The Points of the Creative Artists’ Code: Twenty-five - From where to communicate?

by NDK Creative Artist

This is really about how not to be a clone, or a clowne. It’s also about how to capture the attention of society and it has a great deal of application to many forms of communication. When one truly understands this concept, and apply it one can move mountains. The caveat is, it requires some research, a good deal of consideration, and as always the acid test of application.

Isolating the correct viewpoint from which to communicate in order to achieve communication is an art in itself and the mark of a great artist, a Master. Remember to evaluate a viewpoint with respect to other viewpoints that alone will provide fresh perspective and elevate the culture with new insight.

When you want to create a specific effect with a communication, then selecting the correct viewpoint is one of the most important tasks. Do it right and nailing the resultant valuable final effect is easy. Get this one wrong and you can flounder around and lose an eon.

When you want to write you are told write what you know about. Well, how can you not?

Knowledge and viewpoint go hand-in-hand. Fresh perspective on a familiar topic is difficult to generate without a thorough observation of how people are thinking and feeling about any given topic.

Marketing applies this sort of idea through the process of research and surveys of people. They ask questions and do tests. They do this in an effort to find out where they should communicate from and who they are communicating to. What are the attitudes? What are the viewpoints involved? How are they packaged? What opens them up? How can we shift perspective, or give people a different look at something? Where do you start? What will make the milestones of change in perspective and when will you know they have arrived, and even when you have arrived at a new understanding?

It is not my purpose here to tell you these things and answer these questions. It is my purpose to tive you some tools so you can unpack this concept of isolating the correct viewpoint to communicate from. That viewpoint is one that you will adopt as a foundation, and a place from which to communicate.

If this foundation is strong then the communication will flow almost without effort. This is why I have said isolating this particular viewpoint is so important.

What makes this viewpoint correct?

It serves your purpose and the intention of the work. It will find resonance with the intended audience and it will feel correct and right. This probably seems to be very subjective, that’s because it is. But you will realize its objectivity when you reflect upon the moments when your work flowed easily and you were in-the-zone, which is just one of many expressions we have to describe what I’m referring to here.

This correct viewpoint will suit all the objectives of a work that you have defined for it. It will be an honest expression and it will be the place from where you are communicating, or coming from as you create.

It will therefore have a clean, clear and honest flow to it. And people will know that it is you, who are communicating. The work will have your voice and integrity behind it. Thus it will have your signature as a person, author, creator of a work. Actors talk about this as being “in the moment.” They are simply being the optimal character for that scene. It is where the expression becomes natural, organic and may even appear to be (spooky music) coming from beyond, or as some would like to say being channeled.

That’s it. You’ve found the foundation viewpoint, the place to communicate from.

The maintenance of this position is a matter of recognition, practice and discipline. It’s a matter of the ability to be. To be what? To be the entity communicating from that viewpoint.

Sounds and reads and smacks of nebulousness? That’s because to define this concept too closely is to fix the viewpoint too finely and that will not liberate you, it will confine and restrict you.

Remember to evaluate a viewpoint with respect to other viewpoints

To evaluate viewpoints is to do a comparison of them. You are not only looking at whether they are good or bad. You are considering the relationships between them. Note the plural. When you grok the relationships between them, you’ll be in a different position in terms of your knowledge about the dynamics associated.

When we are writing we often forget that there are other viewpoints. Consensus is always work to achieve, and often a compromise hard-negotiated. But so is dissension. Reality exists somewhere between the opposition of the poles or viewpoints identified.

Reality is our collective understanding of what is, in some respects. But reality is also what is not seen. So one has to engage upon the discovery of that which is not seen, in order to be original. One then works with the known to reveal the unknown and in the process make it real to others what it is.

The familiar and the unfamiliar work against each other. The familiar is easy to accept. The unfamiliar is usually rejected out of hand, considered preposterous by some, and this is bcause people resist change, even though it is inevitable.

Originality lies in the places where people have not ventured. But getting there, bringing those viewpoints to the light of awareness and consideration can be a challenging task for creativity. It is one of the most exciting ones to engage upon.

Where do we go now?

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If you'd rather we did all the hard work, you're in luck. Here's a list of articles that are related to this one:

• The Points of the Creative Artists’ Code: Twenty-four - You are not the viewpoint
• The Points of the Creative Artists’ Code: Seventeen - The Viewpoints of Others
• The Points of the Creative Artists’ Code: Twenty-three - The Search for Unique Viewpoints
• The Points of the Creative Artists’ Code: Zero - There are no hard and fast rules when it comes to creativity
• Creative Artist Marketing - Copyblogger