6 - Pete White - Originality

With art, I feel like the idea or the message is sometimes more important than the actual execution. The reason being, if I really want a pretty picture of a forest, I bet there already is one done that is good enough for my needs, and I don't need a new one to be created just to have a pretty picture. Thoughts are different. ideas are limitless, messages have a uniqueness to them.

If one is going to forgo originality, they should not aim to create a replica of a particular piece, regardless of how technically difficult it is, or how impressive a feat its replication is. The fact of the matter is, the piece already existed, and they didn't bring anything new to the world. Additionally, if their intention was to recreate a piece, they will always fail, because, unless they are operating on an atomic level, the piece will be different. Instead, the goal should be to add something to the piece. Just as their is beauty in invention, there too is beauty in innovation. To take something that already exists, and transform it, changing its purpose, is not a simple task. The resourcefulness of the artist is something to respect. Just as it is talent to look at a blank canvas, and seeing a painting, it is a talent to look at a painting, and see something that isn't there yet.


I decided to go with Jimi Hendrix's "All Along the Watchtower" as a piece of art that talks about the controversial topic of originality. I think what Hendrix has done with Bob Dylan's song, cannot be written off as a mechanical reproduction. There are things, feelings, that exist in Hendrix's piece that are not present in the original. I find this piece a work of art and an innovation (this may offend some people, Iam not using the term innovation as "a strictly better version").

Just as a side note, I think music is a very interesting medium of art, especially when we consider the modern trend of mass replication. There is a great bother about the difference between the original painting, and a duplication of that painting, but no one really seems to get bothered by listening to a recording of a song. I suppose this is due to the temporary nature of sound. Still, there is something to think about in that distinction.