Entertain by confusing. By @Arthur_Art_Dir
By Arthur Harry
Entertain by confusing.
We listened to Mike Skinner’s ‘Story Of The Street’.
He talked about the use of antonyms and the necessity to entertain ‘conflicting ideas simultaneously’.
That bit particularly resonated with me.
Many great thinkers wrote about this process before him. There is no such thing as a universal truth. Instead there are a multitude of arguments leading to a multitude of divergent opinions.
It’s an easy mistake to believe that we are advertising the truth, or even that people care. Everyone has their own agenda and ways of seeing things, it’s about their relationship to our work and not the other way around.
We should consider this when answering a problem.
We always try to find a single truth to create a link between the product and the audience.
But what if there is no exploitable benefit to communicate?
We have to create a world in which the product has a position and determined role. Set the scene if you like.
This reminds me of Bodin’s ‘if you can’t convince, confuse’. Or the concept of driving curiosity and leaving holes in your story, for the audience to fill themselves.
By stimulating an audience’s curiosity, you don’t waste their precious time. Instead you entertain and challenge them, through confusion.
We should aim to be entertainers, not propagandists.