Skateboarding has stood the test of time, retaining a strong aura and ability to influence and inspire many creative fields, including fashion, music and dance. It has of course evolved since Tony Alva, Stacy Peralta or Jay Adams, but has retained the attributes that made its essence, namely movement, trickery, while embodying another way of talking about choreography, freedom, difference, a form of “marginality” and independence. To put it plainly, it still appeals all over the world, and continues to appeal to the very young.
It’s Rodney Mullen, considered the spiritual father of modern street skating, who speaks in this TED Talk. A quirky and touching figure, he addresses a number of notions that go far beyond skateboarding.
Mimicry and graphic culture
Let’s quickly move on to mimicry and freedom: for mimicry, it was simple photos that decided its destiny. We should give more importance to this mechanism of almost immediate belonging, which many athletes have testified to, including in more traditional disciplines.
Like surfing, skateboarding has built itself around a very strong graphic culture, it’s no coincidence. As for freedom, Mullen characterizes it by the absence of a coach and direct opponent. We must keep this in mind, it’s an identified asset of many trends that have emerged from the 1970s to today. As far as freedom is concerned, Mullen characterizes it as the absence of a coach and a direct opponent. It’s important to keep this in mind, as it’s a key feature of many of the trends that have emerged from the 70s onwards.
The crucial point is when he mentions his relationship with the terrain. Skateboarding is a form of interaction with the city, as we have previously discussed. Skateboarding was a strong cultural movement that appealed to the youth, a form of micro-mobility ahead of its time, and a profoundly urban “free” sport. It should have been taken seriously by urban planners or lawmakers, by all those concerned with the youth.
Context shapes content
Today, what lessons can we draw from past mistakes? What can we offer to the younger generations in cities that is exciting, free, and creative, and how can we take advantage of what Mullen says?
What’s useful? “Context shapes content” is an interesting idea. The environment influences the content (in this case, the action). The environment will influence the movement. We are only just beginning to conceive the city for its inhabitants and not just for its function (Charter of Athens 1933).
He concludes on the creative process. The tricks are composed of “sub-movements,” he says, and these sub-movements are there waiting, floating, and, at the crucial moment, they connect with each other. This awareness of movement and especially of the body, through skateboarding, an intuitive and free exercise, could be an interesting learning axis. In fact, he explains how intuitives proceed.
Finally, what he says about everyone’s contribution, the way they appropriate a trick, and then “give” it back to the community is enlightening. It comes back to mimicry. He doesn’t oppose, on the contrary, the individual and the community. One nourishes the other.
Open source
The symmetry is superb, and his parallel with Linux and open source makes sense. In any case, this way of seeing things is interesting, and we could talk about sports in this way.
He ends precisely on the community and ultimately speaks of transmission without uttering that word.
This guy is brilliant, not just on a skateboard.
