By 
It feels like in every single aspect of life, there is a tendency for people to expect from you to
produce something original, to be original, to demonstrate originality, and to think outside of the
box. The phrase “to think outside of the box” seems so overused that it has lost its semantic value; it
just shows that the person saying it has done the least “outside of the box” thinking for coming up
with an appropriate phrase. It is such a paradox – “I expect you to think outside of the box, yet I
appear to have a lack of ability to do so myself and I perfectly demonstrate this by using this
particular expression”. One cannot help but wonder how “thinking outside of the box” functions to
begin with. Does it have specific dimensions to it? Is there specific guidelines for doing such
thinking? And if not, is the lack of guidelines a guideline itself? Can you teach people how to do it?
Will people notice if you do it? Is it measurable? Can someone turn to you and say “Good job! On a
scale of 1 to 10, you have thought out of the box 10 out of 10!”? The problematic nature of the
definition makes it a problematic process trying to wrap our heads around it.
It is the same pressure we are faced with when expected to show originality. This is a recurrent
theme in modern art, especially. Artists, like the famous case of Marina Abramovic and ‘Nothing’
, are constantly faced with accusations of being unoriginal and not acknowledging
predecessors of their field who might have done similar work. In the case of ‘Nothing’ by Abramovic,
the artist was faced with claims of curators and art historians who supported that she did not
recognise Mary Ellen Carroll, whose artistic efforts focused on exploring the concept of ‘Nothing’ in
her work since the early 1990s. Of course, nothing has been made out of arguing over ‘Nothing’.
Spotting whether artists copy off each other remains a struggle and we could easily question
whether this particular case has been much ado about ‘Nothing’ (or nothing). Or maybe, it is even an
argument over originality being centred on the concept of much ado about noting. Had no one
noticed that Abramovic and Carroll had collaborated in the past in a group exhibition and that in
their work in the future they drew on similar themes, there would not have been an argument
against Abramovic. It was Pablo Picasso who famously stated that “Good artists copy, great artists
steal” and Oscar Wilde who said “Talent borrows, genius steals” and let us not start arguing over
whether Picasso in this instance proved to be a good or a great artist!
The fault in being pressured to be original is that no one guarantees that it will be noticed that you
are being an original thinker. You might conceive a perfectly original concept or create the perfect
element of originality and still, it could go unnoticed. It is reason enough to give up on the effort or
producing original thoughts or material; what is the point of trying if no one is not going to pay
attention eventually? Or is it really yourself you are doing it for? It can be unclear whether we are on
the eternal pursuit for originality for making our own selves feel good or to be able to boast and
brag. In both scenarios, the motives can potentially be selfish. Nevertheless, selfishness is the
primary element in the drive of life, it was has helped us not extinct from the planet and it is one of
the man evolutionary traits that has kept the humankind alive and progressing through the years.
In Canada, an art director adapted quotes from famous for a script for a short video on originality.
It comes off like the art director has created an original way to portray the concept of originality
through his work. His personal identity and working style is very strong in the video, which can only
lead us to the conclusion that a lot of the originality stems from being ourselves and embracing who
we are and portraying it through everything we do in life. It is much like building a solid brand and
maintaining it. But if it is not genuine, there is the danger of people picking up on that and being
called out on it.
As a final thought, we’ll leave you with last words from the video by Vucko:
“It’s not where you take things from. It’s where you take them to.”
Words by Mario Pitsillidis