“Smooth Criminal” and Innovation?

If I remember correctly, the first album I listened to by Michael Jackson in my childhood with my brother was Bad, from the year 1987. Maybe not the year it debuted, but I remember listening to it a lot in the years that followed. Especially when I saw clips such as "Bad" and "Dirty Diana" on Pop Saati, which was broadcast on the state TV channel TRT 2 at that time, I was fascinated by the songs and dances. But the clip that impressed me the most at that time would be the "Smooth Criminal", which inspired this article and was one of Jackson's clips that was broadcast like a short film for a while.

Think about it, after a decent clip from a short film like “Thriller”, our man Michael made a long clip again (almost 10 minutes!) and when it comes to the 7th minute, he leaned forward on the stage with his gang, by almost 45 degrees. Wow, how was that possible? I wonder, how was this possible, were they moving the big stage and one side of the stage up and down with hydraulic lifts?

I had to rule out the possibility of the dancers being supported with cables (attached to their shoulders and hanging from the ceiling) to prevent them from falling because there was no sign of cables pulling them up on their jackets! Adolescents at the time, imitating Michael Jackson on TV had solved the moonwalk thing and they were doing wonders on stage, but I hadn't come across anyone who could do that "Smooth Criminal" lean like Michael and his gang.

Years have passed since… I remember the first hour of the “Innovation” course I took while studying for a master's degree at Bogazici University. It has been more than 10 years, but in that first lesson, our lecturer Prof. Stefan Koch 's first question is on my mind even today: To each of us in that room, what is innovation?

The term has a categorical definition of course. But what did innovation mean to each of us in the classroom that day, at that moment? Was it only at the level of inventions made by competent professionals in laboratories, R&D, or incubation centers with high-level technological equipment, or was it a life-facilitating method that even a non-expert (who had some acquaintance with the subject matter or a "pain point") could come up with? Could it even be an incremental step?

For example, could a mother innovate a simple-looking device such as a feeding bottle, based on some experience or distress about the bottle she gave milk to her child in, even if she had no experience in materials science or ergonomics? Or could a motorbike courier also come up with a solution to keep his/her hands warm while riding, by combining a few pieces of fleece and linoleum and attaching them to the handlebar of his motorbike? Or was the minimum requirement for innovation to be brought about by an engineer or an expert who had a say in that field and knew how to produce that system?

The comments that emerged in that first lesson indicated that the following lessons would attract as much attention. Yes, innovation can be applied to an existing product or service—every step could count as innovation as long as it increased the convenience even at an “incremental” level across the target audience. Of course, the category of “disruptive innovation” should not be overlooked, but since this category is now at a level where paradigms change and new paradigms are formed, it is useful to consider it on a separate level.

During the same period, I was trying to finish my master's degree and preparing my graduation project on the effect of the knowledge of origin in the automotive industry, a field I had some experience at that time. Simultaneously, I was working on an innovation to submit to a competition called YD2YD (New Dreams, Innovative Thoughts) organized by our university and open to the participation of undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students from all over the country. Guess what sector I was preparing my innovation project for? Yes, automotive again. :)

When searching for substitutes for my project, I mostly used to refer to the Google Patents portal. Sometimes, during this patent research, I came across interesting patent applications outside of my field, as I zapped from one patent to another. Sometimes I drifted away from my field, but I also came across interesting application topics.

Those who used to prepare their homework or term papers by going through volumes of encyclopedias in their childhood or youth can relate to this. One or two dictionary titles before or after your subject matter in alphabetical order are likely to attract one's attention. One eventually ends up doing the research on your homework, but it is likely that they've learned more about one or two more subjects. I still have this feeling to some extent while reading the entries in Urban Dictionary or Ek?i S?zlük. :)

In a similar token, when I was researching patents for substitutes for my project, but shifted to slightly different fields, I came across a very interesting patent application. Its name was “Method and means for creating anti-gravity illusion”. Usually, the patent applications I had come across so far were made by engineers and scientists, but this patent was different as if an illusionist or a magician had prepared and registered it.

In this application, the exploded perspective images of the product were surprisingly similar to the shoes featured in the “Smooth Criminal” video clip. In the descriptions and supporting images of the patent, there was the mention of a pair of shoes with a reinforced heel part and a triangular indentation on the heels, and a reinforced floor with a metal component inserted into this indentation.

Now, who were these “Jackson et al” that made this invention? Wait, was this ‘the’ Michael Jackson we know? Exactamundo, you guessed it right…

Thus, a mystery that I thought a lot about as a child was solved. In other words, there was neither magic nor miracle in that leaning part, everything was possible with a design that could be proven successful and a beautiful choreography shaped around this design. Moreover, the inventors of this innovation were not engineers or scientists, but musicians and stage artists who were passionate about their work.

Today, our lives are being continuously reshaped with many innovations, large and small. It is easier to feel that some of them have revolutionized how we do things, but the effect of many of these may take longer. Many of them are made possible by people who, whether they have technical knowledge or experience in that field, can sense a pain point like many of us, but also venture to move beyond and take action.

REFERENCES:

*Google. (n.d.). US5255452A - Method and Means for Creating Anti-gravity Illusion. Google Patents. Retrieved March 21, 2022, from https://patents.google.com/patent/US5255452A/en?