I've just finished some introspection that has lead me to a few questions..
Upon reading through my bio on here as well as some other past writings, I've realized just how much of a creative, aesthetically inclined, abstract mind I have. Although one of my main desires in life has been to understand the principles that govern reality, and I go about discovering these principles through well-developed logical deduction; I have equally as much been immersed in the experience of beauty as I see it. I desire to express the beauty I see/feel as writing, art, or song, and the act of creating is more of an "intuitive" experience than one of critical thinking (except in the case of commercial art).
I'm wondering if this is a common experience for TiNes? Do you tend to see things (at least at first) in an idealistic, abstract manner? Do you find yourselves artistically inclined? If so, what is the creative process like for you, more intuitive or logical?
Post by 999greeneyes on Jul 9, 2013 18:27:27 GMT -5
My view of beauty is to uncover the truth and see the world beyond mere appereances, and bring something forth. The very perspecitve that makes me see, its the very perspective that makes me blind. What I mean by that is that, because I am an observer of the world and beauty, it has become of the expense of not be able to immerse in it. I cannot be both an observer and attached to it. For this, being TiNe at times is like punishment, not being able to live in the present and constant hunger for the untainable future goals.
I see things in a global abstract manner. For example being in a museum, I visualise how this object played apart before. How was this person was thinking that brougth forth this idea? what this idea a head of his time? if so what thinking ability was needed and resources to make it happen? I also think of the objects influence on past, present, and its future implications, and how other forms it may take and visualise its fullest potential in the future, and get an image pretty much beyond of my time. And how this may make the world a better, and more interesting place to live. Most often I try to think what the person was thinking when making it, I visualise it and try to make out of there thought processes, by how it works, and create a mental map of it.
My creative processes is pretty much a combination of TiNe and Ni. If I have a an Idea, I create a vision for that idea (Ni). I then engage my Ti by creating a mental maps of the vision, taking it part to understand its structure, then to see how other ways it can be done (Ne). I can then see how it can be manipulated and see different patterns and connection, like taking apart a pusel and put it differently, in many ways. And then choose the pusel I like the best. Considering the time and resources I have to obtain my goal (Te).
I am only artiscally inclined when inventing something, or when I see a beautiful women or a star. Otherways no.
I too am vastly attracted to beauty and like to immerse myself in very impressive visual environments, despite being a highly logical person at the same time. Unlike 999greeneyes, I don't attempt to break things down but instead I try to take in all the details.
As a type supposedly tossing about the same cognitive functions as TiNe in a slightly different order, I appreciate very much the explanations of your approaches to beauty and art. Its very fascinating to me because I appear to have the same approach (sensory immersion) yet a drastically opposite technique. I take an Fe snapshot, an instant emotion if you will, as a starting point. Then I use Si,Ne, and Ti, and then end with Fe again. Maybe I should explain...
When I first began to accept there was something other than logic and math that had value in the world, I began to develop an appreciation for art and music. I suddenly found I could easily identify the art and music I preferred and was certain I understood the reasons I valued the works. The next logical step seemed to be to create my own versions of the things I enjoyed.
Proceeding in a very J-lead Ti user/"valuer" manner I decided to teach myself to play electric guitar and write songs that had engagingly complex lyrics. I stubbornly repeated this process for a failure rich duration of around 3 years. I learned chords to songs, I came up with witty meaningful lyrics, and couldn't write a single decent song. I learned to play over 200 hundred songs I liked trying to understand what I was missing. Still failure.
On the night before the wedding of my good friends Kyle and Kristen, the wedding party of which I was a member decided to stay up til the wee hours of the morning drinking and partying. The bride's older brother mentioned he loved to "Jam" and suddenly the guitars came out. I asked him what song he wanted to play and was surprised to hear he didn't care, because he could play along with ANY song I wanted to play. In complete amazement I watched a person I believe to be a TiNe play solo after solo to songs he had never even heard.
When I asked him HOW he could do such a thing, luck was on my side. This math major was a student of and believer in the mathematics of music theory. He explained he was using something called the pentatonic scale, and that it allowed him to play what ever he FELT like playing. As stubborn as I am, it took him explaining it to me on 2 additional occasions before I realized the potential of the concept. When using this method of play a musician can unleash an unplanned, uncalculated, honest, emotional assault of raw emotion through sound!
As I became better at playing with this method I found that I no longer had to think as much about where my hands were moving. Playing became an automatic experience. Yet, I still struggled to write a song. Looking back, I still misunderstood communication, emotion, and essentially music.
While polishing my skills I began playing at a local open mic night having previously only played around a bonfire. A little over 1 year later, missing only 3 weekly sessions, I was running the gig and had a loyal following. I had accidentally created a few decent songs through trying MANY combinations of lyrics and chords and was allowing the emotions I experienced to come through in the songs I played (both my own and covers).
I still remember the moment the light switch was flipped and I understood "WHY" those songs sounded good. About 9 months ago, I was watching something "new" on Netflix called "Ted Talks". In particular, this talk was called "How Great Leaders Inspire Action"-Simon Sinek. The main theme was that human beings make decisions based on emotions. Though I would now postulate that this might be more (only?) true for Fe or Fi users, this information was the defining moment I realized I had been suppressing emotions. However, they were STILL influencing nearly EVERYTHING I DID.
Looking back now with an understanding also of cognitive functions, though I had spent my life deep in thought, it was to creatively justify emotional positions that came seemingly out of nowhere. I already knew answers because I knew how I felt about them. I was just using Si to understand if they were socially acceptable, Ne to creatively combine concepts assuring comprehensive analysis, and Ti to understand the logical value of the emotions (and suppress them if needed).
The concept that emotions drove decision-making led me to consider what it truly meant to communicate. Were words even important in communicating an emotional concept? I quickly ascertained that in order to communicate an emotion, I actually had to BELIEVE it. The next revelation was that honesty was the best policy and as an Fe user my honest emotions seem to come through with every ounce of my being. The third realization was that if I truly felt the emotion of what I was playing, so did everyone else. The most recent realization was discovering I "felt" emotion in colors, words, sounds, shapes and pretty much every sensory stimulus the world provided me as well as complex combinations of those features.
As I made these realizations I begin combining similar emotional concepts to find what I believe to be true art.
The concise communication of honest equivalently emotionally-valued sensory experiences.
My creative process has now become taking the time to perceive the multiple sensory inputs of the world with a broad perspective, understanding the associated emotional aspects of that input, and reproducing them in creative complex concise combinations. Additionally, conceptualizing an emotion and expressing that with the same fervor works too. Sadly, I think this is what most artists do without thinking.... I just couldn't apply it until I could quantify it.
If you want to see this in action, check out the second video on my "type me" thread. I spontaneously created music to represent the personality types of my family members. Note the heavy use of Si during the entire experience... I'm just free flowing already conceptualized emotions. This was before I knew about CT so I had my mom pegged as ENFP, My sister Mary as INFJ, my sister Jacque as ISTP, my brother James as ISFJ, my Dad as ISTJ, and my sister Erin as ESTJ.