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09 - The Creative Project

Written by

JO

Josh

Monkey In Shoes

Published on

10/16/2024

Monkey In Shoes.png

“The third mode of symbolic immortality is the creative - whether through great works of art, literature, or science, or through more humble influences on people around us. The artist has long been recognized as participating in this mode of immortality - either in his prophetic function or, as Malraux believed, through “the continuity of artistic creation” by means of which “not the individual, but man, human continuity, reveals itself,” so that “more than any other activity, art escapes death.”
- Robert Jay Lifton, The Broken Connection

The Creative Project is the shift away from the individuality of the Status Project. It represents the genuine component of academic, artistic, or athletic pursuits. It is the element we see in children when we first introduce them to these activities; the part of them that loves it for what it is, without regard for the opinion of others. Oftentimes as this initial passion grows, so too does our Status Project - and thats okay. The Status Project is no better or worse than any other projects.

Art, like love, is very hard to define. We have a tendency to call many things art. It wouldn’t be unheard of to say things like “there is an art to socializing” or “that athlete is an artist”. For the purposes of this discussion, we will define art in what I believe to be its broadest sense: the crafting of something new. While we may struggle to define what art is, we know what it is not. Art is not consistency, duplication, or standardization. Sure, good artists may be consistent, but they are consistent at being an artist, not making consistent art. Once something has been discovered, a book or painting has been crafted, or an athletic manure has been made, then we no longer consider it art.

This broader definition of art as a source of novelty is that which fuels the creative project. Similarly to the 07 - The Biological Project where children are the creation of something new that lives beyond oneself, so too does art serve the same purpose for the 09 - The Creative Project.