Ideas and Concepts That Are Born Through Sleep and Moving Landscapes.

I noticed that there are two places where I seem to get most of my ideas from and I am not sure yet how they are connected. So to share a bit about how I walk through life a bit of the backstory: I always have this nerdy looking fanny with me and in it I carry a little black sketchbook and a pen, and whenever a sentence or a word or a topic feels intriguing and I have a vague feeling it might become part of a work I write it down in a list. It's my so-called Word list. It can happen during a conversation or looking at street signs or whatever. It feels like a little tingling in my stomach like an alarm bell that suggests: hey, this is important. I don't know why yet but it is.

The lazy dude inside of me likes to skip this and not open the fanny pack and just assume another moment will be better or it's not really important.

Over the years I learned to ignore him and just follow through and WRITE. THAT. SHIT. DOWN. Not later, but NOW.

Then there's another list which I call the Material list. Kinda figures that this list contains photos of materials or patterns that I also feel somehow will come in handy at some point.  I see them in photos, or flea markets or online images. Some materials or objects just pop out. Again it might be a very common material but I sense something intriguing and some metaphoric potential that lies within it.

Then there's a list with subject matters that I am interested in and sometimes quotes or parts from books that inspire me. Big subjects from psychology to human rights but also the little everyday stuff from broken hearts to drinking coffee. So these lists are with me at all times and my phone and a manual sketchbook have this ever growing fundus of lists and images and sentences.

So there is that. But then what?

How these things connect to a new work that is a fully formed concept has to do with the second phase. It feels like putting together a puzzle or riddle and how it happens is that somehow my subconsciousness is aware of all the material (or vocabulary as I sometimes call it) I have collected and then forms from all these pieces an entire whole work. Most of the time it actually happens at once within a flash and at other times it's more like watching in slow motion the ingredients falling into place and I can over the course of a few minutes watch the process unfold. Sometimes putting one ingredient in at a time and see how it feels and then replacing it with another until it feels right.

This happens to me usually in two places: 1) Either the moments just before sleep and right after waking up  2) When I sit in a moving object and just watch the landscapes outside fly by (best is a train but taxis do the trick too sometimes). I can also take a walk sometimes and it does the trick but sitting in a fast moving object seems to work better.

There's no prior thought process, I actually don't focus on anything and just enjoy space unfolding in front of my eyes and don't even know which idea my subconsciousness might be working on.  And then at a certain moment it just gets to me. The idea appears fully formed knocking at the door of my consciousness and introduces itself with its title, material, concept and step-by-step guidelines for execution and the meaning behind it all. Most of the time.

So I think this is why when I travel I seem to fill my sketchbook much quicker than usual. I don't know if anyone else has the same thing but in case no one has ever done it, give it a try.  Watch those landscapes and see if the inner saved vocabulary of life is ready to form a new articulated sentence without much effort.

What a trip.