ThoughtSpurs

I've just watched the video below and suggest you do too. Put some time aside. It's an hour and 30 minutes. It will challenge you perceptions (I hope). And, who knows, you might be moved to ask questions. Watch it with an open mind. Open minds are better than closed ones. This is the most persuasive example of web 2.0 and Generation C at work that I have seen. My work promotes creativity and the growth of a creative economy for New Zealand. It is crucial to our future survival in the world. But we have a number of difficulties that have to be overcome. We are remote from the world. Some people think that's a good thing, but it's not. The tyranny of distance from markets and stimulation makes fungible goods, on which our export economy is dependant, impractical. It also means we will always have a net outflow of youth and talent who have the Dick Whittington Syndrome. We are small. The world hardly registers our presence. Though, because of our well developed media infr...

One of the worst films I have rented from the video store was a bio-pic of The One & Only Antoine de Saint-Exupery, the French poet, author and aviator. You may have read his book The Little Prince . He is somewhat enigmatic. The movie was somewhat unwatchable-as is often the case with biographic films. I came accross this thought provoking quote by St-Ex : Life creates order, but order does not create life. In the context of creativity and design in particular I am struck by two almost opposite aspects of the thought. On one hand there is the notion that creative types are disorderly, not just messy desk people , but in their relationships with people, time and, often money. They are, according to the cliche, always slightly eccentric and out of sync with the rational, orderly, world. The psychologist and scientist Mihaly Czikzentmihalyi debunks that idea in Creativity . many of those he studied, among them some of the leading creative minds of the 20th Century, are in fact very ...

Here's something I read in a magazine famously called Famous (a trashy tabloid style magazine admirable for avoiding any content that might make it seem in any way 'worthy'). I'll read anything if you make me wait. "The only rule is - don't be boring and dress cute wherever you go. LIFE IS TOO SHORT TO BLEND IN" (my capitals). Paris Hilton The one and only Paris Hilton - where did she come from. Was there a time before Paris? B.P? Was it the Pamela Era? Do you need to make a sex tape to become a celebrity? Who wants to be famous for being famous? Pretty much everybody, it would seem. But she has a point. Homogeneity is the curse of branding. Most products and services are bland. Their conception was the product of incidental thinking, rather than genuine insight, i.e. the purpose of the product was to make money. There is nothing wrong with making money. But there has rarely been an important product created with that purpose in mind. The most significant...

I am teaching a Design Research Methods class at Massey University this morning. I'm grappling with the concepts of the need for research - from the point of view of generating insight and testing the validity of creative outputs. I've seen innovative ideas slaughtered by poorly handled research. I've also seen random associations, masquerading as 'insights' come from focus groups and questionnaires where there is little evidence to support the result, other than a skewed interpretation of the feedback - I'll call it The Chicken Little Effect (acorn falls on head, leading to conclusion that the sky is falling). Design research is an area that is under-exploited in thins country. Too much design product, particularly graphic design, I can only describe as generic at best and homogenous at its median worst. I'll avoid the expression 'really bad' because it is too subjective. There is a lot of material from well regarded design firms which is simply an...

Ok, so it's not particulary meaningful. But it is funny. This is what happens with web 2.0 - unfettered. Ever wondered why most commercials are dreary or not very funny - even when they try? Quite simply it is because of the layers of process and approval. Kind of like cheese slices. The pack says it's cheese, but we know… don't we? Good cheese is a natural product, with very few processes from raw material to end result. Maybe that's why ad creatives get so excited when they smuggle something good, past the suits, past the clients, past the commercial director and TCAB.

Hey, my 100th post. Sunday morning. The rain is doing that depressing grey thing on the window. Stuck in the apartment with my daughter (who is watching a re-run of American Idol to expand her mind, though admittedly she is drawing with her gel pens on black paper and getting some extraordinary results-she has the gift of being able to make me look like Elmo ). We are going to go to the musuem after lunch. Perfect wet weather expedition. My son is playing golf in the rain. He is obsession personified. I don't understand what drives him. Found the clip below on YouTube (I'm hooked), Kevin Smith the creator of slacker film Clerks and famously fired by Tim Burton as script writer on Superman returns. Its a laconic, surreal take on Hollywood. Check it out. I'm worn out from cooking bacon and eggs and need to regenerate for the museum visit. There is something on at the art gallery too, Rembrandt etchings . Could be worth a look. Might be as dull as dishwater. Could always pop ...

I have a feeling. If you don't get this, you don't get it.

Are you inquisitive? I've been researching creativity for corporate workshops I have coming up (amongst other things). I keep coming back to the importance of inquiry in the process. Like creativity itself inquiry seems to be an attitude as much as a verb. Without curiosity all we have left is acceptance. If you simply accept things as they are, then nothing changes for better or worse. I am surprised at how little inquiry goes on in most people's lives. To question the status quo seems to be a disruptive exercise. Which, of course, it is. Disruption has acquired a negative connotation. When I was at high school I was considered disruptive because I asked too many questions. It was a quality that earned me not only many hours of detention and more than a few lashes of the cane but also the scorn of my fellow students. Why couldn't I simply accept the information delivered? It was in the text. It must surely be the absolute truth . Looking back at those 'truths' now...

Or should it be power from the people. Why devastate the environment to build a hydroelectric dam (Clyde Dam comes to mind - Damn the Dam) or burn coal to create electricity, strange idea that - kind of like feeding cows more than they produce in food? Or if the very thought of nuclear power sends shudders down your spine and not in a good way, then consider this: Domestic wind power. Here in New Zealand I think this would be an outstanding move forward. High levels of home ownership. Reasonably green. Reasonably affluent. Why not integrate a requirement to harvest a certain amount of energy from every dwelling? Why not integrate wind turbines into every large structure - don't tall inner city buildings create vortexes at their base? Never mind gigantic, ugly wind farms (no, not The Beehive) that no-one wants in their back yard (we are a nation of NIMBIES)... Why not indeed... From Trendwatching.com ... There are emerging trends, and there are trends, that, are so well-documented, ...