Are limitless resources or a certain number of constraints more beneficial for creativity?
Constraints impose discipline, otherwise creative output is inconsistent or nonexistent. Countless have dripped paint onto canvas, or action painted, but Jackson Pollock did so with such completeness and methodological conformity that his use of strict constraints is obvious. He used only certain colors, for example, of only specific liquid paints. Treating a piece uniformly, intentionally foregoing a focal point, is not easy. However, maybe that’s the idea. It is easy to think that such work is just a random mess. Cy Twombly also did great all-over paintings.
Mark Slee:
Highly creative people may easily overwhelm themselves with an incredible number of exciting new ideas, which can make it very difficult to actually execute on anything (I don’t have personal experience with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, but I imagine there’s a reasonably strong analogy to be made here). Generating creative output (not just a deluge of ideas) requires finding a way to artificially suppress the firehose of competing new concepts, thereby enabling a more intense focus.
I need constraints. I need a lot of them.
