MELODY VAUGHAN
The spectrum of practice – a visual metaphor for understanding and engaging with your creative practice
This spectrum contains all aspects of what is possible within a creative/artistic practice – every single element that could be considered, whether validated by the creative sectors we work in, or academia, or whether self-determined/defined. It is all welcome here: solo practices, studio practices, production, group, collective, socially engaged, collaborative, teaching, academia, research, writing, objects, virtual, digital, performance, experiential, film, music, dance, embodied, somatic, public, private, exhibitions, projects, commissions, small-scale, large-scale, permanent, ephemeral, witnessed, unwitnessed, funded, unfunded, self-funded, crowdfunded, visible, invisible, art school taught, self-taught, for profit, anti-capitalist, political, sustainable, ethical, traditional, avant garde, folk, heritage, cutting edge, material development, material futures, craft, art, design, paid, unpaid, shared, unshared.
And more, so much more; it could even include activities that are not considered art or conventional creativity, the things that support you in your practice, that make it sustainable for you to continue, that resource and energise you. I think we can consider a definition of practice that expands to hold it all.
Imagine it. Every facet of your practice mapped, hundreds of tendrils, branching out from the centre in all directions – an explosion of creativity. What colours would it be? Would each facet have its own colour, and the spectrum be alive with hues? Or perhaps it feels more appropriate for your spectrum to have one colour, an infinite gradient? Or perhaps it would be black or white or grey. This is your spectrum, your unique expression of creativity in the world, how does that come alive for you?
Now that you have an image of your spectrum in your mind, consider this: to map your practice once is to forget that a practice is an evolving, dynamic thing. It cannot, nor should it be, static. When you map your practice like this we are witnessing how it is today, in this moment. But this can change, through the seasons, through the years, as life around you shifts and events impact you, as your human body changes and is changed. There will be seasons of activity and fallow periods, there may be dramatic changes which radically alter your practice, there may be subtle things which alter the course imperceptibly but materially. There will be a natural ebb and flow of your creativity, of your practice. And if we hold this vision of a practice, this three dimensional representation of all that it is, all that you are, we notice that your practice is actually a pulsating, adaptive, responsive thing, a type of living organism.
And from here, with this new awareness of what your practice actually is, we get to be curious about it, to ask questions.
How do you feel about your creativity right now?
Does this expression of the organism feel right for you?
Does it reflect who/how you want to be in the world?
Which aspects feel ok, which feel too much or not enough?
What might need to shift or change, so that the organism can grow in new ways?
Which parts are already good and need protecting?
Or indeed, does anything need to change at all?
When we consider the organism that is your creativity, your practice, we can think about tending to it as we would anything in nature – what conditions does it need to thrive, what conditions can we control, what conditions are imposed on us? How can we nurture the organism, provide it with everything it needs to survive, to grow gloriously, to become established and strong?
And also, with the image of your beautiful creative practice organism alongside mine, and alongside the billions of others out there, maybe we can also see how creative practice is an ecosystem much wider than ourselves. We are connected to all the others, we are existing within the systems and structures that impact all of our creative organisms. How can we influence the conditions so that everyone’s creative organisms can exist, can thrive? How can we use this awareness of all that exists within a human’s creative practice to break down the hierarchies of what is acceptable, valid or successful?
Notes:
This spectrum is not unlike the model of describing autism, where sections of a wheel represent different autistic traits or needs/supports that humans may have. Each person will have a unique visual pattern that represents their autism, but each individual is still autistic.
I am indebted to Mishka Lesayova for co-creating the conditions for the seed of this metaphor to be planted and nurtured into existence.
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