Name: Anonymous 2013-08-19 13:15
Genius on the go
There are spaces beyond and between our traditional workplaces where it is still possible to get work done.
By setting up shop, as it were, in unfamiliar places you are far more likely to meet new, unfamiliar people and pick up on the kind of creative stimuli you couldn't hope to find in your normal studio or office. The easiest way to start feeding off this idea is to identify and spend time in the places you normally just pass through. Similarly, you should strive to be productive in the places where you usually just wait and 'kill time'.
Of course, advances in mobile technology mean that we can get a lot more done on the move these days. It's clear, though, that in many cases we use this technology to do extra layers of quite meaningless communication, such as telling our loved ones that 'we're on the train' or drafting an email that we otherwise wouldn't have bothered writing at all.
Be careful you don't use your mobile phone as the means for actually avoiding any real sense of belonging with the space you have chosen to occupy. The most creative communication you can have in the back of a cab, for example, is usually with the cab driver, not with anyone on the phone. And part of the point of occupying transitory and 'interstitial' spaces is precisely to put yourself in the way of a new and unusual interactions, not to simply replicate the processes that go on at home or in the office.
Jemima : "YES VALERIE, THE LITERATURE WILL BE SENT TO THE EXPO ON TIME!"
Valerie : "THAT'S FABULOUS! CAN YOU GIVE ME THE ORGANISER'S NUMBER?"
Jemima : "NO, SORRY, I'LL EMAIL IT TO YOU IN ABOUT AN HOUR."
Valerie : "OH, ARE YOU NOT AT YOUR DESK?"
Jemima : "NO, I'M IN A CAFE. I ALWAYS DO MEETINGS IN CAFES."
Valerie : "... FOR FACE-TO-FACE MEETINGS THAT'S NORMAL...
...BUT EVEN FOR TELEPHONE CONFERENCES?"
There are spaces beyond and between our traditional workplaces where it is still possible to get work done.
By setting up shop, as it were, in unfamiliar places you are far more likely to meet new, unfamiliar people and pick up on the kind of creative stimuli you couldn't hope to find in your normal studio or office. The easiest way to start feeding off this idea is to identify and spend time in the places you normally just pass through. Similarly, you should strive to be productive in the places where you usually just wait and 'kill time'.
Of course, advances in mobile technology mean that we can get a lot more done on the move these days. It's clear, though, that in many cases we use this technology to do extra layers of quite meaningless communication, such as telling our loved ones that 'we're on the train' or drafting an email that we otherwise wouldn't have bothered writing at all.
Be careful you don't use your mobile phone as the means for actually avoiding any real sense of belonging with the space you have chosen to occupy. The most creative communication you can have in the back of a cab, for example, is usually with the cab driver, not with anyone on the phone. And part of the point of occupying transitory and 'interstitial' spaces is precisely to put yourself in the way of a new and unusual interactions, not to simply replicate the processes that go on at home or in the office.
Jemima : "YES VALERIE, THE LITERATURE WILL BE SENT TO THE EXPO ON TIME!"
Valerie : "THAT'S FABULOUS! CAN YOU GIVE ME THE ORGANISER'S NUMBER?"
Jemima : "NO, SORRY, I'LL EMAIL IT TO YOU IN ABOUT AN HOUR."
Valerie : "OH, ARE YOU NOT AT YOUR DESK?"
Jemima : "NO, I'M IN A CAFE. I ALWAYS DO MEETINGS IN CAFES."
Valerie : "... FOR FACE-TO-FACE MEETINGS THAT'S NORMAL...
...BUT EVEN FOR TELEPHONE CONFERENCES?"