Steal Like An Artist: Austin Kleon at TEDxKC

Summary

在这段演讲中，演讲者分享了关于作曲家伊戈尔·斯特拉文斯基的故事，他通过修改经典乐谱来创作新芭蕾舞曲，从而引发了对“尊重”与“爱”的讨论。演讲者本人热爱报纸，并将其作为创作灵感的源泉。她通过创作“报纸黑诗”来克服写作障碍，这是一种将报纸上的文字框选、连接并重新组合的艺术形式。演讲者探讨了创意工作的“非原创性”，强调所有创意都是对前人工作的重新混合或改编，并鼓励听众从他们遇到的每个人和每件事物中汲取灵感，将其转化为自己独特的创作。

Takeaways

• 🎼 音乐家伊戈尔·斯特拉文斯基通过修改经典乐谱并创作自己的和声与节奏来创作新芭蕾舞曲，面对批评他回应说：‘你们尊重，但我爱你。’
• 📰 演讲者从小与报纸为伴，认为报纸虽短暂，但人们有保存意义事物的冲动，艺术家尤其如此，他们选择性地收集他们真正热爱的事物。
• 🎨 艺术家的工作是收集想法，而阅读报纸是获取人类经验的绝佳方式，这启发了演讲者通过报纸创作诗歌。
• ✍️ 演讲者曾经遇到写作障碍，通过在报纸上圈出吸引自己的单词并创作‘报纸黑诗’来克服这一障碍。
• 🔍 演讲者发现，她所谓的创新——报纸黑诗——并不是原创，英国艺术家汤姆·菲利普斯在60年代就已经开始类似的创作。
• 🌐 汤姆·菲利普斯的创作灵感来源于威廉·巴勒斯的‘剪切法’，这是一种通过剪切和重新配置文本来创作新文本的方法。
• 👨‍🎨 巴勒斯的剪切技术灵感来自他的朋友布里昂·吉辛，吉辛是一位画家，他在准备画布时偶然发现了报纸条的组合方式。
• 🕵️‍♂️ 通过进一步研究，演讲者发现，早在30年前，诗人特里斯坦·查拉就在巴黎通过剪切报纸创作诗歌。
• 📜 甚至可以追溯到18世纪，本杰明·富兰克林的邻居卡莱布·惠特福德通过跨栏阅读报纸来制造有趣的组合，以此娱乐朋友。
• 💡 演讲者意识到，没有什么是完全原创的，所有创造性工作都建立在前人的基础上，每个新想法都是对一个或两个先前想法的重新混合。
• 🌳 演讲者决定建立一个创意家谱，从她之前和现在欣赏的艺术家那里汲取灵感，并尽可能地‘偷取’他们的东西。
• 🤝 演讲者鼓励听众像艺术家一样看待世界，从遇到的每个人那里‘偷取’一些灵感，并将其转化为全新的东西。

Q & A

伊戈尔·斯特拉文斯基是如何创作他的新芭蕾舞剧的？

斯特拉文斯基并没有完全从零开始创作，而是拿出了一些他最喜欢的经典手稿，用红笔进行修改，仿佛是他自己的音乐。他借用了著名作品中的低音线和旋律，但在这些作品下创作了自己的和声和节奏。

斯特拉文斯基对经典作品的态度是什么？

斯特拉文斯基对经典作品的态度是热爱而非仅仅是尊重。当批评家们对他的做法表示愤怒时，他回应说：'你们“尊重”，但我爱。'

