{City of Color} Positano, Italy

Image: pixabay.com

{City of Color} Nyhavn, Denmark

Image: unsplash.com/Nick Karvounis

Animated Short Alive: When Society + Monotony Kill Creativity

A good friend of mine shared this mini film on Facebook weeks ago and it’s stuck with me ever since. Alike is an animated short on what happens when society kills creativity with its standards of success, productivity and “proper adulting.” It starts early on when schools focuse on test scores and passing marks and continues on to the 9-to-5’s and cubicle jobs. Wake up, work, repeat. Education and making money are important, but so are creativity, the arts, music, free writing, expression. Coloring outside the lines! Or within the lines if that’s what makes your heart happy.

How many times haven’t we forgone the chance to pursue creativity or measure success by our own out-of-the-box standards just because someone else has dismissed how much it could nourish our soul? Or because they tease that we’re just goofing around or wasting our life? (Lord knows I’ve felt that way myself.) How many schools haven’t closed down arts programs when funds start to dwindle? Kids need the space to imagine and create without being forced back into the box and adults need the chance to brainstorm and tinker on the job instead of only pushing themselves to complete daily tasks on time. Who knows what innovative things we’d dream up during those opportunities? And how much more nourished would we feel?



Images: vimeo.com

https://vimeo.com/channels/alikeshort

{City of Color} Washington, D.C.

Image: pixabay.com