Blog Post #24 Beginnings

My last Milestone presentation was pretty indicative of the entire term. The term was, not a waste, but not practically effective. At least, for Seminar. I spent a long time working on a mechanic that I realized wouldn’t work. At Milestone 4. 

Moving forward, I’m discussing with an undergrad programmer the possibility of him creating alla prima for compensation. The methods that were suggested to me post-Milestone 4 are complicated, and I don’t know enough about them— or programming in general— to know even where I would start implementing them into a new form— the form of wet-on-wet painting. 

So, I’m delegating this core mechanic to Griff. And that lifts a weight off of my shoulders. I have two more assignments left for my other classes, so I am postponing work on character modeling for Pareidolia— in order to get those assignments done. 

But yes, in my last presentation, I synthesized research from a multitude of sources, across a multitude of fields, giving a brief introduction to allostatic regulation, sensory regulation, and how that affects both neurodivergent and -typical creatives. Memory, and the process of making memories, has a significant relation to allostatic regulation. Depth over repetition. 

And I’ve realized that novelty is key for both sensory regulation and creativity. The former is a bit surprising, but bear with me. 

The reason why a cold shower functions more effectively— in terms of time spent doing— than sleeping, is because it is biologically memorable. This isn’t based in any external research; it’s a conclusion drawn from experience, and from related research. 

There’s a saying in personal development circles:

“How you do one thing is how you do anything.” 

This could be disheartening, but it can also be reframed into a potent mindset. Because if you see it as, “How you do one bad thing is how you do anything,” then, yes, it is crippling. But if you see it as,

“I am doing one thing of strength, of virtue; therefore, that is everything that I am,”

then it is incredibly empowering. And doing that one virtuous act is like a breath of fresh air after being trapped in a mine of toxic fumes. It is a fresh start. 

Taking a cold shower— though I’ve done it thousands of times over the past ten years— is always novel. And it is a moment of virtue. And it is like starting anew. 

The thing about creativity, is that it’s not one isolated act. It’s also not constantly occurring. It follows cyclical patterns, and, therefore, it has a beginning and an end. I’m not talking about flow state— that’s similar, but again, not what I’m talking about. I am talking about general creative productivity. For neurodivergent creatives— but also for neurotypical ones— constant output is not sustainable. There must be recovery. Recovery can be thought of as an end point in the cycle, but I believe that it is more akin to a beginning. You end your day by sleeping. You start your day asleep. But sleep is passive, and there are more effective methods of recovery. At least, in terms of time spent doing the recovery. 

Pattern recognition is key for creativity. I’ve written before about how, therefore, foreign language learning is one of the best things that you can do to boost your creativity. It’s all pattern recognition. And pattern recognition does not limit itself to the activity that trains it; it affects all aspects of your life. 

But the thing about pattern recognition, is that it’s about beginnings. It’s about novelty. It’s about new experiences, which are unfamiliar, and therefore, are worth discerning a pattern from. We don’t tear apart every aspect of our morning commutes. We don’t attend to a bowl of cereal with curiosity. But we do pay attention if something novel occurs during either of those activities. 

So, make your life novel. Make it memorable. Make it something worth telling a story about. Because that kickstarts the creative cycle, and it continues novelty.

Experience novelty; make new creations.

It’s simple. 

I don’t think that I would’ve changed my approach to this Seminar project. The actions that I took led me here, to these realizations. Did I come up with a practical demo of alla prima? No. Do I intend to, myself? Also no. 

Moving forward, I am going to focus on the two main characters for the demo. Sir Mortimer Babbage (the pumpkin-headed warrior; the PC) and The Binder (the boss). And throughout the summer, I will check in with Griff about the process of making alla prima. He’s doing a greenlit next year, so he won’t be able to contribute beyond this summer— therefore, I need the process to be documented and clear, in case I need to have my programmers for Praxis change anything. 

Once the characters are modeled, I will send them to Dillon to be rigged. I anticipate that The Binder will require a lot of rigging. I want the parchment pieces that comprise his entirety to move and sway as he moves. Texturing will come later. 

In my application to grad schools, I ended my personal statement with the following sentence.

“We are just beginning.”

Now, that takes on a new meaning.

“We are just beginnings.”

We are a constant state of reevaluating, of learning, of commencing.

We are just beginnings.