The role of the workspace in creativity

[enneff]

Clutter really brings me down, emotionally and creatively. It accumulates so slowly that it’s hard to notice that it’s happening, but when it’s gone you really notice. I cleaned out my studio on Sunday and immediately felt unblocked and energized.

Apart from that, though, while I tend to draw inspiration from environments, all I really need to work is a tidy space in which I won’t be interrupted.

[mdg]

Posting half tongue-in-cheek half for real? Courtesy of the wonderful/awful Charles B:

Air and Light and Time and Space
‘- you know, I’ve either had a family, a job, something
has always been in the
way
but now
I’ve sold my house, I’ve found this
place, a large studio, you should see the space and
the light.
for the first time in my life I’m going to have a place and
the time to
create.’
no baby, if you’re going to create
you’re going to create whether you work
16 hours a day in a coal mine
or
you’re going to create in a small room with 3 children
while you’re on
welfare,
you’re going to create with part of your mind and your
body blown
away,
you’re going to create blind
crippled
demented,
you’re going to create with a cat crawling up your
back while
the whole city trembles in earthquakes, bombardment,
flood and fire.
baby, air and light and time and space
have nothing to do with it
and don’t create anything
except maybe a longer life to find
new excuses
for.

[rewgs]

That poem has always made me feel guilty for being inspired (and the opposite) by spaces – especially since I absolutely cannot afford the space I’d like (which really isn’t much objectively, but is still quite out of reach financially) and have literally always felt friction from that fact. I feel it let up when I’m fortunate enough to work in a space that does inspire me, like a scoring stage or an open loft, but of course that’s a very temporary thing.

I’ve come to the conclusion of “fuck that.” Everyone is different, and for all his brilliance, Bukowski taken holistically isn’t exactly a guy I’d suggest anyone take advice from.

As far as I can tell, some artists are “conditional,” others not – their obsessiveness is the deciding factor, not whether they’ve reached Level 100 Artist. In fact, “artist” is such an absolutely loaded term that I prefer to never use it with regard to myself – that’s for the audience to decide – and rarely with regards to others. It’s a dubious term at best.

So I guess I’m taking that one with a grain of salt

[mdg]

Ha! Well said all above, and co-sign for most of it (esp re: Bukowski being a bad place to look for advice!)

With that being said, I feel like the maybe middle path w/r/t the poem, the OP post, etc is to allow a space to facilitate what you do, but not allow your work to be predicated on it (IE, what are best practices, rather than ‘how will this Instagram-worthy, heavily aestheticized space allow me to begin to create’.)

I know that having my own studio space as an artist and educator in an expensive urban center is an unrealistic luxury, so I find ways to make what I have as efficient as possible, but not the foundation or starting point for my work. I keep everything tidy, clear my space before a session, and periodically tidy/organize/de-clutter both my IRL equipment and digital (organizing files, backing up hard drives, cataloging work documentation, CVs, grant + residency applications, etc)
.
Other than that though, I do take some inspiration from the CB poem above (or maybe its just rationalization lol)

[David_Rothbaum]

environment is super important. that said, i will take a crap space and more time any day

i have tried to make my set up as small and portable/easy to use as possible so when the time does present itself i can take advantage of it. also, if you are portable the whole world can be your space.

[naxuu]

if you’re going to create
you’re going to create whether you work
16 hours a day in a coal mine
or
you’re going to create in a small room with 3 children
while you’re on
welfare,

ah, charles bukowski, that guy who is known for being a good family man

[samarobryn]

I’ve tried a variety of approaches over the years, and generally just found that I need a space all to myself. I can’t work with other people around at all - co-working studios [that seem to be all the rage? I get that bouncing ideas off people can be inspiring but do they have to be so close all the time?] don’t work for me at all. Whenever I’m sharing a space, I put in so much energy into ensuring I’m not inadvertently annoying anyone that I end up doing no work at all…

I’m really fortunate that I’ve been able to essentially turn the downstairs section of my townhouse into a sort of live-in studio. While it’s not the most well-organised, it’s a space completely for me

[Rodrigo]

It’s funny, after basically moving around and living in limbo for almost 2 years I’ve found that certain parts of my creative practice are (relatively) unaffected. Specifically, things that are screen-based don’t exist anywhere, so I found those can happen when I am anywhere.

As an example, when @Angela and I moved to Spain, we basically had nothing with us and were living out of a suitcase for the better part of a year. During that time I was still able to carry on programming (and did most of the coding for the new version of C-C-Combine while there). Even though everything else was up in the air, and I didn’t play a physical drumset for around 1.5y, I was still able to carry on working on creative coding stuff, since I didn’t situate it somewhere physically.

That being said, for non-programming, and specifically conceptually creative stuff I do best in a familiar situation. And that situation happens to be around @Angela. Basically both of us cut our teeth working on creative shit while living in a tiny one-room efficiency in Miami where there wasn’t even enough room for a bed. We would stand up a single mattress during the day so we could walk around, and then lay it down at night to sleep. (that being said, that tiny room had a drumset, a rhodes, a piano, and two desks for working on stuff)

Although I have to say I have done some of my best creative thinking at a mall food court, eating Taco Bell (that’s where they generally are in the UK) with @Angela. The loud rumble of a food court, as it turns out, is great for my creative thinking!

[nff]

Hi! Very nice topic here.
I have a question for you, more of a technical question maybe, but still related to studio space and its influence on your musical practice.

