Making Time

Modernity seems to be making it increasingly difficult to sit still and not constantly think about the future/news/potential disasters. A significant piece of this puzzle is how we view time (as a concept) and how Western societies have (d)evolved to treat any idle time as hours where you are “not being productive”. Maria Bowler, the author of Making Time, claims that this overwhelming cultural focus on productivity/value production over every other aspect of society crowds out the space necessary for one to be a modern creative (in the broadest sense). To recover our (innate) ability to be creative in an increasingly distracted and attentionally crowded landscape, Bowler argues we need a change in perspective and self-identification, understanding that (as creatives) our productivity offers marginal value to the world when our creative drives or inspirations are treated as an optional (and less important) component of the human experience. To be human is to both create and produce, it would seem.