The art of creating and Rhizome
Hello there my dearest reader,
Have you ever wondered what creativity actually is? Like, how do you define the thing that technically leaves a lot of room for personal interpretation? I think it’s interesting that questions like those can lead to discussions during PDT lectures.
I actually have a small definition of the phrase of my own. Because even looking at the word family of “creativity” wouldn’t that lead us to the word “creation”? So, why don’t we define it as such, creativity is just an act of constant creation, not only products, but even of thoughts and memories. There's a certain capability of creation in each and everyone of us. Moreover I’d argue that creativity is a certain “weirdness”, a step aside from the solid structures and grids that are put on us by the social norms that surround our lives. It’s a beautiful thing that pushes us forward to new discoveries, both global ones as a collective, and the small personal ones, the self discoveries that help us build who we are.
And all that came from a lecture on Tuesday. But other than that I just wanted to share a few interesting things I found this week.
Have you maybe heard of Kowloon walled city? No? Then let me give you a description! Imagine a science fiction movie, any movie in the genre really. What can you see? Probably small, cramped and crowded streets, and buildings that seem to leave no space for the fresh air to pass through them, some loose wires, poodles of water or other liquid on the floor… You get the image. Now, I need you to realise that this once was a reality. Demolished in 1994, no man’s land, a really interesting space that I was able to discover through a creator on youtube. In the video however, what interested me was not only the city itself, but the notion of a phenomena in philosophy called rhizome. It’s a collective of interlocking ideas, thoughts that pass from one to another and it pushed me to think of the actual world of design. Because isn’t it that a lot of the time we actually outsource elements from other disciplines of life to contribute to our design?
I’m currently working on a project focused on bags and while doing so, I started to dive into weaving and gathering fabrics, structures made out of glass and wood. I looked into the stature of a female body, the frame on which the thing is supposed to hold, into social structures I want my design to be used in. It’s a bunch of elements that on the surface level don’t really have that much in common, but through that collection, through the rhizome of inspirations an idea is created.
Also coming back to Kowloon. It’s so interesting to see how real life shapes the future we imagine. Because, the way the city looked, was in a way, I think, adapted into the sphere of imagination of movie creators. It influenced the set and CGI designers to portray the places we can see on the screen, in a way that resembles an actual now lost city. Similarly what we, creatives produce in a form of intellectual good, be it a book, graphic, music or a movie, also influences what we want to design. It shapes our worldview and therefore directs our steps onto a path. A road we are to walk on as designers.
Okay, that might have been a lot to think about, so on a lighter note I just wanted to encourage you to do “weird” things: take paper-cyclops pictures with your friends, laugh at the shapes of the pedestrian icons on the sidewalks, treat yourself to a bouquet of flowers that are on a discount, tie a scarf on your head and take a walk to the bus stop. Be a person who’s not afraid to cry and be tired, who’s not afraid to create.
So let’s finish today with “Designer problem of the day/week”: When you’re really detail focused, so picking a bigger piece of paper to sketch on actually costs you double the time of what you would put on your regular sketches. And that’s all because now you need to put double the detail onto the same elements of your design due to scale.
With love,
The one and only Maria