Exploring Creativity 21.10
Second round of workshopping! Mikael started off as he had to leave for Gothenburg a bit early. His workshop theme was “presenting and order information on the web according to an architectural studio”. We came up with and evaluated different ideas for presenting a portfolio for an architecture studio on the web. Quite interesting, made me reflect on my own “soon” to be released web portfolio.
Below are some picures from the workshop, blatantly ripped off of Mikaels weblog.
After Mikael it was my turn. In my studio course (advanced product design) my group and I are developing an automatic enteral nutrition device to be used with ordinary (non-synthetic) mashed food, which is something that does not exist as of today. There is a certain secrecy surrounding the project because of copyright reasons, so I can’t say too much. The workshop itself came off to a slower start than expected. I had tried to extract and present just a small portion of the entire system (product) to workshop on, so that the group wouldn’t have to deal with understanding the entire system. This turned out to be a tad harder then I had foreseen however, as the product is really quite complex and all its components connected and interdependent. I noticed that it was hard for the group to isolate and work with just a single part of the product, which I also think just demonstrates how architects and designers think and work holistically. As the workshop progressed I therefore made some slight adjustments to my initial plan and tried emphasizing future “how it ideally should/could be” scenarios even more. The group produced some clever and witty ideas and it was interesting to see other students’ take on and approach to the project. Some of my own pictures from the session:
Nearing the end of the day it was Lars’ turn to conduct the final workshop session. In his studio course “rich social media” (which I might want to do next year) they are working on so-called “bumpers” for the television channel NRK3. NRK is the Norwegian government-owned radio and television public broadcasting company, and the leading media company of Norway. A bumper, as Lars explains it in his own weblog is: “a clear delineate between commercials and tv-shows, lasting miximum 8 seconds(!)” Below is an example from MTV also posted by Lars on his blog.
The workshop session was really great fun. We did some brainstorming on associations with NRK, and what suitable/unsuitable moods for the bumper could be. Some unsuitable ones:
-very serious, fact-based
-trying hard to be very cool
-news-based
They had little time at this point to actually make the bumpers, and also limited skills in video editing, special effects, etc. So we did a rapid brainstorm on lo-tech ways to making the bumpers. Some ideas:
-stop-motion
-still-images
-non-digital animation (like models of clay for instance)
-parodies
-lo-tech as a point, like jackass
After this we started doing very small and quick storyboards for the bumpers. Lars had prepared paper with printed empty movie-strips. And so we drew in them and made storyboards by various means. Drawing one frame each and passing it to the next person, doing the same only with the previous frames folded and hidden for the next person, etc. I don’t know how valuable the stuff actually will be for Lars and his group, but we did have great fun and produced a lot of absurd, funny and far-off stuff! Finally, some more pictures yet again blatantly snatched from Lars’ weblog below.
Exploring Creativity 14.10
This was the first of two days we were supposed to conduct workshops. This meant that we were all to bring in some kind of problem or task from our studio course project and try to get some new ideas and/or solutions from the workshop group. I workshopped with Espen and Geir who are both doing architecture, Mikael Johansson who is also a architect and swedish as well on exchange from Chalmers in Gothenburg (where I did one semester), and finally Lars who is doing industrial design like myself. We already had a little lecture on doing workshops with Einar a week earlier. A few notes from the lecture:
::Workshop as a privilege
-you got several people working for you for a few hours
::Fascilitate
-be professional (though not stiff)
-be prepared, have some inspiring inventory and stuff to work with
-make a good workshop setting
-be inviting and create an inviting atmosphere. Think of it as having a family/tea party, serve coffee, something to eat etc.
-keep time constraints “you now have 5 minutes left of this task, the next will be…”
::The workshop as story (dynamics)
-for instance dont ask: “what is the favorite/most important thing you own?”
-but ask: “what is the last thing you bought?” “What are the five last things you bought?” “If you had to sell, what would you sell first?”
