CJ's Creativity Exploration

Log 11, 12, 13

Apparently my last 3 posts have had some difficulty posting.

Reading: 1.5 hours
Exercise/Creativity: 4 hours (30 minutes exercise, at least 30 minutes of creativity a day)
Book Exercises: 2 hours

The chapter all about the evaluate brain set was very helpful for me. When it comes to picking and choosing my favorites in anything, it takes me way too long. I think I just appreciate way too many things. The first exercise was pretty interesting, what books would you bring on a desert island if you were trapped there? I’m not an avid reader so I did this with a few other things that I could relate too better such as music albums. 10 albums that I absolutely need would have to be: 

Joie De Vivre: The North End and Summer Months
The Ergs!: dorkrockcorkrod
Tigers Jaw: Self-titled
Brand New: Deja Entendu
Manchester Orchestra: I’m Like A Virgin Losing a Child
The Felix Culpa: Sever Your Roots
Mineral: EndSerenading
The Ground Is Lava: Freeze Tag
The Tallest Man On Earth: Shallow Graves

I think I would be content with these 10 albums on a desert island. The next exercise to put them in order from best to worst was difficult for me. I think subconsciously i sort of did put these close to the order would put them in.

The Tharp reading was reassuring. It made me feel better about my creativity know about ruts and grooves. You don’t always get to see everyone’s creative process but instead just a final product. It always looks like it is way too easy but I know that with my creative process I always find that rut for at least a little bit. Tharp made me feel better about my ruts. My favorite exercise that she mentions is the “Build a Bridge.” Referring to building a bridge to the next day by stopping your creative process so you are able to recharge but still have that spark to continue the next day. I’ve actually found this helpful in my design projects. Once it gets to 2 in the morning, I will stop where I am in an idea and be able to pick it up expand even further the next day.

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Reading: 1.5 hours
Listener: 1 hour
Exercise/Creativity: 4 hours (30 minutes exercise, at least 30 minutes of creativity a day)
Book Exercises: 2 hours
 

The Carson reading about embracing emotions in your creativity made a lot of sense. I think that putting in any emotion into your work is very important. Anything you do that has a little piece of you in it will definitely lead to stronger work in any aspect. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8k9rD7lx9c

I kept thinking about this song and songs in this style. There’s a much greater passion that occurs when emotions can run free and you can relate to what is happening. I’ve spent nearly an hour listening to his music and reading the poetry he’s written and I’ve been blown away. 

Listener made me appreciate exercise 4 a lot more than I probably normally would. (Write down your feelings) I wrote down the 3 and realized that I couldn’t stop writing. It was really fascinating. Which made exercise 5 a lot more fun; depicting your feelings. Everything I wrote was so detailed so I had created so much imagery in my head to work with already.

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Reading: 1.5 hours
Generation Music Project: 1.5 hours
Exercise/Creativity: 4 hours (30 minutes exercise, at least 30 minutes of creativity a day)
Book Exercises: 2 hours

In class we watched the Generation Music Project, which I was thankful that I was introduced to this film. It was great to see creators get out of their element and trying something new. The only part I didn’t like was the fact that Skrillex (Sonny Moore) was matched up with rock music. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEbnP_UHPNg

This is Sonny Moore’s old band before he became the dubstep king Skrillex. He was exclusively a singer for From First To Last and tied exclusively to the Rock Genre. I thought that that mixture was kind of a cop out for him. He said that he plays drums and guitar. That was my only major problem with the film. I did love the fact he got to work with the doors. With that being said, I loved the fact that DJ Premier got so far out of his element yet created my favorite piece from the movie. He learned how to conduct an orchestra with little to no experience reading music.

The Stream brain set seems too good to be true. But I find it true, time flies when you’re having fun. When you enjoy your work, time just flies when you’re doing it. Same for when i have no desire to do a project, I struggle and will get nothing done. It’s just like the Ruts and Grooves from Tharp’s book. When you’re in the zone, you’re in the zone. Getting there is just the difficult part.

Some of these exercises were difficult to continuously do over and over again. My favorite was the TV Narrator. Pretty much you mute the TV and fill in the dialog with your own Improvisation. It was fun to describe everything how you wanted it. How you saw it. The first time I did it, It was a completely random show that i had never seen before so absolutely everything was improvised. I tried doing it to a show that I had seen before but it was far too easy. I already had preconceived notions of who the characters are and how they would handle situations. 

