Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Anuva Fellner
Mrs. Compton
9 May 2016
Innovation in Art
Webster Dictionary, the definition of innovation is the act or process of introducing new
paintings, or music. A writer who is able to depict their story in an exceptional way that
engages the audience, a painter who can illustrate a vision in their mind in a creative way
that connects with the viewers and remains in their memory, or even when a musician
Merriam Webster Dictionary, abstract means expressing ideas and emotions by using
elements such as colors and lines without attempting to create a realistic picture. What
this means is that one needs to be able to formulate creative ideas or visions without
having something to reference to; they need to be able to come up with their own ideas
that they feel they would be recognized with. Artists want to be recognized or noticed by
the public in order to convey a message to the society. One needs to be expressive with
their ideas so their voice can be heard through their artwork. With free association, an
artists voice can be unique or different and stand out to the audience. According to
Merriam Webster Dictionary, free association means the reporting of the first thought that
comes to mind in response to a given stimulus. By using free association the artist can
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portray his or her feelings in a unique way that isnt structured around the social norm:
leading to innovation taking place in their field. Without artists introducing new
approaches to a situation, there would only be one standard way of getting a message
across to society, thereby limiting the voice of the artist. I hypothesize that innovation is
needed in the art field to allow artists to express themselves in unique ways that develops
Society has been known to affect a writer, artist, orator, or politician in many
ways when they communicate or attempt to formulate new ideas. Society can hinder
innovation in an artists field because the artist may not want to go against the social
norm by expressing a new idea. For example, Fredrick Douglass spoke up for those who
were too afraid to go against the social norm and fought for equality for all. Do you
mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak to-day? (Douglass 1). Douglasss use
of satire made a bigger impact on the audience rather than him just stating his position
bluntly. By advocating for his goal, Douglass was able to make an impact on many
African American lives along with women as well by fighting for them to be treated
fairly: by fighting to attain jobs, the right to citizenship, and the right to vote. With
Douglass breaking the social norm by standing up for a controversial issue, he was able
to give people the chance to make innovative ideas in their future careers and he
motivated others to come up with creative ideas to fight for a cause that is important to
them.
Innovation can also be accident-prone, meaning that someone came across the
idea with no intention of doing so. For example, Leonardo Da Vincis technique was
inspired by myths of the origin of art in accidental shapes. His art would encourage the
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viewer to search for meaning in chaos (Turner). Leonardo pointed out that in the ancient
days, artists would happen to come across a gnarled tree trunk or a piece of clay, whose
contours needed only a slight change to look strikingly like something else. Renaissance
artists employed all kinds of tricks that played with these ancient, shape-changing ideas
(Turner). Leonardo found this technique very interesting and creative, which made him
The government can play a major role in how an artist innovates. Governments
have started to give out more and more patents-making exclusive or proprietary claims or
pretensions (Merriam Webster)- over the past 20 years due to different advances in each
field. The patents provide an incentive for artists to discover and create new ideas in
hopes of gaining profit from their work. The creative work is also made public so others
can build on and benefit from the work from the original artist (Crow). The more an artist
is paid, the more innovative ideas he or she will create because they would be motivated
to achieve bigger ideas. Technology has opened the door to more innovative ideas as
well. New software programs have allowed creators to make new music, art, design, etc.
The number of applications in the three major patent offices increased by 40% between
1992 and 2002 (Why Collaboration Leads). Patents protect innovation, causing artists to
feel safer with expressing their ideas to their full extent without having to worry about
someone stealing their idea, leading to an increase in patent applications over the past
few years.
well. Historic artists like Leonardo were innovative in their standards, but since they
worked alone their resources and ideas were limited. Bringing together groups of people
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who have different ideas, approaches, experiences, and knowledge allows new ideas to
form. According to Nielson, working with 2 people can lead to a 16% improvement in
performance, with 3 to 4 people a 32% improvement, and with 6 or more people a 58%
improvement. Although group work can have many positive impacts, there are a few
obstacles that are faced. To prevent these obstacles there are some easy steps that need to
be taken: one needs to leverage the scale and diversity of U.S. institutions to serve large
succeed at scale, and apply cutting-edge research approaches to the issue of higher
In conclusion, my hypothesis was accepted because there are many things like
society, salaries, and collaboration that are proven to hinder or lead to innovation in the
art field. Artists are able to express themselves in a way that allows them to be
independent and develop a distinct voice that they can express to society in creative
ways. In order for the arts field to keep improving, an artist needs to be able to be
independent and create ideas that are unique. As society grows, an individual needs to
Works Cited
Boyle, Amy. "MoMA Learning." MoMA. MoMa Annual Education Fund, 2006. Web. 30
Apr. 2016.
Douglass, Fredrick. "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?" Rochester Ladies' Anti-
Turner, Christopher. "The Deliberate Accident in Art." Tate. Tate Britain, 1 Jan. 2011.
Wiens, Jason. "How Intellectual Property Can Help or Hinder Innovation." Kauffman