::Make clever tasks, simple and immediate
-not much explanation should be needed
-Successions of tasks and questions
::Gather knowledge, angles and inspiration
::Do not underestimate the power of coffee and sugar
Starting off Geir did a workshop on sustainable housing design. We worked with themes, associations, shaping and design around the subject, not going too much into technical details. As Geir states in his own weblog: “I started the workshop, presenting what my main course this semester is all about; sustainable housing design. Sustainable housing is complex because it is close connected to research and energy measurements. Despite this, I wanted the group to focus on how they today associate ecology housing and their design.” We did some brainstorming, idea development, and of course some drawing.
After this it was Espens turn to conduct a workshop, this time on houseboats. In his studio course (Teknoform) Espen is doing research on and designing ideas for the revival of the houseboat as student housing. During the workshop we tried to come up with ideas around the docking of several boats around the harbor, creating shapes, patterns etc. We also drew up several ideas on the design of the boat itself, and how it should interact/dock/work with other houseboats around it. All in all a lot of good fun! So next week Lars, Mikael and I will conduct workshops, looking forward to it.
Images shamelessly stolen without permission from Geirs weblog. Thank you Geir.
Exploring Creativity 23.09
We met in the schools large auditorium today, quickly learning the first lesson of the day: why get a small room when you can get a big one… Each student had to write down a single word on a post-it note and hand it over to Einar (our course teacher, for those of you who still might not know). We were divided into groups of four and each group was given four randomly chosen words. My group was Erik from the same studio course as myself and two girls, Therese and Li, both doing architecture. We were then given a “5 hour design challenge”, the challenge being conjuring up a product based only on our four words and presenting it to the rest of the course….in 5 hours. Our group was given the following words, with some dictionary meanings in parenthesis:
-Elegant (graceful, tasteful, dignified, great design)
-Celestial (angelic, blissful, ethereal, seraph)
-Gadgets (A thing working, functional, mechanical)
-Innovative (profit, something new)
We began our creative process by quickly brainstorming a little bit around the four words, just throwing out our own thoughts, descriptions, ideas and interpretations which we would use as a basis for the rest of our process. The words we ended up with were:
Change, waves, creativity, new, wine, dynamic, reflection, movement, food, mirror, ice, surreal, function, nature, snow, cloud, water, peace, floating, long limbs, dancing, shadow, dreaming, light, sleep, flying, glass, ballet, music, white, life, birds, wind
These words really helped us mentally process and visualize several ideas. At this point we decided to use the “6-3-5” method. We individually wrote down three ideas each on separate pieces of paper. The ideas could be anything, more or less, but preferably some kind of product. After writing down each our ideas we passed them around the table to the other group members, who then had to continue building upon the previous idea(s) already written on the paper. It was a really fun way to work, and allowed us to truly open up our minds and throw some crazy stuff out there. We were generally surprised at how much stuff we were able to produce in a really short period of time using this method, really effective. So here is the long list of stuff we came up with. The capital letters of course indicates who wrote what down. T is Therese, L is Li, E is Erik, and B is naturally Bilal (me…).
1:
T (start): A spatial element which reflects light & shadow
B: A moving membrane of varying shape/color/texture and/or a shelter/protection/cover reflecting the atmosphere/weather through light & shadow
L: A cloth material. When people put it on it loses its own color and reflects light & shadow from its surroundings
E: The cloth reacts to other clothing, your movement, your mood and stress level, as well as the surroundings. Giving the effect that if you are still and relaxed you are a chameleon, blending in with the surroundings. The moment you are approached, move or stressed, colors flare!
2:
L (start): A chair, soft like clouds that can change shape by people’s movements
E: Changes characteristics throughout the day. Soft/hard, moving/dead, shaking/soft waves. Keeps you on your toes/relaxing!
