Five Things

1. First of all, for homework we were supposed to read "the art of creativity" which explained the four steps that lead to the "flash of inspiration", or that moment that a solution or an idea comes to you, even though you don't even know why or how or where it came from. the first step is preparation, or when you "let your imagination roam free", you gather facts but are open to any possibilities. the second step is percolation which is the act of going through repetitive or routine activities that allow you to fall into subconsciousness [where the flash comes from]. the third step is illumination, or the "aha!" moment, when you actually experience the flash of inspiration. this is a product of the percolation stage. the final step, which is crucial, is transformation : when you take the inspiration and you look at it in different point of views and question it or juxtapose it with unusual things [you must stay away from functional fixedness which is your initial, rational thought process].

2. This idea of the "flash of inspiration" led into the next part of class which was looking back at our free writing from last class [writing about things that interest us]. I looked back and initially questioned my idea; i wrote about being an insomniac and how i strangely like it; i like being awake at late hours of the night and early hours of the morning. so, i created a list of other things that interest me including : silent snow, the sense of home, heavy rain, people watching, graveyards, empty streets, parisian cafes, etc. but, in the end i came back to the idea of insomnia, because it was my initial inspiration. i started making a list of the connections i have with insomnia : silence, tranquility, experiences that no one else has - sights, smells, sounds, morning fog, sunrise - sudden transitions from day to night to day again, being in a different world than everyone else, time going by fast & slow, isolation, tension, torture, what i do when i'm awake, subconscious is awake while conscious is asleep, etc. this inspired me further and convinced me that insomnia was a good topic to stick with.

3. the reason we had to choose a topic was for our next project : theme sound. after reading the project description over, i gathered that we are supposed to connect our personal interest with our work, even if it may seem to have nothing to do with sound. we have to experiment and take risks; i'm excited to begin this project because it's so open, there are virtually no boundaries or restrictions which will allow our creativity to really come through. we also have to allow our intention for the project to be evident; listeners should be impacted by our visions. after hearing the project, i began to think about how i could associate insomnia with sound art. do i want it to be abstract or environmental? my initial thought was that i could begin with loud, simultaneous sound, representing the hustle of people in the awake world, then transition to people slowly drifting away to sleep, while i am awake, causing quiet, ambient sounds. i want to bring the listener into "a night in the life of an insomniac" basically. the end will circle back to the beginning as people wake up and begin the day again.

4. to further inspire or expand our ideas of our themes, we began an exercise in which we adapted a character [i was obama] and we had to make questions that pertained to other people's themes. [this is an example of changing the point of view, which is a part of the transformation stage]. i blogged the questions that people made for me. some of them really stretched my mind and made me think of even more questions. examples: "how does insomnia effect the way you approach sleeping?" - at first, i dreaded insomnia, and it felt like torture; however, strangely, i began to enjoy it, i began to dread sleep instead. although sometimes i still do hate it, most of the time i appreciate the experiences that are exclusive to me. "how does it effect me as a person?" when i go a day [or more] without sleep, insomnia often leaves me in a strange "limbo", or zombie-like consciousness, as if i'm still stuck in that other world. "how does environment play a role in insomnia?" changes in environment definitely alter my insomnia; when i'm somewhere i'm not used to or uncomfortable with, it triggers my insomnia even more. it makes me scared of sleep; i feel like i can only sleep if i feel safe.

5. the final part of class was the critique of our abstract sound pieces. i loved hearing a lot of other people's works. it was intriguing how different they were and really reflected the personalities of my fellow students. when i brought mine up, i got few, but interesting responses. one thing i could fix is making it even clearer that my focus was on timbre, tone, and pitch, and not rhythm. otherwise, i think that the critique went well.