Soldiering on:

The second week of ArtSpark ended for Team Infinite Perspectives with a few interesting realizations.

We are learning quickly (and well) how to create together.
I think that we have a pretty good feel for group strengths and weaknesses and, despite the new-ness of this group as an entity, a reasonable creative dynamic.
But two things stand out:

1. Due to conflicts and vacations et al, prior to last night the group had never been in the same room together. Ever. So we don't have a GROUP dynamic, we have a multiplicity of INTERPERSONAL dynamics depending on the configuration that is in the room on any given night.


2. We respect each other, and have no problem building on one another's ideas and thought processes. There has been a surprising amount of group synthesis given our lack of history, but we have no idea how to disagree with one another.

It's amazing how such a seemingly simple thing can be so difficult.
But none of us have ever been involved in something quite like this.
There is quite a bit of distance between the ArtSpark process and the normal state of creation of a production.

In a 'normal' production the writer is well out of the way by the time an actor shows up. They've done their creation in the Cave, done some workshopping, and may pop in to move some scenes around or make some cuts. But they're home.

A director then pops in and takes the writer's vision and synthesizes it with their own.

Which is the vision that is presented to the designers when they are brought on board to add their spice to the stew.

The last piece is the performers, who generally get very little say in the overall themes of the piece, and instead become the medium through which the 'creative team' communicates their vision.

But not in ArtSpark, nosiree Fred.

Here we're all in The Room (of our own). So roles change, and they're not roles that we're used to.
So the positive encouragement is there as we try not to crush any beneficial impulse, but how to say no to a group you're not used to working with is trickier.

Saying no to a close friend in the creative process can be tricky, saying no to a stranger? Without defined roles?
Super tricky.

So we have successfully laid out a wide array of conceptual paints to slap around our canvas.
But the tricky part has arrived as we have to begin telling one another no.