Empathy – and one of its possible roles in Creativity.

…okay, so this [is] was part of my push towards the final submissions for my Masters Degree.

I’m I was hoping to show this through the presentation of a large image that includes much of, and shows the holistic leanings of, the research I’ve been doing; and outlines its subsequent impact on my design/education practice.

The image below is a detail from that holistic visual.

In particular, this fragment is trying to resolve some of the research into the links between empathy (§) and creativity (including my interest in reading>empathy>creativity) for those of us (creatives) who ground their work in a shared experience with the/an audience.

i.e. Animators, Illustrators, Games Designers, Character Designers, Environment and Concept Artists, Film and Theatre-Makers and other entertainment Media creatives.

But before we get into it, some expansion/elucidation of terminology before looking at the theories below, most importantly:

What do I mean by Empathy?

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§ – em·pa·thy

/ˈempəTHē/

Noun The ability to understand and share the feelings of another.

Synonyms sympathy

– Google Definition (verbatim, OED Online Definition)

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Well, it’s certainly not the common usage form as a synonym for sympathy noted above – that is NOT what I’m suggesting; that is too narrow a definition, and eliminates a broader “understanding of something other, something not immediately of the self” (that might jar with our own sensibilities and feelings) measured against our own experience.

Instead I’m looking more at the broader concept of our ability to see through the eyes of another, to develop a wider range of perspectives based on those of others as part of, and to inform our “personal micro-culture“, via shared (or a notion of shared) experience or recognition of a shared goal or cognitive response.

The Evolutionary (benefit) Empathy currently being debated by neuroscientists and psychologists such as Iacoboni, Hayes, Gallese, and Hickock

“Current theories of empathy suggest a multilayer functional structure, with a core layer of automatic responses to reproduce the affective states of others. Mirror neurons are likely cellular candidates for the core layer of empathy.”

– Marco Iacoboni.

…and a couple of others.

Creativity – the repeatable practice of developing original ideas, esp 1. ideas that have value to others (after K. Robinson). esp 2. (in this case) in the production of an artistic/design work.

Practice/Craft – The acts undertaken and stratagems employed by a person to develop their skill further in a particular craft or art or creative role (no matter their current level of skill).

Vicarious – …as obtained or understood and experienced second-hand through sympathetic participation in another’s experiences.

Okay…

The sketch graphic on the left of the detail shows my proposed (WIP) taxonomy for an act of creative development in this field, here overlaid and augmented with some of the pertinent existing and related theories and theorists I have been looking at…

Starting at the base with the cyclic and somewhat fluxing taxons of:

• A – Call to Action/Will to Opportunity (Which may include B, and C as part of its set)

Examples could be:

1. Seeing a beautiful landscape you think would make a beautiful painting or illustration
2. A discussion with a friend of an idea about Japanese robots fighting dinosaurs
3. The design flaw in an existing item or product
4. A college/university/client brief

• B – Experience, both vicarious & dasein (Which may include A, itself, C and D as part of its set)

Examples could be:

1. Experiencing first hand a beautiful landscape you think would make a beautiful painting or illustration while walking
2. The act of reading a book on Dinosaurs, or having been on a visit to a car factory which uses industrial robotic technology
3. Watching someone struggle (or perhaps struggling yourself) with design flawed item or product whilst out in the street

• C – The Observed World Beyond the Self (Which may be seen as part of B’s set)

Examples could be:

1. Sitting in cafes with your sketchbook.
2. Traveling with a notebook or blogging device/camera or sketchbook
3. People watching in the supermarket
4. Just paying attention and being interested in “things” …a little knowledge (reading again maybe? If not direct, dasein observation) of the geography, politics, cultural diversity and basic relationships between your fellow humans and other phenomena on and around the planet we all live on, though perhaps not directly in your sphere of immediate interest.

and

• D – The Will to Experience/Fear of Failure dichotomy (which seems to be the problematic gateway through which the other taxons are accessed and eventually engaged)

Examples could be:

1. Sitting in cafes with your sketchbook/versus/not bringing a sketchbook because “What if someone sees or asks about what I’m doing?”.
2. “What have I to lose” versus “I don’t want to do it, I’ll look like an idiot…”
3. “No time like the present” versus “I’ll do it later…”
4. “I set aside a bit of time just so I could do it” versus “I was going to do it, but something came up…”
5. “Actually it didn’t take much time at all once I got started” versus “I don’t have time…”
6. …and in the contemporary parlance – “CBA”§ which may translate as “I’m worried what others might think if I fail”.

