John is a senior Art History major at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois. He graduated from Morrison High School in Morrison, Illinois in 2006. He is currently running an on-going project called Information Delivery Service though his blog Foam Facebook. SP: What sparked IDS?
JB: To begin with, Information Delivery Service was claimed just as a name for the free-form musical projects I was involved with in the past year, with the idea that this sort of generalized info-age name would be something that has the power/possibility to move beyond myself. All of the free-improv gigs before IDS were usually labeled with "John Benson" just because I never had a name to offer the music promoters who were representing my musical comrades and I, and so they just took mine. I really didn't like that a collective of musicians were being umbrellaed under my name considering how equally important everybody else's efforts were in our music, and so after a couple gigs like that, I decided it was time for the collective (which is never really embodied by any specific number of individuals) to come into its own.
Information Delivery Service comes from Information Delivery Services, the department I was working in at the Founders Memorial Library at NIU. IDS is basically the central local for information arrivals and departures around central Northern Illinois. You might think of it as an airport for information. My job at IDS was to send articles on their way through the information circuits of the globe. I guess what really sparked Information Delivery Service (the collective), then, was the idea that anything can be rendered into information at this point in time. Going back to the beginning, I see IDS as having been about delivering sound as information, both as an alternative to the hegemonic definition of information that the scholarly world typically propagates (ideas generally, words specifically, and, in other words, the stuff of books and articles), but more to the point, because I believed that free-jazz was the sort of radical information that I saw fit to lionize. (and I still do) The spark, to put it another way, is the way we imagine information today.
And the revolutionary potential in that is that it makes way for the expanding (or exploding, depending on how you look at it) of the canon of Information in the twenty first century
SP: What does creativity mean to you?
JB: Information Delivery Service is a vehicle for infinite creative imagineering. IDS is a reflexive agency of information sharing. It is opening to whatever people are going to put into it. So in that way, IDS means freedom to me. It means I am a free agent of information. It means the world (of information) to me. It means the world of creative culture. Creativity is the sort of life-blood of all active being. It means you are making something out of yourself and your experiences, but not in the same way that career achievement might suppose one has made something out of oneself. Creativity defines our experiences and the uses we put to them much more intimately than does any title that could be instituted by society. Today, creativity is the cornerstone of D-I-Y politics. That etches a lot of meaning into creative activity for me. (For more on the matter of creativity and DIY politics, please consider reading Aldous Huxley very short article, “Science, Liberty and Peace”)
SP: What was high school like for you?
JB: I had enjoyable classes and a great teacher, but it was not a particularly enriching atmosphere. Most of the students didn't want to be there, and they took the classes as blow-off classes. It was not the best environment to work in. All of my creativity was done on my own.
SP: Where have you been channeling your creative energy most recently? How does this relate to your upbringing?
JB: My focus right now is on cultural invention and mythic imagination. The process is taking me all over the place. I am inventing the idea of alternative modernity in the image of my imagination. I have invented a mythic representation of myself (my avatar if you will): Foamface. Through this character, I am inventing a world in my imagination that is another possibility of the world we have inherited from society. Thus it is an alter-modernity. One goal of this project is to establish an alternative society of information agents via the internet. It is about realizing the revolutionary potential of information: that is to change world (or at least provide a better one) through free D-I-Y culture. This would be a collaborative project for the today’s couriers of creative information. My creative energy, then, is going into figuring out how this gets done.
Seems like much of my life (at least my childhood) has been lived under the spell of a very charmed imagination. In a way, I’ve been reconnecting myself with the task of my youth, which was to be an inventor. Of course I also wanted to be a comic book artist, a toy maker, a super hero, a novelist, a sculptor and whole long, on-going parade of other figures that seemed romantic to my childhood imagination. I’ve always been distant from the real world because my imagination so often and easily prompts me away to very lofty and far off places. Perhaps I am on my way to returning to the world of possibilities that only a child can have. The only difference is that I don’t think I can (or will) sacrifice all of the practical knowledge that I have acquired of living in the world. I am reconnecting with my child self while still being aware that I am here (in the tangible world). Art is where imagination and the tangible collide.
