Doing It Exactly Wrong
The quote “When you do something exactly wrong, it always turns up something,” is attributed to the artist Andy Warhol, and I find it intriguing. Obviously the “wrong” in this quote does not mean morally or ethically wrong, and it doesn’t necessarily mean incorrectly either. It’s something I’ve found difficult to put into words…the key to the whole thing for me is the modifier “exactly”.
I interpret “exactly wrong” in this sense to mean in a way or manner that rejects or ignores society’s norms. And to put a finer point on it, the norms that are rejected or ignored are norms that are followed just for the sake of following norms. For example, in old times when children were taught to write in cursive, the norm was that the letters had to always slant to the right. There was no reason for this whatsoever, other than to mandate and instill conformity. Left-handed children especially found this challenging. But what if a child rejected that norm, and slanted their handwriting to the left? What if a child chose to block print their letters, and never write in cursive at all?
The “what if” is what the “it always turns up something” part of the quote refers to. In a word, it’s about discovery. If you do something differently or “exactly wrong” you will likely end up discovering things that would remain unknown to the world had you continued down the mainstream path of the millions or billions before you. In Warhol’s case, he discovered a lot of new art techniques, notably the over-inking and paper blotting of prints (something graphic artists in the 1950s were taught not to do). This became a cornerstone of his signature style.
Why not do something exactly wrong once in a while? It probably won’t make you a pop art legend or a celebrity of any kind like it did for Andy Warhol. But there’s a good chance you will discover something about yourself or the thing you’ve done exactly wrong. At worst, it will fail and you’ll have learned a valuable lesson. At best, you could end up unlocking doors to worlds you didn’t know existed.
Here endeth the lesson on doing it exactly wrong.
Bike Newbie 