为什么报纸被认为是短暂的？

报纸被认为是短暂的，因为它们不持久。一旦我们阅读完毕，它们就会堆积在回收箱中，很快就被遗忘。

为什么人们会有从报纸上剪下某些内容保存下来的冲动？

人们有从报纸上剪下某些内容保存下来的冲动，因为这是一种从遗忘中保存对我们有意义事物的本能。

艺术家与收藏家的区别是什么？

艺术家与收藏家的区别在于，收藏家无差别地收集，而艺术家有选择性地收集他们真正喜欢的东西。艺术家的工作是收集想法，而阅读是收集想法的最好方式。

作者在2005年遇到了什么写作障碍？

作者在2005年刚从大学毕业时遇到了严重的写作障碍。她会坐在电脑前，盯着Microsoft Word屏幕，但写作——曾经给她带来巨大乐趣的事情——变得不再有趣。

作者如何克服她的写作障碍？

作者通过在报纸上用标记笔画出吸引她的单词，并将这些单词连接成短语和有趣的说法来克服写作障碍。她将不需要的单词涂黑，并将这些作品发布到她的博客上，称之为报纸涂黑诗。

什么是报纸涂黑诗？

报纸涂黑诗是一种艺术形式，作者通过在报纸上用标记笔圈出单词并连接它们来创作诗歌，然后将不需要的单词涂黑，形成一种独特的视觉效果。

汤姆·菲利普斯的'A Humument'项目是什么？

汤姆·菲利普斯的'A Humument'项目是一个持续四十年的艺术项目，他在维多利亚时期的小说页面上进行绘画和绘制，留下单词，就像作者在报纸涂黑诗中所做的那样。

威廉·巴勒斯的'cut-up method'是什么？

威廉·巴勒斯的'cut-up method'是一种写作技巧，通过将文本切割并重新配置这些片段来创造新的文本。

为什么作者认为自己的创作方法并不完全原创？

作者发现，她的创作方法可以追溯到250年前，有一系列的艺术家和作家，如特里斯坦·扎拉、卡莱布·惠特福德等，他们都有在报纸中寻找诗歌的历史。

作者如何看待创意工作中的原创性？

作者认为没有什么是完全原创的，所有的创意工作都建立在之前的基础上。每一个新想法都是一个或两个先前想法的混合或重组。

作者如何定义创意盗窃？

作者将自己定义为一个创意窃贼，但她只偷那些对她有意义且能在她作品中使用的东西。她认为创意盗窃的关键在于将偷来的东西转化为自己的东西。

史蒂夫·乔布斯是如何看待借鉴他人作品的？

史蒂夫·乔布斯认为应该尽可能地让自己接触到人类所做的最好的事情，并将这些事物融入到自己的工作中。他引用了毕加索的话：'好的艺术家复制，伟大的艺术家偷窃。'

大卫·鲍伊如何看待自己的创作？

大卫·鲍伊认为自己不是一个原创艺术家，而更像是一个有品味的小偷，他只研究那些他能从中偷窃的东西。

T.S.艾略特对于创意盗窃有什么看法？

T.S.艾略特认为不成熟的诗人模仿，而伟大的诗人偷窃。但他指出，坏诗人会破坏他们偷来的东西，而好诗人则会将其转化为更好或至少是不同的东西。

作者建议听众如何从演讲者那里获得灵感？

作者建议听众从演讲者那里偷取一些与他们共鸣的东西，将其带回自己的工作台，与自己的想法和思考结合起来，转化为全新的事物，然后将其发布到世界上，这样别人就可以从他们那里偷窃。

Outlines

00:00

🎨 创造与借鉴：斯特拉文斯基与报纸诗

斯特拉文斯基通过借鉴经典乐谱创作新芭蕾舞曲的故事引出了作者对报纸的热爱。作者从小在报纸的陪伴下长大，尽管报纸是短暂的，但人们仍倾向于保存对自己有意义的内容。作者认为人类是收集者，尤其是艺术家，他们有选择性地收集自己真正热爱的东西。艺术家的工作是收集想法，而阅读报纸是收集人类经验的好方法。作者在大学毕业后遇到了写作障碍，通过用记号笔在报纸上圈出吸引自己的单词并创作成报纸诗来克服这一障碍。这种创作方式最终在互联网上传播开来，并被收录在作者的第一本书《报纸黑幕》中。作者最初认为自己的创作是原创的，但后来发现英国艺术家汤姆·菲利普斯（Tom Phillips）早在60年代就开始了类似的创作，他的项目名为“A Humument”，持续了四十年。菲利普斯的灵感来自于威廉·巴勒斯（William Burroughs）的“剪切法”写作技巧，而巴勒斯的灵感则来自于他的朋友布里昂·吉辛（Brion Gysin）。

