Manifesto and Mantra

Please name your file as lastname_gathering24_manifesto
Please name your file as lastname_gathering24_mantra
Upload your manifesto and mantra to your project documentation folder for your end of semester deliverables.
Copy and paste the text (if applicable) on our class Discord.

"Concise, powerful statements create a clear image in the mind's eye. They function as mental shortcuts to your goals, your values, and your ethics."
~Charlotte Burgess-Auburn from You Need A Manifesto

Be prepared to share and ask questions of each other about your manifestos and mantras! Give each other the opportunity to explain your thought processes, deeper reasonings, and ideas. When you are the listener, take notes, and then reflect on what you heard from the manifesto to its creator. What differences do you notice between your manifestos? What do they have in common?

Write your own personal /creative manifesto and/or a manifesto for your gathering(s).

What is a manifesto?

A manifesto is a statement of your creative and artistic vision.

It spells out what you stand for aesthetically. It can also be political by stating how you want to change the world through your creative pursuits. It can also be highly personal by stating how you want to change yourself or your journey through your creative pursuits.

Questions to Think About BEFORE You Write Your Manifesto

Who Are You? or Who Do You Want to Be?
What is Your Purpose or Passion?
Where Do You Come From (Geographically and Creatively)?
Where Are You Going (Creatively and Geographically)?
How Will You Get There?
What Do You Stand for?
What Do You Want to Be Known For?
What Do You Want to Create or Make?
What Do You Want to Optimize Your Life for?

Questions to Think About AFTER You Write Your Manifesto

When do you need to be reminded of your manifesto? First thing in the morning? Last Thing At Night? Both? Right before class or meeting? When you feel frustrated?

What will be accessible to you at that moment? Is it the background on your phone, the sticky note on your bathroom mirror, an automated email you get every day? A laminated card you put in your wallet?

How much detail do you need? Just the headlines? Or do you need the details?

How will you share it? With people close to you? Your family? Friends? Publicly?

Remember: A Manifesto Is A Living Document!

Your manifesto is a living document. You can adopt a new manifesto at any time. The power of a manifesto is its memorability and visibility, but it is useful only as long as it is relevant.

Examples of Manifestos

An Incomplete Manifesto for Growth by Bruce Mau (Design)

Ten Principles for Good Design by Deiter Rams (Product Design)

Some Things I've Learned In My Life So Far by Stefan Sagmeister (Graphic Design)

The BlackSpace Manifesto by BlackSpace Urbanist Collective (Collective)

The Design Abilities by Carissa Carter of the d.school (Design Education)

An Introductory Ethics for Designers by Rick Griffith (Design)

Dogma 2001: A Challenge to Game Designers (it's towards the bottom of the page) by Ernest Adams (Game Design)

The Vow of Chasity by DOGMA 95 (Film)

The Riot Grrrl Manifesto was published 1991 in the BIKINI KILL ZINE 2. Bikini Kill's Kathleen Hanna's Reciting The Riot Grrrl Manifesto. (Music)

2016 An Open Letter To The Next Generation Of Artists by Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter (Music)

BONUS: Sources of Sources

100+ Years of Design Manifestos by John Emerson

The Marginalian by Maria Popova

NITCH by Anonymous

MonoNeon's Manifestos

David Bowie and Janelle Monáe's Things to Always Remember List

Janelle: [She brings up the Notes app on her phone.] I have a Note [from watching the David Bowie documentary, Moonage Daydream], “Things to Always Remember.” Bowie says, “I think it’s terribly dangerous for an artist to fulfill other people’s expectations. . . . If you feel safe in the area that you’re working in, you’re not working in the right area. Always go a little further into the water than you feel you’re capable of being in. Go a little bit out of your depth, and when you don’t feel that your feet are quite touching the bottom, you’re just about in the right place to do something exciting.” I just love that. When I heard that quote from him, it gave me more affirmation to keep swimming. Go out in the deep end a little more.

Interviewer: I want to know more things on your “Things to Always Remember” list.

Janelle: What else can I share? [She reads.] “I will protect Little Janelle. I am not above making a mistake. I am not above misspeaking. I will not give up on myself today. I will not give up on myself tomorrow. I will not give up on myself in the future. I will not give up on Little Janelle.” You can read the entire interview here, "Janelle Monáe Peels the Onion" by Michael Schulman https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-interview/janelle-monae-peels-the-onion?

