Previously, on my note:
“I think noticing is a creative skill that’s becoming increasingly rare. we’re so busy looking for inspiration that we forget to look at what’s already around us.
maybe creativity isn’t always about escaping the box, maybe it’s about going outside the box…just long enough to notice the box itself.”
Do you remember that one feeling as a child when your teacher ask you to draw a mountain and we all collectively thought about that one image? two almost-triangles mountains side by side, with the sun peeking in between, wiggly roads towards the edge of the paper and mini squared rice fields on the side of it?
Okay well, maybe not all of us had the same image but at least I know that I speak for my region (at least).
But my point is, we are so used to consuming what’s given to us, that it almost comes out with no second thought when asked. There’s nothing wrong with it. But you can see how ideas eventually start circling the same path when no new inputs arrive.
Imagine if you’ve travelled somewhere with a mountain scenery, or maybe you’ve watched one episode of Bob Ross when he’s drawing mountain landscape or something; you probably come up with a different drawing than the rest of the class right?
As an adult, I experienced almost a similar thing:
There was a point where I genuinely thought I had lost my creativity. Being someone who handle client’s campaign needs (when I was working in the fashion industry), even though each client wanted different things, essentially their goals is to “sell the product” and whether it’s a hard sell or not, I find myself running out of ideas pretty quickly especially if it’s another studio shoot, or a beach shoot—something repetitive.
On another case, being an artist with my own ‘niche’ so to say (and an extreme one for those who isn’t used to seeing it, lol) trying to portray the rawness of human bodies, the rigidness of a place (perhaps ocd?) and making art work that speak for itself—I still find myself getting stuck in a loop.
Not because of what I was working on is “boring”, but more like I get so used to seeing the same thing, similar brand, same idealism; that I started to lose my sense of “what’s good.”
Don’t get me wrong, making art is more than just making it “look good”, believe me I know. And yet, after awhile, after those ‘fresh idea’ runs out; I found myself repeating the same old idea, just like that mountain drawing thing.
For hours, sometimes even days, I tried to look for a relevant inspo. Just so that I can go out from the misery of not knowing what to do next. But as you all probably guessed, nothing really happens.
For context, I naturally gravitate toward minimalism. I like things to be black-and-white, perfectly structured building excites me, imperfection of human bodies made me wanna pull out my camera to shoot and none of that scream colors, right? I’m obsessed with structure, I don’t want my work to be overly saturated, if the framing isn’t straight then I’d spend hours just to make it work and yet, you wanna know where I find my inspirations on?
This.
None of those images scream minimalism.
But it does brings me to what this article is all about (drum-roll for those who tried guessing from my last post):
“The Art of Noticing”
A concept that I hold dearly, it’s the mindful practice of actively observing the everyday details, sounds, and moments that usually slip by unobserved.
When you first looked at the grids, you probably only see a telephone on the floor, some leather thing, an opened magazine.
You know what I saw?
A forgotten telephone under the harsh sunlight.
Two leathers that opens up just a little bit for you to peek in.
A busy trafficked road that somehow ended up in a room.
As I was writing this I realized: I don’t photograph subjects, I photograph relationships. I was documenting objects that quietly exist around other people.
I never look for extraordinary things. I look for ordinary things that suddenly becomes extraordinary because someone notice them.
People often tell creatives to ‘think outside the box’. It’s one of those phrases that has existed for so long that nobody really questions it anymore.
But the more I work, the more I realize something strange. Most of my days are spent doing the exact opposite:
Building systems,
Scrolling through Pinterest to collect future references,
Creating editing templates that hopefully no one has to think about six months from now.
If someone looked over my shoulder, they’d probably assume my job is mostly administration disguised as creativity. And honestly, some day it is.
Yet somehow, the ideas that improve those systems never come from staring at them; they come from walking.
I remember this conversation I had with my manager the other day, he said “Sometimes you have to do something that has nothing to do with ‘being creative’, something outside of your comfort zone, so that you will be able to notice your creative ideas clearly when it arrives.”
That got me thinking. Well I’m always thinking but this is a different kind of thinking: what if that’s what they mean when they said ‘go outside the box’? (whoever ‘they’ might be).
If a process removes unnecessary decisions, your attention becomes available for something else.
Cause I have thousands of photos on my phone. Not because I’m trying to become a photographer (although technically I already am one, haha). Maybe it’s because I’m afraid I’ll forget how something made me feel.
The way those still pictures are put in a garden,
The way that sunlight hits the door in a perfect angle,
The way that flower pressed perfectly against my windshield as I’m about to drive home (see: collected this week),
None of these images have a client. None of them have a deadline. None of them are particularly important. And still, I revisit them constantly.
I think maybe, I’m collecting patterns.
The way light separates objects.
The way repetition creates rhythm.
The way negative space allows something small to become significant.
The way absence tells a stronger story than presence.
Eventually those observations find their way back into my work.
A campaign composition.
A storyboard.
A production workflow.
An editing pace.
Even the way I organize folders somehow feels influenced by architecture, books and cafes I’ve visited.
I don’t think creativity starts with imagination (of course sometimes it does). I think it starts with observations.
You notice enough things, you connect enough unrelated ideas and eventually your brain builds bridges without asking permission. That’s probably all creativity is; the quiet accumulation of things that almost nobody stopped to look at.
But that’s just my opinion for now. Still learning, always curious.
– a curious creative
Penny for your thoughts? 🪙
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