05:01

📚 创意的传承：从吉辛到特里斯坦·扎拉

作者继续探索报纸诗的起源，发现布里昂·吉辛的灵感来自于他在准备画布时偶然发现的报纸条。而这种技巧可以追溯到更早的特里斯坦·扎拉，他在巴黎的舞台上通过剪切报纸并随机组合来创作诗歌。再往前追溯，作者发现本杰明·富兰克林的邻居凯莱布·惠特福德（Caleb Whitford）在18世纪就通过阅读报纸的列而不是逐行阅读来创造有趣的组合，最终出版了一份传单。作者意识到，自己的想法并非原创，而是有着250年历史的报纸诗歌传统的一部分。作者没有因此气馁，而是认识到所有创造性工作都建立在前人的基础上，每个新想法都是对一个或两个先前想法的重新混合。作者决定将这些艺术家纳入自己的创意家谱，并从他们那里尽可能多地“偷取”灵感。

10:03

🎭 创意的盗窃：转化为致敬

作者强调，创意的盗窃不在于模仿，而在于转化。不是简单地复制，而是将所借鉴的内容转化为自己独特的东西。作者鼓励听众从他们遇到的所有演讲者那里“偷取”灵感，将这些灵感与自己的想法结合起来，创造出全新的作品，并将其分享给世界。作者以史蒂夫·乔布斯、毕加索和大卫·鲍伊的观点来支持这一观点，他们都认为伟大的艺术家是“偷窃”的，但他们将所“偷”的东西转化为更好的或至少是不同的东西。作者以鼓励大家成为“创意的窃贼”结束演讲，并获得了掌声。

Keywords

💡伊戈尔·斯特拉文斯基

伊戈尔·斯特拉文斯基是20世纪著名的作曲家，视频中提到他创作新芭蕾舞剧时，并没有完全从头开始，而是借鉴了自己喜爱的经典乐谱，并进行修改，这一行为引发了批评家的愤怒。斯特拉文斯基的回应“你‘尊重’，但我爱”体现了他对经典作品的个人化解读和创新精神，与视频主题——创造性地借鉴和转化前人作品——紧密相关。

💡报纸

报纸在视频中的角色是作为创意和灵感的来源。演讲者从小就与报纸为伴，尽管报纸是短暂的，但人们仍然有保存意义深远内容的冲动。报纸不仅是信息的载体，也是艺术创作的素材，如视频中提到的“报纸黑影诗”就是通过选取报纸上的文字创作而成，体现了报纸在艺术创作中的价值。

💡创作阻塞

创作阻塞是指创作者在创作过程中遇到的障碍，无法顺畅地表达自己的想法。视频中演讲者提到自己大学毕业后遭遇了创作阻塞，面对空白的电脑屏幕感到无助。这种经历促使她寻找新的创作方法，最终通过报纸黑影诗找到了创作的新途径，这一转变体现了面对困难时创造性解决问题的重要性。

💡黑影诗

黑影诗是一种艺术形式，通过在报纸上用马克笔标记和涂黑不需要的文字，创造出新的诗句和表达。视频中演讲者通过黑影诗克服了创作阻塞，并将其发展成为一种流行的网络艺术形式，最终集结成书。黑影诗的创作过程体现了对传统媒体的再利用和艺术创作的创新。

💡汤姆·菲利普斯

汤姆·菲利普斯是一位英国艺术家，他的项目“A Humument”与演讲者的黑影诗有相似之处，都是通过对现有文本的再创作来形成新的艺术作品。视频中提到，演讲者在得知自己的创作并非独创后，发现了菲利普斯的作品，并从中获得了灵感，这表明艺术创作中的借鉴和再创造是普遍现象。