Like you, I felt the need to have different tables for different practices, basically computer-related music + listening and an “analog” table, for playing without a screen, testing, soldering, experimenting.

So my question is, in such a situation, where do I put my sound monitors? In an ideal situation of course the room would be big enough and the speakers powerful enough that the sweet spot could host all the tables you need, but yeeh, not for everybody.
I see you decided to position your monitors in the ideal spot for the “screen” part, why?

I recently moved and now have the space for two tables, but still haven’t unpacked my monitors, I really don’t know what to do.

A great studio that always inspired me is Sasu Ripatti’s Shark Reef studio in Finland, and he’s using two sets of monitors, big Genelec’s for the “screen”, and small Genelec’s for the modular. Great solution, but still, not for everybody’s pockets…

[n-So]

the studio monitors are placed at the desk where I do mixing/mastering, where it is really important to have the most accurate sound. obviously in a perfect world i’d have another pair placed on the left and right of the “synth desk,” but when I’m working with the modular/Juno I use headphones half the time anyway.

the desk is also where I need them to be for my “day job” which is as a media composer for various commercials, films, etc. and for that I spend all my time at the desk working with orchestral libraries and such (theres a midi keyboard/controller on the desk that I slide in and out when I need to use it.)

[dude]

this is a topic oft on my mind.

i currently do 3 spaces in my homb:

one is just a piano in my living room (love)

one is the small bedroom converted solely to my studio use (work)

one is a back room (play)(yoga/meditation room) with a rhodes, moog source lil modular, pedals, drum machine but no computer back there. the back room and piano are downstairs so i mic run mic cable i just leave on the ground. mild clutter but not too bad. and i wirelessly remote control my studio desktop with my laptop via network that felt like a godsend when i figured that out.

my whole house then can become my studio. but 90% of main work is always in the small studio that is pretty rockin for me. definitely not professional ready but also definitely and exactly what I need to get play/work done.

[brook]

I’ve always craved a workable, inspiring space… and especially a “setup”, as David Lynch calls it. I confess I’m envious of my colleagues where I teach who have their own studio spaces. I live in San Francisco, and it’s just not going to happen. I’m in a 10 x 10 basement room with a 6’3 ceiling, a warped floor, and no storage - which should be enough if all I did was music, but I have to make it do too many things: music, mixing other people’s work, film editing, color correction (which until a few years ago was my primary job), research for teaching and desk space for the admin work (I’m co-chair of our program so there’s a lot of that), storage of everything connected to all of this. My primary instrument is still piano - the tiny workspace with a laptop and a monome or the setup that fits in my backpack sounds SO wonderful - especially when I’m cursing out loud as I trip over cables while I move monitors and control surfaces for color correction or mixing to someplace on the floor so I can set up a couple of keyboard and find a place for the modular and midi controllers and mic. By the time I change setups, the inspiration is usually gone.

Someday, before I die, I’d love to have a space dedicated only to my own music and film work that can remain set up day to day. “Goalz” as they say…
But I’m lucky to have a room to work in at all given the horror of rents in the bay area now, and I try to remember that! And I know many of you make amazing work in much more restrictive and problematic spaces.

Oh, and a plug for standing desks: as a person with a chronic back condition, getting a standing desk in here was the best thing to happen to the space maybe for all time.

[_mark]

I still feel inspired by the fact that it’s possible to take a laptop anywhere and make music. I really like working on the train, going from looking out the window to tinkering with the sound. Something productive there for me.

Laptop + lunchbox could be my future ideal setup. Though I work a lot these days creating sound materials on the modular and arranging these on the laptop - and that works well.

[jasonw22]

So my question is, in such a situation, where do I put my sound monitors?

I’m saving up for a second pair, and in the meantime I move them back and forth.

And I expect that I’ll eventually try quad once I own four similar speakers.

[nff]

yeah, I understand, my day job revolves around the computer too, so having my main monitors there is what I did in the past and think I’ll be doing now.

I too use headphones with my synths/hardware most of the time, but I find it quite tiring after a while, not to mention the sound quality, good monitors will always beat good headphones
Thanks for the feedback!

[nff]

YES YES YES. I dream of a quad setup too. How sweet. I actually fell in love with wavefield rooms a long time ago. But yehh. Don’t see having one in my studio anytime soon :’(

Just curious, how do you move your monitors? Would you post a picture of your desk setup?

Thanks!

[jasonw22]

Carefully! And infrequently.

[ears]

Wondering if I’m alone on this but my workspace is the floor. While I do have more conventional setups for when I collaborate with others, I still like sitting on a cushion surrounded by my modular racks and laptop.

[enneff]

I’ve thought about this. I like sitting on the floor and have seen some lush pics of floor-based modular setups. But I have a question: how do you combat dust? I find without fastidious regular vacuuming and dusting my gear gets very dusty. Do you just keep things clean? Or maybe you’re just less sensitive to dust than me (wouldn’t be hard; I am very allergic unfortunately).

[ears]

I keep covers on the gear. I cut silver mylar blankets to size to keep dust off and block the bright morning sun when I’m not using my gear. I also have air filters cranking anywhere I have audio gear cuz dirt is no friend to gear whether on the floor or on a desk! I find that without attention dust likes to mess with gear no matter where I have it.

So yeah I use the electric vac on the floors and use swifters and compressed air on any gear wherever it is.