IS IT TIME FOR A CREATIVE RETREAT?

As we write this post, we are around a week since our return. Whilst the experience is still fresh, we thought to share some lessons we learned from the residency so you can also plan a retreat.

For us, it was time to carve out a dedicated period for creative development. Frequently, our plans to make new work and manifest ideas were being postponed. So, we took back control and decided to find a way to focus our attention. We drew up a list of what we hoped to achieve from the creative retreat - some of the points included:

• Time away from distractions
• Freedom to explore and develop
• Space to act on ideas
• Focused time to produce
• Documentation of the outcomes
   

So, with the wish list in hand, we designed our creative residence. We found a space, and set-out with some ideas, materials and equipment. It has been hugely helpful.

We want to share some points of learning with you in case you are inspired to create your own residency or retreat.
 

1. What is it?

Before setting out, define what you want to achieve from your retreat. Just as with our list above, what would you include for your residency? It might be time for research, or perhaps production. Alternatively, you might want to plan for the year ahead, or beyond.

2. Find space

When finding space for your residency this can be a physical space and free time in your schedule. Find space that fits what you want to achieve. We travelled away from home and away from the familiar. However, this doesn’t need to be the case. You can carve out time at home, or organise a studio swap with another creative.

What’s important is to limit the distractions of the everyday. Think about ‘clearing the decks’ beforehand, or pick a naturally quieter time in your year. Switch on the ‘out of office’ notification on your inboxes.

Determine your intentions and share them with others, then actively work towards the main goals you established for your retreat. This helps reinforce why you are doing this and establishes a commitment to the development of your practice. 

At Burton Nitta we are a collaborative practice, so we are naturally accountable to each other. It might be helpful to team-up with an accountability buddy or a co-pilot when planning your residency. 
 

3. Preload with inspiration

Before the retreat starts, define an agenda for yourself. Make a plan. Ask: what do I hope to achieve? What research trips or experiments might facilitate the creativity? Do I need to plan some playful disruptions as a warm-up?

For us, it was helpful to read beforehand and to start the residency with some ideas simmering. We brought materials and equipment with us, so they were at hand on arrival. You might also want to prepare with some books, inspirational visits to a gallery or museum, watch films, or dive into some preliminary research or tests. Buy materials and any new equipment you require so you can get going from the outset.

The aim is to start the subconscious cogs turning, so when you hit the beginning of the residency retreat period, you’re already got ideas churning.

We programmed a session using the latest edition of our creative prompt tool called Field Notes of the Biota Being: Human Plant Biome (link below). We used the tool to guide us on a journey and deliver creative prompts along the way. The journey took us into woodland and along the shores of lakes. The action of walking and being amongst nature generated thoughts and disruptive ideas which we took back to the studio.

4. Start as you mean to fail

When your retreat begins, make playful exploration a goal and push judgement aside. We found it helpful to begin with physical making and set a time for judgement and reflection later. This may change for you according to the reason you are conducting the retreat. For instance, you may be in an editing phase of a book, when your focus will be heavily on revision and amendments.

Whatever your reason for the retreat, the aim is to ‘get going’ and to ‘start strongly’.

5. Create structure 

Start out your days with a structure in mind. Programme in your time to play, create, eat, rest, reflect, etc. Set intense bursts of activity alongside time to clear the decks and to document. Allocate time to reflect and make plans according to the schedule. Perhaps set some progress meetings (even if it is a solo meeting with yourself), at intervals throughout the residency. These check-in meetings might include at the midterm and at the end of the residency period.

6. Share without being swayed 

You may want to engage with social media and share the highlights of the works in progress. However, resist the temptation to let the comments on posts or the number of likes be a way to validate ideas or directions. The retreat is for your development and to follow paths of inspiration that are authentic to you. Sometimes external voices might throw you off-course or stop a promising direction before it has got going.

7. Enjoy and be open

Importantly, enjoy the practice and process. Be kind to yourself in judging the outcomes of the retreat. A messy first draft or early outcome is a crucial step forward. There is something to be learned from all outcomes.

Keep an open mind and receive any nuggets of creative gold that might be gifted to you during the process of exploration. Some of the best developments emerge from unintentional moments of serendipity.

8. Aftercare

Set a date, in a week or fortnight after the residency, to bring together thoughts and reflections from the retreat. Consider what you gleaned from the experience. Make plans for what comes next. We found it useful to consider what was successful, needs developing, what to leave and what to pursue, what opportunities arise, any unexpected insights, and what might come next.

These are some insights from our residency, which we hope can help you. However daunting it might feel in the planning beforehand and the preparations to ‘make it happen’, the residency for us was amazingly helpful. The insights from the experience will no-doubt pay forward in the work we create next.
 

You might like the following inspiration to fuel your retreat:

Austin Kleon, Keep Going: 10 Ways to Stay Creative in Good Times and Bad 

Professor Yoshifumi Miyazaki (2018) Walking in the Woods: Go back to nature with the Japanese way of shinrin-yoku. Aster, London 2018.

Rick Rubin, The Creative Act: A Way of Being

Field Notes of the Biota Beings - a creative prompt tool available from our web shop on AfterAfter.com.

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