Try Everything

In “Try Every­thing,” the chap­ter explores the unpre­dictable nature of cre­ativ­i­ty and the impor­tance of exper­i­men­ta­tion in art. It high­lights the fun­da­men­tal dif­fer­ence between pre­dictable out­comes in every­day log­ic, such as mix­ing col­ors or sim­ple arith­metic, and the often sur­pris­ing results of com­bin­ing ele­ments in artis­tic endeav­ors. The text stress­es that the­o­ry and prac­tice might not always align and that solu­tions which worked in the past may not be effec­tive in the present, under­lin­ing the gap between imag­i­na­tion and real­i­ty. An idea might appear bril­liant in the mind but fail upon exe­cu­tion, or vice ver­sa, empha­siz­ing the val­ue of test­ing every con­cept.

The chap­ter advis­es against dis­miss­ing ideas with­out prac­ti­cal test­ing and encour­ages ask­ing “what if” ques­tions to explore var­i­ous pos­si­bil­i­ties and per­spec­tives, even con­sid­er­ing the seem­ing­ly under­whelm­ing ideas. This approach is deemed par­tic­u­lar­ly ben­e­fi­cial in col­lab­o­ra­tive efforts, where dif­fer­ent ideas may com­pete, and it’s chal­leng­ing to pre­dict how anoth­er’s vision may mate­ri­al­ize. The text argues for mov­ing dis­cus­sions from ver­bal to phys­i­cal demon­stra­tions, show­cas­ing ideas through action or mod­els to escape the lim­i­ta­tions of ver­bal per­sua­sion and mis­un­der­stand­ings, aim­ing for a clear­er eval­u­a­tion based on direct expe­ri­ence.

Fur­ther, the chap­ter advo­cates for an open-mind­ed approach to exper­i­men­ta­tion, allow­ing one­self to be wrong and embrac­ing the sur­pris­es that come from wit­ness­ing an idea’s full expres­sion. It sug­gests that what seems like fail­ures are steps towards a suc­cess­ful solu­tion, advis­ing not to get too attached to spe­cif­ic out­comes but to fol­low the pro­jec­t’s evolv­ing direc­tion. The work is to grow nat­u­ral­ly, reflect­ing its unique life and form. The mes­sage is one of joy in dis­cov­ery, urg­ing artists to enjoy the jour­ney of cre­ative explo­ration and to remain open to the myr­i­ad pos­si­bil­i­ties that exper­i­men­ta­tion can unveil.