How creativity is helped by failure

[garyhiggins]

I dunno , what started as a serious discussion on the nature of learning from our failures has fast degenerated into the art of the double entendre - something we are all creative geniuses at . (If not the art of English grammar). Anyway, we've got to find value in failure because we all have so many. (And before anyone says it, yes I was speaking for myself).
Seriously though, creativity is rarely if ever a burst of inspiration, it usually begins with a curiosity about what would happen if........... Then you want to test your idea on a project so you start with the drawing book, to come up with something to do (which usually means pages of scribbling till I get a scribble that looks likely to be viable). Next comes proper drawings, dealing with poses and historical periods. After that comes the actual sculpting, working out engineering and anatomy, then finally comes the figurative stuff with the puttty. There might be a minor burst of enlightenment about how to place something in the mould or where to pour in from, but that's it!!!!!!!!. No fire of creativity, NO burning light bulb to guide my way, just a lot of stumbling around in the dark.
But that's just me .
Yours in frustration, Gary.

 

[Huw63]

I dunno , what started as a serious discussion on the nature of learning from our failures has fast degenerated into the art of the double entendre - something we are all creative geniuses at . (If not the art of English grammar). Anyway, we've got to find value in failure because we all have so many. (And before anyone says it, yes I was speaking for myself).
Seriously though, creativity is rarely if ever a burst of inspiration, it usually begins with a curiosity about what would happen if........... Then you want to test your idea on a project so you start with the drawing book, to come up with something to do (which usually means pages of scribbling till I get a scribble that looks likely to be viable). Next comes proper drawings, dealing with poses and historical periods. After that comes the actual sculpting, working out engineering and anatomy, then finally comes the figurative stuff with the puttty. There might be a minor burst of enlightenment about how to place something in the mould or where to pour in from, but that's it!!!!!!!!. No fire of creativity, NO burning light bulb to guide my way, just a lot of stumbling around in the dark.
But that's just me .
Yours in frustration, Gary.

Fair points Gary. Anyway this article on the BBC reminds me of an experiment of using different groups to build a tower out of spaghetti sticks (uncooked of course) using selotape and mounting a marshmallow on the end. In timed tests the best results were by kindergarten (nursery) kids who just piled into the task and when it broke started again. Those who performed worst were, in reverse order, business school graduates, architects and engineers.

Myself i'm a perfectionist meaning I always restarting pieces and rarely finishing things and even then I want to improve them. Lesson for me in this article maybe?

Finally I agree we're masters in double-entendre and Ron and Paul didn't call by this thread.

Cheers

Huw

 

[garyhiggins]

I should have thought the experiment would have been much more fun with cooked spaghetti , but very good point . I think that the worst thing in the world you can be is a perfectionist (and I should know), because all you can ever do is Fail.
Regards, Gary.

 

[Huw63]

I should have thought the experiment would have been much more fun with cooked spaghetti , but very good point . I think that the worst thing in the world you can be is a perfectionist (and I should know), because all you can ever do is Fail.
Regards, Gary.

Model making and painting and my choppers are the things where I try to be a perfectionist - the rest of the time I use the 80-20 rule or I frankly don't give a stuff! I'm trying to apply the 80-20 rule to models and the appearance of my bikes but I come here and always think I can do better hence paint stripper on about 25 figures this summer.

Cheers

Huw