Tharp’s reading made me feel really good about me and getting into my profession. It takes 10 years to become a master at any subject. Comparing that time reference to me, I shouldn’t be a “master graphic designer” for another 3 or 4 years. Probably technically longer than that. I probably downloaded photoshop for the first time when I was a freshman in High School. This would be my 8th year of messing with the adobe elements. I suppose thats why if i went to grad school for 2 more years, I would get my master’s degree. But most people don’t know what they want to do in the 9th grade. Realizing she was a master choreographer made me a lot happier with where I am now. Graduating from college, not knowing if any of my portfolio is any good, not having a job lined up yet, and numerous other daunting tasks, tharp helped resolve some of those feelings. Life finds away and you have to work at your craft. a lot. 

log 10

Exercise/Creativity: 5 Hours
Tharp/Carson reading: 1.5 Hours 
Reading Exercises: 1.5 hours

Exercise and searched for some inspiration on the internet for my Design project. Also worked on a mind map for my project as well.

I thought that the Tharp Reading was okay. I felt like I was being parented throughout the reading. You know you have all of these skills but you also need to do this this this this this this and this. The whole time I was kind of like, Yes, Twyla. Anything you say Twyla.

Her exercises seemed to follow that trend to. It was a lot of, I know you know what you know, but write it down anyway which was kind of annoying. The most helpful exercise to me was the on about organizing your time. I don’t exactly have the best time management skills so this was actually quite helpful.

I remember scoring just a few points in reason. I’m fairly shocked because I try and reason most things in my life. Even when I watch movies, I spot numerous errors because of something not being possible to happen in real life. In design, everything has got to be justified to me or else it is lacking that spark. I found that interesting.

In exercise one, I’ve found that I tend to do that anyway. Whenever something bad pops into my head, I take a breath and say, “just cool it.” This happened a lot yesterday when I was freaking out about my test.

I thought that exercise two was kind of dumb. That’s a good way to solve a problem, but highly impractical. I this this is how i actually do solve problems, but I do it all mentally anyway. There’s not really a good way to compare which one actually works better because every situation would be different.

Exercise three was probably my favorite. I think this one really helped with my resume and helped with a potential job interview question. I see myself working with Red Frog Events and building a portfolio to go back and get my master’s in Graphic Design so I can teach at a collegiate level.

Exercises 4 and 5 are much larger scale and I haven’t had a chance to pay attention to them.

Log 9

Exercise/Creativity: 5 Hours
Reading (Tharp and Carson): 1 hour
Tharp and Carson Exercises: 1 hour

This week for my daily dosage of creativity, I decided to go back to music. I’ve been drowning myself in design so I thought about changing my mindset to try and help aid me school work. We talked about how doing school work all day and then having to go home and try and do design for no benefit doesn’t give you great results. Having the guitar really helped that idea. The exercise and musicianship really allows me to get away from graphic design in a productive way rather than grabbing a beer and sitting on the couch.

I thought that the divergent thinking chapter was very helpful for me as a designer. Its a lot brainstorming and thinking outside of the box. We do a lot of brainstorming techniques in class to get ideas, do it again to get more ideas, and then mix and match ideas to try and get something completely out of the box. This chapter related to me fairly well in that sense.

I was hoping the exercises would be a little bit more helpful. I thought that a few of them weren’t that great, specifically Exercise #2: Loquacious Friend. Think of as many ways as you can to tell your friend to stop talking during briefing. I don’t fully see the relevance there. I tried the exercise and didn’t see or understand why you would need a creative way to tell someone to be quiet? Same with Exercise #3: Problem Finding. I didn’t see the creative outlet for this exercise.

Exercise 1: This was a cool exercise. We’ve done a similar exercise to this in one of my design classes previously where we would take to random words and try and turn them into random products. Eventually we had to choose our own mundane object and turn into a different. I turned a hatchet into an exercise program called “Lumberjacked.” This exercise reminded me of trying to make a project out of a simple object such as a soup can.

Exercise 4: This is another brainstorming activity that we do in graphic design. I’ve always had positive results. Especially doing mind maps, I can come up with some really crazy things. With help from the first exercise, This is how i came up with the concept of lumberjacked. 

Exercise 5: This exercise was surprisingly challenging and i liked it. This is one that I tried to do multiple times. Eventually it slowly became easier. Back in high school, my friends and I often play 6 degrees of kevin bacon. The game where you connect 2 actors to each other via 6 separate actors in different movies. 

Jim Carrey _________ __________ __________ __________ ___________ __________ Chevy Chase

Jim Carrey>Kate Winslette>Leonardo DiCaprio>Tom Hanks>Denzel Washington>John Travolta>Tim Allen>Jonathan Taylor Thomas>Chevy Chase

Carrey was in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless mind with Kate Winslette. Winslette was in Titanic with DiCaprio. DiCaprio was in Catch Me if you Can with Hanks. Hanks was in Philadelphia with Denzel. Denzel was in Taking of Pelham 123 with John Travolta. Travolta was in Wild Hogs with Tim Allen. Allen was Jonathan Taylor Thomas’ Dad on Home Improvement. JTT was in Man of the House with Chevy Chase. 

The last exercise was very helpful. I’m a slow reader as it is and I want to continue to do this to help that thought process actually get stronger. The first few times I did it, I was just reading it and not gaining anything from it but, since doing this exercise a few times, I have seen a little bit of improvement.

The Tharp reading was interesting to think about how art has themes. I already knew that about art but this provided a different perspective. Just the other day, I watched O, Brother Where Art Thou. Right at the beginning of the movie it states that it is a retelling of Homer’s The Odyssey. I had seen this movie a few times but have forgot that memo was there. Fitting that we had just read about this exact topic. The whole time I was looking for the similarities between the two and was blown away. I also recall having a conversation about Across The Universe and how Jo-Jo is supposed to represent the idea of Jimi Hendrix without actually being Jimi Hendrix. There are numerous similarities between the characters and few differences that caught my eye. 

Log 8

Exercise/Creativity Exercise: 5 Hours (hour a day)
Reading Tharp and Carson: 1 Hours
Exercises from Books: 1 Hour 

I really like the exercise and creativity time still. I find the exercise very relaxing now rather than a chore. This really allows me to clear my plate of everything that is going on in the world and focus on myself. I finished 2 more t shirt designs for my friends bands that went to South by South West this past week.

The Tharp reading proved to hold a lot of truth, especially to graphic design. Planning is obviously a big part in any piece of art but I’ve noticed numerous correlations to design. When I work on a design project I brainstorm and correlate my best ideas and try and combine them into 1 creative project. From there, are a billion different ways to go and a billion things to try and create the best project. She mentions a lot of experimentation with materials and to not worry if its not correct the first time. We all get a block from thinking that our work isn’t perfect at first.

I really enjoyed the Pick a Fight exercise. It really allowed me to question my previous choices on my art in that past. Especially my arts tech pieces. I have more freedom in my arts tech classes so I enjoyed seeing the comparison of “fights” between the 2 programs. 

The Carson reading is slowly getting more and more difficult to get into for me. It is kind of interesting but at the same time it’s just fairly dull and making me self conscious about how I’m thinking about my creative work.

I do however love the exercises for the book. The “What If?” exercise was a lot of fun. It is the one where you have to set the stopwatch for 5 minutes and then think about how the world would be differently if dolphins had become an exconomically/social/and professional creature in the present world. I came up with all of these strange scenarios about gangs and politics and seperate schools and eventually establishing civil rights for a new creature would have to happen all over again, (hopefully skipping the slavery part).

Log 7

Exercise/Creative exercise: 4 Hours
Reading: 2.5 Hours
Book exercises: 1 hour

I continued my exercise and creativity hour and it seems to have some positive results. I ended up getting some freelance work done for some friends bands. I had been struggling with coming up with some ideas but being strictly creative let me think of some different ideas. I ended up finishing album artwork, and 2 shirt designs. The shirts are being printed now and heading off to South By South West with my friends bands.

The Tharp reading was fairly interesting. It made me start thinking about my creative process a lot more, whether or not that’s a good thing, we’ll see. I found her take on reading similar to mine. She says that she doesn’t really like to read but she forces herself to because it is the best way for your mind to form its own view. I agree with that and it makes me think I should force myself to read more, and in chronological order.

The Carson reading shocks me everytime. I’m not very scientific and I’m surprised that this book is actually holding my attention. I’ve really related to the absorbing chapter. When I started looking around at objects without passing judgement on what i was actually looking at, you really notice things you often dont. subtle curves or sharp points, rough texture and noises coming from the other room. Really fascinating.