre, I believe that this same magic can be generated and shared more easily in the theatre.  I think most people agree. So, if this is true, why dont we see it more often? Why isn’t this community, this shared passion, this magic, readily available to theatrical audiences and artists alike?

Much of my art is very intuition based so I am going to rely on an old friend and speak from my instincts. I think the thief of the magic is none other than our collective willingness to spend energy in all the wrong places. Its like too much presure in a bursting tube. We let it expand only to solve the burst while paying no attention to the pressure.  Let me explain. We are in a profession that requires us to solve problems creatively. And we are good at it! I think we should spend our creative juices making our jobs easier so we have more time and energy for the things that matter, for the magic. (How many times do you think I can use the word ‘magic’?) Our universal lack of money, time, audiences, and staff can be supplemented with a bit of creative thought (maybe a bit more than a bit, but none-the-less there is a solution in there somewhere and it is our job to find it. After all, our lives are at stake.)

I am one of the very blessed and lucky people to have not only gotten a job right out of college doing what I love, but I got a really great job at that. Like many people (probably a majority) I was completely ill-trained for my job. As a matter of fact I lied to get the job. I told my future employer I could do a number of things that I couldn’t. Sure, I majored in scene design and got a job as an assistant scene designer, a pretty straight forward path. But, there was a huge number of things that I could never have learned in school, there are things that I simply didn’t learn in school, and there are things that shouldn’t be taught in school. All of that make up about 90% of my job. How ever did I survive? Why do I still have a job? How does anyone survive? Well, some don’t, but those that do find a way to learn their way though that 90% and learn quickly. They find creative solutions for the big problems they are facing. This is exactly what creative professionals need to be better at.

I believe our time can be better spent researching new, faster, cleaner, safer ways of achieving the same goals. Inovation, basically. I look at machines like; The Maker Bot, the Homemade CNC machines, amazing new computer programs Photoshop, Vectorworks, GIMP (completely free), the ATHENA open source framework, and the HUGE wealth of information on the internet and constantly ask myself why more people are not taking advantage. (chances are, if you can imagine it, you can find it on google. Really! Try it!) Why do we, instead, choose to do things the hard way simply because we dont want to learn the new way?

I think we look at the unknown as a vast desert (after all we have never seen it, or been there)  full of hardship frustration and time eating unknowns. I think we should look at it like a lifetime pass to a really great resort. Once you have it, you never have to buy it again. Once you learn it, you’ll have it with you forever.

Can’t teach old dogs new tricks? There might be a fair bit of this and I do think there is some truth to tradition, but at the rate technology is developing now, its only a matter of time that the ‘old tricks’ will no longer be useable. As our working environments start to deteriorate, as technology develops, we need to make the decision to either find that creative solution, or go without. I believe that the consequences of going without are going to drain us of the aforementioned magic.

So, lets be creative. Lets learn some new tricks. Lets learn to Imagine Better.