SP: What do you hope to do with your creativity in the next 5 years? 10 Years?
JB: In five years, I like to imagine that I will have gotten the agency of IDS off the ground. I hope that I will be an excellent messenger of information. Also, I might be a substitute teacher.
In 10 years I hope to have really found what makes me happy in life. I believe that will probably be accomplished through creative means. If I can do this in 5 years (or less), that would be brilliant. Maybe it will really take me a lifetime. Either way, I think it would be cool if in ten years I have become something of a teacher in the fullest sense of the word. I like to think that that would be the gift that keeps on giving.
SP:What are some accomplishments that have bloomed from your creativity?
JB: The dozens of welded metal sculptures that I produced have brought me modest fame and riches in my youth. I received a number of commissions for my sculptures and an article about me was featured in an issue of Practice Welding Today, as well as a couple of local newspapers. Some of my works created are both public and monumental. I received recognition and praise through 4-H and their kind, yet critical judges of art. I also managed to become an isolated individual with not a friend to his name who experienced something much like agoraphobia. Then I made some friends. Then I had a solo show of my art at the River City Arts Center in Clinton, IA (the city where I was born).
I’ve played with many a talented musician. Performed many live free-jazz concerts, beginning with a performance opening for my high school’s jazz band concert. Recorded an album over the course of something like 14 hours with a trio of jazz musicians. Performed and choreographed 2 works of dance. The list certainly goes on, but I get weary of listing creative achievements. Don’t get me wrong, accomplishments are fun, but there is a lot more to life. True, creativity has its rewards. However, failures would be an even longer list.
SP: What aided the development in your creativity?
Erin is a freshman Fashion Design major at Columbia College in Chicago, Illinois. She graduated from Hampshire High School in 2006. SP: What got you interested in fashion?
EM: My interest in Fashion became apparent when I worked at Calvin Klein. Design is a combination of things I love: coloring, drawing, expressing, and communicating. Designing clothes for women also brings me closer to the little girl I was, helps me discover the young lady I am and the woman I will become. It also helps me understand other people.
SP: What does creativity mean to you?
EM: It’s like the same feeling when you want to kiss someone really badly. You want to stop doing everything you’re doing and do that to express your feelings.
SP: What was high school like for you?
EM: The projects helped channel all my thoughts and ideas. My teacher made me realize that art isn't all about breaking rules, and it's good to improve. I didn't like hearing that at the time because my perception of art has always been boundless, but as it turns out, there are exceptions. Who doesn’t want their art to improve? If you're going to be an artist you need to filter through constructive criticism and listen to keep some of it in your pocket, learn from it then let it go.
My High school peers and I were on a different flow. I felt pretty burnt out and dull, and uncreative toward the end of high school. I was out of creatively out of shape because there weren't many people to share my interests with.
SP: Where have you been channeling your creativity most recently? How does this relate to your upbringing?
EM: A lot of my creative energy has been going into designing clothes. I never really grew out of scribbling. Ideas are always coming to me.
SP: What do you hope to do with your creativity in the next 5 years? 10 Years?
EM: In five years I’d love to work for Chloé designing clothes. In Ten years it would be really nice to start my own collection.
SP: What are some accomplishments that have bloomed from your creativity?
EM: I think of going to college as an accomplishment. I’m learning so much this year and it also has made me more “creatively active”.
SP: What obstacles have you faced in developing your creativity?
EM: When I already have a lot of projects for school it’s hard sometimes to find inspiration and time for my own projects that I believe in.
SP: What aided the development in your creativity?
EM: My parents.
Shannon is a senior Dance Performance major at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois. She graduated from Barrington High School in Barrington, Illinois in 2006. She has been dancing since she was born. SP: What got you interested in dance?
