Hacking Reality

“Hacking Reality” illustration. (View Larger Image)

For as long as I can remember I’ve been a night owl. It’s during these wee hours that I get into a mode I call “Late Night Logic.” I enjoy the unencumbered exploration of thinking through things, working out and discovering clarity on any given topic that has captivated my interest.

These nightly interludes are often the inspiration for my artwork and design. And one recent episode led to the illustration you see in this post. The topic I was pondering was “Where ideas come from?”

I have enough life experience to realize ideas don’t emerge from a void, and technically speaking I think it would be intellectually dishonest to say they completely originate solely from my own unique thinking.

Details of illustration.

My mind likes to gather information from a variety of sources and than over time begins to connect the dots that relates one to another without me having to consciously think about it. The culmination of this type of gathering and thinking results in an idea that I usually write down if it doesn’t apply to a given need at the moment.

So I guess in reality my ideas are birthed from a seemingly intangible spectrum of pre-chewed nuggets of informational influence in all it’s various forms I interact with on a daily basis? This makes sense since I’ve noticed over the years that I find myself picking up on mannerisms, habits, characteristics, tastes, and attributes I see or witness in others that I admire or find amusing, and than catch myself at a later date doing something similar. One could say our personality is made up of others we interact with through out our life as well I suppose?

The source of ideas seem to come about in much the same way as well it seems.

When I started doing some research I discovered a talk by Steven Johnson and he had a great quote to close it in which he said “Chance favors the connected mind.” That statement really resonated with me and after hearing it this idea popped into my mind “Ideas come from hacking reality.” And that is how I came up with the title for my artwork “Hacking Reality.”

“Hacking Reality” t-shirt.

A few people have requested this art as a t-shirt after watching the creative process via my dribble account.

From now on instead of saying “I need to come up with a good idea.” I’m going to start saying “Time to hack reality.” because that’s where ideas come from.

Hacking Reality Garment, Prints and Wallpaper

- Hacking Reality T-Shirt • View / Purchase Here.
- Hacking Reality Oversize Print (66″ x 52″) • View / Purchase Here.
- FREE Hacking Reality Poster • Download PDF Here.
- FREE Hacking Reality iPad Wallpaper (Left Side) • Download Wallpaper.
- FREE Hacking Reality iPad Wallpaper (Right Side) • Download Wallpaper.

Keywords: Commentary, Process, Creativity, Drawing,