I joined Stereo because I wanted to do and create something inspiring. I certainly hope Spillage will inspire you and therefore the theme of my first post is (you may have guessed it by now) inspiration.

According to the dictionary, inspiration is the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially to do something creative.

Psychology says
In the past, psychologists have said that inspiration came from the artist being very much in tune to receive signals from an external crisis. In modern psychology however inspiration is commonly seen as an entirely internal process. Freud’s view on inspiration was that it could come directly from the subconscious. In each of those psychological views, whether scientific or spiritual, inspiration is, by its nature, beyond control.

Levels of inspiration
I believe there are different levels of inspiration. There’s the kind that allows you to really focus and tune everything else out, while solving a problem. (Being creative is all about solving problems, be it visually or otherwise). Then there’s the kind where you suddenly find a new solution to a problem. Another kind of inspiration originates from serendipity: the occurrence and development of events by chance, in a happy or beneficial way. And then there is that kind of divine magical inspiration we call flow. When ideas and solutions flow freely. When every thought you think combines with something else and thus creates the ultimate solution.

Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is known as the creator of the notion of flow, and for his years of research and writing on the topic. He describes flow as being the mental state of operation in which the person is fully immersed in what he or she is doing, characterized by a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity.

I love flow. When immerged in a state of flow, I always get a lot more work done in lesser time and with the most satisfying outcomes. Although for many artists it also has its downsides. You forget to eat, drink, relax and you tend to ignore the people around you.

1% inspiration, I doubt it
A famous quote by Thomas Edison: “genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration”. Motivation can cause an increase in performance; whereas, I would argue that inspiration promotes a feeling that can, as a result, increase your motivation. When it comes to creation, I believe perspiration and motivation are very important, but inspiration is vital. I assume that, for creating something ‘brilliant’, you need more than 1% inspiration. I partly base this on the fact that inspiration often strikes late at night, or for instance in the shower. (I for one always have pen and paper near my bed). Inspiration comes to us at a time of reduced activity or inactivity. And because it comes when we give ourselves permission to reflect, at those times neither perspiration nor motivation have anything to do with it.

I collect ‘things’
People are collectors. Throughout our lives we surround ourselves with an assortment of artifacts. Things that appeal to us, trigger our memories, or intrigue us. Artists collect visual materials as a source of inspiration. They use these visuals in the conceptual phase. Many artists search the Internet for imagery, look trough art/design books and/or use mood boards.

I believe that it is not just physical material that provides us with inspiration but, agreeing with Freud, it is also the ‘materials’ in our subconscious. Our mind provides us with a large collection of –our lives worth of– accumulated images, ideas, sounds, feelings, memories, preferences, words, quotes, thoughts, moving image, etc. Often inspiration comes from the accumulation of material stored in our memory but otherwise linked.

Researching inspiration has inspired me. I hope you enjoyed reading about it, and maybe feel a little inspired yourself.

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Sources
• Wikipedia.org
• Computer Arts Issue 141, Oct. 2007
•Keller, A.I. (2005) For Inspiration Only, Designer Interaction with Informal Collections of Visual Material. TU Delft. (http://studiolab.io.tudelft.nl/forinspirationonly)
• My conscious and subconscious mind
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On a more personal note

Much of a person’s character is formed at a young age. Can that also be true for the development of ones taste and the images an artist creates? How big a part is (for instance) the imagery we see as a child apposed to the way we create as an adult?

As I rummaged through some of my old toys, from my parents attic, I found an old game of memory, dated from 1974. I probably have had it since my first year on earth. I noticed that most of the images, I liked at a young age, I still like.

I also found an old Dutch game, that I remember I loved playing when I was young partially because of how pretty it looked. You can imagine my surprise and excitement when I saw the signature of no one other than Anthon Beeke. He made the illustration I loved so much, and designed the package in the 70’s.

Now is it any wonder I became an illustrator / graphic designer?