Tom Igoe really presents some interesting messages surrounding about our own projects. Firstly, a core message of not being discouraged if an idea has “been done before”. I like a lot of his submissions that he showed off and how we require the limitations part of our projects (and also the feedback that Mang presents for us 😊). I can see this in this in light of my own work in content creation for YouTube.
Much of the time I struggle with determining an idea for a video, especially in the niche community that I’m in where most ideas have already been “made before”. But sometimes I like taking a different approach and look at an idea from a different prism. It helps me build on the ideas that the original creator has made, and of course providing credit, whilst injecting my own spin on the idea and creating a different product in the end. Our imagination isn’t a limitation, the critical thinking we don’t do is.
And his next message is around not interpreting our own work. Honestly, after visiting multiple art galleries and even being an usher for Abu Dhabi Art Exhibition 2025 for an Interactive Media artist, I can definitely agree with this.
For some context, I was a volunteer for the Abu Dhabi Art Exhibition 2025, held at the Manarat Al Saadiyat Gallery, with my task being to usher people to an exhibition hosted by reImagined Art. Now, even though the person there only gave me the responsibility to usher people, I also decided to talk to the guests about the artworks and give them a bit of background.
The artworks mainly revolved around the Ethirium blockchain and represented it in different forms (I’ll upload some pictures below 😉). And as guests were coming in, they were astounded by some artworks. I didn’t want to intrude into their experience of the artworks and wanted to give them time to sink in.
Later, some would come up to me and ask for me to explain to them what the artwork meant. I gave them a decent rundown but also was a bit ambivilous as most aren’t tech savy to know about blockchain (I mean they hear crypto or bitcoin and everyone goes “ahh”). Still I can say that they definitely felt astounded as to how something like a ledger for records can be art.
And I think with this, I let more so the guests the agency to interpret the work, rather than letting me being the post it note describing it in detail. So definitely we should be a bit ambivilous in what we say about our work and let others experience it. That in of itself is the crux of imagination, seeing our world from a different prism of thought.