Creative Thinking

2011 Rethink Scholarship at Langara Call for Entries from Rethink Canada on Vimeo.

Everything is a Remix

Everything is a Remix Part 3 from Kirby Ferguson on Vimeo.

I've just added this video to the new Tallis Manifesto site. It does a really great job of explaining the idea that creativity is about combining or mixing ideas together. Check out the website for the other films in the series.

Wallwisher update

I've made reference to Wallwisher in a previous post but I thought it might help to demonstrate how it works with a specific example. I decided to use Wallwisher with my sixth form photography classes. They are currently developing their Personal Investigations which require them to research, generate ideas, document the process, present them appropriately and evaluate the outcomes. Sound familiar? What I needed was:

a) a way to support them between lessons
b) a virtual notice board to post ideas
c) a resource that was available as a link on the department blog
d) a way for students to share ideas

Wallwisher has delivered all of these requirements. It's free, easy to set up and can be embedded as an interactive resource on any web page.

What I discovered today was that it's flexibility enabled students to post thoughts when they had them (at any time of day or night) and attach a relevant media file from the internet. Today, in the lesson, I asked them to refine their original thoughts, adding more precise information and defining a more specific area of study. So, for example, I had a conversation with Micah about knitting. I saw him knitting (for pleasure and relaxation) in the sixth form common room the other day. I told him that I had recently discovered a phenomenon called Guerrilla Knitting which describes radical knitters who decorate the urban environment with their work.


Fluffy graffiti! Micah did a bit more research today and found a variety of useful links online. I posted an idea to the wall for him and he responded. You can view our virtual conversation on the wall above. I hope to continue to prompt him, and others in the class, with a series of provocations over the coming weeks as they further develop their investigations.

All in all, this has proved to be a simple, elegant and free solution to a challenging problem.

Wallwisher

I've created this Wallwisher page which is designed to collect our ambitions for this year's activities as a School of Creativity. I've posted a few ideas that we've already discussed but it would be great to have a whole wall full of everyone's thoughts. You can post a sticky and link to another web resource if appropriate. Once we have posted our thoughts we can then use this as a basis for prioritising actions and delegating responsibilities.

Do you want to be a Creative Progammer?

I've just received this flyer with an invitation for you to apply to be involved in the Create Programmer project. As part of the 5 host borough CREATE 09 Festival, A New Direction is looking to recruit 20 young people (aged 14-19) to participate in an after-school mentoring and event production programme during the Autumn 2009 term. In the first instance young people are asked to submit an idea for an event which will be used as criteria for selection. In September we will invite successful applicans to an interview.

Check out the details on the flyer about how you can get involved and pitch your idea.

Sound Ideas

I've just received (via my school email so apology for the slight delay) this interesting message from Mr Davids. He's been having a think about ways in which we could set up sound related installations in school. Here's what he has to say:

Phew - terms finally out, and I've been giving that collaboration a good old think.

With reference to working with a digital artist, I would be very happy to do that, and I already have a concept of something that I've wanted to do for a long time, but have had neither time nor the coding skills to implement it. Do we know of any visual artists who are proficient in coding who could be involved?

I would very much like to make an interactive installation -It would be loosely based around looping of captured audio and visual input, and then playing back, or projecting live after various delays/processing. The user would be able to see a visual and audio record of their movement over the last 30 seconds, and be able to interact with it live on a projection screen. The concept links together video, audio, time/space and movement, and will hopefully encourage people to interact with the installation, and with each other.

1. Video installation with video delays/multiple copies.
Cloning and delays with visuals
Playmodes
Time Tunnel

These are some inspirations for this idea. The 'Through Time Tunnel' is an installation which has been custom coded, and is not available for download, but it looks incredible. I love the concept of the users being able to interact with past versions of themselves, and explore live choreography. Some of the aspects of this could be done with Isadora, but my 30 day trial has expired. I think it would be a shrewd purchase for the Arts College, as it is very flexible and can be used for lots of interactive installation/VJing. To produce something like the Time Tunnel would be a fairly hefty piece of coding I'd imagine, and we'd need to work with a programmer.

2. Audio Loop Room.
I've already experimented with looping sound Ableton Live and Looping using a free application called Sooper Looper for the Mac, which can be controlled via midi input, which I've already mentioned, can be done through Wii remotes / coloured balls / pretty much anything. Sam Murray and I have talked about this, and reckon that it can easily be done. For example, a rolling loop of 30 seconds could capture ambient noise in the room, and then playback with a delay and processing, with multiple layers of mini-loops playing over the top, sped up, slowed down. A number of objects in the room could be used to alter various parameters of the looping. Wiimotes, coloured lights etc. By embedding these controllers within tactile objects in the space, the users will have control (unconscious though it may be) of the parameters of that particular room. If visual feedback is needed, we could use something like Whitecap, G-Force or R4 to output video based on the sound.

3. Painting with light.
We spoke about this one or two years ago - It would be very easy to set up a live video feed, which let frames persist, allowing people to paint with LEDs/torches. Depending on how long the buffer is, you can build up extensive pictures, or short trails.

As long as we capture with a camera which has a long shutter speed, we can do this live, I think.

Another way to do this is to use the virtual graffiti tool, available for mac. Graffiti Research Lab LASER Tag. I've used this at parties and the like. All you need is a laptop, camera, projector and a laser pen, or LED lights, and people can paint virtual graffiti on any surface, as long as you can project onto it (legally).

I know this a lot to digest at once, but I've been in thought about it, and I'd definitely want to get at least one of these concepts working so people can have a play with it.

Tell me what you think.