T: Placed in different rooms, areas and situations
B: Senses and reacts to changes in a person’s mind\body. Stress, tension, frustration etc. Shapes itself accordingly
3:
B (start): An “improve-your-life” box (just add water)
L: Without any suggestions: “no advice”. When you need power, it gives you power. When you need sleep, it gives you sleep…
E: A personal guru. Uses a mixture of modern medicine, ancient monk meditation, exercise and chinese zen-teachings to advise you through your everyday life. Feed it information and it will give you advice
T: It is a genie which grants you three wishes
4:
T (start): A person talking, making noise/sound (can be recorded). Maybe the sound breaks the glass. Maybe the sound separates shadow from light
B (start): A glass wall acting as a screen, capturing sound. Various sounds/noises produce different visual elements on the screen, illuminating a space/spatial environment
L: You can touch the wall and feel the sound and the light
E: Touching the patterns on the wall triggers playback of the recorded sound, only manipulated according to how you touch it. This way the wall becomes an interactive plaything as well as an ambient device
5:
T (start): A dynamic wallpaper that displays floating patterns of relaxing colors, skies and water-ish animations
E: The wallpaper has been placed and worked with in nature. It’s been out in the rain, in rivers, mud, sun, thunder etc. These elements create its patterns
B: “Smart” memory material that “remembers” its previous and newest/most recent surroundings. Based on this, expresses “feelings” and emotion through its display, almost like a living entity
L: It will also record it if you have done something bad for instance at your home or in your garden, like a bad memory. It needs you to create/use a new nice memory to cover it
6:
B (start): A glass water bottle reflecting your surroundings. Cleans dirty water into drinkable. Changes shape/color accordingly (comment from T: filter “cleaning” the water inside the bottle)
L: It can tell you if you should drink it. Tells you if it’s good for you or not (comment from T: The label on the bottle gives you the information)
E: Healthy drink: the bottle feels cool and soft. Turns blue. Not healthy drink: the bottle feels hot and stings your fingers. Turns black, spills fluid, falls over, insults you, cap won’t come off, smells bad (comment from T: a bottle for field trips, study trips etc.)
T: You can pour water in the bottle anywhere, rivers, lakes, waterfalls, fountains etc. The bottle tells you whether to drink it or not.
7:
L (start): A cup which gives people different images when they have different fluids inside.
E: Water: blue skies, waterfalls, forests. Limonade: orange trees, fruits, colors. Soda: sparkling, sugar farms (reminds you its not healthy!) Beer: sunshine. Drink: beaches, fireworks
T: It’s both: the “image” from the liquid in the cup is the effect you as a person get from drinking it. Beer: drunk. Drink: happy. Juice: energetic. Can be shown as a diagram
B: Also visually shows “how much” you have had of the particular effect. “Uh oh, you’re getting really drunk!” or “enough soda for the kids, or they won’t sleep tonight!”
8:
L (start): A dream machine which creates different dreams
E: An audio/video/light system you can set to different “dream modes”, creating sound and colored light to stimulate different types of sleep and dreams. Wakes you up at 4 in the morning so you can remember it!
T: A machine that records when you are in deep sleep and how your mind works when you’re sleeping
B: Remembers your dreams over time and behaves/changes accordingly to improve sleep and foster positive dreams in the future
9:
B (start): A dream-box. Records you dreams and plays them over as audio/visual soundscapes
L: You can improve the dreams. Place yourself in a new role (like for instance 007) and replay the dream again in your dream. The database includes thousands of different roles you can choose from, or you can even choose the story.
E: A wake-up-box. The box analyses the patterns in your brain while you sleep and provides fitting music to wake up to. For example: You sleep well and your brain is relaxed. The box sees this and wakes you up playing “Morgenstemning” (Grieg) –or- you dream nightmares, trashing about in your sleep. The machine wakes you with death metal!
T: It does not only record dreams, it also records sleepwalking and talking. This creates a film/art image presented from a “projector” on your bedroom wall. It also contains music as mentioned above. This is something you will wake up to.