SS: I came out of the womb dancing. I always loved music, but I loved dancing to it even more. I was an avid head banger until I could walk, and then all hell broke loose!
My sister and I used to run out of the room in the middle of dinner, put on a record, dance around till we couldn't breathe, run back, sit down and burst into laughter. Moving was always so much fun for me, I could not keep the smile off my face.
When I turned three I was old enough to join Ballet, and I let the whole world know it. From that point forward my interest in dance began to shift and mold into more intricate designs. I was always the under dog because I was all limbs! It was hard to control myself as well as everyone else could. I was constantly shoved into the back, told I wasn't strong enough, and that I just wasn't trying. I used the negative feedback from my teachers to push me. I decided I was not there for their approval; I was there for myself. I loved to dance and I didn't know why yet, but gosh darn it I was going to find my way. From the back corner, I listened and watched diligently to the other student’s corrections, as well as their accomplishments. I taught myself by watching and listening how the movements were done. Ballet became a struggle for me, but one that I still found joy in. I was hooked
SP: What does creativity mean to you?
SS: The ability to be creative is in all of us, every life on this planet. It's the reason why we are all constantly changing and evolving. Our environment can only set the circumstances for change, and possibly push us toward a goal. It is the choice of the creature, to create a different way, causing change. Creativity is individual as well. It’s like a fingerprint. No one person has the same life or the same experiences. These are things that make up, what some people would call, the soul. The physical body is, I feel, part of the environment. The instincts we inherit from our experiences and our animal ancestors are environmental pushes for our creative unconscious to produce ideas. Change is what keeps life going.
The body takes us through these actions. It is a vessel for change.
SP: What was your high school experience like?
SS: My school had a high standard for art. There was separate hallways for art, theater, and dance. Unfortunately, I was pretty advanced and knew most of what they were teaching in the dance classes. It was mainly an exercise class for me. Also, many of the students took the class to goof off. I still learned quite a bit about the history of dance. It was an interesting experience, I was just surrounded by people who didn’t want to be there.
SP: Where have you been channeling your creativity most recently? How does this relate to your upbringing?
SS: I have been learning about ideas of dance in other cultures recently, and it has got me thinking about what dance means to other people. I like to study people, and really get a sense of what is going on in their mind through the gestures of their body. I feel like if I want to speak through some other form than words, I need to understand what causes people to move their body, not just around me, but all over the world. I not only want to communicate my ideas through movement and action, I also want others to feel moved to do the same. A freeing of the body can cause a freeing of the mind. The more open we are to other ideas as well as our own, the more I get across what I want to say to people. The trick is getting them involved.
I also have been thinking of the ugly. The repulsive feeling I get in the pit of your stomach when I look in the freaking mirror and all I see is shit. When I look at life and want to die. I need to find the core of my darkness. It is inside of me and I can’t very well keep it caged up.
Causing others to re-experience their own darkness would be my goal with this. If they were to feel I embodied some repressed thought in their subconscious, they may feel the opening of an ability to fully express themselves. Not just what seems appropriate in society, but everything on their minds. So many ideas go unheard because the fear of being exiled is too much wait to bear.
And beauty! The mind and body are such a beautiful connection to me. That something so pure and genuine as an emotion can be expressed only from the "hearts" connection to the body through the mind. You can’t bring anything genuine forth from you unless you can mentally connect yourself to that feeling. That is something everyone has in common. Feelings.
