Tidy or Untidy ?

[Theodor]

I saw this COOL ad on the wall at uni that said with big letters " Creative minds are rarely tidy" and....i ripped it off and it's on my wall now :)

What type are you ? Cloths , ashes and coffee stains everywhere or everything in Perfect Order ( synth has 1.7 cm distance from each side of the wall etc )

I'm Tidy Type A . -> Very Un-tidy

[thesoundsmith]

Absolute disaster. My studio is currently so full of unused (but potentially useful) junk, workspace crammed with multiple project bits and pieces, it's insane. Cables, DVDs, papers, partial scores, boxes of sample libs, video camera connectors and power supplies...

I can't find a place to lay a single sheet of paper to write notes on!!! I have to slide half of it under the console, lor let it dangle off the end of the desk... :eek:

Somehow, the music gets made.

[Theodor]

Somehow, the music gets made.

:D

That's the point i guess ! Everything tends towards chaos anyway . Why clean up and go against the laws of nature

[Bruce A. Richardson]

I am by nature as untidy as they come.

However, I have integrated the practice of Feng Shui into my home and studio, and I am a total convert.

It's really not about tidy and untidy, ultimately. It's about clutter...about being timely in letting go of things which have no significance and keeping them out of your work space.

My productivity has easily tripled since I have banned clutter. I notice that people feel at ease in my space. When I walk in, it's like a blank slate, just ready to be filled.

Not to say that I don't create some collossal messes while working. But they're always strictly the mess of immediate creation, not clutter which has lost meaning. And the mess of immediate creation is easily cleaned up when the space has no other clutter in it.

I recommend it heartily. It has totally worked for me.

[Bruce A. Richardson]

*laughs* It's unfortunately too true. I really try to be tidy. I mean everything else in my place I keep clean. My desk? Papers and sheet music everywhere, coffee mugs, mints, pens/pencils... there is a candle and inscense burner in there somewhere I'm sure!

Once it gets too messy that I can't stand it anymore I always straighten it up better than someone with OCD could! :p

I find having a clean desk clears my mind as well. I should probably clean it more often. *chuckles*

neo, where are you in Dallas? Perhaps the time for a DANS is near!!!!

[robgb]

A complete pig. Every month I look at my disgusting mess of an office, start cleaning it up, realize it's hopeless and just say the heck with it.

I rarely ever meet "creative" people who are tidy. Left brain/right brain and all that.

[janila]

Definately on the piggy side. Luckily my studio is located in the apartment where I live with my girlfriend so I every now and then I get what I deserve. :p

[Tmon]

I always start a job with a clean uncluttered work area. It usually stays pretty clean until the last few weeks. Once I am finished I usually take a few days off and come back and clean my area for the next time around. We seem to acumulate a lot of dust around our studio. Once a week I hit my work with a swifter cloth to keep my gear (midi controler, mixing board, monitors, etc...) un-dusty.

-T

[KevinKauai]

I'm convinced that there is an inverse direct link between "housekeeping" tidiness and creativity (or so I've convinced myself, at least -- perhaps being a rationalization for why I am such a complete slob in my "working desk").

In the past, I have been most happy when I have a general "assistant" who can work within general parameters of "logical organization" (for instance, "you can collect papers from my desk, but if they don't have a 'flag' as to topic in the upper right-hand corner they must go into the 'to be flagged' pile, otherwise they can be filed"), Of course, he/she may only approach the working area when I am not there and otherwise needs to be not seen and definitely not heard!

I've found this approach to be workable in reducing the general fire hazard that would otherwise be my working area!

my $0.02 ... KevinKauai

(P.S. Please don't reply with "where do I find one?" -- you're on your own here!) ;)

[josejherring]

:D

That's the point i guess ! Everything tends towards chaos anyway . Why clean up and go against the laws of nature

Because the laws of nature only lead to one thing. Death.

Smash a car against a tree. Chaos. Fall off a 20 story building. Chaos. Iraq....chaos. Chaos=death. The only reason we're alive at all is because we use the laws of nature against itself,i.e, car, controlled explosions. Food, controlled breaking down of matter,ect.

For as long as I'm alive I'll keep trying to put order into the chaos. Until that final toll when I can no longer put an end to the choas.

Remeber music is organized sound. Organized being the key. Organizing your space helps.

