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Todays world is changing and advancing rapidly. We are now part of a highly connected society where people have connections all over the world and are nearly always accessible. They also have easy access to information on nearly any topic the require. Progress is made through creative thinking and new ideas and those new ideas often arise through the sharing of existing ideas with others. Given this, are we at a point where communication is of greater value than intellect? Is the phrase "It's not what you know but who you know." more relevant than ever before?
This week is a group journey. Let's see where our creative thinking takes us.
Game: There are two words below. These are the beginning of the journey. When you add a comment, pick a word that is somewhere in between the words suggested (this can be on any basis you like) in the two previous comments. Also explain why you picked that word. The two words listed below are to be used to get this started.
For this challenge you need a partner so grab a friend and get ready.
You are about to have a debate however you are limited only to the words Yes and No. One of you may only say yes and the other no. The idea is that you have to convince the other of your point of view. As you only have one word you can use, think of other ways you can get your message across. You will have to use expression, emotion and hand gestures.
They say that every new idea is essentially just the mixing of existing ideas, objects and experiences. If this is the case then are we increasing our capability to be creative as a society considering we are constantly making new discoveries and inventing new things?
If this is in fact the case then is our ability to be creative going to accelerate the more we create? Especially when this creativity is directed towards communication and our ability to share these ideas and experiences increases?
This week we're fighting our habits.
Game: There are 3 words below. Pick two of them and explain why they are in fact opposites of each other.
The aim of this challenge is to create a piece of art that challenges the mind in visually pleasing ways. It is believed that we have preferences in how our minds see things. Gestalt theories of perception try to understand some of these. You can find out more about these here. V. S. Ramachandran has attempted to define a set of rules or laws that art follows. You can read more here but a summary is below.
Let's pretend we are in the not too distant future. Thanks to private enterprise getting into the space game technology has progressed quickly. We are months away from launching the first humans on a voyage to Mars. There is a catch however. This is a one way trip. Technology and infrastructure restrictions mean that while the colony will survive and be self sustaining they will not be able to return to Earth.
You are in a position where you can be one of the 10 people on this trip. Would you embark on the adventure of a lifetime, to be one of the first people to set foot on another planet, if it meant you would have to leave Earth behind for the rest of your life?
This week we are building.
Game: There are five words below. What you have to do is form a chain by linking them. You can link them in any order you like. A link between two words is a relationship between them.
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nuts
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fleet
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chimpanzee
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guarantee
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capsicum
Your creativity challenge for this week is to invent a sign language. Create a set of 20 words or concepts that you think are the most crucial for a language and assign a gesture to each of them. Grab a friend and teach them the 20 gestures. Now try and have a conversation using only your sign language. Whenever you need to use a new word you need to make it up and work out how to communicate the new gesture.
It is very easy to follow the crowd. What if the crowd is wrong? You feel there must be a better way to do things but it's hard to convince anyone else. Habits tend to persist and great ideas can take a while before they take off.
How can you tell when you've found an opportunity? How do you know when you have a great idea? How do you convince others that it is great and they should jump on board?
This week we are playing with spacial creativity. There are four words listed below. Pick one of them as the target. Now, using the letters from the other three (you don't have to use all the letters) come up with as many words as possible that relate to the target word. When you get stuck pick another word as the target and go again.
Have you ever thought about how you see and store information in your mind? Research suggests that we have developed certain strategies to do this. These strategies have also influenced other areas such as our language. The way we refer to first, second and third is different to every other number which ends in a th, eg fourth, seventh, ninth. One, two and three are important items to us and many believe it is because we can visualise those numbers easily but it gets harder after that.
Synesthesia is a neurological condition which alters the way we perceive information. You start seeing numbers with a strong association to colours and shapes. Neurologist V.S. Ramachandran has an informative talk on the subject and ends with a demonstration on how we all have synesthesia to a certain degree. You can also find a simple test here. Higher than normal synesthesia has been linked to savants and highly creative people. What is amazing is that researchers believe they are finding ways to train us to be more synesthetic. What this potentially means is that we may all someday be able to develop superhuman mental capabilities.
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Creativity needs to play a central role in the future of our society. We face many large problems and need brilliant new ideas if we are to tackle them effectively. Many believe it is the task of others to do this though. Scientists and other people of general higher intelligence. The reality is however that we can all play a part and promoting creativity is a powerful way that individuals can make a difference. There are organisations such as www.creativityaustralia.org.au and de Bono Institute that have taken up this challenge.
What are effective ways that we can increase awareness of and promote creativity?
Everything has values associated with it. For instance a fancy watch has the value of being expensive. We often only see the most obvious values though and miss many others. It is in the others that opportunities can lie. There are four words below. How many values can you identify for which one of them stands out from the rest? You will probably need to be creative.
Art is great. Creating it is even better. It is relaxing, fun and stimulates creativity.
This week we are going to make some original origami, an abstract piece of art using just a sheet of paper. I want you to take a piece of paper then make four folds in it. That is all you are allowed to do in terms of modifying the piece of paper. Think outside the box. Is your art going to be 2d or 3d? Is it going to sit by itself or be incorporated into something else? Here are some ideas to ponder:
Creativity is an important skill. Yet it is something that is somewhat lacking in our current education systems. Sir Ken Robinson presents some rather strong opinions on the subject. Edward de Bono has also been involved in research suggesting that teaching thinking skills as a separate subject will improve performance in every other subject between 30 and 100%. Given evidence such as this, why are we not putting a greater emphasis on creative thinking in schools?
A plain old glass of water. Or is it. Often you can find the extraordinary in the ordinary, if you dare to look.
There are 4 words listed below, use each of them in a sentence describing a glass of water.
Throughout the ages we have reveled in the idea of being able to predict the future. To what extent however are we influencing the the future by doing so? For example, if I am an influential economist and I predict that houses in a certain area will be very expensive in a few years then many people will want to buy there to benefit from this. As a result the price of houses there will increase along with demand. As demand is high people will want to live there as it is seen as a desirable and prestigious location. In predicting the future I have inadvertantly created it. Similarly, a sci-fi author will come up with ideas for technology. People will later on try to come up with ways to create that technology and may succeed.
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It's interesting how different languages have words for which there is no equivalent in other languages. This is referred to as untranslatability. You can describe the word but there is no direct word mapping between the languages. For example the French word electromenager in English would be home electric appliance. Another example is the Inuit that have many words for snow, eg clim for snow sparkling with flashlight or headlight.
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