Often we hear an argument made for one individual’s ability to think and create effectively in sustained isolation; stories abound of the profound, unique ideas which come to people living and working totally alone, without human company for long periods - some of these lone 'thinkers' such as Henry David Thoreau in his Walden log cabin or Ludvig Wittgenstein, refusing to talk to other people for lengths of time, have given us some insightful thoughts and fascinating writing.
However, I think it is true that we live in an age where as isolated and even alienated as many feel, with a lack of community at the heart of so much unhappiness in contemporary western society, never before has there been such a profound and sustained interest in the idea of collaboration and working cross-arts (or with the notion of thinking as a social process). It’s true of course there are historical precedents for creative collaborations; think of the Pre-Raphaelites painting and poetry celebrated in postcards at WH Smith and on TV, as well as in BA English courses on Romanticism or late 19th century poetry. But the late 20th into the 21st century has seen creative collaboration develop in a range of contexts; it is often the natural outcome of two or more artists/creative people deciding to share ideas and practice (one well known collaborative partnership, artists Gilbert & George, has been successful since the 1970’s) but collaboration has also recently, if rather quietly, become more popular in schools and universities, in learning situations. And collaboration has been significantly aided (enhanced?) by computer technology, the internet and thus the possibilities of long distance collaboration...files are ping-ponged across whole continents in minutes! So universities, schools, industries, Facebook; all encourage collaboration, often in new, innovative forms.
When my son was learning to talk, his father and I unconsiously collaborated in a sort of encouraging baby-talk, moving from level 1 ('ga-ga') to level 2 ('garly-larly') and so on. Of course, he came to language from listening to all sorts of conversations every day, but this too is a kind of collaboration - the world outside the nursery offers consistent, universal language (in our case, English) and a child learns and grows and adapts as a result of his parents collaboration, and the world joins in the conversation. So perhaps these stories of an individual forming profound thoughts in isolation tell us something about concentration, about the ability to focus and conjure many unique ideas. But I believe the unacknowledged, unspoken collaboration between all speakers of the language is as profound and influential. And, incredibly, you still don't need a PC for the most important creative act we undertake: learning to say 'Ma' or 'Da-da'...or 'garly-larly'.
