Where do ideas come from? It’s a topic that fascinates me. I’ve been exploring the origins of my latest work, linking it back to people that have contributed to it directly or indirectly.

It’s a pretty hard thing to do.

For example: the work is about a series of Japanese literature books. I didn’t set out to read those book on some random morning. First, I had to become a reader. I’m quite a late reader and I think I can to point Deception Point by Dan Brown as the book that got me into reading (though I had to learn some things before that, like learning to read at all). After that, I read quite a few books before taking on my first Japanese literature book.

For books to be there at all, there are tons of people involved in the production process. You can go back a long way.

It goes the same way for other things that influenced the work. Like learning a programming language at some point in my life and using that skill creatively later in a piece of work. For some languages, a helpful colleague pushed me to start using it. And, as with books, there were (and still are) tons of people involved that set up and maintain a programming language.

When I draft idea maps like this, I enjoy working with pen and paper. The directness of using a pen forces me accept mistakes. Things don’t all have to be perfect. I make iterations based on a first draft, play around a bit to make a second, and continue with a third.

I don’t aim to make a complete map for an idea, though I do think it is an interesting and daunting prospect.

It does make me more grateful for the idea having appeared in the first place.

I never picked up that book by Dan Brown to create a series of data art illustrations based on Haruki Murakami’s stories, but you could say I did.