Slowing things down and immersing oneself

CREA conference is a fine ‘creativity’ conference to attend; Excellent learning, wonderful people and the most beautiful setting.  Its been running now for 8 years and ive been fortunate enough to have attended 5 of those conferences, as both participant and leader.  The trouble is that after a number of these, it can get a little difficult to find something really different.  There is no doubt that many very smart people are evolving and developing the field, but often the content is very much a variation on a theme; so what to do?

CREA is an international conference – i think im right in saying there were people there from 20 countries this year (not bad considering there were only about 250 people in total).  Primarily the programmes and expo presentations are delivered in Italian, French and English, sometimes bilingual, sometimes exclusively in one language….. and theres the problem, if you dont speak a particular language you can feel excluded from that particular programme or presentation [i should point out here that it is very unlikely at CREA that anyone other than yourself is making you feel excluded]  Not only is this a pity because you miss out on the cultural mixing, but you potentially are missing out on some leading thinkers in the field….. just because you dont speak their language.

It occurred to me that understanding a language is simply a barrier Ive put up between my comfort zone and an exciting new world, and so I signed up for a French speaking programme “L’Art d’inventer des idees” led by Guy Aznar and Stephane Ely – Despite the fact that the only french I know is limited to that of a bar and the contents of my pencil case.  The programme was all about slowing the process of brainstorming down, and liberating the imagination to evolve new ideas – a sort of “proactive serendipity” – As important for me though was how this technique could help a group progress into (and back from) the ‘imagination wilderness’ together – as one thinking machine.  I liked the programme very much…. even though i understood very little of what everyone was saying.

So here is the interesting thing….. how come i could understand about what they were talking about, yet not understand what they were saying?  I think first and foremost, I was interested in the subject, and that held my interest for 3 days (I suspect my mind might have wandered somewhat if the conference had been about carpet tiles).  But another important aspect of all this was the fact that I was under no pressure (self inflicted or otherwise); the presenters and delegates welcomed me warmly and I simply let go of any ‘need’ and immersed myself in the rich atmosphere of exotic sounds, expressive body language, and passionate dialogs.  And somehow everything seeped in through my eyes ears and skin.  It was a fabulous experience in which I did something new, saw another leading expert in action, and learnt a bit more french

Creative thinking skills for children

Ive just come back from CREA conference in Italy where I presented an expo on the subject of ‘creative thinking skills for children’ – or rather ‘introducing creative thinking skills to your school’ (which on reflection is quite a different challenge) Whatever you call it, I recounted the story of my own experience with Know Innovation as we, by accident, stumbled on this opportunity to help kids in one particular school district develop their awareness and thinking skills.

The presentation went down rather well considering that i had little ‘expert’ knowledge to share, merely my short experience.  You can see my presentation slides at http://creativethinkingforchildren.ning.com

Ive got my Turquoise star certificate

Ive just had an email from ebay. It says
Congratulations! Youve got a turquoise star on ebay.
Congratulations! You’ve got 100 Positive Feedback.
Only the best eBayers such as yourself reach the feedback century!” – and it went on to encourage me to download my certificate of achievement
Ive been using ebay for years now, so to only have 100 feedbacks is no big deal, and I was just about to delete the email when I suddenly wondered whether there might actually be something interesting in this.
I wonder if this is something I should actually be proud of? and moreover, something I could use as perhaps a character reference? I wonder, for example if i should include this certificate in my CV – It might say more about general approach to working with other people than my school exam results!

And some on the fly drawings too

Listening and interpreting conversations about energy management. Here are some of the things I heard

Animating on the fly

Ive been running a 5 day event for 40 academics and industrial partners to pitch ideas for research funding – in the domain of “Used Centered Design for Energy Efficiency in Buildings” – All fascinating stuff.
As part of the service I have been experimenting with the idea of providing a “visualisation service”, so armed with my Wacom Cintiq and Toon Boom, Ive been creating drawings and short animations to help people communicate their ideas to each other. The challenge for me was to listen, understand, interpret and create the animations and drawings in a very short space of time (with the pressure of presentation deadlines) – typically a couple of hours.
This has been a great learning experience for me……
1. People do need )and appreciate this sort of visualisation service.
2. It is possible to get a visual communication of a new idea done in a very short space of time.
3. Learn to know when a job is “good enough”
Heres an example

Yesterdays World

Look what ive just bought for £4.70 off ebay.

Its a 1970’s bottle cutter (or as they call it a “bottle chopper” – which sounds a little less sophisticated I think).  I need to cut the end off some bottles for a project I’m working on (more of that another time) and I wasnt having much luck with some of the techniques I was trying – check out this site for some great, if not dangerous, bottle cutting techniques – http://mikegigi.com/bottle.htm#HOTWIRE.   And so I did a search for for a bottle cutting tool that I seemed to remember from my Blue Peter watching days.  They aren’t very common on ebay, but they do come up now and, then and after some aggressive 5 pence biddings with another bidder – I got it! And it works really well.

Now, look closely at the device…… its a few bits of 1/2″ x 1/8″ aluminum, a bunch of screws, wingnuts and washers, and a glaziers glass cutting tool.  To be honest it looks a bit like a schoolboy GCSE project…. But heres the interesting thing; the one page instruction leaflet proudly states “As seen on BBC television’s Tomorrows World”.  ‘Tomorrows World”!!??  Tomorows World was THE programme to watch for emerging science. Imagine; Is this suggesting that in the 70’s people thought that wing-nuts and bent aluminium bar was a vision of the future!

But perhaps I’m missing the point here.  Perhaps the point was not that the tool was of interest, but the fact that it could facilitate the RE-USE of waste products.  Perhaps Tomorrows World had been way ahead of it time and spotted that in the future we would be consumed by the desperate need to reuse and recycle in order to protect our environment and natural resources.

And so, now with the aid of my ‘precision tool’ from Yesterdays World, I shall from here on do my bit for the environment by making all my friends and family some lovely tumblers, candle-stick holders, vases and ashtrays

3 ideas

ooh 3 ideas that have come into my head and are fighting for space with the rest of them.  if I acknowledge them here they may give me some breathing space while I prioritise what to do first

1.  A mobile white-board for conference spaces

2.  An interactive LED light sculpture

3.  A travel Ukulele

So much to do, so little time to do it

Plastic Electronics

Been reading about “Plastic Electronics” – Wow we are in for some treats soon. Plastic Electronics has the potential to change much of the way we live….. But I wonder if ALL electronics should be plastic? I put this little animation together with Toon Boom Animate