Nothing else in the world…not all the armies…is so powerful as an idea whose time has come.
Victor Hugo
Histoire d’un Crime, 1877
Artist Statement
Ideas and creativity inherently have the capacity to not only dissolve violent entities, but solve for the issues where war and destructive action are wrongly implemented as a solution. Understanding that the majority of the audience who will see this image live in the worlds of design and creativity, it suggests that we are not doing enough. When one soldier borne from stock photography stands alone in a sea of battle lines drawn by a content-aware fill, it’s coded to raise the question, “couldn’t this be more creative?” Pretty much what Hugo was wondering more than 150 years ago, probably hoping that idea would have found its way by now.
Great Ideas at ChiDM, 2018. Photo: The Office of Experience.
