Image Courtesy of Art HoundInnovative is a term wantonly thrown about by politicians today when discussing America. Quite often though, the word, interlaced with others such as ingenuity, pioneering, and industrious, is utilized to call back to a bygone era, an age where America actually fulfilled its idealistic promises. The exercising of innovation is also meant to incite a sense of hope for America’s boundless future. We can still recapture the abstract American spirit of unbridled ambition and alter our collective trajectory by recalling our lost talents. That is what we’re told.
But what is true innovation? Is it a single visionary and creator, a Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg, creating dynamic enterprises to satisfy individuals’ needs? Or is it a collective system, a group of like-minded individuals striving for some societal good? Or is it both? After a recent reading of Richard A. Lanham’s The Economics of Attention, I learned the story of innovation and single vision that forced an entire region to participate in a true democratic, collective process, overcome their differences, and produce a memorable piece of transient art. Christo Javacheff’s and wife Jeanne-Claude’s Running Fence, their greatest and most hard-won artistic achievement, embodied American ideals of thinking big, working together, and challenging conventional notions and could serve as a lesson to American leaders searching for inspiration today.
Courtesy of California Literary ReviewChristo and Jeanne-Claude, considered by many to be “earth artists” and “public artists”, were more interested with the immediate aesthetic impact of their art rather than a timeless influence. They simply sought to bring people a sense of joy and wonderment with their projects, but one piece, Running Fence, achieved a great deal more. Controversial in its implementation, grand in its design, and beautiful in its simplicity, Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s Running Fence managed to expand the nation and world’s imagination of why we produce art in the first place and what it can eventually be. The literal fence stood eighteen feet high and stretched twenty four miles through the Marin and Sonoma Counties of Northern California and eventually ran into the Pacific Ocean. Its minimalist design, while seemingly so simple in appearance was anything but, necessitating 165,000 yards of white nylon, 2,050 twenty-one foot steel poles, 312,000 steel hooks, and ninety miles of steel cable. The final project required over 400 people to assemble and eventually cost $3 million to complete, all paid for by Christo and his wife.
The true beauty of the fence was far less in its completed form and far more in its assembly. According to Lanham, Christo’s real purpose was not artistic beauty, but rather human attention, which was achieved through months of debate and deliberation. Lanham says it best, stating, “This work of art…was composed of the human behavior that was required to create it, not only the building of the fence but also the hearings, lawsuits, reports, meetings, and pleadings that were necessitated by the project.” Lanham continues his admiration, clarifying the Fence’s intent, “The fence was created as an attention structure that dramatized how persuasion works in human society.” Forcing the communities that would be affected by the structure to partake in the process of its eventual creation transcended the conventional boundaries of art. The grand social and artistic experiment served not only as a fleeting piece of unorthodox art though. Its legacy also serves to highlight the amazing achievements of the collective human spirit that can be achieved when the use of meaningful rhetoric is utilized. A lesson that so many of our leaders could learn from.
Running Fence should be a model for rethinking the current rhetorical paradigm of empty promises and redundant political reforms. There is no vision. There is no collective conscience. There is no genuine desire of sacrifice. There is simply cronyism and nepotism. Backroom deals brokered for the good of a few rather than the necessity of many. There is merely political polarization. Petty talking points shouted over each other to serve selfish interests rather than selfless ideals. There is only outmoded reform. Shortsighted ambitions that incite disenchantment rather than inspire innovation.
The Northern California landscape is truly beautiful. Its scenic hills and valleys rolling over and over, eventually plunging into the boundless Pacific, are some of nature’s finest art. Its vastness though leaves much to the imagination, and Christo and his wife saw something beyond this natural beauty and invested their time, money, and artistry to arouse others to see it as well. So to is America an amazing sight- its cities, country, and people- all reflections of dreams pursued and ambitions achieved. Yet for all its brilliance, America is left wanting for true leaders to encourage real innovation. And until we have them, we will never be capable of seeing beyond what’s already in front of us.
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