We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Shihab Mian a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Shihab, appreciate you making time for us and sharing your wisdom with the community. So many of us go through similar pain points throughout our journeys and so hearing about how others overcame obstacles can be helpful. One of those struggles is keeping creativity alive despite all the stresses, challenges and problems we might be dealing with. How do you keep your creativity alive?
It’s tough with the economic pressures that come with being a creative. I’m lucky enough that I have many avenues for creativity that are available to me, both paid and unpaid. So I’m definitely speaking from a place of privilege here, that’s for sure. For me it’s about having fun, being in the moment and organic. I create when I want to. My best work is when I’m interested in creating a specific thing or exploring an idea stuck in my head. There will always be moments when your creativity is strained or in other instances forced. Accept those moments and accept that the output will for the most part be shit. But all reps count, and sometimes forcing out the shit ideas will give the space for your creativity to flourish. Ultimately, I think realizing that with metrics like these, “keeping your creativity alive”, is set by ones self. I decide what keeping my creativity alive looks like, and that could look like pumping out work after work, or not creating anything for years.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
Our world is constantly changing and growing. With new technology built upon other technologies, we change the way humans interact in myriads of ways. With each other, with the technology itself. Human progression transmutes every relationship in an endless chain. I like to think I create work that delves into that change, trying to relate it back to our everyday physical existence. Currently, I’m really interested in digital divinity and how waves of people found religion on the web. I primarily work with visual media and creative coding. You may view some of newest projects where I explore concepts of handmade web at https://glitch.com/@shihab.mian.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Collaboration, resourcefulness, and imperfection. That last one came very easy to me, I’m not perfectionist in any definition of the word. I feel as though it’s provided me much comfort and become something reliable for me in moments of high stress and pressure. Truly learn to fuck it & just hit send. Unfortunately, many are not as innately talented as me in that regard. You really need to be able to put out crap. This world will not give you the time to chisel and tweak a project until it is perfect. Sometimes, a project will come to us at the wrong times in our lives. It’s your obligation to make it, however garbage it is, Because someone else definitely will. Resourcefulness matter so much, especially with so many educational materials and skills to be learned on the internet. I would say 80% of my hard skills are learned from the internet. It’s out there, it’s free if you go looking for it. It’s quite literally the way that you can create anything your mind can think of. Finally, collaboration. Probably the thing I’m the worst at on this list, but consistently my favorite part of being a creative. I live for my friends, that’s the bottom line for me. Creating things with others, sharing skills and ideas, even just having conversations, collaboration can exist in so many forms, and so much of it makes your work better. It’s vital.
Alright, so before we go we want to ask you to take a moment to reflect and share what you think you would do if you somehow knew you only had a decade of life left?
The challenge is a battle I expect to be fighting my whole career. It’s the struggle between having the time, motivation and strength to create work that I believe in versus the consistent need for money to survive. I will always have to sacrifice opportunities that are self-fulfilling in order to pacify the ever-lasting need for money in this life. I am absolutely void of hope in this regard. Perhaps one day, I’ll be in a powerful enough position to pick and choose clients, focusing on those who appreciate and cherish my work. Fools can dream. Until then, we struggle.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://shihabmian.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shihabmian/
Image Credits
Andrew Faigal
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