Imagination Stratocaster

Imagination Vs. Creativity

Venkatesh Rao | Ribbonfarm | 14th July 2024

Analysed using Lego. Following complex instructions to build models from a kit is one thing; creating designs from a pile of bricks with no plan is another. Imagination reasons forwards from a current state — example, fixing bugs in a program — whereas creativity reasons backwards from desired outcomes, often through leaps that are non-analytical, open-ended and serendipitous (2,400 words)

The Stratocaster Turns 70

Loz Blain | New Atlas | 10th July 2024

Love letter to the most well-known electric guitar. No one, least of all its creator Leo Fender, had any idea of its sonic possibilities. In the 1950s, “rock ‘n’ roll was still wearing suits and bow ties, amps were played clean most of the time. The Strat was built to be a Spanish guitar, to sound clean, not for fuzz tones and distortion. Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock was the furthest thing from Fender’s mind in ‘54” (3,800 words)