A Bridge Between Minds

Nowhere is the connection between artist and audience more prevalent than in the comic industry. Telling a story in small compressed panels is a tough ask. conveying the right information at the right moment to get the audience to suspend disbelief and to engage with the work takes some effort.

Scott McCloud’s, Understanding Comics goes along way to revealing the artistry and philosophical underpinnings of what are and how they came about. He delves into the history of the medium and breaks down the structure of comics to their essence.

The Journey McCloud takes us on is one of deconstruction and all presented through the very medium he seeks to explain. A comic book.

As a long time comic lover I have a bias to this medium. However I think that they is some terrific points in McClouds’ text that not only relates to comics but to the whole realm of visual creation and to the special relationship between creator and audience.

The Space Between Us

The Space between comic panels is where relationship exists. This space, or Gutter in comic terms, is a hidden device that allows the viewer to make connections through the narrative. McCloud focuses on the psychological concept of mental closure. Closure is the brains’ way of filling in the rest of the details we can't see based on previous information and knowledge. we observe the parts but perceive the whole. We are "Mentally completing based on past experience" pg.63. This idea of closure is what enables our minds to connections between shapes. I find this process analogous with the generative process known as “Clouding”.

Clouding is where the we take abstract elements, overlay them together, in order to create interesting positive and negative shapes. We then try and see what forms emerge from the abstraction. Aaron sims Creature Design in Photoshop is a great example of this. This act of deliberate shape seeking, much akin to children looking at clouds for dragons or ships, etc is all about closure.

“Clouding” Aaron Sims: Creature Design in Adobe Photoshop

Closure not only connects between shapes but also between narrative. In the case of comics the creator can lead an audience through particular narrative points and set up story points which the viewer then closes the story loop or themselves.

This makes the audience a "willing and conscious collaborator" pg.65 joining with the artist in a conceptual space to become "partners in the invisible" creating something out of nothing, time and time again." pg.205

I believe that this synthesis between audience and artist happens in all designed or created works and It it is the chosen medium the artist uses that becomes the dialect for this communication. As McCloud says, The “medium serves as a bridge between our minds” pg.195


-matt

Idea Execution Audit

The 99% Idea Execution Audit is an interesting snap shot of what Creatives operate. They ran a survey of all their members and created an insightful infographic as a result. The point that stood out for me was that 63.1% of respondents said that their best creative insights happen when they are taking a break and letting their mind wander.

This anecdotal evidence supports much of the theorizing of creativity from the psychology and science groups which see the two areas of hard work and relaxation as hand in glove when it comes to generation new ideas.

This down time is the point at which our minds can sift through what we have been working on an connect ideas together which we may not have previously associated.

-matt

Relax and Connect

Relax and Connect: iPad illustration, Matt Bacon

A great article on the Behance network about the creative process of Brian Eno, music producer, and member of Roxy music. There's a couple of points that stand out for me.

Relax

We always need to have a "Relaxation" phase in our creative process to allow ideas to knit together to generate the Eureka! Moment.The idea of relaxing, or down-time is something that is overlooked in all the models of creativity and idea generation. I've not seen many lists or diagrams that mention as a step in the process "ok, now go relax" or as Monty Python would say, "and now for something completely different". Jonah Lehrer mentions this in his paper "The Eureka Hunt" citing the need to stop and relax if but for a moment to allow the stirred up synapses time to settle down next to each other and connect.

Undervalued

We undervalue the times of 'doing nothing' because we constantly feel that we should be 'doing something'. Doing "nothing" doesn't fit comfortably in a business oriented production process. However doing "nothing" could well mean we move onto another project that is in a different state of the production.

Strategies

Eno has also developed four of his own strategies for taking himself out of a creative quagmire:
1. Freeform capture: grab from a range of sources. Record anything that interests you and then look for connections.
2. Blank Slate: Dabble. Start with something new. Materials maybe until something starts connecting/suggesting.
3. Deliberate limitations: give your self boundaries/restrictions before you begin. Ideas can bounce off these.
4. Opposing Forces: "generate a forced collision of ideas" get people who don't normally work together to collaborate.
5. Creative Prompts: Eno uses Oblique Strategy Cards which prompt questions of the process. ie. "Turn it upside down", Work at a different speed", "use only a part".

Eno's Oblique cards have seeded modern proliferations in various forms across the web. Nudge cards have appeared in various forms especially among the design thinking community. Even websites like

creativeconstraint.com or something are offering to deliver "obliqueness" to your inbox.

Build Repositories

Be ready. Keep working. Working ensues that you are in a state of readiness for the opportunities to come together. Much like working out keeps you in readiness for activity. By switching directions you are continually building up repositories of conceptual data which adds to your capacity to connect previously unrelated ideas together.

-matt