A thought which I've had before and weep to see so beautifully expressed by
ferrouslepidoptera. I have to admit though, the inspiration for this was
nodeshells. The inventiveness of the
Nodeshell Rescue Team in filling in such titles as
Until today, it really pissed me off that I'd become this totally centered Zen Master and nobody had noticed with an amusing piece of short prose is amazing. For a more classical reference, imagine writing in
iambic pentameter for page on page, yet
Shakespeare made some of the most beautiful lines in English under such
constraint.
Animation is another field where constraint-driven creativity often succeeds. In the TV series
Neon Genesis Evangelion, the character
Ikari Gendou is often shown with his elbows on a table, hands concealing his mouth. The pose is a major part of his character, and the
cinematic effect of his secretive smiles hidden by his hands is stunning. Yet another reason for the pose is
the bottom line - by blocking off his mouth when he spoke, the
animators were able to avoid sketching out every mouth movement.
In a way though, every piece of art suffers from constraint in that it can not portray life in its every detail, no matter how realistic. Perhaps the stylized nature of art is what gives it power. But as anyone who's ever looked at a complex painting and started to design an entire world around the details inside knows, there is indeed creativity hidden in the boundaries.