These four taxons exist at the root of any creative enterprise and can be the generative catalyst for creativity or conversely, with part D, the reason why nothing gets done or even started.

Once Called to Action, the next phase begins: This includes a tri-fold relationship between one of the taxons mentioned above, i.e. Experience, and two others, Empathy and Imagination.

Experience, whether actual/desein or vicarious can provide Empathy, by this I mean it can supply the person who is experiencing a new situation, culture, point of view or perspective with the experience of “otherness”, or something not purely derived, or centred about the pre-existing “self”. Even vicarious experiences, such as those reading a book of fiction in which you get to ride as a passenger in the thoughts of another in turn become pseudo-Experiences.

These experiences of “otherness”, added to our own dasein experiences, when mixed, re-mixed and in combination, subtraction, through projection or extrapolation etc forms the basis of Imagination.

For example A:

1 – I go to the Grand canyon (Will to Experience) and feel fear when standing on the edge of the visitor centre’s overlook platform. (dasein Experience)

2 – I read a book about Russian Cosmonauts and their experiences in the early days of Space travel (vicarius Experience).

3 – I project my dasein experiences onto the vicarious experiences I have read of the Russian Cosmonaut, wondering how it must feel to stand on a space ships exterior, when on a space walk (Empathy, and possible Call to Action).

4 – I create a narrative (Vygotsky’s pivot) and a character of an astronaut who suffers from vertigo and must overcome his fear to save the mission (Imagination).

For example B:

1 – I’m invited to a gallery show and attend (Will to Experience). There I meet a musician from Venezuela who knows the artist. We talk with a mutual friend about art and music and work based travel (Empathy, dasein Experience).

2 – That night I look up (Will to Experience) Venezuela on Google Maps, Wikipedia and Rough Guides on my phone or computer at home… (vicarius Experience)

4 – In a brief (Call to Action) I am asked to design a range of characters for a near-future post-apocalyptic game or medieval fantasy game.

5 – I combine some/not all the character history of the musician I met (projection of Experiences) to create an itinerant minstrel NPC character (Vygotsky’s pivot) who performs in a makeshift bar playing music on his guitar, but who through his travels has gained some of the information (projected Experience) you need to progress your mission (Imagination).

…

The key to getting this cycle going is breaking down the big inertial problem area, the difficult two-edged sword of Will to Experience versus Fear of Failure. To do that the individual themselves or with help from a mentor, must begin perceiving the value of the individual (vicarius or dasein) experiences, this value (see Bloom’s Affective Domain) cannot sometimes be seen prior to the experience itself and so with the low value placed on it The Will to Experience fails and no experience had, or the value is seen as too high by the individual (peer pressure, interviews, deadlines etc), and so Fear of Failure and the subsequent cognitive dissonance or lack of Will To Experience sets in and again the Experience is lost. A mentor can, if accepted by the mentored individual, be indispensable in this process, even if only as a catalyst.

Imagination, rather than being some deity-given gift, a grand mystery of an elect few or a genetic predisposition (i.e. that traditional notion of Talent), seems when investigated to stem from the ability to project outcomes not developed in actual causal experience; and as so it is, as an ability, subject to bloom’s taxonomy, or in traditional terms a craft to be practiced.

It appears to be linked to empathy or the firing of mirror neurons through the ability to see situations concepts and experiences from a range of perspectives (particularly that of “others” or projected parallel causation).

This pragmatic creative act, the result of a Call to Action, empowered by Empathy and Experience is then the “pivot” as Vygotsky might have had it, that allows the individual to take the experiences they have had, and the experiences of others, into a third state that has never been experienced before, but remains recognisable through the projection of an individuals Empathy and any subsequent audiences own experiences.

