Creatology to me is the child of Creativity and Technology. No longer are the guys working in creative side confined to utility options like paper and pen & software that meets the basic needs. They have the latest technological offerings, be it the visual modelling software or Adobe Photoshop etc at their disposal.
And this is where my quest starts. Has this intrusion effected a permanent change in our thinking process OVER THE YEARS? Is it safe to assume that human creativity which
at once was handicapping itself for the lack of availability of technological tools (that could convert sophisticated and complex thoughts into still and/or motion visual pictures), has come to a self-realization about this technological upgradation?
Art Illustrations (in an ad) has evolved over the years, which is to say that the visual rhetoric of an idea or a concept has evolved with time. Let us take any object for example, say a lemon. It was earlier represented as a simplistic 2D object, then facial features were added to it, this was followed by 3D representation of it, now I see lemon being characterized to the extent that it (rather he) talks, cracks joke and so on.
Let us take another example, say a Tooth Brush. From being represented as a single stick, it is now characterized with hands, legs and sun glasses. It even talks, gets married and has children – that of small tooth brushes. This is a classic example of how seemingly mundane things and objects in an ad is now characterized and a story woven around them, thanks in large extent to Creatology.
How has this influenced the humane creative thought process? Though very nascent with few (if any) research performed on the issue, there are clear signals emanating from it. This technological upgradation has played an undermining role in conceiving & shaping up of ideas by the human mind. It is like the human mind has adapted itself to this change in state.
I believe this could partly be because of the readiness in the part of the creative people in flexing their cognitive muscles in bringing the traditional taboos into reality, with the help of technological tools – be it the software or artificial intelligence.
This is reflected in the story that gets conceived these days with different characters. Vodafone’s ZooZoo ads, conceived by Ogilvy & Mather ad agency is one such. More than the characters themselves, it is the storyline that interests me. When 7up came up with Fido Dido character, the accompanying storyline didn’t get much attention or probably was not given that much importance as it was given to the character. The character overshadowed the underlying story to a large extent or so I think.
This takes me back to the question that I’m researching upon. Are these changes due to the emergence of what I call Creatology or was it an intermediary result of evolution? These questions and many more constantly push me for further analysis in the near future.
Shriram Sivaramakrishnan
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