💡创意血统

创意血统是指艺术家在创作过程中所借鉴和吸收的前人作品和思想的脉络。视频中演讲者提到，她决定构建一个创意血统，将历史上的艺术家和他们的作品纳入自己的创作视野，并从中吸取灵感。这一概念强调了艺术创作不是孤立的，而是在前人的基础上不断发展和演变。

💡创造性的盗窃

创造性的盗窃是指艺术家在创作过程中借鉴和吸收他人的作品、思想，并将其转化为自己独特的创作。视频中演讲者自称为“创造性的窃贼”，她鼓励观众从遇到的每个人和每件事中吸取灵感，并将其转化为新的创作，这一概念体现了艺术创作中的借鉴和转化的重要性。

💡基因

基因在视频中被用作类比，说明每个人都是由父母和祖先的遗传物质混合而成的独特个体。这一概念被用来强调艺术创作中的“基因”——即艺术家所吸收和转化的各种思想和风格。通过创造性的借鉴，艺术家形成了自己独特的艺术“基因”。

💡威廉·巴勒斯

威廉·巴勒斯是一位美国作家，视频中提到他的“剪切法”写作技巧，即通过剪切和重新组合文本来创造新的写作。巴勒斯的方法影响了其他艺术家，如布里昂·吉辛，进而影响了演讲者的黑影诗创作，展示了艺术创作中思想和技术的传播和演变。

💡特里斯坦·查拉

特里斯坦·查拉是一位达达主义诗人，视频中提到他在巴黎的一次表演中，通过剪切报纸并随机组合文字来创作诗歌。查拉的这一行为是艺术创作中随机性和偶然性的体现，同时也展示了艺术创作中对传统媒介的创新使用。

💡凯莱布·惠特福德

凯莱布·惠特福德是本杰明·富兰克林的邻居，视频中提到他在18世纪通过跨栏阅读报纸的方式，创造出有趣的文字组合，并最终出版了相关的作品。惠特福德的故事展示了艺术创作中对日常事物的观察和创新思考的重要性。

Highlights

伊戈尔·斯特拉文斯基在创作新芭蕾舞剧时，不从零开始，而是修改自己喜爱的经典乐谱。

斯特拉文斯基借用了著名作品中的低音线和旋律，但创作了自己的和声和节奏。

新芭蕾舞剧发布后，评论家愤怒，斯特拉文斯基回应称他之所以这样做是因为爱。

演讲者从小与报纸为伴，父母订阅了两种不同的报纸。

报纸是短暂的，读完后就会被丢弃，但人们仍有保存意义事物的冲动。

人类是收集者，尤其是艺术家，他们有选择性地收集自己真正喜爱的东西。

艺术家的工作是收集想法，而阅读是收集想法的最佳方式之一。

2005年，演讲者刚大学毕业，遭遇了严重的写作障碍。

演讲者通过在报纸上用记号笔圈出吸引自己的单词，创作了“报纸黑影诗”。

报纸黑影诗在网络上传播开来，并被收录在演讲者的第一本书中。

演讲者发现，她的创作方法与英国艺术家汤姆·菲利普斯的作品有相似之处。

汤姆·菲利普斯的“人类纪念碑”项目已经持续了四十年。

演讲者追溯了报纸诗歌的历史，发现这一传统已有250年之久。

演讲者意识到，没有什么是完全原创的，所有创意工作都建立在之前的工作之上。

演讲者提出了创意剽窃的观点，认为艺术家应该从他们欣赏的艺术家那里“偷取”灵感。

史蒂夫·乔布斯、毕加索和大卫·鲍伊都曾表达过对“偷取”伟大创意的看法。

演讲者鼓励听众从他们遇到的每个人那里“偷取”灵感，并将其转化为全新的东西。

Transcripts

Transcriber: Tatjana Jevdjic Reviewer: Capa Girl

So there is a story about the composer Igor Stravinsky.

