mechanism of creativity

When I was a kid, well, a big kid, 10 years old. I lived near a farm in Geneva and, next to it was this “pleasure centre”. It was a very cool building. We would gather with the kids of the neighbourhood and play games, create stuffs, film stuffs and play sport. I still remember the time I went home with a freaking bloody nose from the hockey game. Next day, we would do sculpture and next day drawing. As a kid, I was pretty good. Much better than I am now. See, back then, creativity was fun. It was about drawing your favourite imaginary character, telling your wishing stories, sculpting your future dragon pet. Let’s say, creativity unleashed.

 

Fast forward, creativity now is tough. You’re never satisfied. There’s the next critics. And there’s the next ideology clash, you’re angry, bored and afraid at the same time. When you disagree with something, the whole universe is against you. When you stand in front of the audience presenting your latest findings, it is Viet Nam war. It’s really, really tough. You get really depressed and are rarely happy. In short, creativity looks cool on the outside. It looks like hell on the inside. You know, in those mobile phone adds, when there’s this cool dude working on this cool painting. Well, in reality, he’s depressed and frustrated as fuck. If you care about your creation, you are miserable. Fairly recently, I asked myself: “why?”

What is it that is inherent in creativity as we know it that tosses us everyday in a foul mood. And those guys that don’t stress, they do pretty much not so profound stuffs. Conventional and boring. In my observations, it is almost categorical: talented and profound: miserable. whatever and boring: seems okay all the time.

First of all, the distinction from my childhood story is: we didn’t really give much of a shit. We created as kids, for us, for pleasure. There’s no responsibility in our creativity. If we screw up, fine. If we do well, fine. Whatever. Now, most artists adopt the “whatever man” attitude. The typical “I’m an artist” blasé face. Like, “I’m so living on the edge right now, whatever this is whatever”. Wether it is good, or bad, I don’t really care. But it’s pretty fake and they are missing the point. The Warhol of the 21st century. The hipsters of the trendies. I think it is partially self protection. You need to protect yourself so you pretend not to care. Because you actually do care.

 

Truth is, from my findings, creativity is very unhealthy. From a psychological point of view. No wonder why most artists died like… well, not so well. For me, there’s two fundamental sides to good creativity: one side: criticality, uniqueness and relevance. We can call it “depth”. The other side: production and flawless execution. We can call it “thing”. And these two sides really don’t go well together. It’s like being manic depressive. It’s like thinking perfection and making imperfection. It’s very, very horrible.

I have tried to analyse the process of creativity within me throughout a lot of my projects. Ranging from paintings, typography to architecture and urbanism. From my personal point of view, urbanism is the most difficult of all discipline. Really. It is a true bitch. Anyhow, I’ve assembled some psychological processes that would maybe facilitate the act of creating. I won’t be covering the why and the what and the specific how of creating. But just as a general “state of mind” guideline.

Creativity is painful in three steps: the ego, the decisions and the executions.

Letting go of your ego is probably one of the hardest thing. And the creativity world kind of works against it, it blames you for your ideas, it makes you feel like a piece of shit for a bad idea. Truth is, everybody have bad ideas. All the time. So what’s the big deal? Even when you succeed in your ideas perfectly, some people will still hate you for it. So, again, what’s the big deal? Embrace the hate and love and focus on what’s important: your creation. Once we understand that it’s not about being the best but making the best, the whole dynamic shifts. We no longer fear to be ridiculed, because, you know, fuck them. It is really about the satisfaction of bringing to reality the best thing you can make for yourself and other people. And the blast that you have during the process. So be ridiculous and let go of the ego. The ancients artists were so courageous because they had the concept of “having the genius” instead of “being the genius”. Which, in the first case, is more realistic. “Being the genius” is unrealistic. For everybody. “Being the genius” leads to suicide.

 

That guy is really really intense.

The decisions steps are quite difficult. It requires a clear mind and requires high criticality. It requires assembly of informations, imagining new scenarios, criticising the status quo. In brief, envisioning what is to come. This is the most volatile step, I’d say, as ideas come and go. And sometimes, the best ideas don’t stay in your head for more than a second. Always have something to write and draw at hand, archive in an anarchist way. I like to put a lot of things as they come in, freely. They could be wrong, or they could be right. I note them anyway. At some points, all of the gathered ideas start to create a network between them, they start to have a coherence. This is when we move to the next step. Sort them, put them in relations and create new relations. Don’t be frustrated if they suck. Take more time. But ideas are extremely important, like with all matters of the heart, don’t settle for shit. Only settle for the best. It is important, for me personally, that the decision step is entirely detached from the next step. I don’t believe in “learning by doing” in art. Decide first, then take action. “Art in action” only create mindless stuffs. And “I don’t know what I’m doing” is seriously stupid and irresponsible.

 

Sorry for the Pollock fans. I can’t stand this guy.

Moving on to the execution. This one doesn’t concern “execution” in expensive art or architecture. Because execution in architecture, you have to be perfect the first time. It concerns art and projects. After the decisions steps are made, execute them. This step can be quite painful if you stop, decide, execute, stop, decide. This leads to tremendous frustration. You feel incapable. Really. Instead, trust your prior decisions and ideas, carry them on to a certain mature point, with an almost zen like consistency. This allows me personally to feel good about what I do. To actually feel that I am achieving something. If I stop, doubt, stop doubt all the time. My days and projects are hell. So the execution have to be almost in a flow like state. Just do. Don’t ask.

 

Once the two micro steps of decision + execution are accomplished. Sit back and look. Then criticise, then decide the corrections or the next step. Is it good enough? Is the question I always ask myself when looking at this step.

Ultimately, I think the goal would be to create awesome stuffs without the awkward weird feelings that come with it. I mean, sometimes, when you create, you want to shoot yourself. And, honestly, that’s bad. Of course, creativity is much more complex than this, but explaining the logistics of it could help in some way. By the way, this article goes quite well with “recipe for innovation“. An article I wrote approx 2 years ago. It kinda talks about ideas having sex.

Cheers.

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