2020 is proving to be a layered challenge, one that requires us to respond on a global scale.  

This unexpected “intermission,” this sudden seclusion from reality (and all of its many forms and interpretations) should, at the very least, give us a bit of peace and time for introspection. With the world as we know coming to a halt, we can ponder many of life’s important questions; we can better understand ourselves as individuals, but also dissect our role in a much bigger ensemble: society.

This year we want to focus on a word that is often overused and undervalued — process. 

We all inhabit the same world, and yet we all function in a slightly different way and, therefore, have a slightly different process. Our lives are the sum of incidents that occur either by chance or by design. Many of these moments are out of our control and yet they define us all the same.

Some of these influences are obvious and easy to understand. Others, however, go as deep as the marrow of the bone and are ever-elusive, in no small part because of their subconscious nature. 

The hyper-connected, “always-on” world of the 21st century is a world defined by deafening noise. A cacophony of opinion and reaction, a constant regurgitation of information that affects us in ways we cannot even imagine. Everything around us is like a small process, an occurrence that has a life of its own, and the way we react to it (consciously or subconsciously) affects us as well.

We can define the creative process as the total sum of our experiences and teachings. It’s what happens between a blank sheet of paper and the “aha” moment; it is a game, an exploration of the mind and soul that knows no bounds, an intellectual and emotional experience that can have a profound effect on us as individuals and, at best, the world. 

When does a process start? Perhaps more importantly, when does it end? Defining our “process” feels like an impossible endeavor, and perhaps with good reason. It feels like an unassailable element of creation, an integral component that can never be fully comprehended or conquered.  

It is as if we lack the tools to accurately define it, which doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. After all, there’s so much we can gain from such an exploration of the unknown.

The creative process taps into our psyche and harnesses whatever is present, whatever we accumulated throughout life — an intangible capital that we invest in each new challenge, exploration, and project. 

Ever since the inception of the PDP Conference, our goal has been to educate young creatives free of charge. Still, we know that education goes far beyond displaying embellished examples or creative works that have been tailored to appeal to the widest possible audience. We learn much more from defeat than we do from triumph, and yet both outcomes deserve an equal amount of attention and analysis.

The creative process is often unpredictable. It can lead us in many unexpected directions and the end result isn’t always what we anticipate. We want to show you the mistakes, the glorious failures and spectacular accomplishments that are an unavoidable part of an artist’s life. We want to show you the road from inception to realization, and the many nuanced complications that happen along the way.

We’d like to invite our lecturers, mentors, and participants to analyze their work and the process that brought their art into existence.