Stravinsky was about to start a new ballet.

But instead of starting completely from scratch,

he pulled out some of his favorite classic manuscripts,

and he got out his red pen,

and he started correcting the scores

as if it was his own music.

And he borrowed baselines and melodies from the famous works,

but he composed his own harmonies and rhythms underneath that work.

And when the ballet came out, critics were outraged.

They said, "How dare you do this to the classics?

Leave the classics alone."

Anybody knows Stravinsky's reply?

He said, "You 'respect', but I love."

Well, I love newspapers. I grew up with newspapers.

My parents subscribed to two different newspapers.

My father in law and my uncles are both reporters,

and I've been reading newspapers my whole life.

The trouble with newspapers is that they're ephemeral.

They don't last.

When we're done reading them, they stack up in the recycle bin.

Despite all that, I don't know anyone who hasn't clipped

something out of the newspaper.

Our impulse is to save the things that mean something to us from oblivion.

I think the human beings are collectors and artists especially.

Not hoarders, mind you, there's a difference.

Hoarders collect indiscriminately, and artists collect selectively.

They only collect the things that they really love.

An artist's job is to collect ideas

and the best way I know to collect ideas is to read.

And what better thing to read than a daily dispatch of human experience

that is the daily newspaper.

So, in 2005, I was right out of college, right out of undergrad,

and I had a horrible case of writer's block.

I would sit, I would stare at the Microsoft Word screen,

and that little cursor would blink at me as if it were taunting me.

And writing, which is once given me great joy, it was now --

it wasn't any fun for me anymore.

So one day, I was staring at that screen

and I looked over at the recycle bin

with that stack full of papers, and I thought, "Here am I. Here I am,

without any words.

And right next to me or thousands of them, and they've delivered

to my doorstep everyday."

So I thought I might steal a few, and this is what I did:

I picked up my marker that I use for drawing,

and I started making boxes around words that popped out at me.

And I start connecting those words into little phrases and funny sayings.

And when I was done, I blacked out all the words I didn't need.

And this is what it looks like. It looks like as if the CIA did haiku.

(Laughter)

And I really wasn't sure what I was doing.

All I knew was that it felt really good to watch some of those words

disappear under that marker line.

So what I did, was I started posting them to my blog

and I called them newspaper blackout poems.

And slowly over time, they spread around the Internet

and I collected them in my first book Newspaper Blackout.

Now, I thought I was ripping off the Government.

That's John Lennon's FBI file on the left and the blackout poem on the right.

But over time I started getting all kinds of emails and tweets

and other comments that my work was completely unoriginal.

And the artist that people pointed to the most was this brilliant

British artist named Tom Phillips.

Back in the sixties Tom Phillips walked into a bookstore,

and he picked up the first Victorian novel he found.

And he went home, and he started drawing

and painting of the pages.

And if you can see, he left words, much like I do,

he left words floating in his art pieces. And he's done this for forty years.

His projects called "A Humument". And you could look it up --

It's been a lifelong project for him.

What I discovered about Tom Phillips is that he actually got the idea

for his forty-year project by reading a Paris Review interview

with the writer William Burroughs,

when Burroughs was talking about his cut-up method of writing,

which is when you take a piece of writing, cut it up

and reconfigure the pieces to make a new piece of writing.

Funny enough, when I started researching Burroughs,

I found out that Burroughs got the idea

for the cut-out technique from his friend Brion Gysin.

Brion Gysin was a painter at the time. And he's preparing a canvas

and when he was cutting the canvas, he cut through a stack of newspapers

and the way the newspaper strips floated and the words worked together,

gave him an idea of how to make poetry.

