“You know, there’s a slight possibility I’m so used to not saying what I mean that I don’t really even know what I mean anymore.”
I wanna be like this guy. Preferably his creative side, not his depressive side.
Tag: creativity
REVIEW: ΚΛΕΨΕ ΣΑΝ ΚΑΛΛΙΤΕΧΝΗΣ
Κλέψε σαν καλλιτέχνης: 10 αλήθειες που δεν σου έχουν πει για τη δημιουργικότητα by Austin Kleon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Ακριβώς ο τύπος βιβλιαρακίου που διαβάζεις και θα ξαναδιαβάσεις μια φορά στο τόσο για να πάρεις έμπνευση και να θυμηθείς αυτά που όταν το διάβασες πρώτη φορά ορκιζόσουν ότι ήταν καλή ιδέα αλλά ποτέ δεν δεσμεύτηκες με το να κάνεις τίποτα απ’ αυτά και έτσι αποτελέσματα δεν ήρθαν, και γι’ αυτό αναρωτιέσαι τελικά αν φταις εσύ, και τι γίνεται με τη δημιουργικότητα σου, και αντί να παίρνεις τον χρόνο να δημιουργήσεις όντως κάτι διαβάζεις βιβλία που σου λένε 10 αλήθειες που δεν σου είχαν πει για τη δημιουργικότητα, τώρα όμως που σ’ τις είπανε νιώθεις πιο δημιουργικός ή λιγότερο;
Δεν νιώθω πιο δημιουργικός, αλλά το Κλέψε σαν καλλιτέχνης με έφερε πιο κοντά σε ένα σημείο στο οποίο νιώθω να κινούμαι από μόνος μου τελευταία: την πίστη στο δικό μου είδος δημιουργικότητας, αυτό το παρόμοιο συναίσθημα με το να γράφεις αυτό που θα ήθελες να διαβάζεις.
MEDIA FAST REPORT
A couple of weeks ago I wrote a little something about doing a short media fast. Here is my experience and my short conclusion:
- You don’t automatically have more motivation when you have more free time, but when you get rolling you’re more likely to keep working and keep creating.
- The longer you’re away from the internet the less you miss it. Doing my half-hour per day wasn’t as inviting as I thought it would be.
- My guess is that that is so because when you have a time limit, you have to prioritize. And prioritizing probably means excluding. It feels safer and easier to just avoid things rather than being forced to make decisions like including/excluding.
- Cooking counts as creating. Oooh yes.
- Media including movies is a bitch.
- Next time we should probably do no books and see what happens. Julia Cameron had something to say about that, didn’t she? In The Artist’s Way, the theme for one of the weeks was not read a single text for a week. Again, back then there was no net.
- This thingie below would have never existed if we hadn’t sat down with Daphne and said “okay, let’s make a collage”.
And this would have never existed if we hadn’t said “okay, what should we do now? Let’s paint!” — “OK, what?” — “eachother!”
But motivation is still a limited resource that can be separated into qualitative levels: you can have good motivation, bad (negative?) motivation, pure motivation and unstoppable motivation. All the lack of distraction does is bring forward the standard kind of motivation that under ordinary circumstances simply isn’t strong enough to become a greater priority than habit and addiction (media/internet). I suppose the kind of motivation we’re after is the one that needs no media fasts to rear its elusive head; it just trumps anything and everything!
But then again, you have people like Frank Herbert who just wrote— motivation, inspiration, or no… How about it, qb?
10 THINGS NOBODY TOLD YOU ABOUT BEING CREATIVE [HIGH EXISTENCE]
Handy tips to keep around within the boundaries of your awareness. I remember I first saw this book Steal Like an Artist in Evripidis in Halandri. Should have got it.
I should have got a book to tell me how to remember to be creative. *sigh*
ME, MYSELF AND FULFILLMENT // CUBILONIA
Thought you knew the real origin of the name Cubilone? Well, you thought wrong, because in the following video I reveal all for the first time.
Jokes aside, I prepared this video as part of the online preparation for the upcoming training in Olde Vechte in the Netherlands, the same place I did I SEE GREEN in February-March 2013 and REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE in November of the same year, for which I never wrote anything of note as far as I can recall, so clicking on the words will do nothing particularly significant.
Supposedly, this video is for presenting myself to the rest of the international group and what fulfills me in life. That was the mission. Do you think I managed to do it? I set off with high expectations but the impressions I’ve got from other people (apart from you Daphne and Mario!) have left me wondering. I can certainly say I had high expectations from the idea, and still do (the things I can write about Cubilonia! I could fill books with interesting things about that place) but I’m disappointed in, you know… why should I do it?
Looking for inspiration; maybe find it, proceed to let other people influence outcome too much; idea that felt awesome looks ridiculous in the space of a single hour when faced with awkward reception and blank stares. Artists shouldn’t listen to what other people think. Right? Artists and creatives don’t create for anyone but themselves. Right? Self-expression is of top importance. Right?
Review: The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity
The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity by Julia Cameron
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
The Artist’s Way is one of those books that change you – one of those that are made to change you, and you buy them because you yourself want to change. It’s a course in self-discovery, acceptance and creative birth.
These are the basics: for every morning of every week for the 12-week duration of the course -one chapter for each week-, the blocked artists choosing to follow the Way have to:
1)Do three pages of free writing every morning, a daily ceremony known as the Morning Pages. This acts as a mind-clearing meditation routine, a brainstorming machine and a way of spotting trends: weeks after writing the pages the artist on the Way may analyse his or her morning pages and notice trends in his or her daily writings: unfulfilled artistic urges, changes that need to be made for the person to reach harmony and happiness, sudden ideas and other great things.
2) Take themselves out to at least one Artist’s date per week, in which they have to indulge in whatever it is they love doing but would not normally allow themselves to be lost in (remember, this book is meant for blocked artists -read: most of us-).
3) Complete tasks in personal archaeology and self-discovery, wherein they have to dig up favourite creative childhood pass-times they gave up because of humiliation, “growing up” or other creativity-killing reasons.
I completed my 12(+1 lazy one) weeks a few days ago. I can safely say that it had great effects on me. Doing morning pages has now become more of a good habit of mine, and even if I didn’t do all of the tasks, it’s one of the books you have to go through at some point again for inspiration. It says so in the end, too.
If you’re a blocked artist, believe you can’t do art because you think you’re too old to start or “can’t draw” (or are “tonedeaf” or “terrible at writing” or “have no ideas” ad nauseam), think whatever you do needs to be perfect from the beginning or don’t bother because what you would create wouldn’t appeal to the masses, you should really try following The Artist’s Way.
The only thing I would add to the course itself would be a special NoSurf task or, even better, a complete revisit to the book that takes what the world looks like in 2013 into account; I strongly feel the internet is becoming, at the same time, the most important invention and the single strongest creativity and motivation killer mankind has ever known. I mean, in the 1993 edition that I have, there’s already a no-reading week included in the course for eliminating distractions and for focusing time and energy on the creative juices within, but the internet is proving to be a distraction magnitudes greater than reading the paper or a book could ever be. We come in contact with the works of the world’s most talented and creative on a basis of addiction, almost.
What I really mean is that I’ve grown tired of and alarmed at the great artists I personally know who keep getting demotivated by seeing someone else’s graphic, photo or drawing on Tumblr or listening to that fantastic song or watching that clever video on Youtube, instead of getting inspired, as they claim they should be. It’s more “look how much others have progressed instead of me” and much less “this is possible and I could do it too.”