Creative Elasticity: A Propositional Inquisition

WHAT

I propose an interactive installation piece, which is made up of six rooms, one leading into the next.

I should mention that the integral motivation behind this piece is for the most part derived from my curiosity with the creative process and how humans come to have ideas, as well as why and how they some of us choose to believe we are not creative; for whatever reason. The title of this proposed piece is: Creative Elasticity: A Propositional Inquisition.

Although, like any artwork, the entire piece is open to interpretation, it has been designed upon the basis that creativity is a natural inhabitancy of human beings and that in some cases; it must be nurtured and also provoked in order to be properly embraced.

. Since discovering these methodologies, my creativity has been running completely wild and I have discovered a newfound confidence qand enriched perspective within both my creative and daily life. I have allowed this extensively researched body of knowledge and curisosity with the natural creative in all of us, to transpire into the accessible, structured and provocative context of this piece, in order for it to be accessible and experienced by the average person.

Each room in the installation acts as leverage for the creative mind and represents a journey towards enabling creativity. Each room serves a different methodology and purpose but all rooms co-exist and depend on one another. The entire work is inspired by the concept that all human beings are creative and if they inquire, they have the ability to open up their creative landscape to varying extents.

This work is a manifestation of my prolonged internal battle with the notion that my creativity is being impeded by the constant discovery of bodies of work that I find superbly overwhelming and put me into a state of almost frozen and self-doubting awe. This work is designed to both inform and empower its audience through an extremely intimate and challenging language.

Part of the work includes the audience members will receiving a package of information one month after their visit to the piece. This including a video recording of part of their experience, an information booklet on methodology used and a survey form that will be compliled for research purposes.

Each room acts as leverage for the creative mind and represent as journey towards enabling creativity. Each room serves a different methodology and purpose but all rooms co-exist and depend on one another. The entire work is inspired by the concept that all human beings are creative and

This work is a manifestation of my prolonged internal battle with the notion that my creativity is being impeded by the constant discovery of bodies of work that I find superbly overwhelming and put me into a state of almost frozen and self-doubting awe.

WHERE
I have emailed a variety of creative companies and galleries, mainly for feedback on their perception of my idea and its potential. A friend good friend of our family has shown extreme support for my idea and has a few investment properties in Richmond and a large, modern and empty storage space at Docklands that I could potentially use for a month or so.

For my own exploration of the idea and the potential notion that I could make it happen, I have begun recording sound samples of music and voice with my partner’s equipment.

This piece acts as a subversion of this notion and is targeted at others looking for that amplified time and spice to intensely provoke and or access their creative landscapes. The piece is essentially a series of rooms and each room is based on a particular methodology.

Audience: 18+

Admission: Adults $15, Concession/Students $8

HOW
Theoretically, this piece has been given rise by the inspiring methodology that I have come into contact with: that of Deborah Hay and Margaret Cameron. Nicolas Bourriaud’s theory of “relational aesthetic” also resonates throughout my idea. I have drawn up a proposal for both Margaret and Deborah in order to receive permission to reference some of their work.

Each room acts a progressive amplifier and road to discovery of self-awareness and artistic ego. The piece aims to un-do the concept of “knowing” and external influences, temporarily and allow for endless possibilities to arise. The piece looks to empower people to be their own audience, to be their first audience. It subverts the notion that a piece of work’s meaning is limited to the artist. By being a part of this piece, the average person becomes the artwork, and sparks that relational aesthetic I mentioned earlier. This in itself bridges that divide between audience and artwork, which can be extremely wide for people who are painfully comfortable with spectatorship and who feel a sense of urgency to shift from this mode.

This piece represents the time and spaces that people have the ability to manifest in their daily lives, in order to be develop a comfortable and creative mind state. I have discovered that accessing this state is an extremely intimate and imperative part of creating raw and apprehensible work. This piece of work has become more than an assignment for me and I wish to continue developing it and pursue it in the future. I certainly don’t have the magical answer to awakening creativity, but I feel that this piece and its content will at the very least provoke, inform, challenge and help steer its audience; all of which are wonderful things in my opinion.

I’d like to now walk you through the piece as if I am admitting you to the piece.

