Presenter: Karen

Follow-Up

The Creativity Collage

During the Creativity event, artist Karen Leeds described the process of creative work. To illustrate that everyone has a creative potential, she initiated the following process:

Each participant was handed a blank sheet of sketching paper and a box of crayons and was instructed to draw anything that would come to their mind.

After some good-humored protesting (“I have absolutely NO drawing skills”) and of staring at the blank page, the participants reluctantly and slowly started drawing or scribbling figurative and non-figurative images.

After 3 minutes, the participants were asked to pass their page to the left. So, you “gave away” your drawing but got your neighbors instead with the intention to draw something on the basis of what was already on the paper.

After 3 minutes, your “updated” paper was passed to the left again and you got another one from your neighbor.

After a total of 12 iterations, everyone got their original page back–now unrecognizable but a synthesis of everyone’s contribution.

The point that everyone could contribute to this process was exceedingly well proven. Karen then made a collage of the 12 pages, and the result is presented on this site.

The original hangs in the North Valley Library.

Additional follow-up from Brant:

• The power of music - “Alive Inside”
• Edward de Bono - Thinking is a skill, not a trait, reminds Edward de Bono. His theories on the mind might be just that, theories, but his books can be enlightening for someone new to this stuff:
  • Six Thinking Hats
  • de Bono’s Thinking Course
  • Lateral Thinking: Creativity Step by Step - developing the “green hat” (in Six Hats parlance). Not the best reviews here, but still a good introduction on the topic.
• Downloading the brain to a hard drive - see Transhumanism (H+)