From Anonymity to Boredom to Creativity

Abstract

Boredom has been acknowledged as a necessary moment before creation. Throughout the history of modern architecture, influential figures – including Le Corbusier and Philip Johnson – have confessed to suffering the condition, denoting that the desire to elude it has been a fundamental factor in their work. Moreover, due to the monotonous and anonymous processes required for the assembly of architecture, boredom ensues from the lack of opportunities of personal expression. Contextualized by studies from different fields, this article explores the relationship between anonymity, boredom and creativity through an interview with Peter Cook, and a series of drawings by Ingrid Lønningdal, titled Performance with Ruler and Digits I–VIII.

Keywords:

• anonymity
• boredom
• creativity
• Peter Cook
• Le Corbusier
• Philip Johnson
• drawing
• ruler

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Brian O’Doherty, Object and Idea: An Art Critic’s Journal 1961–1967 (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1967), 237.

2. Quoted in Hannah Richardson, “Children Should Be Allowed to Get Bored, Expert Says,” BBC News, 2013, http://www.bbc.com/news/education-21895704.

3. Bertrand Russell, The Conquest of Happiness (New York: Bantam Books, 1968), 43.

4. Quoted in Paul Kennedy, “The Motorcycle Is Yourself,” CBC (2015), http://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/the-motorcycle-is-yourself-1.2914205.

5. For instance, Andreas Elpidorou, “The Bright Side of Boredom,” Frontiers in Psychology 5 (2014); Jack Barbalet, “Boredom and Social Meaning,” The British Journal of Sociology 50, no. 4 (1999): 631–646; Wijnad Van Tilburg and Eric Igou, “On Boredom and Social Identity: A Programmatic Meaning-Regulation Approach,” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 37, no. 12 (2012): 1679–1691; Shane Bench and Heather Lench, “On the Function of Boredom,” Behavioral Sciences (Basel) 3, no. 3 (2013): 459.

6. Quoted in Richardson, “Children Should Be Allowed to Get Bored, Expert Says.”

7. Sandi Mann, “Does Boredom Bring Out Our Creative Flair?,” Huffington Post (2013), http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/sandi-mann/does-boredom-bring-out-out-creative-flair_b_2447393.html (italics in original). The elaborations by Mann have been widely reported in mainstream media, including in Eleanor Halls, “How You Can Use Boredom to Increase Happiness and Creativity,” GQ (2016), http://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/boredom-just-got-interesting.

8. Furthermore, “neither apathy, nor dislike, nor frustration can fulfill boredom’s function.” Elpidorou, “The Bright Side of Boredom” (italics in original).

9. Quoted in Nicholas Weber, Le Corbusier: A Life (New York: Knopf, 2008), 52 (italics in original).

10. Translated from ennui. Quoted in ibid., 76.

11. Philip Johnson and Jeffrey Kipnis, “A Conversation around the Avant-Garde,” in Autonomy and Ideology. Positioning an Avant-Garde in America, ed. R. E. Somol (New York: The Monacelli Press, 1997), 45.

12. Ibid., 44.

13. Unlike the urbanity of Johnson, his aversion departed from his upbringing in provincial England, decreasing once he arrived in London in the late 1950s. Christian Parreno, Interview with Peter Cook (unpublished, 2014).

14. Peter Cook and Archigram, Archigram (Princeton: Princeton Architectural Press, 1999), 8.

15. Parreno, Interview with Peter Cook.

16. For Sylvia Lavin, “if boredom, like frustration, is the key to invention, more boredom now will lead to more invention in the future.” Sylvia Lavin, “Lying Fallow,” Log 29 (2013): 24.

17. Parreno, Interview with Peter Cook.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Christian Parreno

Christian Parreno is assistant professor of history and theory of architecture at Universidad San Francisco de Quito. He holds a PhD from the Oslo School of Architecture and Design, an MA in Histories and Theories from the Architectural Association, and an architectural degree from Universidad San Francisco de Quito. His writings have been published in Log, Textual Practice, The Journal of Architecture, The Journal of Architectural Education and several edited volumes.

Ingrid Lønningdal

Ingrid Lønningdal is a visual artist and associate professor of freehand drawing at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design. In her artistic practice she seeks to provide an understanding of the spaces we inhabit, often by using architecture as a starting material. Lønningdal holds an MA in Art from the Oslo National Academy of the Arts and has exhibited extensively.