On How Travelling Stimulates Creativity: The Passports of Renowned Artists
The passports of famous artists remind us that travelling and creativity form one of the most intimate and fortunate bonds that allow us to express our subjectivity.
The journey is barely a movement of the imagination. The journey is recognising, recognising oneself, the loss of childhood and the acceptance of maturity.José Lezama Lima
The bond between traveling and creativity is extremely profound, while it might not always take the same shape, it does remain constant due to the movement these two aspects imply and that they somehow complement each other: they both imply making a conscious decision to exit one’s comfort zone, opening oneself to new environments and perspectives, modifying ourselves (no matter how minimal these changes might appear to be) in relation to the person we usually are in the place we generally inhabit.
Perhaps for this reason, from the darkest times, artists, writers, poets, philosophers and other representatives of creative action have also been great travelers, whether this has been physically or through their wondrous imaginations, transporting themselves from one end of the globe to the other, or merely committing to a handful of journeys but making the very most of them —to the extent that they became the force behind their endeavor, pretexts to show that the interior world and that which surrounded them was far richer than they appear.
Alexandra David-Néel in the Tibet, Roland Barthes in China, Laurence Sterne on his sentimental voyage, and even Xavier de Maistre’s Voyage autour de ma chambre, are but a few examples of the many artists that understood that in order to create they had to fulfil a single and essential requisite: exiting, for a moment, their own beings.
Recently, Open Culture published a collection of the passports of famous characters, renowned for their strong artistic creations, from Virginia Woolf to Ella Fitzgerald, including also John Lennon and James Joyce.
Beyond their anecdotal value, and perhaps even their fetishist quality, these documents remind us that traveling is also a one of the most important stimulus that can bring our minds to the present moment, while they move our sense of astonishment, allowing this to take the shape of unimaginable expression that we use to convey our presence in this reality.
Related Articles
Pictorial spiritism (a woman's drawings guided by a spirit)
There are numerous examples in the history of self-taught artists which suggest an interrogation of that which we take for granted within the universe of art. Such was the case with figures like
Astounding fairytale illustrations from Japan
Fairy tales tribal stories— are more than childish tales. Such fictions, the characters of which inhabit our earliest memories, aren’t just literary works with an aesthetic and pleasant purpose. They
A cinematic poem and an ode to water: its rhythms, shapes and textures
Here lies One Whose Name was writ in Water. - John Keats Without water the equation of life, at least life as we know it, would be impossible. A growing hypothesis holds that water, including the
Watch beauty unfold through science in this "ode to a flower" (video)
The study of the microscopic is one of the richest, most aesthetic methods of understanding the world. Lucky is the scientist who, upon seeing something beautiful, is able to see all of the tiny
To invent those we love or to see them as they are? Love in two of the movies' favorite scenes
So much has been said already, of “love” that it’s difficult to add anything, much less something new. It’s possible, though, perhaps because even if you try to pass through the sieve of all our
This app allows you to find and preserve ancient typographies
Most people, even those who are far removed from the world of design, are familiar with some type of typography and its ability to transform any text, help out dyslexics or stretch an eight page paper
The secrets of the mind-body connection
For decades medical research has recognized the existence of the placebo effect — in which the assumption that a medication will help produces actual physical improvements. In addition to this, a
The sea as infinite laboratory
Much of our thinking on the shape of the world and the universe derives from the way scientists and artists have approached these topics over time. Our fascination with the mysteries of the
Sharing and collaborating - natural movements of the creative being
We might sometimes think that artistic or creative activity is, in essence, individualistic. The Genesis of Judeo-Christian tradition portrays a God whose decision to create the world is as vehement
John Malkovich becomes David Lynch (and other characters)
John Malkovich and David Lynch are, respectively, the actor and film director who’ve implicitly or explicitly addressed the issues of identity and its porous barriers through numerous projects. Now