My first training was in fine art. My work is defined by that. It’s the reason that I look usually look away from the research before making anything. I want the work to have be more liminal than just rendering the results of the research. There has to be a leap of imagination.

I’ve been thinking about the language that fine art often uses. The language of minimalism. Take a notion or idea. Render it simply making objects which have little or no tampering - found objects, juxtaposed or raw materials with few marks made. Repeat and hone it down - distilling the language to convey the original thought. Repeat and repeat. There is value in the iterations. Fine art exists in a formal space. The formal space is what defines it.

Above: I’ve started making mindmaps on my iPad. It is really helping me to think through some issues. These diagrams are not fixed. I expect I will be returning to them and creating new ones as I work this journey.

Right now, this design process feels messier. I can’t rely on a formal space to present the work. It has to function in a different context. It has to actually work. I’m visualising things in great detail and trying to create them exactly as I see it in my mind. I’m getting into the detail before I’ve understood the point. I’ve missed out the crucial process of making and failing.

This is why I’m caught in the trap of procrastination and worrying if I’ve done it right!
Until the latter stages of a project, DETAIL is the enemy. Use a broad brush.

I need to spend time in a playful space, interrogating my ideas in a playful way - thinking while making. By making tangible prototypes I can hold and turn around in my hands, I can find the pertinent point of the object and the ideas themselves.