Don’t Clean Up

“Alexander Calder and Pablo Picasso were two of the most innovative, influential artists of the twentieth century.”

So says a placard I saw at a recent de Young exhibit. What really caught my eye, though, was a note in another part of the exhibit:

“Both Alexander Calder and Pablo Picasso filled their studios with a chaotic jumble of objects that ranged from fine art to salvaged junk. While some objects served purely as sources of inspiration, others were utilized as materials for their sculptures.

Calder’s biographer Jed Perl has observed: ‘The studio was a sacred dumping ground, from which new inventions emerged in unexpected ways.’”

I’ve always believed that tidiness is a little overrated. But a “chaotic jumble of objects”? Studio as a “sacred dumping ground”?

Even for me, that’s next level appreciation for a mess. But I suppose it ought not surprise you that someone who values dirty hands as much as I do would value messy work spacees, too.

One thing I’ve observed in these days of COVID is post-it’s go up a lot easier than they come down. They tend to stack up, spread out, and re-convene in new locations. Every horizontal — and many vertical — surface is covered with them. For some reason, I haven’t ever acted on the urge to purge, in part, because I keep being provoked by them in unexpected ways. It’s almost like past Jeremy’s observations and random musings have a way of making surprising connections to present conversations.

Just the other day, when working on our book, and example popped off of a long-neglected post-it, serving up a much-needed example at just the right moment… and all because I cast my eyes down from the screen in deep thought for a moment.

There’s something valuable about keeping notes about one’s work space, effectively treating the modern work space as a “sacred dumping ground” as well. It increases what Jim March has called “simultaneity of arrivals,” which, in addition to being one of my favorite obscure phrases, is also something I consider to be a very important goal worth pursuing.

So go ahead, don’t clean up.

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