Post 1: In the beginning there was a cynic

I am not creative……..or so I thought. Last years visual communications assignment caused me a huge amount of stress. The criteria was “Create a piece of visual communication that conveys a sense of place” I had left it until last; after exams were finished. When it came around to starting the project all I could say was the following phrases:

“I can’t do art”

“The assignment is too vague, I don’t get it, I can’t do it”

“This is stupid, why can’t I just write an essay?”

I did not want to do this project; all I wanted to do was read the new history books I had brought on a recent trip to Berlin.

This is what inspired me for the project. I decided my ‘place’ would be East Germany. I am very interested in history, particularly 20^th century European history, and more specifically Soviet Russia. The Soviet control in East Germany after WW2 is still very clear to see in East Berlin and there are many museums and historical sites to visit concerned with this period of German history. This assignment transformed my attitude towards art and creativity and I really truly loved researching and creating my piece. It consumed me and it was all that I did for three entire days straight with absolutely no procrastination and I was very proud of the final result and even prouder when I found out that it achieved a mark of 83%.

  “East Germany”

(Powell 2013)

When this module started I had a new found appreciation for creativity and I was excited and intrigued to find out what we were going to be studying in the new creative approaches to education module. We began by asking ‘What is creativity?’ When you ask google to define this word it says: ‘the use of imagination or original ideas to create something; inventiveness’ in class we brainstormed the term and came up with this:

Creativity can be categorised as being big C or little c. Big C creativity usually refers to the arts and the end results are masterpieces in paintings, film and music for example. Little c creativity is associated with everyday problem solving and approach to common tasks that people face regularly and is a sign of your brains ability to adapt when necessary. (American Psychological Association, 2003)

After the first lecture I decided to conduct my own creativity investigation. I asked what items I have at home that are creative (either big or little c.) I found the following:

hfjdA

Prints that were brought in the Museum of Modern Art in New York; on the left is ‘Drowning Girl’ by Lichtenstein (1963) and on the right is ‘Girl Before a Mirror’ by Picasso (1932) These are an example of big C creativity; they are well known artists whose work is displayed in one the most famous art galleries in the world.

The following are framed photographs taken by my partner Ben on a holiday to New York and Venice. Ben is interested in photography and art and so he is mostly responsible for the prints and art books in our house. I would consider this to be an example of little c creativity utilising a big C medium. We simply wanted a way to view our favourite pictures from holiday so we displayed them in a similar way to an art gallery or museum.

is                                                  

nbjk

My favourite creative item at home, was a book called ‘Information is Beautiful’ by David Candless.

This book is a collection of ‘Info-graphics’ which attempt to display various types of data regarding subjects as diverse as global wealth, to popular culture and music to politics in some very interesting and beautiful ways. These are my favourite two:

(McCandless, 2012)

http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/timelines/

(McCandless, 2012)
http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/mountains-out-of-molehills/

Information is Beautiful is a wonderful example of little c creativity. Everyday human beings are bombarded with countless pieces of information about a huge variety of subjects and the author here has turned something that may be considered mundane into something interesting and as pleasing to look at as beautiful painting.