This act of willfully imbuing creative works with purposeful conventions and emotive resonances could be described as Priming on the part of the creative, triggering an audiences Involutary Memories perhaps.

With this process/cycle/relationship of taxons recognised (albeit not on quite this technical or conscious level), and susequently Sythesised into the practice of the individual (as this is an ongoing process and one that does not end), there is little to do but practice the pertinent craft skills involved, and repeat, eventually Naturalising the whole process.

The latter part of this ongoing process becoming cyclic and ever expansive, after Bloom’s Taxonomy (see also the explaination of my adaptation of Bloom – below).

Further, in order to include two other key elements of the creative act I feel to be important, I have begun to develop extensions/iterations of the visual above.

Here you can see that I’ve also considered viewing the taxonomy as a wave, rather than a pyramid or fixed hierarchical structure.

Here we can see the elements of the taxonomy peaking and troughing** from Reflective and Developmental phases of creative practice into intuition (which here increases with practice, and often manifests itself in the Play/Creating/Synthesis/Reflection phase) and Pragmatic Application (the act of applying/assembling all that has come before into a product once Play, Reflection and Development has run its course or provided ways forward).

These are all of course equally important, if somewhat broader aspects of a creative practice.

Play is of course another activity which appears to be in decline… Perhaps due to the targeted (by marketeers) childhoods that children live now, as Dr Peter Gray puts it, the decline in empathy and the rise in Narcissism in the young, and “the things they must have, just to fit in (to a narrow, consumer’s existence)”, rather than the open exploration of social interaction that prepares for a broader, freer life.

It is also interesting to hear Dr Gray mention in passing a possible link between Empathy and Creativity.

**No inherent value is to be construed from the language here, the following image would work equally well upside down…

The image above is still a work in progress some visual representations jar with the overarching themes.

One of the outcomes of this investigation seems to be that reading therefore can be seen to be a valid and available source of vicarius Experience and causally, Empathy.

As discussed by Judith Butler (philosopher) in her 2013 McGill Commencement Address.

“We lose ourselves in what we read, only to return to ourselves, transformed and part of a more expansive world.”

All of which can be seen to be linked to a increased capacity for a personal micro-culture, from which we draw to develop unique solutions within our creative practice.

Or looking at it in terms of my institution – Reading and CATs (critical and theoretical studies)WILL enhance your studio practice.

The question is, if this is to be developed as “a gateway visualisation”for students who shun/eschew reading (whether due to school born fluency issues, or more simply, stubborn manifestations of the Dunning-Kruger effect) how best to simplify/visualise this theory… a single visual? An Interactive app? A game? A 3D toy?

Well… I guess that’s the next phase of this research project.

…

§ CBA – (contemporary text speak) Can’t Be Arsed

Poster Art – Quick Sketch

Just a quick doodle for another theatre related poster…

You’ll see the rest of the finished poster soon…

Sketch-oramio (Hull) – A Local Comminity Site for Urban Sketchers/Observational Artists – WIP

I had this idea a while back, while walking back from drawing down past the Victoria Dock area of Hull. I’d had my photos accepted on Panoramio in the past, a site that links up to Googles Maps site.

This would be a local endeavor part of a creative and cultural mapping of the city if you will.

Instead of photographs, observational artworks would be sought out. Local (and other) artists could join the site and upload works which would be pinpointed on a map.

In addition to the Geo-located Sketch gallery other relevant community connections could be made.

For example, links to local observational drawing and urban sketch groups large and small, printers who specialise in artist quality, Giclee Prints, Galleries that put shows on for local artists or sell local work, Local education Opportunities that link to the idea of drawing and sketching… along with links to the wider Urban Sketching Communities and Gallery Circuit.

But always putting this city and the local individual artist at the centre. Perhaps eventually rolling out the idea as a franchise product to be sold onto other city communities.

This still needs a little work, but I hope to be developing it over the summer.

Any ideas or comments would be welcome.

