This thought about mistakes made me think of a piece on ideas by Nick Cave.
He said, "Ideas are timid things, in my experience. They come as whispers and you need to hold them in honest regard in order to receive them."
It seems to me that an idea might disguise itself as a mistake. It's a way for it to quietly sneak up on you. If you're prepared to consider the mistake and see it for what it might be, then you're allowing that idea in.
Yes, I think you’re right. Mistakes, doodles, jokes, how we have to sneak up on ourselves! And thanks for the reminder to keep a weather eye on Nick Cave - he is always thoughtful and thought provoking.
I’m not sure that mistakes and chance are the same thing. When Cage threw his pebbles on to paper to draw where they fell he must have known that wasn’t altogether chance. Ok it was chance where they landed, but he threw them expecting them to land on the paper. Pouring paint the same, there’s an element of control. I feel that mistakes are things which happen unexpectedly and unplanned, and are often unfortunate, whereas chance has an element of predictability. Clearly some mistakes in one’s work are welcome and can lead to new exploration, ‘new ideas in disguise’ but if they’re really not what you want to say then isn’t it better to rectify them.
Good point Liza. It seems to me that a 'mistake' is when some chance occurrence gets between me and what I had intended. I can choose how to respond to this. For sure Cage was working within certain parameters when he used chance to create his works. But he was going much further. He was using the workings of chance as an aspect of his Zen spiritual practice, an exercise in developing equanimity - not making decisions based on the ego's likes and dislikes, or judgements between 'nice' sounds and 'ugly' sounds, but simply noticing these aversions and attachments in order to dismantle them. He was trying to get beyond art that 'wants to say' something that comes from the artist's ego, which he felt was a very recent aberration in Western art since the Renaissance. I don't know if I am quite ready to go quite that far. My ego still has quite big say in the studio!
Yes - I realise that he was very much using Zen and I Ching (which I can’t get my head around)! But I wonder if it was chance that he created beautiful pieces of work with his burning and marking. I’d like to know what he chose not to show! I certainly wouldn’t put something out there that I didn’t consider lovely! Ego again😊
This thought about mistakes made me think of a piece on ideas by Nick Cave.
He said, "Ideas are timid things, in my experience. They come as whispers and you need to hold them in honest regard in order to receive them."
It seems to me that an idea might disguise itself as a mistake. It's a way for it to quietly sneak up on you. If you're prepared to consider the mistake and see it for what it might be, then you're allowing that idea in.
https://www.theredhandfiles.com/creativity-disappears-coax-it-back/
Yes, I think you’re right. Mistakes, doodles, jokes, how we have to sneak up on ourselves! And thanks for the reminder to keep a weather eye on Nick Cave - he is always thoughtful and thought provoking.
I’m not sure that mistakes and chance are the same thing. When Cage threw his pebbles on to paper to draw where they fell he must have known that wasn’t altogether chance. Ok it was chance where they landed, but he threw them expecting them to land on the paper. Pouring paint the same, there’s an element of control. I feel that mistakes are things which happen unexpectedly and unplanned, and are often unfortunate, whereas chance has an element of predictability. Clearly some mistakes in one’s work are welcome and can lead to new exploration, ‘new ideas in disguise’ but if they’re really not what you want to say then isn’t it better to rectify them.
Good point Liza. It seems to me that a 'mistake' is when some chance occurrence gets between me and what I had intended. I can choose how to respond to this. For sure Cage was working within certain parameters when he used chance to create his works. But he was going much further. He was using the workings of chance as an aspect of his Zen spiritual practice, an exercise in developing equanimity - not making decisions based on the ego's likes and dislikes, or judgements between 'nice' sounds and 'ugly' sounds, but simply noticing these aversions and attachments in order to dismantle them. He was trying to get beyond art that 'wants to say' something that comes from the artist's ego, which he felt was a very recent aberration in Western art since the Renaissance. I don't know if I am quite ready to go quite that far. My ego still has quite big say in the studio!
Yes - I realise that he was very much using Zen and I Ching (which I can’t get my head around)! But I wonder if it was chance that he created beautiful pieces of work with his burning and marking. I’d like to know what he chose not to show! I certainly wouldn’t put something out there that I didn’t consider lovely! Ego again😊
"Mistakes are new ideas in disguise" - love this! Thanks for this essay
I loved that line too. It went straight in my journal!
Thanks for a really timely and thought-provoking piece Sam.
Glad you liked it Iain!