When it comes to creative jobs or skills, people would say
“Sense of Creative is the most significant element of Creation”.
I can agree with it to some extent but it does not necessarily finalise their creation.
So what is the most vital clue for creation??
Feedback, more like Attitude to ask others for feedback, more like Others.
I’ve been studying design in a field of industrial and conventional creation for 5 years, and I met a lot of high skilled students who made unique looking furnitures reflected by history of local culture, fictitious watches with convincing appearance for their concepts, and services with concrete solution for certain targets.
The interesting is that almost all skilful students were critical to themselves, and kept asking others again and again, about if their design work is consistent to their concepts or convincing enough to solve problems.
Now I’m in Germany as Master student, also I met sort of people.
They’re all willing to get critiques from others, which is same as what I saw in Japan, except one point.
More personally
I’m taking a class for creating an alternative clock, (will be exhibited in a month as a digital installation), and have taken many classes for making artworks or installations (not design stuff), actually all classes are so constructive as design classes in Japan, although they,don’t have either of specific targets or industrial solutions,
but instead we have to look ourselvesmore personally;
what is our preference? what created our core of personality in our childhood? what kind of media is proper to express ourselves? what do we want to represent? in the first place Do we want to inspire others or just publish our recordings?
that’s a lot, pretty tough because Should I fail to convey my thoughts through the artwork, that makes me feel being isolated from others, because artwork is copy of myself.
Get Kaito_log’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
Indeed design works have some parts based on your personality, but not as much as ones of artworks.
So making artworks is sometimes cruel process, and always has possibility to cause catastrophe more or less, but also gives me many lessons.
Make sense
“Does it make sense?” “Does it make sense?”
This the most frequent sentence I heard of in Germany so far, almost all students in my host University ask others, about whether their artworks effectively reflect concepts.
And the “others” are also critical.
They not only pay respect to other’s artworks but also discern whether the works make sense or not, and ask me “does it make sense”, “does it make sense”?
then I look away, toward somewhere outside window, blinking, whistling …
nah kidding I will explain again and again, and ask them back for feedback.
Tiny Lion with Glasses
I’m not good at English yet, but I like English.
When I started learning English at junior high school in Japan, every time I pronounce some sentences with my tongue, a little bit I felt as if I’m touching hidden parts of my personality, making voice barked by a tiny lion with glasses (?). (also at the moment I didn’t expect that I’ll be abroad, take classes, live alone, and have best friends only in English)
When I use Japanese, I would be a bit introverted or putting some distances with others. (so I would compare myself to owl).
Conversely, English finds my different respect, being straightforward, rational and physical (that’s why I referred a tiny lion with glasses as my hidden personality).
And after around 6 months I started using English, it gave me one importance.
Verbalisation
The one is Verbalisation.
Since grammatical character of English, people have to build a complete sentence to let others understand, which is always tough but helps me a lot to export blurred ideas into clear sentences, as I’m writing this blog right now.
Making into words is the most effective way to “save my file”, seeing what I’ve been thinking. This practice will be an significant part of my life I never doubt! (btw interesting that file and life are anagram)
If I tried to write something constructively without emotion in Japanese, I’ll be stuck because Japanese doesn’t force me to complete every each sentence, with bunch of filler words to prolong conclusions, lots of unconventional expressions to write in an “artistic” way.
On the other hand, Japanese leads myself into my own world, translate magnificent scenery into something meaningful, and explain how I like my friends or family in detail, basically in an emotional or metaphysical way.
If English were a high-performance lens that brings scenery into sharp focus, Japanese would be a crystal ball that reinterprets it with deeper meaning.
Once in a while I will write down my thoughts in English, because sometimes I have an urge to publish my thoughts, see what I’ve been feeling to everyday things, and ofc wanna get used to thinking in English smoothly.
Still, how interesting language is…
