Filmmaker Adam Curtis often discusses the rise of individualism in his work, a term that describes the dominance of the views and expression of the singular over the collective.1 The rise of this desire for singularity, the eschewing of group mentality, leads to a social atomisation that diminishes connectivity and dissolves groups. If a single human being can be all they need, why would they need anyone else?
This sense of singularity is prevalent within the perception of creatives, but the illusion of the individual as a self-sufficient source of innovation and prodigious greatness is a dangerous ideology. In her Ted Talk on the elusive creative genius, Elizabeth Gilbert discusses how the belief that a single person can be the vessel for divine mystery is ‘just a smidge too much responsibility to put on one fragile, human psyche.’2
When we foreground details of solitary brilliance over the context and community of these individuals, we run the risk of uplifting the archetype of the ‘tortured artist’. In an article for the Independent, Yashi Banymadhub decries the reverence for this myth as ‘it allows mental illness to fester; to be glamourised and admired; even encouraged in the name of art.’3 Wouldn’t we rather our great minds are prioritising their mental health over some sort of autonomous eminence?
In the twilight of a period where enforced solidarity temporarily became the new normal, a sense of being with, among and physically next to feels all the more precious. The power of good company cannot be understated. Within our own community, groups such as RCA BLK, the Disabled Students’ Network and the Working Class Collective illustrate the need for solidarity, shared ideals and the foregrounding of commonalities. We need to find one another.
Students here have not only found this, but they are considering the groups and communities that exist beyond the RCA. Interactions, relationships, communities, connections, social and power dynamics are explored within their works. If you find your people here, reach out to them.
- Will Femstermaker, Dissent Magazine, Summer 2021 Issue, Adam Curtis’s Theory of Everything
- Elizabeth Gilbert, Ted.com, TED2009, Your elusive creative genius
- Yashi Banymadhub, The Independent, 10 October 2018, The tortured artist is a dangerous myth. It's the way creative workers are treated that causes breakdown
