| |
|
What a very interesting proposal ... although I should point out that if your procrastinating artist friends only had the resourcefulness and daring to commit a fairly serious crime, they could have all the creation time they wanted at Her Majesty's Pleasure, which would seem to be a situation not dissimilar from what you're suggesting.
The problem with some artists being that they lack the discipline which is externally imposed on most people by having to be at work at 9, stay there until 5 and look busy in between. Apparently Douglas Adams used to have to be locked in his hotel room before he'd write anything, so bad was he at finishing his novels.
Here's my thoughts on you plan so far, if they're any use: merely my own response, don't take as gospel etc.
Up at 7:30.
Ow! No. Let them get up late (say lunchtime) and stay up late, working long into the night ...
Hour of exercise then breakfast and seclusion.
Hour of coffee, don't you mean? Exercise should be strictly optional. I don't see the connection between knackering yourself on a three mile run and immediately painting a picture/writing a sonnet etc.
Go into a room and work. No mine-sweeper. No porno breaks. Perhaps no Internet.
Now we're getting somewhere. You don't need all the early-bird and jogging nonsense to make people create. You just lock them in a room with no other stimulus and the tools of their trade.
ABSOLUTELY no internet. Don't let them claim "research". If they must, must have a certain piece of infomation the warders - sorry, facilitators, can go and look it up online for them. Otherwise, they'll just have to deal.
Pure output - perhaps a word count requirement based on that artist's mileau. Essay, shorts, novel, comics. Don't get stuck - produce too much and cut away if you must.
This sounds great.
No interruptions except food
Totally - but I would add cigarette and coffee breaks where required, possibly supervised so that they don't escape to the nearest pub/arcade.
and the irregular "inspiration" where an envelope is slid under the door containing some task, notion, question or other surreal material.
Please don't do this, it sounds really lame. If they've got a project they're working on they shouldn't need this kind of "inspiration" - it would probably end up being more of a useless distraction than anything else. (No offence intended, just my humble opinion, you understand).
Stop at a certain time and spend the evening together in jubilant relaxation because for once you've earned your rest.
Perfect! Make that time quite late though, so that slow starters will have got something done and you don't interrupt their flow by calling a halt at 6pm precisely.
When should you get up?
Lunchtime. 11am at a push. 
How to handle Internet.
Access only in info emergencies as above, or when you've finished for the day.
Drinking and drugs?
Both - but only when you're done for the day.
Should there be a mandatory bedtime?
Please. It's not boarding school. What if your artists want to work through the night? You going to make them do it under the bedclothes by the light of a torch?
Should the artists share their work at the end of the day?
Only if they want to, and, more importantly, if others want to hear. Perhaps set up a group or set aside an hour for this purpose - voluntary, but strongly encouraged.
What would you do? What would you do different?
See above.
What kind of cool things would enrich the experience?
Drink, drugs, interesting conversation and sexual tension. These basic things are what inspire most people, not surreal envelopes under the door.
Do we read aloud from the War of Art like it was scripture?
What's the War of Art?
What works best for you?
A room of my own and no internet. And a permanent, pervasive sense of guilt if I don't get anything done for more than a fortnight.
Good luck with this, it sounds like a fine plan, and I'll be interested to see what other people's views on it are. Let us know how you get on, too. |
|
|
