The Creatoloblog

the Naked Poodle

Tue, 1 Dec 2009 00:30:40 +0100

At the Marcom09 convention/expo in Amsterdam last summer you could watch, or participate in the Naked Poodle. A mash up of a pressure cooker,brainstorm session, speed dating, simultaneous chess, a rap battle and a free fight gala with a touch of theatre (sic). Brought to you by Fabrique and Syndicate.

There a many similar types of ‘instant creativity sessions’ and maybe it’s worth comparing them. What I found is that it’s a great way to find a starting point for further development. Good thing about the Naked Poodle is the emphasis on conceptual development and not on execution and participation by the audience by interview etc.

I spoke to Marcel Kampman, one of the developers, who told me the sesions at Marcom where actually quite timid, compared to the ones they organized on Hong Kong previously. Maybe the greatest contribution to creativity it offers is what they did over there by choosing the wildest subjects: Improved Travel for the Impaired, Create a solution for rising water in Bangladesh. Go wild, go far, go beyond.

Read more about it at: http://www.thenakedpoodle.org/

We feel fine

Tue, 19 May 2009 23:46:23 +0200

An extrodinairy web based project is the beautiful We Feel Fine. It’s a webapplication built by Jonathan Harris that collects ‘feelings’, mostly from blogs on the web.

It’s a fascinating website. It’s designed with an amazing functionality. True bliss to browse through. You can also learn so many different feelings, they’ve got millions and they are all collected, indexed, ordered, illustrated, charted and animated.

And that’s why it’s useful for creative work. Any brief, any assigment or brand is connected with a feeling. We Feel Fine can be your jumpstarting point into an logical creative exploration. Now go and explore http://www.wefeelfine.org/

John Cleese

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 00:18:00 +0200

A man who doesn’t need an introduction. At least not as a brilliant comedian. But John Cleese has actually done more than silly walks. He also studies creativity and lectures and trains people on the subject.

To sum up his view, you can learn to be creative (yeah!!). And it’s very important to give yourself space and time for the creative process. It pays off to sleep on ideas.

Anyway, he spoke at the Creativity World Forum in Belgium last year and here’s a nice little summary.

Your Creative Genius

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 00:40:25 +0200

An entertaining TED talk. Elizabeth Gilbert speaks about the origins of creative work. The big difference between the way we see creative talent and process in modern times and before. In the modern times the artist is the genius who has done it all himself. And/or fails tremendously when he doesn’t succeed. Often leading to depression, drugs, alcohol or suicide. Now before the ‘rebirth’ man wasn’t the centre of attention. And apparently neither was he in the creative process. There was genius allright, but it was living in the walls of your studio, coming out to help you brainstorm whenever it felt like it.

Now, at first, this doesn’t sound very logical in a scientific way. But on the other hand, if you want to believe it, it would actually make sense and, as far as creatology goes, I can’t proof it’s not true.

And maybe..., this could work because it will at least take the pressure of having to be the best off and without that you often come to better more original ideas. See? I made it logical! See for yourself and start tapping that brick.

Brainstorming is Bollocks

Fri, 3 Apr 2009 12:04:54 +0200

In Contagious,issue 16 I found a interesting article written by Dr Amanda Imber from Inventium, Australia, about the effectiveness of brainstorming. Don’t let the title scare you off, it may sound a bit harsh but it’s not meant as the end of brainstorming, you may keep the beanbags and fussball-table.

Basically the mesage is that (also) in brainstorming creative ideas develops better in smaller steps or situations. Dr. Imber does have some arguments against brainstorming that are hard to tackle, even if you have ‘brainstorm rules’. Body language, for instance, kills any ‘there are no bad ideas-rule’. More important, the best ideas take gradually shape, and mostly when your not thinking about them, in my case often on the toilet. Anyway it’s an interesting article. You can download it from here.