Laura, you describe the symptoms of a creative so well, I figure you already know you’re after something you already have, but cannot access yet. The trick then, is accessing it.
Again, the people you are engaging with, must understand and trust the creative process. Cause if they don’t, they will shut the process down. Hearing and watching uncensored thoughts roll out of people’s minds (mouths) without filters of any kind, upsets a lot of people (they take it personally). Eventually, I learned not to engage with non-creatives at that level.
Instead of the place, the people are the stage. Since we are creatives, we need our tools of expression wherever we are meeting. To think, I need a pen and paper to draw on (I have to see what I am thinking). Other people need a guitar or piano to think (they need to hear what they are thinking). Still others need a computer keyboard or paper to write on (they have to read what they are thinking). And still others need to act out their thoughts (they have to experience what they are thinking). In the same space, these various forms of free-thinking stimulate parts of our brains, none of us are able to access on our own.
But, thinking creatively, is not normal, daily behaviour. We say outrageous things, we exhibit odd behaviours and we interact oddly. To succeed, participants must feel safe to express themselves without filters. Since non-creatives witnessing these sessions are compelled to calm things down, gain control, get things in order, they must be kept out. You have to be careful, because not inviting your friends to these sessions, can cause some hard feelings.
Where people gather does matter though, so let me address how. To get people thinking in new directions on familiar subjects is super hard to get started. At the beginning, getting away from familiar places helps — a lot. However, our attachment to money and all it symbolizes is too strong to overcome. Spending money makes people feel like they have to get something out of their investment, besides a bunch of free thoughts. For that reason, the place should not cost too much money. Nonetheless, an inexpensive retreat space can get the ball rolling. Later, you come back together at home to work.
Besides, we need our thinking tools and hauling them to some retreat is a burden. Most creatives have studios, so that is where my people meet. My fabrication shop in an airplane hangar made a great work space. However, we got more thinking work done in our dining rooms. In my world of activists, my dinner parties for creatives are famous. I serve dinner at six o’clock and at midnight, people are still at the table talking — and my dining room walls are covered with sketches, sheet music, words, and symbols etc.
Thinking out loud is imperative, but hard to learn. The shit that comes out of my mouth sometimes, can even surprise me. To think out loud, I have to trust people will NOT take anything I say personally. If I am constraining myself, I am blocking my creative pathways, so a common understanding and trust in the creative process is essential.
Interestingly enough, working with creatives on race relations has been pure magic. The creative process is the one place, where the shit that comes out of our mouths, is appreciated, valued and the key to solving problems. If I did not say that shit and someone else did not say shit too, it would have sat inside all of us forever. Getting that shit out in the open where people can hear it, feel it and see it, is how you build fresh, clear thinking inside your own head.
What happens between creative people is hard to describe, but I will try. People call it a brain trust — we put our minds together and make them think as one. Its like being a split personality for a while — to hear voices in your head, you have to let people inside your head — literally let then in your head. The symptoms of success include, finishing each other’s sentences, people jumping up to act out, sing, draw, type, etc. But you know you hit pay dirt, when people start arguing over whose great idea that was — and you all finally realize the idea came from one mind — the collective mind.
Think about this in terms of race relations. Imagine you have a white voice in your head, not only is a white personality a part of you now, its part of your identity. Scary idea, right? It’s not scary to do it though. Having the voices of people with different colored skin and religions and affiliations in my head, talking to me, with me and at me, is soothing and comforting. It makes me feel a part of them, and they a part of me and that makes me care — a lot. And caring is what feeds, nurtures and fuels my creativity. Caring makes me want, even need, to solve problems, create new ways of being and be different too.
Laura it takes time to build a brain trust, you make mistakes, learn and keep on building until you get it right. Today, my creative brain trust is quite large, but I’ve been building them for decades. Last week, a friend from my organizer/activist brain trust flew to Kentucky to gather up my thoughts for things people are working on in California. We spent three days at my kitchen table — brainstorming and thinking out loud. After Mary left, the emails filled with all the resource material we’d discussed started flying back and forth. My work in Kentucky is now connected to my work in California. We have common purpose and new ideas about how to get where we want to go. This time was different though. This time, we discovered that we could jump over existing problems and start building something new, up ahead of where people are already heading. That is powerful stuff, Laura, really powerful.
As for how long should these go? Three days is the max. One day is too short. Two days is tiring. By the third day creativity is fully and freely flowing. But creative work is hard work, and people need to sleep. For a couple days after a workshop, my brain is super charged, but I am physically exhausted. Yup, three days is my max (or I burn out). Best to do a few workshops, rather than go too long and burn out.
Well, that was a long reply, but that’s the nature of a brainstorm, free thinking, unedited, and thinking out loud.
I thank you for the conversation.