…

This creative and cultural mapping of the city is extended and built upon in my second local community site idea of Location, Hull.

More Comic Art – Work in Progress – The Thief/The Cthulhiad Book 2

…this page may be changed.

…like I said, work in progress…

Calling all B/Tec & ‘A’ Level New Media Creatives… Still looking for a Web Design/Design for Web Degree?

So? Not settled on a place to do your degree yet? Interested in New Media? Want to be an Animator, a Film-Maker, a Games Designer, a Web and Interactive Media Designer, a Hyper Local News Blogger or a Journalist working with Digital Media?

…try the Hull School of Art & Design – HSAD. New Media Department.

…

Focus on WEB DESIGN

In particular if your want to be a Web Designer, check out the course details of HSAD’s New Media – BA Hons in Web Design.

3 years – Full time

This degree is specifically targeted towards designing for online media in the broadest sense. Emphasis is placed on creative and experimentatal work with extensive use and evaluation of current and future technologies. Study of design and innovation combines academic study with practical activities to develop abilities in creative and analytical thinking.

In Year One a number of key concepts are introduced; information architecture, usability, accessibility, how to identify user needs and meet them, communicate a website’s purpose clearly, have a good intuitive navigation model that communicates scope, and have clear, focused content design. You will experiment with dynamic content and browser-targeted design, designing web sites that adapt to the environments in which they are displayed, ensuring they work successfully on different browser versions and platforms and reinforcing the level of abstraction in designing for an online medium.

In Year Two you will gain a knowledge of the methodology and place of online marketing, user/audience data, accessibility and Search Engine Optimisation. You will undertake exercises in conceptual thinking and “futures” concepts, activities related to professional practice, and will begin to explore your own particular interest and specialism through self-initiated project work.

Year Three is a combination of independent self-initiated practice, and commercially-oriented, client-led practice. You will produce a body of work that reflects your professional directions and ambitions, demonstrating a high level of personal enquiry and critical awareness, an understanding of design and production together with an understanding of the industry.

Student Websites and Client led Projects include this site built with The Hull Museum Service as their client – Civil War Hull

Want to see more? Come see us at Hull School of Art and Design – Come in and chat to our staff about the type of course you are looking for.

…

Oh, and we also have post graduate courses… including Our new Masters in Creative Practice.

Animation/Games Design Mini-Brief – “Bus Stop”

Animation/Games Design Mini-Brief  – “Bus Stop”

This Mini Brief allows opportunity to develop both traditional and progressive digital skills, it provides entertainment media developers the opportunity to explore Ideation, Narrative Development, Environment Design, Prop & Object (inc. Vehicle ) (with Character Design if appropriate).

This kind of project can be used to support your portfolio, and assessable project work.

…

Task 1

You are asked to find out who Michael Beirut is…?

You are asked to read the short essay – “Why designers can’t think” – by Michael Beirut.

Task 2

You are asked to find information regarding “A Pattern Language” – Christopher Alexander et al.

What does Christopher Alexander tell us about “Bus Stops”?

…

Task 3

The theme of your short Pre-viz/narrative development exercise is to be “BUS-STOP”.

For the purposes of this brief, a BUS STOP can be interpreted as “any place at which people gather, singly or in numbers, to wait for, board or disembark from a transport system of some kind, regardless of whether that transport is regular or occasional”.

Example 1, Example 2, Example 3, Example 4…

 

…

You submission can encompass any genre, any historical timeframe or period, any style, and be delivered in any media (pencil, pen & ink, paint, digital 2D, traditional 3D, Digital 3D, moving image etc.).

But should ideally include:

1 – Preliminary sketches/thumbnails of ideas and thinking/Mood Board of Influences and References

2 – A pre-visualization (PreViz) for a scene/environment/product in the broader scope of a digital/traditional animation/game concept.

Any colour work can be digital or traditional, worked over a scan of the sketchbook drawings & posted to your blog (or saved to CD/Memory Stick), 3D models or in game engine creations should be accessible via flythrough embedded from Youtube or Vimeo to your creative blogs (or saved to CD/Memory Stick) or as jpegs/screengrabs or saved as OBJ or other readable/viewable media without having to open specialist software.

