“Where do our ideas come from?”
Was one question poised by artist Olafur Eliasson on his episode of Netflix’s Abstract. The other left me bewildered, “how do we give our ideas language?”
I have considered this question numerous times while writing “The Bold Act of Becoming Yourself.” I had language or at least abstract words but not a fully conceived script on where to take the project. This is where Eliasson’s sketch on mapping this process was helpful.
We have our ideas, let’s call them “X” and the problem is that those ideas need a language, say “Y”. The space between X and Y is the unknown, a place to draw, for me, outline and seek a language useful in communicating the idea. As a writer, that medium has always been to write a book, but with the changing landscape of publishing and our technological advances, the method feels outdated.
Through mapping out my process again, I left more space between X and Y, between idea and language, hoping to discover a more potent way of communicating the overall idea of the book.
redrawing of olafur eliassOn’s sketch from “abstract” on Netflix.