The “Creative Foul”

“Flag on the play”, “foul, shoot 2…” Sports have penalties if rules/boundaries are crossed. Why can’t creative works have a “creative foul?”For the tone deaf, the unempathetic, the disconnected, and the overuser. There’s nothing wrong with being inspired by great works and trends, but let’s keep away from the unoriginal, deflated, and flat creative works. 

Anytime I see work that is disconnected from the culture or individuals it is supposed to represent, I want to have a big red button that stops it right then and there, with the words “creative foul” layered over the work. 

The “creative foul”, isn’t biased, it doesn’t discriminate, it can be found across all genres, disciplines, and fields. The thought that went into the work was not thought-provoking but malicious in nature. The utter disregard and disrespect for others is blatant when work is culturally deaf.  

Should the creative be responsible for misrepresenting the culture of a people?  Can the creative become resentful for people who find their work a “creative foul”? Should the creative be shamed? 

The creative is responsible for their creation. They made it, researched and put it together, it was their vision, their perspective. The problem is not the work but the biases they have are reflected in their work. How they feel about a group of people can’t be washed away with the colors, fonts or camera angles. The industry has had over 60 years to understand and apply the lessons and scientifically backed data showing how the entertainment and advertising industry has the most impact by spreading information and influence. Nevertheless, it hasn’t stopped; if anything, it appears to have snowballed into riches for the ones who disregard cultural boundaries. 

The creative shouldn’t be resentful, will that stop them, no. Take Kanye West and his current dealings with the public. He appears resentful, resentful of how he’s not receiving support like Kendrick, j.Cole and other artists. At some point the creative needs to see they have crossed a line, that line is not everyone’s ethics and understanding, it’s their own. There are some lines if you cross it must be done very carefully. Other artists like Puffy and R-Kelly’s thoughts had to be the same: “people love me because I make great work,” but then the people find out your work was one big “creative foul” on society. 

I saw a post that said, “Bring back shame.” Shame has been misused for many years against many individuals to make them feel bad for going forward with the opposite status quo. Is shame necessary in society? Unfortunately, yes, because the world has rules, now what those rules are and how people are shamed has completely changed over the last forty years. It’s not a shame, anyone, it’s called canceled. “Canceled” has the same effect as “you do wrong and the collective agrees it crossed the line.” Cancellation procedures are activated and initiated to remove or take it down. No one wants to be canceled, but “F around and Find out” is a great way to describe the response of an intentional “creative foul”. 

I’m AI it will be difficult to shame a bot, there no emotion, nothing to provide regulation of right and wrong, no consciousness. AI is not best for connecting humans, it’s not best for communicating authentic experiences. 

AI can be very useful for imagining a future of tasks, meaningless or not. It’s not for connecting (we’ve seen how that’s working out for Meta Instagram), communicating or building authentic relationships. Ai is a recycler of the original. It tries to connect, unfortunately, “creative fouls “, happen left and right once ai becomes “emotional”. Going off script, rogue from what it’s coded to do. The rogue becomes the “creative foul” with its responses. It’s not meant to tell the future, or be an emotional responder, it doesn’t need to replace human experience, intelligence or interactions because it will lead to many “creative fouls”. Why? Humans have difficulty providing culturally relevant experiences that they have not experienced themselves. AI is a bunch of code, and that codes have responses. if the responses are not from the person it’s representing, the response will be convoluted. 

It reminiscent of current events within the first 100 days of the new administration,  when JD Vance made untrue statements about Ukraine’s people, President Zelensky stood two feet down, letting him know “ he knew nothing about the Ukrainian people.  The outcome for each culture is left feeling dismissed and disrespected due to a misinformed understanding instead of life experience. No, what is done is research and ai now. All those actions taken still won’t provide the knowledge and emotional connection needed towards the people experiencing the encounter. 

Society and the creative industry can avoid “creative fouls” by understanding that realistic experiences come from the people actually living them every day. And no matter how much AI is thrown out there, if it’s not created by an individual who has first-hand knowledge know it will be called out for a “creative foul”.