10:
E (start): A flying indoor balloon with lights inside, responds to music. The lights change colors, rhythm and intensity. The balloon flies around in changing altitudes, patterns and speed. Get 20 for parties!
T: The intensity, rhythm and speed of the balloon leaves a pattern in the air which again creates an existing “dreamy” room. It can be laser, wires or colored lights
B: Captures sound and reacts to it, by itself playing ambient/subtle sounds/music adding to the existing atmosphere and intensifying it
L: It will change shapes and the material. It can also reflect its surroundings and play videos.
11:
T (start): A dancing element which moves along with the sound of music.
B: A flexible plant/tree reacting to its surroundings, moving with sound (growing)
L: It reacts to your mood
E: A mechanical plant with moving limbs. Creates patterns and movement according to surroundings or presets. Can be set to dance, sleep etc. –or- a device you hook onto your actual plants, making them move. Also waters them.
12:
E (start): A desktop (computer) that “grows” and changes by how you treat it
T: Like food – what happens when you leave food out of the fridge for a long time?
B: Very subtly responds to the treatment it is given. Colors, themes, the sounds it produces etc. vary and change slightly to reflect its feelings.
L: You can give it a “beginning stage”. You can teach it different things and it will learn.
S of the ideas were actually somewhat similar, kind of interesting. We joined a few of them together, sort of categorized them and decided to quickly use the “6 thinking hats” method to look at them from different perspectives. We were however running out of time and wanted to quickly choose one of the ideas for further work, and so we voted. We chose to continue with the illuminated, flying indoor ballon…
The “Air-Ballon” incorporates several nifty and fun features. It is first and foremost a light source, a lamp if you want. It kind of hovers/flies around your apartment and follows you where you need light. It also reacts to its surroundings, for instance to music. It can change light color and intensity according to the music, and bounce around to the rhythm. You can start out by buying one single Air-Ballon, and then expand your “collection” by buying and adding on more ballons of different sizes later. When several are present they will group together in a single or several clusters and move around together. When not in use they will all meet at a sort of docking station in the ceiling to be recharged, and simultaneously act as a single ceiling lamp.
We now had less than an hour to illustrate our product idea in photshop, which is really not much time to photoshop anything at all. The result didn’t turn out too bad anyway and the Air-Balloon was well received at the end of the day, when we presented it to the rest of the course. Some questioned its plausibility though, but like Einar said: “when someone starts asking technical questions, it’s usually a good thing/sign”.
Exploring creativity 16.9
Creative methods were the focus of the day. We explored the well-known brainstorming technique, very commonly misunderstood and misused in various ways. A thorough description from our collection of idea generation methods can be found in the previous post. We tried brainstorming in groups and used the post-it notes version of the technique. I worked with three architecture students, Espen, Geir and Mikael. Our “how-to” was how to sell sunlotion in Bergen.
We came up with a lot of funny, and partly outrageous, stuff and clustered all our ideas into four categories. They are presented below with a few accompanying examples:
::Strategy
-humor
-comical
-sarcastic
-accompanying umbrellas
::Info-vantage
-UV and rain
-Health risk
-Reflection from north sea
-Global warming
-Nr.1 pale person in Bergen
-Sun competetion
::Hype
-Gullars
-Siri Kalvig
-Herman Friele
-Sponsored weather day kick-off
::Re-defining
-Stay Fresh
-Smell hot!
-Rain lotion. Wax. Become shiny
-Comfort
After this we got kinda stuck, and so we decided to use another creative method from our database called “change the setting” (Either visualise a peaceful setting such as a beach or a mountain, or visit a favourite café, art gallery or other inspiring place).
We ended up going to the “Oslo reptile park”.
After being creeped out, fascinated and inspired by the various creatures and critters we had another go of brainstorming, developing upon our previous ideas.
We ended up with a new cluster:
::Lotion-adventure
-Keep your head above water. -and wear lotion
-Global warming is coming. -buy lotion
-You have raincoats. -now get suncoats
-Waterproof!
