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The research group soon decided to approach the matter of creativity by conducting interviews with awarded practitioners from different fields. Jo Van Den Berghe met two Flemish artists: the musician and composer Jeroen D’hoe and the fashion designer Jan-Jan Vanessche; while Valentina Signore interviewed the Norwegian architect Siv Helene Stangeland, (who is involved in the ADAPT-r program) and the Japanese dancer and choreographer Akira Kasai. We chose these four creative practitioners not only because they are worldwide awarded creative practitioners but also because they are important reference points for our own creative works. Interviewing our own example we also indirectly expose our understanding of creativity. The device of the interview was decided to gently access their “secrets” in order to make them available to a bigger public while at the same time preserving their embedment into the artist’s specific world and personality. This choice was in fact aimed to prevent their generous revelations to be reduced into a set of rules, to rather privilege a form able to show them as integral part of inspiring and unique stories. However, in this introduction, we will make an attempt to briefly summarize some of the many insights that we have learned from the four interviews: certainly they made us reflect on the importance of the context within which creative production takes place, as well as more generally on the situatedness of its process (meaning not only the space, but also the people and the culture in which the creation is embedded). A recurrent reference to the necessity of slowness and to the need of taking the time, together with the importance of iterations in the process cleared out any preconception of the creative act as the sudden gesture of a genius (cfr. also Ranulph Glanville). This means also that learning from previous experiences plays a key role in the development of their mastery (cfr also Ranulph Glanville). Finally, the confrontation with not-knowing (cfr also Adam Jakimowicz), a sense of honesty, and some (philosophical) fundamental vision on life seem to be the very drive and source of their innovative way of thinking and making. The two pairs of interviews present different focuses: Jo van den Berghe pays particular attention on tools, people and spaces, while Valentina Signore concentrates on the role of Siv and Akira as “authors” of their creations: to what extent their mastery means to control the process and to what extent do they keep real their encounter with the unknown? The four interviews span from a generous attempt to contribute to the improvement of creative processes, to questioning the very purpose of reflecting and writing on creativity. Akira Kasai, in the last interview, turns in fact Valentina’s questions back toward her. Rather than revealing his secrets he drives his interviewer (and with her, the reader as well) into a journey in her innermost thoughts, feelings, desires and fears. We conclude our contribution with Kasai’s provocations. The emptiness he evokes brings us back to the Greek mythology of Creation: Chaos is at the first place, but before order can start to appear, another unknowable, dark and mysterious entity emerges from the void. Many other things we may learn from others’ creation but we cannot create or even speak about creation if we don’t have a personal encounter with such unknown places. Similarly to this void, the silences were the most intense and beautiful moments of the conversations. Although it was not possible to transcribe them in the written text, the reader may probably hear their echoes in the intensity and truthfulness of the spoken words, born out of a deep inner search. ispartof: The ADAPT-r Creativity book pages:17-71 ispartof: pages:17-71 status: published |
