Beg, Borrow Or Steal: Is Inspiration an Act of Plagiarism?

“If, at first, an idea is not absurd, there is no hope for it.” Albert Einstein

So where do great ideas stem from and when exactly should we expect to receive those moments of inspiration? It could be while walking in the park, traveling, talking to friends, reading, dreaming, or perhaps we should look elsewhere for inspiration…? The public often thinks of artistic inspiration arriving in a sort of thunderbolt moment of creativity. The truth is, almost nothing is created out of thin air. It is human nature to absorb what we see and experience, and consequently be influenced by it. Many famous artists admit to drawing creative inspiration from the work of others. Sometimes this happens consciously, sometimes it happens subconsciously. But when does inspiration become plagiarism? In fact, is there even such a thing as an original idea?

The stealing of ideas by artists has been a fact of creative practice for centuries. The history of art is littered with examples of copying, plagiarising, faking or even forging work in the style of well-known artists. Recently, a number of completely unrelated artists have questioned whether the current Orange advertisement (Involving different coloured paints being poured into a series of bottles, bowls and tubs) had stolen their ideas. Countless artists have made works involving that same idea, albeit expressed in different ways, but legally one can have no copyright claim on the idea - only in their own original expression of it.

Advertising has notoriously been a great devourer of ideas, and creatives are constantly trawling through our cultural scrapheap, for that spark that will ignite their latest ‘original’ idea. For a number of years now, Apple’s advertising campaigns have placed themselves at the cultural cutting-edge. In order to do this they have liberally drawn upon modern art, photography and music videos. However, there have been incidents where artists have entered into negotiations with Apple to adapt their work for use in their advertising, only to have Apple withdraw from the discussions and then use their imagery anyway.

However, the greatest source of inspiration for both creatives & brands over the years has undoubtedly been the rich vein of music videos. Have a look at this Apple/Intel ad on the left and the original video by the band The Postal Service on the right and right to see ‘inspiration’ taken to a new level.

So when does inspiration cross the line and become plagiarism? How much of someone else’s idea can we build upon before we can call it our own? These are questions that have ambiguous answers. Personally I think everyone has been guilty of a bit of plagiarism, even if it occurs in the subconscious. Ideas are constantly absorbed, regurgitated and recycled. Often the result is sufficiently abstracted from the original idea to call it inspiration; sometimes (as in the case of Intel) the result is a carbon copy of the original idea. However, maybe we shouldn’t be so quick to paint a picture of creatively barren agencies plundering the originality of the poor artists. Daft Punk, a band known as musical innovators have themselves not been adverse to ‘borrowing’ inspiration from other musical sources.

It is human nature to absorb what we see and experience and consequently, be influenced by it. However, I feel we must endeavor to find that original idea within us, or at very least to beg, borrow or steal other people’s ideas and truly build upon them.
 
 
Brian Kelly - Creative Director, soundlounge.
 
Thanks to all those I have plagerised..eh, been inspired by for this article.