For this first assignment, the brief asked me to pick from one of three different approaches. I decided to take the Illustration option. This option asked me to take an A2 piece of paper and a pencil, and start making marks on the paper. I would chip away until the page was full.
The assignment in principle was simple, but to me, it felt boring. So I knew I would have an activation problem. My first tactic was to see if I could prepare my space, to lower the barrier to entry for me to start the work. This didn't have the effect that I expected - suddenly this felt like work, not like fun and it made it harder to start.
So my instinct was to somehow fool myself into just starting. I decided to experiment with a combination of making the process a lot less serious, as well as trying to make it interesting. So I grabbed my A2 pad as well as a red/blue magic pencil and decided to attempt the mark-making as I sat on the sofa with my wife.
I found that the distraction from the TV helped me to not think too much, and I started to get into a rhythm of marks and doodles that came naturally. I tried where I could to just surrender to what my instincts told me to do. So sometimes I did some sweeping gestures, and others a pattern formed in my head which I transferred to the paper. At other points I let the pencil 'walk' enjoying the randomness of the changing colours and inability to anticipate when it would change.
Every so often I would rotate the pad to get access to a new section, and after a few hours, I had filled in the sheet of paper. I don't have an A2 scanner, so I then scanned in both A3 halves and did my best to digitally stitch them back together:
The assignment then asked me to take square snapshots of different sections/aspects of the marks. Then to give to title them based on the emotion or sensational affect they invoked.
I am glad that I managed to find an approach to overcome the activation hurdle. Looking for ways to make my preparatory or explorative work 'messy' or 'defaced' ahead of time could take pressure off using the materials? Make me less precious about them?
I really liked my choice to use the magic pencil - it added in just the right amount of variation and interest to allow me to enjoy the task at hand a little more. It also made the selection process more fun, as I got the opportunity to see and appreciate all the random changes. This has been an interesting introduction to the unit, but I feel like I need something more concrete to tackle. I'm keen to see what kind of 'deep work' I can accomplish in Section Two.
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