Institutionalised Subjugation - a photo on Flickriver

I recently watched a letcure by a very inspirational speaker Sir Ken Robinson , that touched on topic of divergent thinking. He stated that by the time of secondary school the average child has been educated away from creative thinking, by our institutionalised education systems. He argued that our early education actually forced us away from creative thinking and by the time we enter higher education, or the workforce, we have drastically diminished creative abilities.

Now I find this argument very interesting. Not least because I’m fascinated by developing my own creativity, or because I have children myself, but as I see it, my primary responsible as a lecture in computer animation, is to inspire those students away from their perceived reliance on ‘reality’, ‘facts’, ‘logic’ and to try and stimulate creative thinking.

That said, at the moment I’m brewing some ideas for an article about creativity that I want to write (when I have some time) and I wondered if you good people wouldn’t mind stimulating your own grey matter and offering me some of your own ideas. I do recognise that everybody’s different and will respond to very different things, so I wouldn’t want to be so arrogant and spout a list of my imposed rules on you. I would love to hear what inspires your own creative thinking. So if you wouldn’t mind, please have a go at this with your 6 top tips. (There are no wrong answers)

Anyway to get this started here are some of my ways to stimulate creativity. I will expand on this later...

• Stand on the shoulders of giants
Try to expose yourself to divergent ‘quality’ inspirations. Art, literature, poetry, music, photography. But importantly you will need to work at this and actively reflect your own sparks of inspiration. There is always the danger this may result in subconscious (or conscious, in the lazy person) plagiarism, but the trick is to synthesize.

• Write- Brainstorm
I personally find that the process of writing and editing that text helps me think. It’s one of my systems of reflection. For some reason my brain cannot hold multitudes of visual or creative incites in the forefront of my perception, “I haven’t much ram”, so to maintain the analogy, make sure you carry a removable hard drive or “note/sketchbook” and keep it defragmented.

• Question "Why?
So why should you question? Is the sky really blue? Is the earth really not flat? Do aliens exist? What is the holographic code written in our universes event horizon? What is the sound of one hand clapping? Does it matter if I’m not making any sense? Do you get the idea? If not, why not?

• Change your surroundings
I personally find that putting yourself in unfamiliar and new surroundings stimulates creativity. It makes new neural pathways in your brain and they help you perceive what you think you knew, differently. So, head a different way home from work, force yourself to go somewhere out of your comfort zone with an open mind and let somebody else plan your route. It will not only enrich your life, but develop a wider and deeper pool from which to tap inspirations from.

• Give yourself some time- challenge your habits
It’s important to take time out of the busy routine to allow reflection to develop. This may take the form of a walk in the country, a holiday, or ironically doing something very tedious. I personally find that making some space away from our many distractions (family, work, usual friends, and internet) very productive. This mental space to slow down, enables an environment that is conducive to natural reflection.

• Break the rules (on purpose)
Always ignore what others are telling you... in fact disregard everything I’ve ever said (o:
if a commercial fashion tells you to make it blue, and everybody else makes it blue, then try making it blue with a twist of red... if somebody tells you to place the horizon of your image on the third, then put it in the middle and make sure its slightly blown out, slanted and just that little bit blurred.

Questionnaire and the results

Taken in: United Kingdom / England / St. Ives (show map)

Taken on: August 4, 2010

Tags:

Cornwall

2010

Sea

rock

St Ives

Atlantic

ocean

Jason Theaker

long exposure « less

Sets appears in: • Jess • The Sea more » • Seascapes • Cornwall • lpoy 11 « less

Groups appears in: • Natural Landscapes • Photographer's Choice~Hall of Fame (Invitation)

Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark II, f/11.0, 1 sec, 105mm, ISO 100 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Lens:	EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM
Aperture:	f/11.0
Exposure Time:	1
Focal Length:	105mm
ISO:	100
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Aperture-priority AE
Exposure Mode:	Manual
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop CS5 Windows
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