Alain Sauter

INTUITION/IMAGINATION

How does intuition present itself to you – in form of a suspicious impression, a spontaneous visualisation or whatever - maybe in dreams?

It starts with a low noise feeling during a couple of times (could be days, weeks or even months) and, eventually I realize that something is growing in me. Then parts of my mind are working on it until it becomes clear enough to put words or pictures in front of what was the intuition but not yet an idea.

Will any ideas be written down immediately and archived?

Well, hopefully not (laughing)! Lots of ideas, or let’s say “new ways”, appear in an everyday-life of a creator. Of course, not all of them are good or worth enough to go further in the reflexion process. Those one somehow disappears in a faraway land of my memory. But from time to time, an idea seems to be bright enough to be written down in my notebook, which is also a kind of faraway land of my memory. And from those lands, suddenly or called by a discussion with friends, one idea reappears and I start a deeper reflexion on it.

?: How do you come up with good or extraordinary ideas?

Those ideas are a quite rare animal for me. I think that they are always issued from a long process, mostly unconscious. So, in a way, I wait until they are grown enough to grab them like picking a ripe fruit from the tree.

?: Do you feel that new creative ideas come as a whole or do you get like a little seed of inspiration that evolves into something else and has to be realized by endless trials and errors in form of constant developments up until the final result?

Exactly, creative ideas are like seeds: first of all you have to be able to identify good seed from bad, then you have to make it grow gently, keep watering it with trials until it is strong enough to call it a final result. But don’t make it overgrown or it can fade...

What if there is a deadline, but no intuition? Does the first fuel the latter maybe?

Having a deadline is an excellent way to force your brain working harder. So yes, the first helps to fuel the latter.

INSPIRATION

What inspires you and how do you stimulate this special form of imaginativeness?

I already have had several ‘professional-lives’, and I have been lucky enough to say that they were all linked to a passion. As a former university lecturer, this experience, mixing natural sciences and geography, spiced with history, is my main source of inspiration, completed by current events.

?: How do you filter between ideas worthwhile pursuing and bad ones that you just let go of?

My team and friends are the filter. If I'm able to explain the idea and get good feedback, it's probably worth pursuing it, because it means that an emotion has emerged.

Has it to appeal to you primarily or is its commercial potential an essential factor?

This is an important issue in this day and age, where business is the primary concern, but I don't think it's the primary factor. I'm probably still a child in my brain, the dream is the first step.

Do you revisit old ideas or check what colleagues/competitors are up to at times?

Ideas don't get old, but they can idle for a long time and need a refresh. I usually avoid looking to my direct competitors because I'm afraid of imitating them, but colleagues in other professions can be inspiring. It's like traveling to another country, another culture.

CREATIVITY

Which time/place/environment suits your creative work process the best (tranquillity or pressure) and which path do you take from theory/idea to creation?

Being on a journey is a good time for me because, by definition, you are between two places, in a temporality that is not your daily routine. On a daily basis, I need to be alone and I prefer the early morning moment. The path is always the same: starting with sketches on paper, then improvising a rough prototype to confront with reality, then again sketches completed by documentation on the subjects that are the source of the main inspiration, until I feel ready enough.

What is better in the realization process: speed and force creativity i.e. grasp the magic of the moment, or a slow, ripening process for implementation/elaboration?

Both of them. I believe creativity is a slow process but when I suddenly feel that I get a spark, yes, I need to deepen in this “magic moment”.

?: Do you have any specific strategies you use when you are feeling stuck creatively?

I move on to other subjects and start reading up on them, just to feed my brain, or I go for a walk. But creating is not my main task and I also have to manage my workshop, which is a good idea not to feel stuck.

How important are self-doubt and criticism (by others) during such a process i.e. is it better to be creative on your own, only trust your own instincts, or in a team? 

As a former scientist, I always have doubts and can always push the button further. I need others to make a creation, especially my team.

Should a creative always remain true to him-/herself including taking risks & going against the flow or must one, for reasons of (commercial) survival, make concessions to the demands of the market, the wishes of clients and the audience’s expectations?

If you are lucky enough to have the perfect creative environment (including the financials), I think you naturally stay true to yourself. But, as far as my current position goes, some concessions are necessary to make the workshop work.

?: How is innovation still possible if one has established a distinctive style and, just in case, is it good to be ahead of one’s time even one hazards not being understood?

Establishing your own creative style is like establishing your way of traveling. You can travel the world without seeing the same things as your neighbour because you develop your own filters and habits. It is a constant exploration that leads you to discover something new for you, which maybe is already known to others or completely incomprehensible. The important thing about exploration is your ability to tell the story with your own eyes.

When does the time come to end the creative process, to be content and set the final result free - or is it work-in-progress with an endless possibility of improvement?

As I’ve mentioned before: for me it is a neverending game, but you have to be willing to set the final point and let others take ownership of your work. Creativity is a kind of discussion, you can't talk all the time, you have to finish your sentence and get an answer.

?: In case of failure or - worse - a creativity crisis how do you get out of such a hole?

Exploring, again and again.

SUCCESS

?: “Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.“ Do you agree with Winston Churchill’s quote?

That is fully true! I also like the image of the iceberg: success is only the small piece above the sea level, behind is a fight between failure and enthusiasm.

Should/can one resist the temptation to recycle a ‘formula’ one’s successful with?

Recycling can be a good process if one understands that it is about making something new because the old is worn out. Otherwise, it is just repetition, which can lead to weariness.

?: Is it desirable to create the ultimate/timeless work, but doesn’t “top of the ladder” bring up the question of “what’s next?” i.e. isn’t such a personal peak “the end”?

The really great thing about creativity is that it's a neverending process. I'm not sure if I can identify what my ultimate work would be until the dawn of my death. Believe me, I'm not impatient (laughs).

MY FAVORITE WORK:

This model called "gyro", taking the old and well-known concept of the gyroscope. It is my favourite, probably because it concentrates a lot of reflections on the old globes and the new geophysical representations. It can be summarized as an analog Google Earth. This piece is also the first one for which I spent a lot of time on sketches to arrive at an aesthetic result with a long list of constraints. It is still today the most difficult piece to realize in my workshop.