Knowing What You’re Doing is Overrated
Chance, timing and patience in the process of creating
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I’ve had a subject in mind to talk about this week that I’ve been mulling over for a while. I wanted to explore how artists have interpreted power and authority in the sound of the voice, in accent, tone and rhythm of speech. And to think about what the voice means for social mobility and its impact on a person’s life chances. I thought I had the right ingredients for an interesting little essay, but for some reason I just couldn’t make it work. For days I’ve been skirting around it, feeling frustrated, trying to fit the different elements into a coherent flow. But they just wouldn’t connect up nicely, and eventually I allowed myself to park that piece of writing. For now.
Instead, what I want to reflect on very briefly today is this question that I just bumped up against: why couldn’t I get it finished? It’s something that I often hear from visual artists too — the frustration when an artwork doesn’t feel quite right and it’s not clear how to move it on. Last week, by chance, I was watching the American artist Pope L. talk about this very issue. His advice to artists who get stuck on an artwork is this:
