So I was reading an article about Kodak Tri-X film, which quotes Don McCullin discussing the waiting period between taking his photographs and actually viewing the results. Whether what had intended to be captured with the image, was what had actually appeared on the film.
Also, keeping the memory of the images in the mind, alongside the various possibilities of how the eventual images might actually look – either intentionally via post processing, or unintentionally due to the many external factors which might affect the films in their journey from the camera, to development.
It reminded me of when I did a lot more design for commercial offset-litho print – sending digital graphics out to the printer, then worrying whether all the files had been sent in the correct format and waiting a few weeks for the results to come back. Let alone whether I was even finally happy with the designs that had been created.
I tend to do a lot more design within the somewhat ‘immediate’ paradigm of the web these days. And even with print design, I tend to deal more with short run digital printing, where many errors can be far more easily and quickly addressed – as opposed to the expensive and time-consuming process of running out new films, changing printer plates and so on.
OK, not an exact analogy. But what I’m thinking about here, I suppose, is waiting as a feature of the creative process. Waiting and the continuation of the creative process in one’s head, even though the physical process itself is pretty much out of the creator’s control – in transit, at the lab, with the printer and so on.
If the creative process can be planned beforehand, worked on and interacted with and then reflected upon after completion. Why not also factor in the thrill and the challenges of waiting for the completed artefact to appear? Is that not also part of the design process? And has art and creativity lost something by that aspect no longer being so prominent?
For more food for thought, how about an article about graphic design and performative methods?