3 – a brief outline of your idea, this can be printed out or left on your blogs but you must submit a link to the post.

Whether a single image, a sequence of images, storyboard or animatic – your project should convey a story or narrative

4 – a list of influences/artists who you have looked at.

should be submitted with examples or their work on your creative blog (or saved to CD/Memory Stick).

We will expect to see all developmental materials, from thumbnails to final image/s. We would expect reflective blog posts detailing a list of influences/artists/creatives who you have looked at during your research and ongoing development phase and how they have influenced your decision-making.

You will be expected to have your work ready for discussion with your tutors on the deadline specified.

This work must be gathered together in a form (design document, blog post, prezi, powerpoint etc.) ready to show without resorting to leafing through loose paper or clicking through folders.

ALL elements of the brief above MUST be evidenced at this discussion.

You have three whole weeks to develop this project. A project that should/COULD be developed to a high level in a single day (bear that in mind when submitting your work, have you evidenced the volume of work expected?).

…

Notes:

A Pattern Language by C. Alexander, S. Ishikawa and M. Silverstein (et al) of the Center for Environmental Structure of Berkeley, California. The book is useful for Games and Environment Designers and Animators in that it lists broad descriptions of areas in which/through which we humans move.

The above examples of a Bus Stop show that this transport “drop-off and pick-up point” could be situated anywhere, and not just on a street. It could in fact be a jetty in the swamps of Louisiana where locals catch an airboat to the town, or an elevated walkway and seating pod where people wait to board airships in a far flung Dystopian future.

Availability of the book can be scarce – AMAZON.

A Concept Art (Games Design) Brief – Idea Generation using a List and a Dice.

Taking a simple six-sided dice to roll to decide outcomes for Games Design/Concept Art Brief parameters in order to create a self-initiated brief.

 _____________________________________________________

A – What element of the Games Design/Concept Art are you going to look at?

You may have already chosen this, if so, you can start with Part B.

1. Back Story
2. Characters Design
3. Prop/Object Design
4. Vehicles/Transport
5. Environments
6. Level Design

_____________________________________________________

B – Type of Aesthetic 1 – PLAYER VIEWPOINT

1. 3D/2D – Combat Arena/Fighting Character Game
2. 3D Immersive – 1^st Person Shooter/3rd Person (over shoulder/head)
3. 3D characters (with flat scenery).
4. 3D Sidescroller/Verticalscroller.
5. 2D Sidescroller or 2D or Verticalscroller (Topdown Racing Games, Bombing Raid games, or Alex the Kidd)
6. Isometric ¾ Topdown or Topdown/ ¾ Roaming Map RPG

Then roll again to decide the artistic style…

Bb – Type of Aesthetic 2 – Style

If you have rolled a 3D option…

1. Cell Shaded/Comic Art Style
2. Realistic/High Detail
3. Child Friendly/Kids Cartoon Style
4. Black & White/Noir
5. Abstract (your dice rolling can end here)
6. Heavily Stylised, based on an existing artists style > You’ll need to make your own list of artists, cut and fold and draw from a hat – why not get your peers and tutors to write some.

…and if you landed a 2D game

1. 2D Sprite Based Art
2. 2D pixel
3. 2D Photographic/Photomanipulation/Video based
4. Child Friendly/Kids Cartoon Style
5. Black & White/Noir
6. Heavily Stylised, based on an existing artists style > You’ll need to make your own list of artists, cut and fold and draw from a hat – why not get your peers and tutors to write some.

If you landed on a 3D/2D option in section A, you could roll odds or evens to pick from the above two columns.

