On the hanging on …and the letting go 2018

In his paper The Reservoir, Terrence Rosenberg explores different features of scientific (Apollonian) and poetic (Dionysian) research methods and the critical role that together they can play in creative practice. The Apollonian method is characterised by linear, logical progression of ideas aimed at testing a predefined proposition grounded in existing knowledge. The Dionysian method favours divergence, the subjective, and the inferred. Rosenberg uses analogies of working on solid substrate and centripetal forces (movement towards the centre) to explain Apollonian processes. Analogies of open water (being immersed in and at the mercy of the environment) and centrifugal forces (the pulling away and release into the unknown) are used for the Dionysian. He also makes much of the role of the intuitive hunch – a slim, singular, instantaneous spark that ignites whole new worlds of possibility – for both.