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Ideas must be put to the test. That's why we make things, otherwise they would be no more than ideas. There is often a huge difference between an idea and its realisation. I've had what I thought were great ideas that just didn't work. Sometimes it's difficult to say if something has worked or not. Photography is a way of putting distance between myself and the work which sometimes helps me to see more clearly what it is that I have made.

Andy Goldsworthy#5

CreationIdeasTesting

About this quote

What does it mean?
Ideas need physical testing to reveal their true value, and distance helps evaluation.
In plain terms
Make things to test ideas and use photos to see them clearly.
What can you take from it?
Testing ideas through making reveals their worth.

Where it applies

  • design process
  • art making
  • problem solving

Putting it to work

  • prototyping
  • reviewing work

Questions to consider

  • Why do ideas fail in practice?
  • How does distance help clarity?

Another view

Some ideas are too abstract to test physically.

More from Andy Goldsworthy

  1. A snowball is simple, direct and familiar to most of us. I use this simplicity as a container for feelings and ideas that function on many levels. Occasionally…

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  2. Movement, change, light, growth, and decay are the life-blood of nature, the energies that I try to tap through my work.

    Permalink to quote #6
  3. You must have something new in a landscape as well as something old, something that's dying and something that's being born.

    Permalink to quote #3

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