Chasing the Rush

The intrinsic conflict between the strive towards community recognition and self-distinguishing uniqueness continues. For that is whence most of our decisions derive. I do not refer to all desicions, however. It is the decisions and thoughts concerning the future - near and far - that this blog is dedicated to explore.

During the past few days, I have encountered quite a few symptoms of the Chasing of the Rush. The rush of sticking one's head out from the masses every once in a while. The rush of redefining one's own personal brand by expressing something that is out of the ordinary. And in every case, this rush is counterbalanced by the fear of having stuck the head out so far that there is a danger of becoming alone! I spent my Saturday night with friends at F12 - the night club was having a huge season closing party, where a friend of mine who ran the show got the less brilliant idea of painting live animals and having them around as art alongside pissed fashionistas and general routine party animals. Basically, a lot of things going on. Great fun at the moment for some perhaps. An idea, which did not come down so good in the minds of the readers of public press the next morning. A bit too much this time.

The point is, however, that whatever occurred on that scene and who specifically did what, it was implicitly agreed upon together! That is my layman macro trend of the day: The era of the lone hero who boldly stands up and represents his or her movement is being challenged by the re-invention of an old compromise. The collective has indeed re-ermerged as a valid substitute for the individual. The new generation finds its inspiration among the community-like artist movements, such as the French impressionists or the colorist/fauvist painters. Like them, it is now becoming more and more common to stick the heads out together, for both safety and greater impact.

Besides provocing scandals such as this every now and then, more positivt effects of the collective Chasing of the Rush are the many new music production collectives, increasingly dense art gallery clusters, micro fashion designer retailers, and many other factors that bring our environment to life. With the community wingmen watching your back, the lust and courage to break new ground becomes greater. Combined with today's virtually unlimited focus on expressing the individual creativity and uniqueness through the collective mind, the positive synergies of working and living closely together in clusters cannot be over-estimated. I am sure that more and more new ventures will be joint in the form of networks, partnerships, interest groups, industry clusters, joint marketing and such.

Natalia Goldin runs a great gallery in
the massive art gallery cluster at
Hudiksvallsgatan, Stockholm. Check
it out and be awed by the strength of
togetherness!


More in-depth on the topic of clusters, collective minds and the need for expression is bound to appear soon.