-Against extreme itching
-Against cancer
Finally we rounded off the day by watching the ABC produced show “Nightline” featuring Ideo. To demonstrate their process for innovation Ideo create a new shopping cart concept in four days.
From “all known idea generation methods”, researched by Martin Leith:
Although the word “brainstorming” is often used to refer to any meeting in which people generate ideas, it is in fact a specific method, invented by advertising executive Alex Osborn in 1941, with an explicit protocol that is described below.
Osborn-style brainstorming is the classic ideas generation technique, and it is one of the most effective methods when you need to get a large number of ideas from a group of people in a short time.
The main drawback is that group dynamics and self-censorship often prevent group members from sharing their more imaginative ideas.
The process:
::The facilitator asks the group to restate the problem or outcome as a series of “How to’s” (e.g. How to attract more visitors to our website).
::The facilitator select the most promising “How to”.
::The facilitator asks the group: “In how many ways can we (e.g.) attract more visitors to our website?”
::The facilitator explains the rules of brainstorming:
- No criticism of ideas
- Go for large quantities of ideas
- Build on each others ideas
- Encourage wild and exaggerated ideas
::Group members call out ideas and the facilitator writes them on sheets of flipchart without paraphrasing. Each idea is numbered for future reference.
::The facilitator is not permitted to suggest any ideas.
::As soon as a sheet of flipchart paper has been filled with ideas it is displayed on the wall.
::Do three rounds of brainstorming, each of 10-15 minutes, with a break between each round.
Brainstorming with Post-It Notes:
a ‘nominal group technique’ version of brainstorming. (“Nominal group” means that people are nominally in a group but mostly work on their own)
::Each group member is given either a pad of Post-it Notes or a set number of Post-its - perhaps six or seven. Alternatively you can use 5x3 index cards instead of Post-it Notes.
::Using a thick marker pen, they write one idea on each Post-it Note
::When time is called, each person announces their ideas to the whole group, and posts his or her Post-it Notes on a large sheet of paper taped to the wall
::The Post-it Notes are then clustered by the facilitator or two volunteers, and the clusters are named
::Finally, the facilitator asks: “Is that everything? Do you want to add any more ideas or suggest new categories?”
Here is a twist you can add to Brainstorming with Post-it Notes
::Group members are given a certain number of Post-it Notes (perhaps 12), one of which is pink
::One of the ideas proposed by each group member must be outrageous. (See Wildest Idea Session.) This idea is written on the pink Post-it Note
::When the ideas have been announced and clustered, the facilitator goes through the pink ideas one at a time and uses them to stimulate feasible ideas
Some seriously cool wallpapers. Large high quality images, most of them even suited for two or three monitors.
Thanks to my friend Ida for pointing me to this
I attended a visiting lecture at DogA friday morning featuring Brian Smith, managing director of FeONIC. This company has through the means of innovative research and design developed some truly unique products. These products when attached to a surface that is able to resonate, such as a tabletop or a window, transforms the whole surface into a loudspeaker.
We were given a demonstration during the lecture. Brian Smith plugged his iPod to two small units attached to a couple of large glass windows behind him, practically turning them into high-quality loudspeakers! It was truly amazing and mindboggling to experience in real life, you really have to see and hear it for yourself to comprehend. And think of all the possibilites! We were shown some videos of the devices being used as public address systems on train stations, onboard large ships and as parts of art installations. Amazing.
Head over to FeONIC for more information on their technology and products.
So yesterday we had this workshop at school (PANG!) where all students, teachers and staff where supposed to participate and work together in groups.. We were given a set of materials consisting of bamboo, some bad textile material and twine, and told to make “something”. And so we did. Below are a few pictures from the workshop, which was rather cool actually and culminated in a dinner and drinking at the AHO pub…
and below are some “in progress” pictures of the “piece” created by my group.
presenting the final result, I kinda like it’s upright, and stiff expression
also looked cool at night