But then, you do a little bit more research

and you find out that thirty years before that

that thirty years before that, there was a poet named Tristan Tzara

who in Paris, went onstage, got a hat, got a newspaper,

cut up the newspaper,

put the pieces in the hat, pulled them out one by one

and read them as a poem.

I traced things all the way back to the 1760s

where neighbor of Benjamin Franklin named Caleb Whitford --

in those old days, the newspaper was fairly new

and the columns were very skinny,

so what Caleb did is he read across the columns

instead of reading them top to bottom. And he would get all these

funny combinations and he'd crack up his friends in the pub.

And eventually he published a broadsheet of them.

So not only was my idea completely unoriginal,

it turns out there was a 250 year old history of finding poetry in the newspaper.

So what am I supposed to do?

Instead of getting discouraged I kept on, because I know something

that a lot of artists know but few will admit to.

And that is nothing is completely original.

All creative work builds on what came before.

Every new idea is just a remix or mash-up

of one or two previous ideas.

And this is a bit of what I'm talking about. They teach you this in art school.

Draw a line. Draw another line next to it.

How many lines are there?

Well there is the first line you drew.

And there's the second line you drew.

But then, there's line of black space running in between them.

One plus one equals three.

And speaking of lines here's an example of what I'm talking about:

Genetics.

You have a mother and you have a father, but the sum of you is greater

than their parts.

You are a remix or a mash-up of your mother and your father

and all of your ancestors.

And just as you have a familial genealogy,

you also have a genealogy of ideas.

You don't get to pick your family,

but you can pick your friends, and you can pick the books you read,

and you can pick the movies you see, the music you listen to,

the cities you live in etc.

You are a mash-up of what you let into your life.

So, what I decided to do, was I decided to take all these artists

that came before me, and build a kind of family tree,

a creative lineage that I could draw from.

And then I would add those to the artists that I already admired

and appreciated.

And steal everything from them that I possibly could.

That's right. Steal. I am a creative kleptomaniac.

But unlike your regular kleptomaniac, I'm interested in stealing the things

that really mean something to me,

the things that I can actually use in my work.

And Mr. Steve Jobs actually has a better way of explaining it

than I think I could.

Steve Jobs: It comes down to try to expose yourself

to the best things that humans have done.

And then try to bring those things in to what you're doing.

I mean, Picasso had a saying, he said,

"Good artists copy, great artists steal."

And, I've always been shameless about stealing great ideas.

Picasso, he said it. Art is theft.

One time a writer asked the musician David Bowie

if he thought he was original. He said, "No, no,

I'm more like a tasteful thief."

And he said, "The only art I'll actually study

is the stuff that I can steal from.

How does an artist look at the world?

Well, first, she asked herself what's worth stealing,

and second, she moves on to the next thing.

That's about all there is to it. When you look at the world this way

there is no longer good art and bad art.

There's just art worth stealing and art that isn't.

And everything in the world is up for grabs.

If you don't find something worth stealing today,

you might find it worth stealing tomorrow, or the month after that

or years later.

T.S. Eliot said that immature poets imitate,

great artists, great poets steal.

But he said, "Bad poets take what they steel

and they deface it.

And the good poets turn it into something better

or at least something different."

And that's really the key to creative theft.

Imitation is not flattery.

So, instead of writing poetry like William Burroughs,

or doing colorful art pieces like Tom Phillips,

I decide to try to push the poems in the my own thing

and keep going with them. Because I know

that it's actually transformation that is flattery:

taking the things you've stolen and turning it into your own thing.

So today, you listen to all these wonderful speakers

for the past hour or so. And what I want you to do is

what my friend Wendy Macnaughton the artist does,

I want you to rip off everyone you've met.

All the speakers you've heard take a nugget of something

that resonates with you.

The people you bump into today, later,

take something from them, but bring it back to your desk.

Bring it back to where you do your work,

combine it with your own ideas and your thoughts.

Transform it into something completely new.

And then put it out into the world, so we can steal from you.

And that's how you steal like an artist.

Thank you.

(Applause)