Tom Sachs - Five Bullets on Creativity
"The void. Negative space. The existential abyss. A blank piece of paper. It represents the first step in the creative process. Confronting it is an irrational fear we all experience. Be afraid and do it anyway. Put pencil to paper. " -I.S.R.U. Week 2
Writer's block. Not knowing what to work on or where to start. Not feeling inspired. These are familiar problems to creative people. Developing techniques for putting pencil to paper can help confront the 'existential abyss'. In his I.S.R.U. video series, artist Tom Sachs discusses his 'bullets' on overcoming writers block and being creative.
I.S.R.U © Tom Sachs
If you are familiar with Sachs' work then you might have guessed that I.S.R.U. is a NASA term. I.S.R.U. (In-Situ Resource Utilization) describes the process of generating products with local materials. As humans go deeper into space, resupplies will become more difficult and crew members will need to become self-sufficient by using what is readily available.
At the beginning of last year's quarantine in New York, Sachs and his studio team began working at their personal spaces. Through a series of Instagram stories, Sachs and team shared their workspaces and art as well as their progress in physical fitness and productivity challenges. Following the practice of I.S.R.U., the team uses the tools and the space they have at hand to get their work done.
Sachs says "there's no secret to creativity… Think about art as a problem-solving exercise". The way to overcome problems like writer's block is "finding mechanisms and tricks to fool yourself into working better".
In the team’s Week 2 video, Sachs outlines five strategies which he uses to put pencil to paper.
Output before Input
Write, draw, sing, dance. First thing in the morning, before you look at your phone.
Get your setup
Getting your setup means having the tools and the space you need to work. "For me it’s the right pencil, the right emotional environment and a good hard surface", says Sachs.
What to do
"Sometimes you don't know what to do and you want to just busy yourself with activity". Cleaning and knolling your workspace "allow you to meditate on a problem while you're occupying your body and mind. This connects your body and mind with your work environment so that you have a greater flow when the moment of inspiration strikes”.
Be a thief.
Make a gift for someone but instead, keep it for yourself. Use this as a way of just getting to work.
Do what you love
"Never in these first moments of waking spend time doing things out of duty and obligation. You spend most of your day doing that." Steal a chunk of time and use it for yourself to write, draw and work on your art.
Follow Sachs’ advice: be selfish and steal these tricks the next time you're dealing with a “logjam” of creativity. You might find that working at night is a better time to let your creativity flow. Write a letter to someone but don't send it. Try out your own tricks for overcoming writer's block and find what works for you. However you do it, confront the abyss and put pencil to paper. And remember:
"The reward for good work is more work." - Tom Sachs
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