The hot flaming edges of creativity
I recently read an article on innovation and creativity which called out the importance of edges – as a metaphor for going toward the borders of what you think you know, what you do and how you do it. In other words, the importance of extending out of your comfort zone. It suggests that nothing new or innovative will happen if you don’t stretch yourself into your discomfort zone. Creativity won’t happen.
Which brings me to improvisation because improvisation is a useful practice of being between the edges of knowing and unknowing. In this video you can see a slice of a larger improvisation where I started with nothing but my body in an empty (ish) room and created a performance.
After my performance a friend asked me how I felt, and this was hard to answer as I had many feelings going on out there! Considering this topic of edges and creativity what I want to reflect on is how dynamic and almost explosive it is to go toward edges. If we really are committed to explore edges, we need to see it as a practice and find ways to be in the practice of doing it. There are strong feelings that come up in the realm of the unknown and the strength of these feelings drive us toward the known. This is like an island to rest upon because the unknown is like being awash in an ocean of ever moving and hard to define beginnings and endings or – edges.
When I was out there improvising there was content, I came up with that were like islands, they were known to me and therefore had a feeling of safety. I had to let go of these and be within what felt like an emptiness, nothing – this is where you hit the great fear of having NOTHING, nothing to say or not knowing what to do. I can tell you it is uncomfortable and yet if you can hang in with this fear it passes and soon enough you are doing something new, unexpected.
Generally, because the sea of uncertainty isn’t the landscape we are trained to navigate we head for the edges of dry land where there are clear definitions. But there is magic that happens when we practice being with the unknown, it is surprising and exciting and yes, creative.
So, if you are working in a team and want to extend towards the edges to come up with fresh ideas then you’ll need to find ways to avoid going to the safety of islands. You’ll know you are at your edges when you’re feeling untethered, vulnerable and possibly confused. This is a good thing because within this swirl of uncertainty can something new emerge.
If you want to explore new ways of being, seeing and generating ideas reach out to me and together we can map a practice field for you and or your team.
