Collaboration
Thursday, January 26, 1995 - 7:20pm
Brainstorming and collaboration can do incredible things for my creativity. The process is enhanced by a good, comfortable working relationship between my collaborator and me. There is also an almost magical process when an ordinary idea session heats up and becomes a non-stop flow of ideas that seems to feed upon itself, becoming in retrospect a white blur. I don't know how it happens for certain, but a secure relationship and a willingness to throw out ideas wildly help make it happen.
My current creative project really highlights this effect for me. Colette and I have a very special creative relationship. She often comes up with the kernel of an idea (often more than just a kernel, more like a whole ear of corn), and I can go with it, expanding it into reality. Then, she can look at the form that I've created, looking at it objectively. I often can't see clearly immediately after creating something. The excitement of the process often makes me feel that a piece is nearly perfect. I can sometimes recognize that I have taken some idea to excess, but even the excess seems proper when I'm still boiling over from the heat of creating. She can look at it and give me the honest, critical feedback that I need. Her suggestions again provide the kernel for an improved version. When I'm done and I can put the before and after pieces side by side, the revised piece invariably looks much better. This process can continue for multiple iterations, but it always generates a better product. Then I receive her honest affirmation of my work. It's the reassurance I need to settle my deeply-ingrained insecurity about my creative abilities. We don't always agree on the ending point. Sometimes I will neglect portions of her input, but the process of critically reevaluating that specific element ensures that I'm not being blinded by my own nearness.
My sessions with Will have a different flavor, but the results are equally rewarding. The subjects of our discussions tend to be different, and the interaction is different too. So far, they are more like traditional brainstorming sessions. This is in part because the meetings, though informal and comfortable, are still sit-down style meetings. Nevertheless, the results have been tremendously creative and productive. There is a free flow of ideas, sometimes with the mental associations popping new ideas simultaneously into our respective heads.
[ Out of Balance ]
author: Gerry
Manacsa
copyright 1996