Trying something new here. I haven’t used the thread section in a while but as I’m starting my PhD soon, on the topic of illustration and creativity, broadly, I was wondering, what is a book that inspired you, made you think deeper, or taught you something about your creative practice ?
Whether it was a very pragmatic How To guide to how to be a creative, or a collection of poems that you felt expressed your experiences as an artist, anything goes. I’m excited to read your suggestions !
One book that really stayed with me was Creativity Class : Art School and Culture Work in Postsocialist China, by Lily Chumley.
It follows art students from prep schools to art schools and the different values associated with certain types of art, from realist portraits of working class figures to conceptual installations. It was impressive to see the differences of values associated with art in the Chinese context but also the similarities with my own experience in art school, as the author analyzes critics classes and the mechanisms behind them. A great look at our world from the exterior ! Highly recommend.
I just finished reading How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell. Although not specifically about illustration, it brings up things that I've been thinking a lot about in terms of being an artist and sharing on social media.
She points out that space, time and context are collapsed on social feeds. I think artists are good at focusing on and diving deeper into things, but the design of the 'attention economy' often doesn't allow for that. Although I don't fully agree with her 'refusal' to participate, I think there can be a middle ground between completely abandoning online connection or going all in.
It was a good read, and she also talks about birds a lot!
The thing about the collapse inherent to social media reminded me a conversation I had with a creative director who told me he was worried about social media and the way it makes it difficult for art directors to look at an illustration in itself.
The constant scroll and the omnipresent grid of IG makes it hard for people to spend time with one image, consider it for its own value, in terms of concept, composition, etc. It's all about the stylistic coherence of the grid on IG.
And the problem is that this is not how images present themselves in the real world, in a magazine our images are alone among grey text or next to another artist's image. I don't what would be a good alternative to full refusal in this context, I personally always find it hard to show my work on IG cause I feel the format doesn't allow to spend the necessary time to get what I try to do with an image.
Anyway, yes, I absolutely recommend How To Do Nothing as well, although sometimes I felt it promoted a very romantic, contemplative version of what an artist's life should be and I felt guilty for not enjoying the present moment more myself hahaha !
I'll start !
One book that really stayed with me was Creativity Class : Art School and Culture Work in Postsocialist China, by Lily Chumley.
It follows art students from prep schools to art schools and the different values associated with certain types of art, from realist portraits of working class figures to conceptual installations. It was impressive to see the differences of values associated with art in the Chinese context but also the similarities with my own experience in art school, as the author analyzes critics classes and the mechanisms behind them. A great look at our world from the exterior ! Highly recommend.
https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691164977/creativity-class
I just finished reading How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell. Although not specifically about illustration, it brings up things that I've been thinking a lot about in terms of being an artist and sharing on social media.
She points out that space, time and context are collapsed on social feeds. I think artists are good at focusing on and diving deeper into things, but the design of the 'attention economy' often doesn't allow for that. Although I don't fully agree with her 'refusal' to participate, I think there can be a middle ground between completely abandoning online connection or going all in.
It was a good read, and she also talks about birds a lot!
Oh yeah I liked that book !
The thing about the collapse inherent to social media reminded me a conversation I had with a creative director who told me he was worried about social media and the way it makes it difficult for art directors to look at an illustration in itself.
The constant scroll and the omnipresent grid of IG makes it hard for people to spend time with one image, consider it for its own value, in terms of concept, composition, etc. It's all about the stylistic coherence of the grid on IG.
And the problem is that this is not how images present themselves in the real world, in a magazine our images are alone among grey text or next to another artist's image. I don't what would be a good alternative to full refusal in this context, I personally always find it hard to show my work on IG cause I feel the format doesn't allow to spend the necessary time to get what I try to do with an image.
Anyway, yes, I absolutely recommend How To Do Nothing as well, although sometimes I felt it promoted a very romantic, contemplative version of what an artist's life should be and I felt guilty for not enjoying the present moment more myself hahaha !