A little while ago I was told to read this article. It's about the 'Helsinki Bus Theory' (read the article to find out more). It is all about creativity and originality and how hard it is, as an artist, to do any thing that is truly original. This is definitely something that I recognise, and for me, the minute I get bogged down in focusing on this rather than the idea itself I feel completely paralysed. Idea-less.
I think it is the same in other areas too - I know that when I was studying Philosophy I felt the same. When writing essays we were always told to come up with something new - a new argument, a new angle. But in attempting to be original, I would spend most of my time trying to find out whether anyone had already had my idea, rather than exploring the idea itself, which I think would have been a lot more fruitful.
The Helsinki Bus Theory suggests that everything you do at first will probably have been done before, but rather than jumping ship and trying to find something that is unique - you need to stick with it to get to the original bit. Or as the article more succinctly puts it: "If you pursue originality too vigorously, you'll never reach it. Sometimes it takes more guts to keep trudging the pre-trodden path, to the originality beyond."
It is an interesting thought. I think the most important thing in all of this is to be authentic. Who gives a shit if someone has already done something similar? If it is what you are interested in and want to explore then do it! And if you do it in your own, idiosyncratic way without worrying whether it resembles someone else's work, then I think the result will probably end up being pretty unique anyway.
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