Creativity Can Also Flourish in the Digital Age

It is no secret that in this day and age, schools are having a hard time each year finding room in the budget to fund artistic and musical programs. Unfortunately, the students are the ones paying the heaviest cost for missing these types of classes. Not only do these activities promote creativity and free thinking in an individual, but studies have linked higher intelligence and even improvements in health and the immune system (Blackwell, 2006). They also give a well deserved break from the rigors of standard book learning to students, something that is equally important to today’s students.

Constraints

Outside of school, learning an instrument or how to paint can be a costly endeavor. Formal training by an instructor can prove to put a dent in the pocketbook, as an instructor is paid fairly well for the knowledge of their expertise. This is a great way to learn and even to schedule practice of the desired art form in question for those who can afford the lessons, but unfortunately many can only afford lessons for a finite period of time. One can also feel limited in their choices of instructors given their own geographical location, making learning a specific style of music or artistry more difficult than expected.

Time is another constraint. If art and music are limited to an after school activity, then they have to compete with not only the student’s after school schedule, but with the rest of the family’s schedule as well. These constraints are not only limited to students, as they apply to adults who do not professionally play an instrument or aren’t a professional artist as well. There are only so many hours in a day, and unfortunately paying the bills and taking care of business (T.C.O.B) comes first.

Solutions

Lucky for those such inclined, there is a tool that not only brings the far reaches of the Earth to our fingertips, but does so faster than the speed of light. The Internet, a powerful tool for communication in general, can be a great way to express one’s own creativity and to learn from a think tank of the grandest scale. Even the most obscure techniques and sounds can be researched in a matter of seconds, from a variety of trusted resources.

The Internet can be a great source for any individual trying to learn the fine arts. There is a much larger and cheaper variety of instruction at one’s fingertips, that can be accessed at any time the individual has some to spare. There are archives of video footage teaching any instrument or art form in existence. There are web sites dedicated to tablature and sheet music for the musicians, usually available for free. Access is at a much grander scale, giving the individual a better chance at practicing their passion at their leisure, without the traditional hassles that accompanies learning an art form.

Community

Those who want to share their creations and passions also will find a larger audience because of the Internet. As large an importance this serves for an artist, it comes second to the most important resource an artist could have: access to other artists. Usually, a musician or artist is limited to other artists in their community to create with. The younger the artist, the smaller the geographic location that they may have access to. Due to different levels of expertise at different ages, the talent pool can be even smaller for the more ambitious. This usually insurmountable dilemma is now an Internet connection away for those whom are willing to seek out creative outlets.

A great example of a collective think tank of ideas for the passionately creative is HitRECord, an online collaborative production company which crowdsources various art forms such as music, media, and animation for the public to participate in and create for (Caramanica, 2014). Once an idea is pitched, any artist is allowed to use their expertise to contribute to the project of their liking. The best contributions are voted on and used for the final version of the project. Twenty years ago, the ability to collaborate with someone on a project halfway around the world in seconds was just not possible. Today, it is a possibility at our disposal.

Conclusion

Today, more than ever, it is important to collectively collaborate, create, and express ourselves through the arts of our cultures. We have the ability to combine ideas, cultures, and styles that no generation before us could even dream possible. Time, cost and distance have been limited to mere excuses for those who won’t let constraints quell their creative fire. The arts not only better ourselves as individuals, it shapes our world’s culture, bringing us closer as a people, and contributes to our own history for future generations to admire. There is no reason that creativity cannot flourish in the digital age, as long as people are still willing to share themselves with the world.

Works Cited:

Blackwell Publishing Ltd.. (2006, June 22). Music Thought To Enhance Intelligence, Mental Health And Immune System. ScienceDaily. Retrieved January 9, 2015 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/06/060622172738.htm

Caramanica, J. (2014, January 17). ‘Let’s Put On a Show! I’ll Make …’. Retrieved January 10, 2015, from http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/18/arts/television/hitrecord-on-tv-based-on-the-artistic-crowdsourcing-site.html?_r=0