_____________________________________________________

C – Types of Environment – Main Divisions

1. Interior – Man Made/Urban/Architectural
2. Interior – Man Made/Vehicle/Transportion
3. Interior – Caves etc.
4. Exterior – Man Made/Urban
5. Exterior – Natural/Landscape/Terrain
6. Exterior  – Airborne/Underwater/Space/Void

Now you need to choose a subdivision of that section, so if you rolled 3, scroll down to C3 and roll again to specify what type of Cave you are designing for…

Types of Environment – Sub-Divisions – Roll in just ONE of these sections only

C1. – Man-Made Urban

1. Office/Corporate Space
2. Science/Engineering Lab
3. Domestic – a sleeping/eating/living space/basement
4.  Recreational/Entertainment Space – Arena/Cinema/Restaurant/Bowling/Gallery etc.
5. Retail/Storage – Shops/ Warehouses
6. Communal Spaces – Atrium/Corridors/Balconies/Stairwells

Each of the above have variations available within them, roll again (based on your last roll) and choose a sub-section.

C2. – Man-Made Transporation

1. Docking Bay/Flight Deck
2. Engine Room
3. Bridge/Pilot/Control Area
4. Cargo Bay/Storage
5. Weapons Bay/Gun Turrets/Armoury
6. Corridors/Elevators

C3. – Interior – Caves etc

1. Mines/Mineshafts/Mining Operations
2. Buried Temples
3. Natural Caves/Stalactites/Stalagmites etc
4. Sub-Levels of a Building
5. Animal Burrows
6. Underground Industrial Complex
   

C4. – Exterior – Man-Made/Urban

1. City Street/Urban
2. Shanty Town/Slum Area
3. Docks/Industrial Waterside
4. Roofscape
5. Railway Sidings
6. Sub-Urban Residential
   

C5. – Exterior – Man-Made/Natural

1. Jungle/Rainforest
2. Mountains
3. British/European Countryside/Rolling Hills
4. Desert
5. Coastal
6. Snow/Tundra

 C6. – Exterior – Man-Made/Urban

1. Open Skies/Floating Obstacles
2. Open Skies/Difficult Weather
3. Underwater/Deep/Sea Floor
4. Underwater/Tropical/Reefs
5. Space/The Void/ Asteroids/Space Debris
6. An Abstract Void/Game Space

_____________________________________________________

D – Genre

1. Science Fiction/Futuristic
2. Pirates
3. Steampunk
4. High Fantasy/Sword & Sorcery
5. Western
6. Contemporary/Gangland

You can (but you don’t have to) roll again to add a Combo/Addition/Crossover genre Dd. If at the end you feel this compromises your game Design Concept, feel free to ignore the addition…

Dd – Historical

1. Napoleonic
2. Roman/Greek
3. Aztec/Toltec/Olmec
4. Samurai Japan
5. Stone Age
6. Medieval/Dark Ages

_____________________________________________________

And finally, to add a twist…

E – “…but with” –

1. Dinosaurs
2. Cthulhu/Lovecraftian Horror/Monsters
3. 30’s Streamline Moderne styling
4. Alien Invasion
5. Occult Power as Currency/Hierarchy/Critical Game Mechanic
6. Giant Robots

_____________________________________________________

Okay so you should now have a list like the one at the top of this post…

Now get on with your designs and art!

…

You could of course add more to, or write your own versions of, the the lists above, just using die with more sides…

Or write your choices on folded pieces of paper and draw it from a hat/box/drum etc… The idea of this is to show you how to make your own version of this idea generator rather than slavishly trapping you into the choices I made available…

…

Thanks to Matt Lane, Jack Wilson and Fraser Sneddon for testing the initial version of this…

An Intro to Mini-Comics & Sequential Art – Summer School

Where?  The Hull School of Art & Design.

When? The week commencing Monday June 24th, 2013.

With Who? Gareth Sleightholme.

Over this short course we will discuss and try exercises related to the creation of short self-contained “comics” narrative projects. Looking at the range of styles and content, media, tools, techniques and technology and some practical tips on creating images and layout ready for printing within this type of project.

With a focus on making, as well as theory the aim will be to create your own (and perhaps first) mini-comic during your five days with us.

The course is aimed at beginners interested in developing narratives in this form.