1. You enter into room one. Three tasks are to be completed. There is one task assigned to each wall.
· Wall One: You are asked to put on a white jumpsuit on top of your clothes. You choose one of the five sizes provided.
· Wall Two: you are asked to put all belongings into the large container. (Bag, mobile phone, etc.)
· Wall Three: A large peel-able sticker sits within a wooden frame on the wall. There is an oversized black marker on the floor.
Hello my name is: ________ and I am a creative human being.
· Wall Four: One door. A series of post-it notes that proclaim: “You have now un-done “knowing” and you are now able to now access endless possibilities within your creative landscape.”
2. You enter room one. Five boxing bags hang from the roof and are covered in five famous works of creativity from five different mediums. Two boxing gloves lie underneath them on the floor.
· Music: “Concerto in g minor, op. 8, no. 2 “Summer”
*Aspiring creative subject is given the space and the energy through the declamatory music to inspect and even vent their frustration onto the famous works, as they appear in the form of boxing bags.
3. You enter room two. You follow arrows to a Mat on the floor like a traditional welcome mat that states: “what if there are no rules?”
Audio: Voice over of clear instructions of to be choreographed by your body, based on Deborah Hay’s experimental choreography.
Actual meaning:
Meaning in action:
4. You enter room three
There is a microphone on a stand and a spot-light projected onto the floor with a text outlining the light’s circumference as follows:
“If there were no rules and nobody is watching, what would you say?”
5. You enter room four
Onto the wall, film with sound taken of your experience within Room one with the boxing bags is projected onto all four walls.

Actual meaning: This room is a literal representation of self-awareness. Being your own audience, being your first audience. I have discovered this is an extremely intimate, important part of creating raw and realised work.

Preferably the final door leads out into a garden, where their personal belongings wait on a doormat that says “FIN?”

The entirity of the subject’s pace through the piece is monitored by myself and two other volunteers. I would be in charge of organising the final quad-projection in the final room, the other is to organise the repositioning of the subject’s personal belongings. I.E. THEIR KNOWING. And the other volunteer would be allocating the appropriate sound samples of both voice and music in relation to the subject’s pace through the piece.

FIND, NURTURE AND GIVE RISE TO YOUR ARTIST WITHIN.

I certainly do not think I have the answer to birthing creativity, but at the very least I feel that this piece has the ability to provoke and challenge and INFORM it’s subject – essentially offering a NEW EXPERIENCE, within this propopisitional installation which plays with the nature of ART and CREATIVITY within.

L I G H T B U L B !

My idea seems to have come to life based on my avid interest in the notion that all people are able to explore their own creative landscape, if willing, combined with my internal struggle to easily establish concrete ideas of my own, due to the comfort I feel in a position of speculation and analysis of other work. But I have a sense of urgency to be more proactive with my creative potential.

I have acknowledged that bodies of work that I find provocative not only encourage but impede my potential to properly pursue ideas.

An embrace of my inner struggling artist has recently been achieved and I want to nurture this concept through my final enterprise idea.

I have acknowledged that creativity is phscyologically innate and human beings have the ability to tap into it if willing. I intend to formulate a space that acts as an artwork and an interactive installation.

Since my retreat manifestation last week, I’ve felt compelled to refine the idea down to something more specific and truer to my own creative taste, as I just didn’t have the fiery passion for this idea that I have now sought and found! Since letting go of that idea as a whole, I’ve let the core ideas behind my initial idea evolve into a different context. This is a way of presenting my idea that I feel more passionate about, which I feel actually promotes a stronger level of innovation and inspired perspective. I am currently formulating a proposal, in order to plan it succinctly and know every single little angle inside out and satisfy my intention for the enterprise and the pitch.

The struggling and overwhelmed artist within: An embrace

I’m constantly moved by many different mediums of creative work and cannot help but be both inspired yet discouraged. As a younger person, I think I mistakened the feeling of discouragement for jealously. Furthermore, I have developed an understanding that the feeling and is moreso a feeling of overwhelming awe for artists that inspired me. When I find some work that is provocative, I my stomach literally becomes tense and I am inspired and awe-struck – not jealous! But this constant exposure and research of artwork seems to at times be like a form of torture: it seems to impede my ability to formulate succinct ideas. So essentially, admiring work that is wonderful in my own opinion not only plants this sensation of awe, but it seems to impede the development of my own creative enterprise or project. This is possibly why I enjoy working with words over any other creative medium; because they are directly accessible and I don’t have to think about the way they are written, but all my attention is paid to what they are saying. So in terms of an artwork that I would like to pursue, I have many ideas but feel overwhelmed by the endless ways to present them.

This overwhelmed-awed-struck feeling towards creative work that inspires me feels so inbuilt into my creative make up. Although until recently, I considered it a problem, but now accept it as more part of my complex creative process – compared to it being a detriment to my persona or my ability. I trust that I will persue different artistic mediums in my own time and at present am very content to play with and embrace the idea of the struggling artist or more specifically: the average person struggling with creativity.

I feel so strongly about this particular perspective and as it inhibits me with such fervour, I have decided I will explore this attitude through my enterprise.

My attitude towards my own creative journey brings to mind the statement of Deborah Hay’s that has been resonating throughout my mind often since hearing it. Playing out possibilities or questions or ideas with “loyalty and disinterest”.

At times, I become so loyal internally to the work of others that I admire, yet I try to remain slightly disinterested in order to generate my own individual aesthetic or ideas. This statement is like meditation for me. I like the idea of incorporating Hay’s propositional performance methodologies into my pitch.

Image from Deborah Hay’s website