Creative Thinking
Transforming yourself into a higher level creative being
1. One one side of one index card write a description of who you are.
2. Once finished, place the card face down on your desk.
Let's ask some questions to begin with:
Do you feel you're a creative person?
How do you exhibit creativity to others?
Where does your energy and impulse for creativity come from? Is it internal or external?
Is creativity something people are just born with.
What are some reasons for the use of creativity?
What are some possible down-sides to creativity?
Defining Creativity
Creativity (Perkins, 1988):
a. Creativity: "a creative result is a result both original and appropriate."
b. Creative Person: "a creative person--a person with creativity is a person who fairly routinely produces creative results."
Creative Process (Torrance 1988):
"I tried to define creative thinking as a process of (1) sensing difficulties, problems, gaps in information, missing elements, something askew; (2) making guesses and formulating hypotheses about these deficiencies; (3) evaluating and testing these guesses and hypotheses; (4) possibly revising and retesting them; and finally (5) communicating the results."
a. Creativity: "a creative result is a result both original and appropriate."
b. Creative Person: "a creative person--a person with creativity is a person who fairly routinely produces creative results."
Creative Process (Torrance 1988):
"I tried to define creative thinking as a process of (1) sensing difficulties, problems, gaps in information, missing elements, something askew; (2) making guesses and formulating hypotheses about these deficiencies; (3) evaluating and testing these guesses and hypotheses; (4) possibly revising and retesting them; and finally (5) communicating the results."
Creativity is a Skill
"Creativity is the skill of bringing about something new and valuable." -Young (1985)
"Creative people do more than break away from old patterns. They do more than find alternatives. They diverge from familiar patterns, but then they converge on new solutions. They break laws to remake them. They make hard decisions about what to include and what to eliminate. Creative people innovate. They aim toward newness."
"Creativity is the skill of bringing about something new and valuable." -Young (1985)
"Creative people do more than break away from old patterns. They do more than find alternatives. They diverge from familiar patterns, but then they converge on new solutions. They break laws to remake them. They make hard decisions about what to include and what to eliminate. Creative people innovate. They aim toward newness."
let's get ready to create...
Brainstorming
- Criticism is ruled out (deferred judgement)
- Freewheeling is welcomed (the wilder the better)
- Quantity is wanted (longer lists increase the possibility of solution)
- Combination and improvement are sought (hitch-hiking on ideas)
Idea Squelchers:
|
"We've never done it before."
"It won't work." "Too modern" or "Too old fashioned." "It's not in the budget." You've gotta be kidding." "What bubble head thought that up?" "Let's wait and see." |
"That's not our job."
"It's not in the curriculum." "It's too late." "Don't rock the boat." "That's not our department." "I'll bet some professor suggested that." |
Assignment: fanciful contraptions
After discussing the rules of brainstorming, the class will set about to imagine a series of contraptions and their functions .
In this exercise, we push the methods of creativity upon a pile of junk.
In the given amount of time, students are encouraged to use the materials before them and imagine new machines with unexpected properties. Since the materials in front of you are abstract or may have some kind of significance, you can use those vagaries or specifics to trigger ideas. your machines don't have to actually function, but you do have to demonstrate how they would function and what they would accomplish.
Scale is flexible. Your model may or may not be actual size.
You can reuse some parts from machine to machine if necessary.
As with all brainstorming exercises, don't censor yourself.
Go for quantity over quality in the initial phase.
In this exercise, we push the methods of creativity upon a pile of junk.
In the given amount of time, students are encouraged to use the materials before them and imagine new machines with unexpected properties. Since the materials in front of you are abstract or may have some kind of significance, you can use those vagaries or specifics to trigger ideas. your machines don't have to actually function, but you do have to demonstrate how they would function and what they would accomplish.
Scale is flexible. Your model may or may not be actual size.
You can reuse some parts from machine to machine if necessary.
As with all brainstorming exercises, don't censor yourself.
Go for quantity over quality in the initial phase.
Catalog of Fanciful Contraptions
- After the brainstorming session, decide on two or three of the ideas to pursue and enhance. Now is a time when you could start combining ideas and throwing out things that didn't work in favor of positive outcomes
- Turn those sketches into something more detailed and considered.
- You can make them as fanciful or as practical as you like.
- They can solve everyday problems or problems no one knew they had.
- Find some technologies to help you overcome artistic limitations.
- You can also collaborate with a partner or two for ideas on how to create the images or artifacts that you need.
- On your class portfolio site, create a new page for this project and present your ideas there.
- Be sure to show all of your work and the phases of creativity it took to get to the final realization.
- Label everything with titles and descriptions.
Finally... take that index card that we started with and on the blank side, describe yourself again and see if you've changed your perception of yourself after today's class.
You're all receiving a blank notebook today as a gift and invitation to embark on a path of journaling your new creative self. On the first page of the book transcribe the first side of the index card and then the second side. Make sure you put a date on every page. Start drawing, brainstorming, reflecting, observing, saving and charting out your new creative path. Check out the video below for encouragement on this process.
