story
In 2006 I set out to create a book that was completely experiential. I didn’t know what that would mean when i started. I had become tired of reading (and writing) about creativity and decided to make something that would make it impossible for you to be a passive observer, (how many books have we read but not acted on?). I thought about a book that was somehow integrated into the users everyday life, both as a way of documenting it but also to encourage new experiences.
Over the course of several months I took a small journal with me everywhere and added prompts to it that were based on wherever i was at the time. The idea was to use whatever was at your disposal at any given moment, no need for special art supplies or tools. If you are in a park, use the grass under your feet, or some pebbles and dirt. If you are at the office use office supplies. The act of creating can be implemented in any setting. As it progressed the book caused me to question what it means to create. in it’s simplest form any mark can be an expression of some kind. but what most excited me were the pages that told the simplest of stories, about a physical experience of being human (searching in your pockets and using whatever exists there, documenting the present moment whatever it entailed). the result was more of a conceptual piece in journal form. a journal that required the user to act and move, to think (and at times to not think).
definition
Creative destruction is a term that refers to the act of making a physical change to an object, blank page or space. It is based on the premise that if you alter an object in some way, you are in fact participating in a creative experience (regardless of the outcome). The intent of creative destruction is to move beyond aesthetic judgements of whether a mark/alteration is good or bad, but instead to allow the mark to exist as documentation of a physical experience or as kind of expression. While the term “destruction” has historically had a negative connotation, in this context it is used to imply simply “alteration”.
methods and techniques
formats
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{note: I am working on creating a wiki page on the subject of creative destruction. My goal is to have something that people can add to and alter. If you are skilled in wiki and would like to help with formatting, please email me. I would love some help with this.}
please offer your own methods, techniques, and formats in the comments of this page. this list is a work in progress and I would like to make it as detailed as possible. until the wiki is complete I will add new ones to the list, (with a credit to the author).
proceed to the instructions page
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Wow, first impermanence as a thing-a-day theme and now this. Have you ever checked out the Institute of Failure?
shalom v’ahava,
Menachem
What a stupid idea!
…I found your site in del.icio.us page
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just LOVED the idea.
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I`m from Brazil (sorry the bad english =P). and a architecture student. I`d like to buy the book, but its to expensive to ship it to another country.
Anyway, I`ll start wreckin right now
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=)
Love it!!!
First of all, I believe m. has quite the whirlwind of confusion going on in his/her head to even spend the time to read your piece and comment on it, whether negatively or not. Secondly, I think your idea is marvelous, especially coming from an English teacher who is so sick of “words” getting in the way of living. The word “wreck” truly does have such a negative connotation but can mean something as beautiful as living, being, progressing, as you alter stagnation and apathy. Good for you!!!
Da delo dazhe ne v goda. Regena Ambrose.
Take out a page, hole punch it somewhere around the edges, (not too close though, maybe an inch.) then tie a piece of yarn or string to it. Make sure the string is at least a foot long. On a prefferably stormy night, tie it to a tree branch, or somewhere else outside, and leave it overnight. I did this on a hailing, raining and windy night, and I tied it so it sat right in the leaves. I got it in the morning, and it was damp, had a dead bug, mud splattered on it, hole from a small rock (I think it was a rock that made it!), it had little green smears probably from ripping leaves, and was slightly torn from the tree branches. The tree was actually one I would sit under alot, so it had more meaning that way. It actually looked really neat! It was a pretty bad storm too. Maybe it was hail that made the hole! See, that makes it interesting to try and figure out how all the marks happened! Another thing that is important if there are really strong winds, which is what I had to do, is put a piece of tape around the hole-punch so the winds don’t rip it right off.
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