Daan Roosegaarde falls through. But what about Zara?

There is a bit of a buzz about Daan Roosegaarde. Again, we might say, because Daan Roosegaarde, it turns out, cannot be described as a creator of original work, but as someone with a rather remarkably sensitive antenna for other people's ideas. Which he then presents as his own work. From The article in the Volkskrant about this some things can be inferred. Once there was a temporary presentation of a liquid landscape for a corporate exhibition, and suddenly, eight years later, the exact same landscape turns up in an Italian park. The first presentation was by Zoro Feigl. The second is by Daan Roosegaarde.

Stealing is normal

Almost certainly the idea has been nicked. Did we take it before on this site still on Roosegaarde's lack of originality, this time it seems strongly that the Roosegaarde company did indeed get the original idea from that company expo, and that - "after three years of intensive research" according to the Studio - they determined that idea had stayed out of the public eye enough to now present it as their own work.

In the world in which Roosegaarde operates, this is normal. If all those people at all those companies came up with the most original ideas themselves, the world of business would be full of geniuses. In reality, there are only a few creative geniuses and otherwise lots of people who recognise a good idea and cleverly adopt it. There is more money to be made from that than from inventing things yourself. In turn, you can use that money to silence the nagging creator of the original idea.

ZARA?

Funnily enough, I also stumbled upon another such case of striking coincidence last month. Zara posted a video on TikTok in early August that went wonderfully viral. The New York branch was said to be filled with balls blown wildly around. Spectacular enough to bring people to their feet. Those who travelled to New York to see the miracle in real life, however, came out cold: the miracle turned out to be an animation created for TikTok, which only existed virtually.

@3dshaneFor @zara ##digitalart ##oddlysatisfying ##fashion

♬ original sound - Shanef3d

Coincidentally, while Zara's virtual ball pit was taking the world by storm, I was standing in Den Bosch among all flying balls. It was the live version of Zara's virtual ball storm, and at least previously conceived and made public. The first announcement dates from 2019, so more than a year and a half ago.

Now it is not said that the idea was adopted, but it is funny. Be that as it may: Zara will claim at great length that the idea was probably up in the air. At least with White Noise, it was literally so.