THE CREATIVE PROCESS LIBRARY

A daily (or at least regular) creative practice of SOME KIND is critical to your brain, heart, soul, and business. Here are some great ideas to get you started. If you've got more ideas you would like me to include here, contact me!

photography processes

"found" drawing photos: Photograph line drawings that naturally occur in the environment (crosswalks, power lines, tree branches, dress straps, etc) 

photograph colors....cover the entire rainbow over the course of 2 weeks, find "un-nameable" colors, etc

only photograph the very, very tiny

only photograph things in motion

photograph things you aren't looking at (accidental images)

time-lapse photography

print your photos and draw on them, paint on them, write on them or collage with them

print your photos and embed them in the environment and photograph them again

set music to your photos

cut out elements from your photos and re-photograph them within different settings / make 3D collage as sets for new photos

make puppets from your photos

research processes

At the library: don't look at signs or building maps; just wander, find every nook and cranny. Pull books at random off the shelf, open to any page at random, and record the first sentence you see (written or audio). Let these sentences accumulate, Later, you can see what happens when you read them all together.

At the library: Find books at random and photocopy images you find. Later, play the "This image represents" game. Accumulate lots of images over time. Eventually you can turn them into raw material for projects.

drawing processes

"collect" faces: walk each day and notice people's faces. When one really sticks in your memory, draw it from memory.

blind contour drawings: don't look at your page. Dont take your pen/pencil off the page. Look at the subject: someone's face, an object - and "trace" the outlines you see with your on on paper. The drawing will be ridiculous. It will teach you about the relationship of hand to eye.

musical processes

collect/record 3 sounds a day on your phone.

sing daily, improvising, using the sounds you hear around you as collaborators (birds, cars, conversations)

sing an entire conversation with a friend.

sing to the bureaucrat who calls you for debt payments.

sing to the toll booth collector, the bus driver, the taxi driver, the cashier.

make musical instruments using everyday objects.

make musical instruments out of things you find in public, on walks.

make drums out of hollow objects.and play.

string guitar strings on: fences, tree branches, anything that will hold them. Play songs and record..

visual art processes

photocopy play

collage

blind contour drawings

design processes

Each day, take a common object and find 5 new uses for it

find common objects and tell a story about each one.

research everything that went into the making of an object (a pen, for example). Chemicals, materials, elements. Processes. Workers, factories, nations, transportation...research every part of its production. Then research also the poetic material (plastic: fossil fuels: ancient remains of ancient beings). Connect that pen to as much as you can, through history, time and space, the practical and the poetic.

dismantle an appliance, toy or other complex thing. rebuild something new out of its parts, something with a function.

prototype practical solutions. Prototype impractical solutions.

journeys

walk the same route every day and notice/record whats different each time

map your world of sound

map your conversations

draw with your feet: make drawings on a map, and walk them. document with photos or drawings.

writing processes

start a list of words. have people you know add to it. Each day, select 3 words and write a story from it.

write song lyrics based on overheard conversations.

open a book at random, to a random page, and write a song, story or poem using the first line at the top of the page.

make "blackout" poetry - using a black marker, cross out all the words on a page except those particular words you choose - they become the basis of a small poem.

movement processes

stand near a window and look out at passers-by. mimic their movements.

The egg: start in a tiny ball on the floor. Make one movement. Make another. Allow your egg to hatch into movements you have never before made. 10 minutes a day.

Dance to a strong beat. 10 minutes a day.

Move through your room like a specific animal. Like a specific insect. Like a specific microorganism.

time-based media

video-a-day

simple stop-motion animations