Think Creative

Teaching Visual Communication yesterday and was embroiled in a discussion about culture. Basically what defines culture. Some days back I was also watching an interesting TED talk by Larry Lessig. You can see it  here ! So, both of these ingredients combined by the fact I was trying to teach the students a theory of " the medium is the message " from McLuhan's book "Understanding Media" made everything come together. What I believe the students were finding difficult to understand or conceive is the fact that in some arguments there has to be some evaluation to a metaphysical state rather than a rational real world state. By this, and as trying to be taught yesterday, was the notion of containers. These were described by McLuhan as objects that hold values in the form of a message. This message is released or broadcast and creates an effect. McLuhan nicely uses the lightbulb as a good example. Stating that the mere presence of a lightbulb creates the messag...

Second subject to discuss. The human form is something that is the most natural part of our life. We are in fact born naked and then for some reason of climatic need, or social obligation required to don clothing. This was the point of one of Toscani's first and most shocking photos for Benetton. To highlight the public repulsion to our own naked form. Many things have happened over the centuries that have driven or modeled the way we see ourselves as a form, but it was only in the beginnings of the advertising era that the human form took on a new angle. A device for selling. One of the things that has become apparent over the last few decades of advertising this form, is that our liberation toward it has in some aspects become reflective to the forms shown in the utopian view on billboards, etc. However, there is a great deal of distaste seen in the way the human form is used ( even if to good affect ) in some advertising and graphic forms. It is questionable whether advertisin...

Being an academic and a creative I tend to read and put into practice a lot that I look at. Recently I have been doing a good deal of research into 'inspiration'. Inspired as you could say, to motivate the students into getting their act together. It is a complex subject. Never is it easy as to say 'switch on' and get productive. So many variables fit into the complex motions of getting the brain to turn those gears. However, one of the great aids is the ability to see possible hurdles that could combat or challenge your creativity. There are too many to name here as possible blocks and remedies, but I will attempt to tell you some and hopefully this will aid in the process of getting your act together. The first and most easy to achieve is attitude. Again, that is easy to say, but having a late night, not getting your coffee in the morning, missing the bus, etc., can all contribute to making the daily attitude seep a little. However, one thing that you should and nee...

Another in the series of developing an understanding to the many types of blocks there are. Just as a quick reminder, we have already covered: Environmental Blocks, Cultural Blocks, Perpetual and Associative Blocks. This post will look at another aspect of the mental block structure; that of 'Intellectual Blocks'. What does this actual base its notions around? Well, there are many aspects to this form of mental blocking. Intelligence as described in the Oxford dictionary reads as such: intelligence |ɪnˈtɛlɪdʒ(ə)ns| noun 1 the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills Based on this, the measure of an intelligence is the amount of this such knowledge and to what amount it can be utilized in order to make head way in a given situation. Another way to look at the definition of intelligence is that of this basic concept. Intelligence is the ability to solve problems. The more intelligent, or more knowledgeable one is, then the more likely you are of completely the task ...