Besides the consistency of working on your craft, inspiration is another very important factor. Whatever your craft is, art, music or professions with a creative side to it, inspiration can help a long way in staying active and focussed.
Inspiration is the fuel to keep the consistent process going. For me at least.
It’s just like any other form of training, there will be moments of difficulty, pain and discomfort. It’s all part of growing and sharpening your skills. Balance & rest is important to integrate, as your brain needs time to process and ingrain the result of your constant work. I plan deliberate rest moment, and make sure I plan short visits and trips to cities, exhibitions which I know will spark
This is how I keep my energy levels up and find new energy and ideas for the future.
My week & finding inspiration
This week I have worked mainly on learning Max MSP and I have been going outside in search of inspiration and ideas. Walking around a city and visiting musea does the trick. I try and look at things in detail and allow all sorts of random encounters. Step into buildings I don’t know, visit exhibitions which I want to see or stumble upon. And simply walking round a city and look at loads of things.
But how do I make sure I know what inspired me and why, the feeling I got when watching a piece of art or seeing something cool while walking. I used to rely on my memory and tried and record it once I got home, but I soon realized I could not recall my feelings and what exactly inspired me or what idea a piece of art evoked.
Documenting the inspiration & ideas
I started out taking quick pictures with my phone and a note in my phone for writing down quick short sentences and ideas. Which I then forgot to bundle and be more specific. I worked on documenting the inspiration & a simple template to make it easier to recall the feeling and ideas I had when being struck with inspiration. Without having to scroll trough loads of digital notes and pictures and then try and remember everything.
It’s pretty easy and it’s instinctively applicable for me. It suits my needs very well.
I take pictures, on my phone or camera and mark them if possible, and notate the place, date and title or description of the artwork (if there was an artwork) or other object so I can find the related pictures. I add a few keywords that give a good description of what the inspiration was. I stick to 4 keywords. Which helps when I search for things later on.
I write a short story about the moment, the inspiration and the surroundings. If I have an idea on the spot or later on I also make sure to write it in my notes.
As a template this would look like this:
-
- Date
- Time
- Place
- Title
- Title of the artwork (if there is any)
- Pictures
- keywords
- Short Story
- Idea it sparked (if any)
I prefer writing in a notebook, and I use notebooks where I can easily add page numbers and so on, I also give my notebooks a number and a name.
for searching into these notes I notate the keywords, the notebook number, and the page numbers into a simple excel sheet. So I can always find the ideas.
Why is it important to me? Well it’s a big part of playing around and putting myself into situations and places which can spark any form of inspiration and ideas. Which leads to a backlog of things I can develop further. There is no pressure when simply walking around and looking at things. It also develops my knowledge of art and architecture in a simple and effortless way. It’s a way to take a brake without breaking the creative consistency when I can’t work on my skills or need a break. It’s an alternative way to be creative without the sole focus on music.
It’s also important to make it a habit, getting outside and reconnect with art and life which for me, is the energy for my creative process. In my process there is always room for finding inspiration, this doesn’t have to mean I go outside, it can also mean just picking up an art book, reading a biography or flicking trough photo books. But I prefer going outside.
By making this a fixture in my creative process I keep engaged with the outside world and have an alternative whenever I can’t work on music specifically. This way I keep working on my creative process and keep the consistency going.