Over the five days we will look at the following:

Day -1

• Brief Intro to the History of Comics and Sequential Art.
• Styles and Content of Self Published Comics and Mini-Comics.
• Types of Narrative and Story developed in the Comics Medium.
• Printing, Preparation and Process for Traditional Print, plus Digital Publishing Comics on the Web.
• Comics and Sequential Art Glossary and Terminology.
• Folds & Reversals – (Practical) Making an 8 page Mini Comic.

plus Mini-Brief

Day – 2

• Conventions (Practical) Thumbnails, Layout and Panel to Panel Narrative.
• Techniques  (Practical) – Pencils, and Inking, Traditional & Digital.

Day – 3

• Conventions (Practical) Lettering, Speech Balloons and Sound FX.
• Conventions (Practical) Covers, Splash Pages and other Comics Conventions; Logos & Indicia, (plus ideation techniques for character design and character comic/company name generation).

Day – 4 / Day – 5

• …and (Practical) two days of supported making (with further discussion of process and techniques and content development).
• inc. Some last thoughts on Day – 5.

(As always actual detail of content may be subject to minor changes)

…

If you are interested in this course or any of the HSAD Summer Schools please call (01482) 480970 (9am – 3.30pm weekdays) for further information, or to reserve a place.

Comics panel – Work In Progess…

More comic art… Work In Progress towards The Thief (from The Cthulhiad).

Pencils, inks and white (gel pen) highlights

Tewar, getting his drink on after a hard days abduction and aggravated assault…

…and some Photoshop shadows.

And, what is Tewar holding in his right hand?

…

Below are the thumbnails done to (very loosely) plan out the composition for the page… they are called thumbnails for a reason, that’s an A5 sketchbook making each rough panel no more than 10mm high.

UK Creatives, Intellectual Property Protection and The new UK ORPHAN WORKS legislation – Be(A)ware…

Okay, so the good news is this… – DELIBERATE COPYING OF DESIGNS TO BECOME CRIMINAL OFFENSE.

But the bad news via the back door might be this…

Just don’t let it bite you in the ass a few years down the line and say you weren’t told…

If you aren’t aware new legislation regarding Orphan Works was passed last week and announced by the BBC last night…

I’m frankly surprised, I’d watched the US equivalent of this bill bounce around and seemingly get turned back at every turn, hopefully (I thought) holding it at bay for the UK.

Seemingly not…

The US government and their interested stakeholders were canny in their early consultations, originally getting the “Free The Internet” radicals and reformers on board to help give their proposed legislation some sort of positive ideological legitimacy.

However, from the early 2000’s (nearly a decade ago), staunch opponents and skeptical legislation watchers such as respected illustrator Brad Holland saw potential disaster for image making creatives (and the rest that also produce salable creative “works” of a none visual nature).

Trust me, if you are a creative, or plan to be one… It will be worth your time reading around the history of the various bills, those that have supported it, continue to support it, will benefit from it, exploit it, are already exploiting it, those bills and movements that parallel its premise in another guise, or apparently conflict with it… and ultimately those that will be effected.

Our government has now seemingly pushed this through rapidly without much fuss.

We (creatives) weren’t consulted, businesses who want to exploit us were… that should tell you enough about our ability to counter the legislation with government…

…and perhaps it will amount to nothing, maybe our government has the foresight and the long-term view that this will benefit everyone involved… they have a history of that kind of decision making don’t they?

Oh wait…

And looking again at the first sentence in this post… (The Good News), It might be that the government are simply waiting for the point when we creatives have to formally register (and pay) to protect our designs, and then when we don’t or we use something they’ve registered that we haven’t owned up to they can put us away… who knows?

This new legislation seems conflicting or over complicated (especially for the individual creative protecting their interests).

Copyright law already works (unless you are a business that wants to use images for free).

…

Just keep an eye on it, I imagine things will unfold and expand if we don’t.

And discuss it with other creatives, and those of your that teach, with your students… Just be aware.

______________________________________

Orphan Works, UK Copyright, Existing Copyright law (1988),  Piracy, Letters of Marque, Remuneration, Right to Earn, Ownership, Intellectual Property, SOPA, PIPA, A Sustainable Internet…  Demand Progress and the case of Aaron Swartz. The Hargreaves review.