Now if I can just afford a maid to help me out a couple of times a week. Maybe I won't feel so dead when I'm trying to organize sound in my chaotic work space. ;)

Jose

[Bateman]

Funny this comes up today ... after I did a complete overhaul/cleansing of my studio. It was utter chaos for a good year. I found a brand new box of gtr. picks - after I just bought a new box the other day!!

I'll always remember this saying from one of my Junior High teachers (when I worked in the office for a credit) ... "A messy desk is a sign of a hard worker, a clean one is someone who is not". The assistant principal's desk ... well, you couldn't see the desk and the principle's desk looked brand new, no mess. :rolleyes:

[Theodor]

You've tossed in some pretty deep stuff into the conversation josejherring.

Personally it's music that makes me overcome the fear of death sometimes.. it brings peace into my life and happiness . Every time i compose a minute of music which i enjoy listening again and again , it gives me an illusion of eternity , it makes me feel i can take a kit-kat break in peace and the positive energy will follow me around after for a short while . But when i have not or cannot compose something , i feel plain useless . Music is my way of fighting against that chaos.

Bateman , your teachers must be right. I've met so many people with OCD the last year and they all had one common thing : Nothing creative going on in their lifes! They're all so bored that they actually look for something to keep them occupied

[bruceup]

I have many tidy piles of stuff. Does the fact that they're tidy make up for the fact that they're there in the first place?

[Theodor]

I have many tidy piles of stuff. Does the fact that they're tidy make up for the fact that they're there in the first place?

Hmm....tough one . I think you are in a league of your own :p

[Kanjika]

My desk is a mess. I guess creative people really are unkempt

Theres thousands of used and cracked CD cases all over my desk and floor,and along with that- a plethora or unnamed CDs which contain only god knows what, loose change, wrappers (all over my piano keyboard too!) crumbs, sodacans, DUST...i really should clean now that i think about it :D My room is just untidy, and things are strewn about, but no garbage.

[Bruce A. Richardson]

Near the Oaklawn area. I never noticed you lived in Dallas before *laughs*

What's a DANS? :p

A Dallas Area Northern Sounds hang. Sharmy started them in LA, doing one in London. I think there are a few more Dallas area folk on the board.

We are nearly neighbors, then. I'm just off of Lowest Greenville, near Whole Foods.

[fictionmusic]

I can't work unless everything is in its place. (a place for everything and everything in its place is my motto). I have OCD big-time but it doesn't mean I am not creative nor busy, quite the contrary, but I hate clutter.
I once worked at a buddy's studio for a week and about 8 hours into it, I freaked and made him clean up the cables and sheetmusic. It was driving me crazy.
I had another buddy who worked at Decca records and he told me about "Decca Rules": If it looks messy, it sounds messy. Of course he was a loony-tune as well and would freak-out if you ever said something was easy. He thought that it was dooming the project to failure.

[MikeGraybill]

I also fall into the OCD to the nth of insane category, and all that seems to mean in the end... organized clutters! Always been interested in feng shui, but never got a book or looked into it much. I can say that all my candles are spaced and angled just so, the couches tables, stuff on the tables (like remotes and decor) are always set in parallel lines when I set them down and then straighten 'em, and everything is always set in patterns that please.

Around my piano/desk music setup, I keep that bare every day, cleaned and clutter-free before I sleep. The rest of the place... pile of this pile of that. Highly organized, individual messes. On the whole - Tidy these days.

ot - Neo, Bruce, I know another NS guy here in town who'd be cool with a DANS, as would I. Say when sometime, that'd be fun I'm thinking.

[Bruce A. Richardson]

Always been interested in feng shui, but never got a book or looked into it much.

You can definitely get into it by degrees. Some of it is technical, nearly religious in tone.

But all attachments aside, it's essentially a design discipline--how to place objects, and how to order space so that it flows at the right tempo. It all boils down to good design, it's just a way to get there that developed over a long, long period of time.

It works very well. I'm a convert. I used to have the messiest studio around, and sometimes I would go crazy just feeling the weight of all that stuff. Now, there is very little in the room, and it is very easy to keep clean and neat. It just feels really good, very peaceful, no distractions. And people love it. Everyone comments on how good the room feels, even if they have no idea why.

[Theodor]

Hey Bruce, you know those small rock things with running water they sell at gift shops ? Some of them have a rolling ball ( again with water )

Are those Feng Shui items ? Any good ?

They give the impression that they can either relax you or drive you nuts :-)