On living creatively:
- Donald Woods Winnicott, Playing and Reality
We hope that you vibrated with curiosity while reading Winnicott text. In LUAN, we believe living creatively starts with being open to wonder. Here we give you five prompts to exercise the creative muscles.
Instructions:
Step 1. Choose an exercise that you like.
Step 2. Get ready! Grab a notebook and a pen. You can even grab your camera if you like! Document everything that happens to you.
Step 3. Enjoy yourself and, when you’re done, write down your thoughts and conclusions. Guide your questions with the examples we’ve provided below.
1. What did I feel? What sensations was I able to experience? What emotions inhabited me during the exercise?
2. What ideas and associations have I found? What new stories have I heard? What are the questions that I’d like to explore further? What dilemmas or problems did I find?
3. If I were to do this whole exercise over again, what would change? How could I alter it to match my personality and my style?
1
Write a Dada poem
- Get some newspaper and a pair of scissors.
- In the newspaper, find an article that’s just about as long as you would like the poem to be.
- Cut the article out.
- Carefully cut out each of the words in the article and put them all in a bag.
- Shake the bag gently.
- Pull out one piece of paper after the other.
- Copy all the words you got into your notebook.
- The poem will manifest itself to you.
2
Create a collective idea
This game was proposed by Fluxus member Milan Knížák in 1978.
“With the objective of creating an idea collectively, a group of people might all think about one precise, fixed thing, either separately or in a group. Such a thing can be the warmth of the sun, the note C, a black cloud, or a handshake, among many other objects. Later on, each member of the group will share their results with the rest”.
Source: Invitación al Tiempo Explosivo: Manual de Juegos written by Julián Lacalle and Julio Monteverde, published by Editorial Sexto Piso in Mexico (2018).
3
Sources of inspiration
Many digital spaces brimming with amazing surprises are waiting for you to discover them. Here are two sites where you can begin your quest for inspiration. What places give you endless inspiration?
This YouTube channel has many videos on the beautiful and melancholic language of emotions.
Poetry films by On Being Project
On Being is a nonprofit media and public life initiative that makes public radio shows, podcasts, and tools for the art of living. They typically share animations of marvelous poems on their YouTube channel.
4
The Art of the Siesta
Thierry Paquot (French writer, 1998) urges us to start thinking of naps as moments of sweet rebelliousness, for they can be an opportunity for us to empower ourselves into having more time and making sure we make good use of the time we’ve got. To take a nap is to do art!
“And you who fall asleep, however quickly, pay attention to the brief prelude that announces the coming of sleep itself. It is here that you can create your own pictures, from derivations to valued canvasses. You flow into them. Everything becomes coloured in a composition that is certainly symbolic but indescribable and of impenetrable significance.”
Take a nap. Write down whatever is on your mind as soon as you wake up.
5
Imagination and playing
Playfulness brings a deeper meaning, better habits, and more open cultural connections into our lives. Put yourself in a slightly uncomfortable space, but remain playful and create something of value to you. It could be anything! If you can’t think of any ways to do it, try something along these lines:
Stain a paper with random coffee and let your imagination find images in the stains. Draw what you see, let the pen fly wild!
We hope you’ve come up with new ideas and associations, and we would like to encourage you to now put this exploration into practice. Share with us how it went!
