When I do the dishes and vacuum, I‘m inspired. Until I listen to sophisticated Kulturradio. Doubt always comes up when my head gets involved in the process of making. Working and reflecting are different processes. For a brief moment, I need the naive flight of fancy in which my ideas are simply genius before I realize that someone else had them before me. Being in this state, free of comparison, is my happy place of creation. (Great!) My so-called creative mojo is something very precious to nurture and preserve. – Helena Kühnemann 

To be vulnerable with the question about what inspires me is tricky. Partly because of the vulnerability that is so close to how I experience inspiration, and partly because of the many ways of how and when inspiration transpires. But as I have a moment of fleeting clarity I will share the following: For me, doubt and inspiration can be just as fleeting as each other while they twist and twirl like a snake searching for the hottest spot in the sun. In moments throughout the day, inspiration is closer to the surface. Sometimes I just have to let doubt move over me, or allow myself to gently move through it while I make in my studio. – Reading, expressions of love, and small, unexpected adventures are crucial to me. All inspire me on a deep level while simultaneously reminding me that I’m part of a larger mycelium that I’m both sustained by and sustaining. – Jos Nyreen 

As an intense feeling, inspiration is triggered by the work of others. Seeing energies and dedication at work and how from that something very unique and compelling emerges. But if this type of inspiration resolves into my work… difficult to say. Maybe it’s not so much connected with specific work but functions more like a friend helping you go on in general with your own creative work. It’s hard to say because I believe a lot of inspiring experiences happen without us noticing them; they happen all the time, are stored in our bodies, and then resurface. I start a work with an inspiring idea that mostly turns out to be too vague and then things get messy. Sometimes it takes a lot of effort because you have to find a frame, your frame, for the initial inspiration to make sense (again) and to connect with other thoughts. I do not overcome doubt, I rather forget about it. It’s like you are diving into a strange substance while the rest of the world keeps moving in the normal air. In this substance you can sometimes move superfast back and forth from one element to the other trying to understand how they could fit together or where they lead (maybe you have to overcome them, they are only passages), sometimes you move in slow motion circling around the same thing, trying to find the right expression for it. To doubt you need detachment and in this strange substance, you don’t have it, neither from the things you are doing nor from yourself. It’s a bit like being in love. – Francesca Raimondi 

It‘s more likely to be words that trigger an idea rather than images. Whether trivial or serious, the surprise is to find an equivocal concept that can be twisted and inverted. This is often related to another person who has given form to their thoughts, in writing or speech, accidental or intentional. So, in moments when I‘m in doubt or stuck, I set out to have a conversation with someone or something. – Karolin Meunier 

Boredom is a big thing for me. The best counter strategy is to leave my discipline and become a real amateur, to become a child and then sink into the expertise of others, sometimes by asking very banal questions. YouTube can have a similar effect, as can Wikipedia. Sometimes I get very excited if I experience a certain spatial situation that never occurred to me before. Anything that is deviant or absurd in an unexpected way has great potential to be inspiring. Today, everything seems to be planned so precisely within Western European cities. They are trying to get rid of their freaks. So being able to deal with uncertain conditions is what motivates me. The good news is: things never turn out the way you think they will. – Meghan Rolvien 

Lisa Röing Baer (*1994, Trelleborg, Sweden) studied under Christopher Williams at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. She works mainly with analog photography creating a growing archive of negatives which through experimentation and combination with other media become finished works. Röing Baer lives and works in Berlin. Her work has been shown at Ebertplatz in Cologne and at Prince11 and cashmere radio in Berlin.

Born in Toronto, Canada, Moyra Davey’s (*1958) early images featured friends and family, followed by an interest in the detritus of daily life, such as whiskey bottles and stacks of vinyl records. One of her early series, Copperheads (1990), featured enlarged close-ups of worn one-cent coins, reflecting the impact of human agency on everyday objects. Exploring similar themes, her well-known folded prints, initiated in 2009, consist of photographs that were taped together and mailed to galleries and friends, sometimes with text added. The returned photographs — creased and with bits of tape still visible — were then unfolded by Davey and assembled into grids. Davey has had solo exhibitions across North America and Europe, and her work can be found in numerous major public and private collections. She has also produced numerous artist’s books and publications. Moyra Davey lives and works in New York City.

Anna R. Winder (*1995, Aarhus, Denmark) is an artist, writer, and bookseller. She is part of the b_books collective, which runs a bookshop and a publishing house in Berlin, co-founder of Fat Vampire Press, and co-editor of wormhole newspaper. She lives and works in Berlin. Her work has been included in ‘Taking my Thoughts for a Walk’ at Dortmunder Kunstverein, ‘Out here in the wild oats amid the alien corn’ at Lantzsch’er Skulpturen, and ‘Scrambled Ontologies: A Fabulation’ at Sies + Höke.