Idées vagabondes et odyssées du penseur : la dynamique de l’inspiration

Abstract

Traditional iconology has crystallized the figure of “someone inspired”, struck by a sudden and visible illumination, one hand hovering up on air, staring as if magnetised. Opposite to this motionless image, the dynamics of a quest, of wandering ideas will be emphasised. The very idea of inspiration shows evidence of notional drifts, of recoverings and reconstructions; yet even more, it allows us to revisit the metaphor of journey, – a journey of and through ideas. By underlining the slow notional shift which brings inspiration back down from sky to earth and from the extraordinary to the ordinary, the power of “stray” ideas will be argued. Tracking these ideas leads to trespassing limits and frontiers, to sketching the hazardous route of a risky thinking.

Keywords

• inspiration
• journey
• mania
• method
• context
• interpretation