Creativity Requires Tension
I got a bunch of emails about my "Heisenberg" post asking me, "What the heck are you talking about with this creativity and uncertainty stuff."
OK.
Here’s what I meant by the
uncertainty = something to do with creativity thing. When you observe something (in quantum terms), you can either nail down its position, or its momentum; its present state or its potential. The closer you get on one, the further you get from the other.I think that in a weird way, creativity is based on both rigid processes (some might call this "craft") – very defined ways of observing the precise methods of creating art/writing/design/etc – and also on indefinable, whimsical, chaotic "muse" driven elements. Some types of "art" have always relied totally on one, some on the other. For example, architecture relies heavily (pun intended) on craft. If you don’t obey the rules, house fall down. Painting has fewer rules; or it can, anyways. Writing has more rules, generally. You need, for example, words and letters.
Losing the balance between craft and muse is where, I think, artists get confused. We sit and "wait for the muse to strike us," or we get bound up in aspects of craft, leaning too heavily on systems and methods that aren’t our own.
My take on being "creative" is that you need this balance. If you trot too far towards craft, you lose something in your art that comes from the random, winding, soul-ful, wondrous, child-like place. If, however, you only ever rely on that place for your art, you become unable to create "on demand." You can’t link your art to the demands of, let’s say, a job in the arts or to the specifics of any requirements.
Place vs. Momentum. Present vs. Future. Status Quo vs. Potential. Conservative vs. Liberal. Chaos vs. Order. It is not the one or the other that produces great art, but the tension between the two. Moving back and forth, trying some of one, caroming back too far in the other direction, correcting, overcorrecting, swerving back, observing how the journey has impacted the result. The whole "process of process" (metaprocess?) is part of being an artist. Part of understanding one’s own creative pulse.
Let’s be clear on one thing — I don’t really think that observing the creative process is in any real way like observing sub-atomic particles. I just thought it was a kinda cool metaphor. And I, in my own art, always struggle with the tension between craft (order) and muse(chaos). At one point in my life, I found the struggle frustrating. I’m not sure how it happened, or exactly when… but I now find the struggle exhilarating. Fun, even, most days.
The struggle is, I believe, necessary to the creative process. It is not always — and for most people not ever — conscious. I think that when you are aware of it, however, you can control it more fully. And that gives you even more creative potential.
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You make creativity sound a bit painful with all this talk of tension and struggle.
To me, creativity is about epiphanies while taking a shower, digging my hands in the garden dirt, eating dark chocolate, painting my bedroom walls in bright red and caramel orange, figuring out the best Halloween costume to wear next year, going for a long hike in the autumn colors… These are the things that awaken inspiration and creativity.
And even within the craft and the discipline, within this there is relaxation. The very act of form and repetition is like a meditation that can give rise to a bubble of creativity.
Keep the thoughts coming!
Best, Wendy
Yes! Creativity is often about wonderful, lovely, happy, funny, goofy, un-painful, un-straining, trouble-free, guilt-free, tension-free… er… creation. Wow. That was self referential.
For some people (you seem to be one of them), creativity is, in and of itself, a meditative art. I know people who enjoy jogging, too. For me, I’d rather be boiled in oil. Any kind of oil, actually.
Most of the time, I have no problem “being creative,” personally. I am described by friends and co-workers as “very creative,” etc. I am asked to share my “creative juices,” which makes me vaguely uncomfortable, in a “let’s all be safe” kinda way.
But lots of people don’t feel like this about creativity. They feel stifled. They feel like they aren’t creative at all. Or they feel like the things that they do that you and I might call creative, are, in fact “just crafty.” Which is bunkum.
I don’t in any way hope to make creativity sound dreadfully boring by examining it in detail. I mean to help myself understand it better, so that I can be more creative myself, teach it better, and maybe help others get over any barriers they might have and go forward in creative joy in the ways that you do naturally.
And if anyone knows how to make me enjoy jogging, please write.
[…] I sit here in my colorful office space watching the snow falling - an odd phenomena this time of year in Oregon. This weekend, I received an e-mail from Andy Havens - blogger at Tinker X. He had just completed an entry called Creativity Requires Tension and ever since I replied to him, I’ve been considering creativity and what inspires it in each of us. […]