http://changethis.com/manifesto/49.06.14Ways/pdf/49.06.14Ways.pdf
This is a link to an article written by Mitch Ditkoff is President of Idea champions, a consulting and training company specializing in creative thinking, innovation, leadership, and team development. Within this article he outlines what he calls “a quick hitting tutorial of what you can do to conjure up brilliant ideas.” He does this by first outlining different approaches to creativity, which he calls schools of thought about the topic of creativity, and then listing fourteen ways to become more creative. The two schools of thought her refers to are, first, “one that ascribes to ideas that inspire individuals purposeful mental processes to conjure up new ideas.” The second, he describes as, “ascribing the appearance of ideas to a transcendent force or muse.” Through these approaches he is trying to get the bottom of where ideas come from. He gives both of these approaches equal importance and claims that they are both used by each of us at different times, depending on out mood or circumstances. The fourteen suggestions given by Ditkoff all revolve around the idea of thinking outside the box and not allowing yourself to suppress your imagination. He encourages the reader to avoid conformance and to stand by and learn from their mistakes. I found Ditkoff’s suggestions to be very useful. I especially enjoyed his suggestions to follow your fascination, listen to your subconscious, and to hang out with diverse people.
I enjoyed Ditkoff’s words on following your fascination because I am a firm believer in doing what makes you happy. And what better way to gain happiness than allowing yourself to follow a fascination that is calling you to do great things. He tells us to allow our fascinations to flow inside of us and follow the “calling” to do what we are so taken with. If I were to follow my fascinations, I would be allowing myself to open up to a whole new world of possibilities. As I allow myself to become more fascinated with whatever is calling me I will not limit myself to the fascinations of others or of society and I can open myself up to many more ideas to be found within my own interests.
The next suggestion that caught my attention is his advice to listen to your subconscious. This is the idea of taking a step back from a project and allow yourself to think freely and to follow your instincts instead of carefully planning and manipulating every more your make. I can totally relate to this idea because I myself tend to consciously overwhelm myself that I forget to allow my creative juices to flow naturally and without so much thought. Just recently when working on making a musical song in garage band when I became was so overwhelmed with my conscious efforts to make the song perfect that I ended up losing my initial intentions of the project. If I were to apply this suggestion to my work habits, I would find that by taking a step back and not being so controlling of my creative ideas, I will be able to accept ideas more naturally and apply them in a positive and creative way.
The third suggestion I found most helpful is to hang out with diverse people. It is in this section that he suggests that we not limit ourselves to just one type or group of people. He encourages us to break away from people that are like us or that we feel a strong attachment to, every once in a while, in order to experience new ideas and gain new insight from a place you would otherwise not seen. I find this to be very good advice because I believe, especially being in a college setting, that it is from my peers that I learn the most. People, especially those who come from different backgrounds and areas from you can often bring in an entire new entity that you had never seen before. As I continue working toward my career in media, I plan on getting to know as many different people as possible and learn from them as well as help them learn from me. It is a form of networking and learning that holds not price tag.
Response to # 11 exercise:
What is the topic of your next group brainstorm? Who will you invite? Who will facilitate? When?
Going off the suggestion to hang out with diverse people, I believe that it has been a positive aspect of MDIA 203 that we are required to work with a different partner on each project. So far I have gotten to work with two awesome new people that I got to know a little bit about and have really enjoyed their company. It is in preparation for our next project, stop motion, that I will have the next chance to brainstorm with a new partner, Josh. The topic we will be brainstorming is a stop motion plot involving an antagonist, protagonist, and a conflict between the two. Josh and I will be the only two brainstorming about the project, and I expect it to be a joint effort. We will be working on the project in the next two weeks and I am looking forward to meeting yet another person as well as sharing ideas and working together to allow our creativity to sore.
When I think of the kind of creative person that inspires me, I first tend to think of what kind creative works I enjoy. My first instinct is to think of unique, edgy, and almost rebellious works such as graffiti or wall painting. When I create my own works I usually try to take different inspirations and put my own mix on them. This is a concept that many people my not see as creative but yet is widely accepted in the under ground world of graffiti and wall painting. The art of Graffiti has become less and less a symbol of vandalism and more and more an expression of social and political messages.
One artist I would like to focus on is the infamous graffiti artist known as Banksy. Banksy is a British street artist who’s identity has remained anonymous throughout his career. He is known for his controversial and subjective graffiti art that can now be found all over Europe, and can be seen in the form of imitation all over the world. In the video above Bansky gives a rare interview that explains his love for graffiti and why be believes it is such a positive art form. It is amazing how, with just a spray paint bottle and a stencil an artist can draw so much attention to such prominent political and social issues that otherwise would have been swept under the rug (which is a concept that Banksy does in fact illustrate in his work shown below).
Through his graffiti, Banksy is able to create didactic messages for his audience. He takes an art form that had previously been seen as negative expression of art, and makes it into an informative art form. This was a brilliant new way to speak to an entire new dynamic of people. Almost every piece of work that Banksy has done is meant to give off a moral message and inform the audience of social and political issues. By taking this new approach to street art Bansky is able to appeal to an audience that has not yet been touched by political activists. He has the ability to get the attention of the underground, rebellious, grunge crowd that is usually associated with street art, as well as the masses.
Since Banksy’s work is so didactic, it lends itself to be very subjective. When you see a Bansky work you do not just see in an objective manner; you see a deeper message that reflects his feelings on a certain issue, or that causes you to open your eyes to societal issues. In the piece below containing an image of the children dancing around the mushroom cloud, you can see that Bansky is not just making is art for the simple fact that he is a good artist, he is using his art as a medium for him to get peoples attention to the realities of the world. He is speaking out against the use and procession of nuclear weapons and is doing it in a way that people are going to notice and remember. It is inspiring to see someone use their creative ability for the sake of the greater good and to use it in away that speaks to people in a way that allows them to be subjective and form their own opinions or beliefs.
In the same way that Banksy is presenting his work in a subjective manner, he is also causing his audience, whether they like it or not to take a conscious look at the world around them and at the same time subconsciously take in the message that he is portraying. This is not an easy task but it is one that Banksy admirably does remarkably well. When someone looks at Banksy’s work, since it is so controversial and speaks such volumes, they are going to consciously evaluate their feelings on not only the art, but the message as well. It almost forces them to consciously decide how they feel about what they are seeing and cause many to question their involvement or opinion on the subject. This is also true for a lot of other artists and other art forms but what makes Banksy’s work stand out above all the rest is its affect on the viewer’s subconscious. What makes his work so strong is that it, whether the audience likes it or not, gets into your subconscious and ties itself to the association of whatever characters are in the photo. The picture (that can be seen in the slide show below) of the guard being patted down by the little girl has caused me to question who is really to be trusted with our safety and who is really running our political system. This photo may not give the same message to everyone especially those who find this work to be controversial, but it still causes them to make these decisions and think about them even after seeing the painting.
