My thoughts stem from a sculpture atelier program that I attended with Bruce at the NY Studio School a few years ago. I used those ideas in business and subsequently in product design with interesting outcomes.
Before getting started, we need to understand what it means for an object to be plastic in art.
What is plastic consciousness?
Plastic consciousness in art is the ability to see things with depth and perspective - as they are and not as flattened images that we think they should be. For example, when we see a table - our eyes don't actually see a rectangular structure that our mind keeps saying that it is. Therefore when we draw a table, we tend to draw rectangular structures versus drawing truthfully (with elongated disproportionate edges). Study Van Gogh's Bedroom in Arles - one side of the bed looks monstrously bigger than the other side and the chair looks much smaller than it should be. Our mind tells us that this is stupid. But it's not. It's the truth and how our eyes actually do see things.
The damage of education
Plastic consciousness is a very primitive inborn skill. Our eyes see with depth. Our ears hear distance. Our mind is where the problem is. It tells us that we should be seeing something in a certain way. It's our education that's at fault because it constantly damages our consciousness making us more analytically intelligent but less truthful.
This damage extends to business or product design. We hesitate to apply what we know is the truth because our mind interferes with what we are actually seeing or hearing. It applies its lovely left-brained thinking to what is staring at us in the face. For example, you may know inside that it's time to change an aspect of work but the mind steps in to explain why not doing so is beneficial.
The idea is therefore to ignore the mind for awhile and listen closely to what is in front of us without judging based on past damage.
Space is a dialogue
In painting, an object is formed not just by itself but by the space around it. Space is the dialogue between two objects. The environment pushes and shapes the object and the object changes the environment forever. Sometimes when I know I'm screwing up, I take the brush and work on the space around the object and quite magically the object emerges in the painting.
In business, you can work all you want to sell the hard way. But you can also pause and change the environment surrounding the sale. Simply making the space around the object more conducive to buying will change the perspective of the object that's itching to be sold. Try it.
Change your clay if you have to
I worked for hours one day on a bust of clay. Bruce quietly came from behind and crushed it with a plank of wood. I got irritated though I suppressed it (you can't get upset with Bruce - he's always right). He said, you can't build a sculpture with this kind of clay for how many ever hours you try. Change your clay.
We sometimes struggle with the wrong clay in business. Sometimes, it's best to accept that your clay is either too soft or too hard and simply change it.
Don't fake it
There was this other time when I vigorously squeezed my clay around creating what - I really don't know. Bruce walked with hands behind his back and said, don't fake it. Then he continued, do it for the right reasons - the art itself is what matters, the rest is BS.
When I see people struggling for a certain position, a certain salary, a certain political comfort, a certain smartphone...a certain whatever. None of that is really work. Don't fake it...do it for the right reasons.
Always be in sketch mode
We are always in a hurry to finish up. When we finish something that's what it is - finished. In Regenesis, the authors write that our genome is older than our oldest ancestor and yet fresher than a newborn baby and has covered the planet with descendants a billion times a billion times a billion over (10^27). Nature never finishes up - it's always in sketch mode. Cells routinely die everyday to create new cells.
The only work I did that Bruce ever liked was what I thought was completely incomplete. He said, always be in sketch mode. In product development, we always aim for completion. We want to ship. We are interested in the other things that come after shipping. But sketch-mode allows you to get the fundamental form right. And when you know that you'll never finish, you'll be a little humble about what your product can do because there will always be more to do.
There are no morals
There are are no morals in art. There's no right or wrong. What's right for someone is wrong for another. It's the same with product design. If you ignore everyone else's morals and simply focus on your own then you have some chance of creating something unique that will achieve its moment of truth. Not from someone else's point of view and not even from your rational brain's point of view but something deeper for which you require no justification.
When you build things this way, it's more truthful, more correct and it creates harmony inside and some how others will also perceive this congruity.
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There are only two states of matter: interesting and boring. There's no third state. What you develop whether it's a business or a product or a work of art can either be interesting to you or boring. Anything interesting has some chance of a truthful existence. Everything else is compromise. Create something interesting.
