17/11/2017

INSPIRATION: THROUGH RESEARCH

I do not want to translate the title, because my own path has always started here: inspiration. To me, inspiration is the set of conclusions that take shape at the end of a research process. English is the language in which I find the most information, and I also like using it to simplify certain things.

In recent years I have taken on many projects. I might say inspiration struck in a few of them, but most required a great deal of time gathering the information I needed to reach my goals. We cannot create something out of nothing. Even the moments when inspiration seems to arrive are usually the final stage of other research.

I teach, and that is what I want to do for the rest of my life. I am still looking for a way to make it my livelihood too. Writing this blog, taking photographs or recording a podcast are activities that accompany my main purpose. Teaching needs inspiration: to shape the material and, more importantly, to understand not only what you have done or plan to do, but how to communicate it and help other people or groups follow a path you have already travelled.

That is why, as I mentioned in another post, I’m My Own First Client, I need to define my direction. I research how my activities might become a product, and I find inspiration in the work of many people. They all have one thing in common: you have to make things. In Eric Kim’s words, “Just Publish It”.

So, to keep this short enough to read between research tasks without taking you off course, all I can say is: make things.