A Change of Plans
In the creative world, sometimes ideas sneak into your mind and refuse to release their hold until you act upon them. They burrow into the crevices of your brain and sit, prodding at your mind, until you pick up a pen or laptop and set to work. Sometimes they push out whatever you were thinking before you acknowledged the new idea’s existence, like a child begging for attention. That’s what happened this week.
I had the typical creative plan for this column, with an outline and everything. I was completely prepared to write it up after finishing studio and attending Monday night’s lecture, given by Signe Nielsen. And as I sat in the auditorium, listening and taking notes, I realized that the perfect subject for this column was standing in front of me, embodied in a realistically visionary woman holding a borrowed pointer and talking faster than I could write.
My original plans changed, pushed completely out of my mind by new ideas. But that was the beauty of the lecture, of life in general. Change happens, sometimes negatively, but often positively.
Take “lost spaces,” for example. These played a large part in Nielsen’s lecture; in fact, her work would not exist without loss and change. As history progresses, a city develops. Buildings rise, fall, rise again. Some are abandoned, torn down and transformed into clearings and lots that fall into unused patches of crumbling concrete and asphalt. Thanks to constraints like money, time, and labor, few people are driven to change these areas into something beautiful, though they might think about it. However, the creators, the workers, the changers step forward and transform the once-decrepit space into something both beautiful and practical. Nielsen and all who work with her take these lost spaces and make them worth finding. Frequently, they are so integrated with the bustle of life in New York City that users don’t need to work hard to discover them – they simply get to enjoy the fact that the space is no longer lost. Some projects are built in more hidden places, but that makes finding and using them all the more enjoyable. The changes in looks, in purpose, in atmosphere are clear and for the better.
Sometimes change is unplanned, unintentional, and surprisingly successful. Typically, though, change takes hard work. Finding losses, be they spaces, purposes, or ideologies, is easy. Filling them, transforming them into something far better, is not always so simple. Hard work and dedication accompany these efforts at change. Time plays a key role, as things and processes are rarely instantaneous. Some projects, like the ones mentioned in Nielsen’s lecture, take years of work and a large group of people working together for a common cause. Others take decades and more people than we can even begin to fathom. Take women’s rise in the design fields, for example. The changes have occurred so far span decades, perhaps even centuries of climbing. They will certainly cover many more, bringing changes as the years pass. These transformations will hopefully be positive, finding the lost spaces, talents, people that will better the world with their work and dedication. These changes might be planned, might merely emphasize and add to what has already happened. Or they may happen as abruptly and with as much spontaneity as a student having a sudden realization in the middle of a lecture.
Change is inevitable. How we bring it about, and what we do with it, directs what happens, hopefully in a positive way.
Allison Sonnenberg