In preparing my "self" for a class on Visual Perception which starts tomorrow, I find my mind awhirl with thoughts about creativity, originality, titles, techniques and on and on and on.
A bit obsessive, but it has me reading a variety of subjects about art/photography/physics/drawing/art history. So...I'm going to put some of the ideas I come across on xola so I can remember them and maybe utilize them in my photography "practice." I hope you will enjoy reading these entries too.
"The principle that ‘originality’ is more about a kind of transformation of existing ideas than the invention of entirely new ones is one that I can relate to as an artist and author. I’m wary of using words like ‘inspiration’ or ‘creativity’ without at least trying to demystify them first. They can easily convey a false impression that ideas or feelings appear spontaneously and of their own accord; “creation” in particular is a term that originally entered our language with divine connotations. My own experience is that inspiration is has more to do with careful research and looking for a challenge; and that creativity is about playing with what I find, testing one proposition against another and seeing how things combine and react.
For me, that’s what creativity is - playing with found objects, reconstructing things that already exist, transforming ideas or stories I already know. It’s not about the colonisation of new territory, it’s about exploring inwards, examining your existing presumptions, squinting at the archive of experience from new angles, and hoping for some sort of revelation."
~Shaun Tan - Austrailian artist
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A bit obsessive, but it has me reading a variety of subjects about art/photography/physics/drawing/art history. So...I'm going to put some of the ideas I come across on xola so I can remember them and maybe utilize them in my photography "practice." I hope you will enjoy reading these entries too.
"The principle that ‘originality’ is more about a kind of transformation of existing ideas than the invention of entirely new ones is one that I can relate to as an artist and author. I’m wary of using words like ‘inspiration’ or ‘creativity’ without at least trying to demystify them first. They can easily convey a false impression that ideas or feelings appear spontaneously and of their own accord; “creation” in particular is a term that originally entered our language with divine connotations. My own experience is that inspiration is has more to do with careful research and looking for a challenge; and that creativity is about playing with what I find, testing one proposition against another and seeing how things combine and react.
For me, that’s what creativity is - playing with found objects, reconstructing things that already exist, transforming ideas or stories I already know. It’s not about the colonisation of new territory, it’s about exploring inwards, examining your existing presumptions, squinting at the archive of experience from new angles, and hoping for some sort of revelation."
~Shaun Tan - Austrailian artist
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posted by xola at 8/21/2007
3 Comments:
I read a cartoon today by Hilary Price which she titles "The Cave Blog." An artist caveman is saying to another..."You start out with great intentions, great thoughts, then you run out of ideas and end of telling people what you had for dinner."
I noticed that you put the word self in quotes. I remembered then what Chuang-tzu said: "Forget things, forget Heaven, and be called a forgetter of self. The man who has forgotten self may be said to have entered Heaven."
You mention being a "bit obsessive" but if obsessive means (and it does) that you have a persistent idea that cannot be gotten rid of by REASONING then I say LUCKY YOU!
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