Personal Contract for the Composition of Music by Matthew Herbert (Music)

A note from De Angela: It's hard to find this on the web now, but luckily I saved a copy in my creative inspiration archives. I only point this out because everything is not on the internet, but having a hard drive where you store inspiration can be useful. You can currently find this manifesto on one german site, but that's about it.

PERSONAL CONTRACT FOR THE COMPOSITION OF MUSIC [INCORPORATING THE MANIFESTO OF MISTAKES]

THIS IS A GUIDE FOR MY OWN WORK AND NOT INTENDED AS THE CORRECT OR ONLY WAY TO WRITE MUSIC EITHER FOR MYSELF OR OTHERS.

1. The use of sounds that exist already is not allowed. Subject to article 2. In particular:

No drum machines. All keyboard sounds must be edited in some way: no factory presets or pre-programmed patches are allowed.

2. Only sounds that are generated at the start of the compositional process or taken from the artist’s own previously unused archive are available for sampling.

3. The sampling of other people’s music is strictly forbidden.

4. No replication of traditional acoustic instruments is allowed where the financial and physical possibility of using the real ones exists.

5. The inclusion, development, propagation, existence, replication, acknowledgement, rights, patterns and beauty of what are commonly known as accidents, is encouraged. Furthermore, they have equal rights within the composition as deliberate, conscious, or premeditated compositional actions or decisions.

6. The mixing desk is not to be reset before the start of a new track in order to apply a random eq and fx setting across the new sounds. Once the ordering and recording of the music has begun, the desk may be used as normal.

7. All fx settings must be edited: no factory preset or pre-programmed patches are allowed.

8. Samples themselves are not to be truncated from the rear. Revealing parts of the recording are invariably stored there.

9. A notation of sounds used to be taken and made public.

10. A list of technical equipment used to be made public.

11. optional: Remixes should be completed using only the sounds provided by the original artist including any packaging the media was provided in.

MATTHEW HERBERT 27-11-00/updated 05-06-03

P.C.C.O.M. Turbo Extreme

All rules of pccom apply, plus the following additions:

1. Once the subject of the track is established, only sounds directly related to that topic may be used. For example: if the track is about coffee, only sounds made by coffee farmers and their relatives; cups and spoons; milk; colombia etc, may be included.

2. finished tracks written under the terms of pccom turbo extreme may not be licenced to anything that is contradictory to the intention of the music.

3. Remixes will not be done with sounds used in the original. New noises on the same theme must be generated by the third party.

4. As much technical information shall be provided in order for others to reproduce the intention of the track, and to underscore the structural integrity of the work.

5. The piece shall endeavour to be good. Mediocrity is not an acceptable conclusion.

MATTHEW HERBERT (2005)

Create your own personal/creative mantra or action prompt and/or mantra for your gathering or adopt one!

For your own mantra for action: You can write it. Tattoo it on your body. Print it on T-shirt. Print it on a poster.

Regardless, it needs to be short and memorable! If I saw you in the hallway and asked you to tell me your mantra, you should be able to do so on the spot without any hesitation! Alternatively, you can create an action prompt instead. It can take various forms: a power move, a power song (or create your own), a film to play to signal it's time to do your creative work, etc. etc. It should be accessible whenever and wherever you work!

Be prepared to share it on the first day of class!

Examples of Mantras for Action

My Great Uncle Allen: "Ain't Nothing But A Step for the Stepper!"

Nike and my mom: "Just Do It!"

Tom Johnson: "Action Does It!"

Steven Pressfield: "Do The Work!"

Austin Kleon: "Steal Like An Artist!"

Austin Kleon: "Keep Going!"

Ray Bradbury: "Do Things That Excite!"

Ray Bradbury: "Jump off the cliff and build your wings on the way down!"

Malcolm X: "By Any Means Necessary!"

Anonymous: "It Doesn't Need To Be Perfect; It Just Needs To Be"

De Angela: "Make It Happen!"

Captain Picard: "Make It So!"

Tim Gunn: "Make It Work!"

De Angela's Song for Creative Action

Whenever I need to get to work on a creative project (particularly if I'm tired or don't want to begin), I play this live Prince song on my headphones LOUD. It kicks me into action mode every time! And I play it on repeat for hours.

The audio is better in the above version, but if you're curious and want to see the accompanying video, here it is below!

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Last updated 10 months ago