The Motor is the first of the two coordinates of the Profile. It names what drives the artist to create; the Means, the constant in the realisation of the works. Situated upstream of the creative process, the Motor results from deeply held convictions: an artist keeps the same Motor throughout their life, even if, early in a career, they may appear to change it. This observation can be set alongside certain theories of cognitive psychology.
At the base of the Motor lies the need the artist seeks to satisfy first and foremost — one of three fundamental needs:
- Understanding: oriented above all by the need to understand, the artists of this family are mainly concerned with perception or with the “system” (society and its codes, politics);
- Doing: oriented above all by the need to shape, make, construct another “reality”, they alter or invent it mainly through narration or through play;
- Feeling: guided above all by the need to feel, they are mainly concerned with the body or with personal identity.
Each fundamental need is then subdivided in two on three successive occasions, leading to the twenty-four types of Motors, numbered 1 to 24. They are detailed in a diagram, whose columns run from the fundamental need to the finest type: an artist's Motor is the path that crosses them.
An artist receives one of these twenty-four types: this is their canonical Motor. It is established from the works and from whatever comes from the artist: titles, writings, statements. Refinement and singularity specify it beyond the canonical.
The Motor thus covers not only what drives the artist in their quest, but the way they pursue it — their angle of attack.
Motor and Mean together compose the artist's Profile: in a Profile written 21;15, the Motor is 21.