Thinking with the correct side of the brain

One of the things I see when I am teaching is the great deal of nervousness that occurs when the students are about to do that simplest of actions, of putting a pencil on a piece of paper. After twenty odd years of doing all this drawing and sketching and the like, I find it odd to observe, or at least funny that someone has that nervousness. There can be many reasons for this to occur. I have thought about it whilst sitting and trying to encourage the students to leap right on in there. One possible reason could be that there is a daunting task of seeing how to fill a large expanse of white space with something. Another, and especially in the classroom environment, is the fear of embarrassment in making a mistake in front of people. This is odd, as I have always stated and affirmed, people can only make progress by making these mistakes. However, the one problematic area that can easily explain all these in one form or another, is the way in which we use our brain.

I mentioned before in another blog, that we rarely consider the fact that our brain actually sits there in the back of our head. As it controls everything, we are aware of the everything it controls. Like our arm, when we need to make a line on a piece of paper. But we don't think about the actual brains part in that. American psychobiologist Roger W Sperry, was the first to discover that the brain had two ways of thinking with the alternate hemispheres on the brain. Over the time of research it has been found that the right side has the weaker dominance over the left. And this fundamentally is the issue with the basis of aesthetics in design. What the left side of the brain does is brings us reality. By this I mean; logic. When we are upright and consciously moving through our day, this side of the brain is the one that makes our decisions. Tells us what is right and wrong, and gives reason to things. This is all good and reasonable. What it does do however, is clash with the more fantasized right side. The side that dreams and relates to images more, and is the key to fantasy (therefore artistic expression).

So, when those students and people, who hesitate at the point of contact, with their pencil on the paper it is because of incorrect brain displacement. Sounds a little funny, but the simple fact is that people are concerned that either they are making a mistake (based on logic) or that something doesn't look right (based on logic) or that what is being created is not compatible with the real world need (based on logic). So, as you can see, logic is the artists worst enemy. Therefore the left side of the brain too, can work against you. As it dominates your processes, this counteracts the desire to be creative. creative thinking is a need a desire to move past that. It is possible to challenge this action of the left side. One simple way, and it may seem funny, is to lie down to think of ideas. Why should this work? Well, when you lie down, subconsciously your brain believes you are about to rest, or sleep. When you rest or sleep your right side begins to dominate your left, and so you can be more creative. Another simple exercise you can do is when trying to research something on the internet, instead of scanning all those text results (which promotes logic based response in letterform cognition) try clicking over to the image results and look through those. Your right side process images, and so by being bombarded with images more that text your right side will be more active.

These are two ways to get things ticking in the right hemisphere, and there are more. However, the actions of individuals are just that; individual. Some people have an aptitude for art and this is because they can simply control their left side. Art is an expressive form in any medium so the power to be more expressive is a key to aesthetic success. The big issue is that much of this process is subconscious. Even the emotions that hold us back from being creative, or wildly leap us into a design, are also subconscious. One thing that needs to be consciously noted and exorcised is the need to try. Without trying (or giving up) will never even get you on that first step.