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I recently had the pleasure of taking a group of designers to the New York studio of the Danish architecture firm, Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG). The parallels drawn from this experience outline a set of actions which we as artists might apply to the creative process, and help draw deeper connections and meaning to our daily practice.

The idea behind the visit was two-fold: to inspire and invigorate our team by examining processes outside of, but not foreign to, our own methods, and to distill their formula for constant evolution. Apart from their work being of the highest quality, they have struck upon a universal-- that is, translatable-- formula that fosters evolution, and simultaneously sustains them in a genuine process.

Most of our designers came from a live tv industry environment; our outstanding mark was speed of production, while quality of execution often suffered in necessity to time. All were more than capable of polished work, but long form projects were rare, and seizing opportunities to lend meaning to such a fast-paced environment is crucial to avoiding burnout. We needed a 'sustainable' approach to our own daily practice.

Analyzing techniques and processes outside of our own methods engages abstract thought, and grants license to retranslate ideas in original ways; to reinterpret, modify and problem-solve with custom toolsets. Making connections to these sister art forms not only lends meaning to our own process, but also elevates the potential for cohesiveness and impact in collaborative environments. It's not so direct as examining other designers within our industry, and as a result rejects the mold, infusing definitions of our own process with creativity and meaning.

While BIG must be emphatically accredited as the impetus for this creative process comparison, their ideas and techniques are relevant to the creation of all art forms, and-- while the most important qualities of all art forms lie beyond language, we can use this medium to define the common denominators, helping to see us a bit more passionately through our next creative endeavor. The following ideas can be used as tools to help break down walls in pursuit of evolution.

Composition and Arranging


Elimination of Complexity



Pragmatic Utopianism (BIG)

Excess + Selection

Migration of Ideas



Yes Is More (BIG)


Reinventing Tradition




... I'll attempt to address each idea unto itself in forthcoming posts.

Wednesday 10.09.13
Posted by Madeline Sturm 

Thursday 08.08.13

Translating and expressing what is– not merely assumed shapes or half-memorized lines– draws the essence out of things. To look, and to begin to understand relationships between objects– to compose, edit, push, pull, and correct marks begins to tell a story, becomes a pathway to travel through and across. One which communicates felt experience.

Re-evaluating strengthens a drawing, each line and layer taken away and shifted leaving something of itself behind, a ghosted history which inevitably adds depth to the image. Always the chance to improve if we remain willing to let it all go… willing to wipe the page down and start again, even when some element of beauty has to be sacrificed to get it right. Always something of the previous struggle informing and strengthening the next mark.


Inspired by Ron Milewicz, New York Studio School

Confidence and strength of execution exists when detaching from the known. There is more accuracy and beauty in the abstract — more truth in the found, traveled, and discovered — than in the assumed.


Inspired by Bjarke Ingels’ talk at MoMA’s Talk to Me Symposium.

By accepting the power of evolution, we detach from arrogance, “minimizing the importance of self” (a favorite mantra of my dad’s) in the creation process. The ‘pursuit of originality’ distilled is service– contribution to an infinite process much larger and far more potent than individual potential. If we see our roles as participants in a world of influences, here to push boundaries, we are free to branch out, anchored and expedited by lessons of the past.


Picasso’s Drawings 1890-1921: Reinventing Tradition at the Frick

The title of this exhibit brings to mind a phrase of sustainable architect, Bjarke Ingels, who’s coined “architectural alchemy” as the possibility of creating gold by combining traditional elements.

Picasso, through relentless experimentation, struck upon that reinvention of tradition by pillaging and retranslating it… a pragmatic searching after precise elements to deconstruct, recombine and then utilize to express his own vision…


Difficult passages of music are mastered through examination and repetition of parts… By defining manageable components, and breaking down something daunting to perform into a kind of reverse assembly line of notes and inflection. Repetition, muscle memory, and anticipation serve to eliminate complexity. In this distillation there is no difficult vs. easy passage… there is only the examination of parts; the defining of components which can be managed. This processing removes insecurity, and shifts focus from the self to the simple execution of parts. An idea is transformed from abstract to concrete as phrases gradually re-contextualize… and, ironically and beautifully, we come closer to delivering on the composers’ intent when we take our own fear of failure out of the equation.


Inspired by Lucy Durkin, and a visit to the Met’s Stieglitz and His Artists

Amidst a growing field of abstract artists, Arthur Dove referred to, and delineated, his own process of categorically abstract art as “extraction.”

Extraction has a more active connotation than abstraction; purifying rather than muddying or concealing. Dove wasn’t seeking after style, but arriving at style as a product of distillation and describing the felt essence of his subjects. He wasn’t striving for originality, but describing a genuine perception of things while layering upon his contemporary influences (Matisse– and fellow 291 artists).

There’s discovery in extraction: a revealing, unearthing, dusting-off which both illuminates the essence of things, and simultaneously leaves something to our imaginations to complete the picture. Dove’s way of seeing is searching, and communicates a rhythmic, improvisatory approach. It comes as close as any 2D object can (Klee, O’Keefe) to occupying another spatial dimension– rhythm, music, time… (All the way back to Plato, rhythm was a general concept applied across aesthetics, arithmetic, psychology, and metaphysics, owing to the profound affect looking at images or experiencing architecture can have on our psyches.)

So– the significance and practical application here can be understanding the rewards of genuine process: almost a scientific approach to beauty or artistic expression. By accurately defining the right questions, actively acknowledging influences all around us and utilizing them as points of origin, we can begin to excavate, reveal, and problem-solve… and enjoy the inevitable fruits of knowledge and the creation of a meaningful product through an honest, open, advancing process.
 
Wednesday 08.07.13