Mr Knowall, I want to ask you this because you're built up a reputation for being quite the workaholic and have also spoken before about pieces of art opening creative doors for you. I write and create a little bit (you and jonny have inspired me so much) and I find it really difficult to deliberately engage with art? Because even if i enjoy a piece of media sometimes it doesn't necessarily inspire me creatively because of that it feels redundant even though it still brings me a lot of comfort and is often objectively well made. I am also hyper aware of the fact that I could be WORKING instead of engaging with it and it just brings a lot of guilt.
How do you balance engaging with media just for the fun and entertainment of it vs using it as inspiration for your creative work?
I don’t really which is sad. I have certain compulsions which can be a gift and a curse.the only workaround I have found is I split media in greens and desert. Greens =stuff I watch and critically engage in, desert is stuff where it’s chill enough that I can keep it at bay for a bit. For instance my current desert is the original run of DBZ. This is all mental gymnastics though as they are all equally valid really.
I don’t actively hunt for inspiration though. It’s a passive process for me, most often sparked by conversation.