Let’s Just Make Things

I had a little catch up with an online friend recently, someone I’ve long thought of as a creative peer of mine. Among other things, we talked the projects we’re working on, and we came with a little mission statement for the year ahead that I’d like to share with you:

Let’s just fucking make things.

Maybe it’s that we’re getting old, and don’t have time for perfectionism or plans anymore. Maybe it’s the exhaustion that has come from years of trying to find some authentic space online while dealing with the whims and realities of algorithmic trends and bot optimisation. Maybe it’s the state of a world that feels increasingly cruel and dystopian, bearing down on us.

Whatever it is, let’s just make things speaks to my soul right now.

I don’t mean perfect or practical things. Not things that will make you famous or rich. Not things that will get lots of likes on social media or a place in an academic journal. Not even things that show off your skill. I mean only whatever needs making in that moment.

We’ve taught ourselves that to make art is a means to an end - a vocation, a skill, a product. It isn’t; it’s an impulse. We do it because we’re human and that’s what humans do. Sometimes when we get older we forget that, and then we get older still and remember again.

In any case, in 2026 I just want to create: music, paintings, blogs, crafts, mixtapes, programs, ornaments, zines, dance routines, devices, poems - whatever seems most pressing in whatever moment I find myself in.

I want to do this not because the results might be good nor because I might master the things I put my hand to, but because, right now, it feels like the most radical thing a person can do in this world of consumption is to create with abandon—to create for no other reason than the joy it brings us.

And if it’s gaudy or cringe? If it overshares and under-delivers? If it ends in disaster or abandonment? Well, so what?

Leave the insecure to their chatbots, feeds and 5-point marketing plans. Your skill level doesn’t matter. The world is too insane and life is too short to ask for permission anymore.

LJMT