Big Little ThingsI am always right?
Many of us have adopted a way of working—or at least a way of talking about our work—that we think makes us come across as collaborators, as real team players willing and able to embrace a good idea or smarter point of view even though it might come from someone else. Search around the website of any creative-type shop and you’re sure to find some rhetoric about collaboration and partnership. You hear it as well, in conversation: we’re really interested in working together as collaborators, because more minds are better than one. To be fair, that statement is mostly true: More minds are better than one. And we are interested in collaboration. It’s just that we still don’t know how to do it.
Because really: who doesn’t want to be the one with the big idea that wins? Who doesn’t hold tight to their projects and blame clients and partners for lack of vision when they ask for a change, or a new creative direction?
You’ll notice I didn’t raise my hand either.
Some of you know that we’ve been contracted to make a book on our graffiti project, Written on the City. I know. Fucking awesome, right? Well, yes. And, also, no.
Both Axel and I have wanted to make a big beautiful book for as long as we can remember. So you can imagine how fucking psyched we are that we’re finally doing it, and that we’re doing it with a great publishing house. But that’s where the problem starts: how do you let someone else raise your child?
Granted, we know all the reasons for collaboration. But we also feel like no one understands this project as well as we do. So we’re having a lot of trouble practicing what we preach.
So here’s the question cluster of the day:
If you’re preaching collaboration, are you really practicing it?
If so, how do you make room for the possibility that someone else might know better?
What do you do in your creative practice to remain open?
How do you let go?
June 20th, 2007 at 7:58 am
I am reading Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s book, ‘Creativity’ (he also wrote, probably more famously, ‘Flow’). He defines creativity as happening in the intersection of an individual who sees a new pattern, a ‘field of accomplishment’ (the ‘experts’ who can understand and accept the individual’s creative idea or act), and a ‘domain of knowledge and action’ (a body of knowledge mediated by symbols and bundled into systems, like geometry, art, or legal systems, which makes up what we call a culture).
That makes every creative act an act of collaboration, or the property of a system, as opposed to a controlled (or controllable), specific act of an individual. Our current, western culture has an epistemological bias towards abstracting bits of reality from their context, which leads to a focus on the contribution of the individual. There is an underlying paradigm of linear thinking, i.e. we’re all marching along a time line from the past to the present, and there are lots of assumptions about what “progress” is, which is normally measured in terms of material abundance, technological virtuosity, economic growth, etc.
I’d say that by asking the question about “preaching collaboration” you are automatically practicing it. If you word the questions so that other people can get traction both thinking about the ideas and forming their own opinions which they feel comfortable sharing, the more ideas you’ll likely come up with and naturally, someone (or the group) might know better. That is basically a “brainstorm and filter” mentality. A balance between putting your idea out there, taking in comment and advice, and looking at your work with fresh eyes.
To remain open in my creative practice, I try to surround myself with people that I believe are ‘smarter’ or ‘more creative’ than I am, while keeping hold of a sense of my own smarts and creativity. I acknowledge that I essentially, even when working alone, “stand on the shoulders of giants” in that I have access to so much knowledge and experience and so many examples that have come before me. That my “container” (domain) and network (field) is an essential part of my own creativity.
And the first step in letting go is to acknowledge that you are holding on. Control (as opposed to ‘influence’) is an illusion, and you might note from your own past experience that struggling with it will cause you (and possibly others) to suffer. I repeat to myself, “I participate but do not control this situation.”
June 21st, 2007 at 9:33 am
[…] brilliant and visionary Audrey Kallander posted a comment too good to leave buried in Tuesday’s post, in which we asked for some advice on how to better practice collaboration and openness when your […]