20240421_Import-ExportPOV_pen

How EXIM can be a POV on societal living

Life can be lived in at least two distinct ways, right?
Experiential and Creative.

  1. Experiential is like importing, it is value-consuming.
    It costs us because we're consuming someone else's work/product, a higher tariff value if the supply is limited against the demand.

  2. Creative is doing something completely new, equivalent to creating export value.
    And remember, the words artistic and creative do not mean the same.

This brings us to the question; is our activity based between experiential consumption and creative desire?

For instance, I'm relying on an imported language and medium to communicate my thoughts to you. Whether my thoughts are unique or not, it's not truly creative as I'm propagating through a familiar channel.

But if I'm engaging myself in work that is inherently rooted in who I am, where I come from, and is capable of generating a unique value that can have only itself as a reference, I am also embracing a way for my community to generate value that is non-transferrable and irreplaceable in a global playing field. I create a centre of gravity for my work that cannot be pinpointed anywhere else.

This doesn't mean that indulging in pre-existing work isn't creative.
It also doesn't mean that a specific kind of work is creative by itself.

But a measure of how TRUE creativity can affect our chances of successful impact is based on the kind of legacy we want to leave behind for our future generations. Is it one that is endlessly replicated cross-cultural dependency that we find ourselves hinged on, or is it one we can call our own?

The point is, doing a certain line of activity doesn't necessarily mean it is creative because the intention of doing it may be to experience life as it is and not what else it could be. People usually mistake the former as a creative endeavour when it's actually the latter that pushes the limits of our reality.

In the case of films, take something like ஏழு கடல், ஏழு மலை (Seven Seas & Seven Mountains) by director Ram which seems to pertain to a distinct Tamil folklore, over a film like விடாமுயற்சி (Persistence) by director Magizh Thirumeni that feels like a sleek Hollywood thriller catered to Tamil sensibilities.
And the former has been selected by 3 international film festivals, thus emphasizing on the export potential. Just watch the trailer and you'll know why.

Perhaps being truly creative is more related to a need to materialise a novel experience, other than the need to present/re-package a pre-existing one.

It's a feeling beyond the mere desire to consume something differently.
It's the motivation to produce a unique value, i.e., to change something in the existing order of things that can be considered truly unfamiliar yet irresistible.

Ship of Thesus

(To be continued)