I’ve always been the sort of person who tries to create in a vacuum. I prefer isolation and solitude when working on creative projects and have normally shied away from the involvement of others. This is very different, of course, from many of the development projects I work on with a team, and is one of the main differences for me between personal, creative projects and for-hire consulting jobs or my regular employment. I’m beginning to question the wisdom of this, however.
Every once in awhile, a person needs some outside inspiration. Aside from some Divine Muse delivered directly from the Ether, this inspiration can come from the natural world itself, or from the creative works of others. I have, in the past, personally gathered a good deal of inspiration from films, music, paintings, and photographs. Much good can be gathered and internalized from these sorts of distilled and completed works. Even these tasks though, are often isolated events in that there is no dialogue.
Recently, at the university, we did a preview of some new functionality for a group of heavy users to solicit feedback. I’ve only read some of the comments received but a lot of them make good sense. There are small adjustments I never would have considered working alone. There are larger adjustments that will take some real work to achieve, but these too will be worth the effort. The project will succeed because of the feedback of others. Ideas even came to me regarding other, unrelated projects because of this. Lynch says that “ideas are like fish“. No kidding.
One of the best experiences I had was in 2003, working on some remix material from Martin Bowes legendary ATTRITION. Working with another’s material was eye-opening in a number of interesting ways. Having a look into someone else’s structure and process. Getting insight into methodology or arrangement that is foreign to your personal habits. Very enlightening. This sort of thing is very different from the sort of one-way inspiration that a completed film or painting can give you.
Just as the body needs constant refreshment and evacuation of poisons, so does the mind. Working in isolation can be dangerous as one’s mind becomes poisoned by it’s own thoughts. Stagnation can occur- like a pool of still water. I’m going to attempt to devise some small exercises to assist myself with this.
