As I work on the giant "Heap" puppet for our show, Trash, I'm overwhelmed with how messy is the process of innovation. It is journey of trial and error, that leaves a slimy slug trail of failed attempts. It is plastic shavings, sawdust, spilled glue, scraps of wood, bits of foam, lengths of pipe cut too long, or too short, or from the wrong material. It is the remains of a botched attempt to build something, or the implementation of an idea that just didn't work in the physical world. Ideas are great in your head, and they may compute on paper, but until you try it out and put it to a physical test, you won't know if it works.
Without a mentor to guide me, I'm learning through my own mistakes. The entire Puppet Improv Project is exactly that. Saying "yes" to ideas, trying them out, and building on them. Experience tells me that every botched implementation, or idea that falls flat, is leading me towards a lucky strike. So knowing that the only way out of UNknowing is through experimentation, I wade through this creative mess.
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