My ideas are a constant kaleidoscope. They're constantly shifting, changing and morphing back into one another. I cant tell you what my energy goes into really because it takes me over. I am overwhelmed by the possibilities. A constant cycle of change in the creative process keeps me on my toes! ;)
Well, I grew up in a strange environment. My Father has a disease called Lupus. I have watched him deteriorate from the goofy clown I grew up with to the extremely senile presence he can carry now. He and my mother have hated each other more than loved each other ever sense I was born. It’s hard to watch two people you love fight and bicker because one is incapable of helping the other. My dad has never really had a job. He is too slow for almost any work, and is becoming worse. There is no way he could support himself, so my Mamma keeps him as her husband. I watched their arguments like an insect on the wall. Seeing both sides, always just wishing I could say something to make them see the others side. But they never heard me. They were too deep in to be pulled out. My Dad had a couple strokes and a heart attack when I was in middle school, and I believe my perspective on life changed that day. I saw him through the hospital room window holding on to life by his teeth. I didn’t cry. I ended up going to dance that night actually. I couldn’t sit at home anymore. I gave two shits about perfection at that moment. I let my mind fly with out actually saying anything. Without putting my sorrow on anyone. I had an uncontrollable urge to just bore my feet into the floor and give it hell!!! When I got home I felt this strength in me. I was able to hold my mom and sister as they cried. I was at that moment a shoulder for the two strongest women I knew to cry on.
I went on from this experience to have a great interest in how other people feel. I knew there was something greater than me in this world, but that I had something to give. Life is fleeting. If I live a life of solitude, inside my own head I will never do anything worthwhile. Life is always best when you share with others, learn from others, and understand that there is no one-way.
SP: What do you hope to do with your talent/creativity in the next 5 years? 10 Years?
SS: I don't know. At this moment I want to explore, collaborate, perform for the masses, with the masses. I want to involve pedestrians in the art of dance. I want to bring it to the people for free, like graffiti. I want to keep things physical, not solely mental. Though I do want to explore issues I find important for contemplation or maybe action.
SP: What obstacles have you faced in developing your creativity?
SS: I guess the biggest one would be that I have a lot of anxiety when I'm around people. I think it holds me back sometimes from collaborating. I cant express myself to people with out a strange feeling of self-doubt.
SP: What aided the development in your creativity?
SS: All of the people I have ever met, all of the experiences I have ever had. My Father gave me the gift of a strange and wonderful imagination and gentile disposition. My Mother taught me to be strong, to give when you've got none, and bestowed upon me a sense of passion that I'm sure one day will cause me to spontaneously com-bust. And my sister most of all, she was the best friend I could have ever been born related to.
Pat is a senior Art major at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois. He graduated from Cary-Grove High School in Cary-Grove, Illinois in 2006. He has been working with the visual arts for as long as he can remeber. SP: What got you interested in art?
PM: It was just something embedded in me. I was just attracted to it, I loved creating something that was mine
SP: What does creativity mean to you?
PM: Creativity is the most important thing an artist has. It is much more important than technique, anyone can practice to draw something just as it exists. A creative person makes something more exist in a piece of art. Something deeper and more personal.
SP: What was your high school experience like?
PM: I was the only student at Cary-Grove to have ever taken every art class that was offered. It was an excellent experience. There were a few good teachers at school. I would eat lunch with them. My peers were nothing like me. They took art as a blow-off class. The pleasure of creating something that was my own kept me positive. It was like a world away from the world to me.
SP: Where have you been channeling your creative energy in most recently? How does this relate to your upbringing?
PM: I am working on a bunch of different projects, I try to my art going in many directions. “Channeling” my creativity in just one direction scares me. My art rarely relates to my up-brining. I was never encouraged to make art. None of my family or friends were artists. Art was my own thing. I did my own thing and I do now.
SP:What do you hope to do with your creativity in the next 5 years. 10 Years?
PM: I have a lot of plans for the future, but right now my main focus is going to a good grad school and starting up my design website to help pay for school. After grad school I was to teach at a college somewhere.
SP:What are some accomplishments that have bloomed from your creativity?
PM: I have done so much through my art. This week I hope to install my first permanent sculpture on campus. It is a giant titanium/aluminum fingerprint of my right ring finger.
SP: What obstacles have you faced in developing your creativity?
PM: Money for paying for certain projects and school are pretty much the only problems. Organization is a bit of a problem for me too.
SP: What aided the development in your creativity?
PM: Keeping an open mind at all times.
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