For this blog, we were asked to read this article: http://changethis.com/manifesto/show/51.01.YourHowl
This article struck a lot of chords with me, and I found myself relating to a lot of what was said.
In the Jonathon Flaum's "Find Your Howl" he recaps a story that he encountered when he was a child. The story was written by a fifth grade boy who went to school with him. It tells of a tiger who is trapped in a cage, and wants desperately to escape. The tiger carefully plots his exile, and one night attempts to implement his plans. To the tiger's dismay, he wakes up in another cage. He leapt out of one and straight into another. This process goes on and on and on. The story ends with a hopeless message: the tiger will never escape.
This story is obviously more than just a sad tale about a caged tiger. It is a story about life, and the way we cage in our minds. No matter how many times the tiger uprooted itself and change his external situation, he found himself continually trapped by bars. Leaping and leaping and never finding any sort of freedom. This story is a lesson to everyone. Every single person you can find has created some type of cage for themselves to live in. This cages are made out of a lot of different things, and no two people have bars that are made of exactly the same materials. These "brain cages" or "life cages", or even "freedom inhibitors" are made out of fears, insecurities, regrets, doubts, hopelessness, etc. These bars follow us wherever we go, because no matter how external we can pretend our problems are, ultimately it is a matter of the state of the brain. The story seems hopeless, but really is not. It is just tiresome. The lesson in the story is that we can escape situations, change our lives around again and again. But ultimately, it is a lost cause until we force ourselves to understand ourselves. We have to dig and dig and not try to come up with a quick solution. We have to shed fears slowly and let go. We have to identifying our neuroses and really live through them in order to free ourselves of them.
Jan 19, 2011
Ways to get ideas!
For this blog, blog 1B, we were asked to read and analyze Mitch Ditkoff's "14 ways to get Breakthrough Ideas" --------------> http://changethis.com/manifesto/show/49.06.14Ways
I enjoyed this article, and agreed with nearly all of the suggestions. I particularly agree with suggestion #3, Tolerate Ambiguity. I think this is an important suggestion, because oftentimes ambiguity stops people in their creative tracks. If you cannot see a direct purpose in something you are doing, or a clear solution, it is easy to lose motivation. I think it is a very powerful suggestion to make friends with uncertainty, and let it just slosh around in your brain until it becomes something entirely new. If you do not have some sort of concept of how something will or should end, you eliminate all limits on the possibilities of what an idea can become. I think that I will be able to implement this idea into my creative life in a lot of different ways. I will use this suggestion to remind me that it is ok to start something without knowledge of where it is going. In fact, that is probably a healthier environment for a creative idea to grow. I think that this concept is not only important in the creation of creative projects and the thinking of creative thoughts, but in all areas of life. As humans on this earth we are never sure entirely why we are here and what we are doing. If we can learn to not only accept, but to embrace this ever-present feeling of confusion, then a large amount of pressure is eliminated. If we don’t know why exactly something is, then it can become anything we want it to.
Another suggestion that I felt inspired by was suggestion #5, Fantasize. This is something that I have always felt was important from the time I was young. My mom has always told us to make happy pictures in our brains, and that it would help tell our subconscious minds to take us there. I think that this is why it is so necessary to fantasize as much as you can. If you dwell in reality, it is easy to feel limited by circumstance. But if you let reality take a back seat sometimes and imagine things beyond a realistic realm, suddenly anything becomes possible. I think that it is a good exercise in freeing your mind and allowing ideas to float in freely. I will implement this in my creative life by always remembering the importance of fantasy, and never trying to limit the places that my mind goes.
Suggestion #10 of this article tells us to Hang Out With Diverse Groups of People. I think that this is a really big one. It is so easy in our lives that are so ritualistic and habit-based to get stuck in the rut of seeing the same faces day after day after day. Not that it’s not great to make such reliable allies, but I think that it is easy to fall into a trap of feeling comfortable and safe, and to lose the desire to explore. I thought about it in this way: many of the people I know very well in my life now have had an enormous impact on me. My good friends have each taught me something that I could not have learned on my own because they all have brains that work entirely differently from mine. They have each opened me up to new ways of thinking. If everyone I am currently friends with had to ability to do this, then it occurs to me that there are infinitely more people in this world who will do this too. I will implement the suggestion to hang out with diverse of people by beginning to start conversations with people I normally wouldn’t. Instead of getting so stuck in the rut of ignoring strangers, I am going to start to try to learn as much as I can from them. In any given conversation with a person, you can pick something up that you may not even realize is important to you yet. But that little piece of knowledge then gets stuck somewhere in the back of your brain, available for you to pull it out when you need it.
Suggestion #12 in this article says to Look for Happy Accidents. At the end of the page, it suggests reconsidering a failed experiment. As far as failed experiments go, I can’t help but immediately go to the relationship world. So many things with relationships in my life have felt like failed experiments. I think that these are some of the most important things to reconsider. I know it’s not necessarily a typical creative experiment like the article may be calling for, but I think that those things are big indicators of the way I think. Reconsidering these failed experiments helps me see how one thing can lead to the next. How one crash and burn experience can help to grow your brain and point you in a new direction. The things that happen to us that feel the most earth shattering or painful are the ones that light fires in us and allow us to see things from a new perspective. They may not feel like “happy accidents” but I feel as though I can give some of my life experiences new power by redefining them as life-shapers and not mistakes.
Jan 18, 2011
Creativity and Inspiration
In thinking about what type of creative person I am, I have to first take a look at my habits.
For as long as I can remember I have been a mess. I have a hard time keeping schedules straight, things in order, etc. I have always wondered why I can never find anything. It wasn’t until I got to college and had a roommate that it was pointed out to me that I walk into a room and literally just throw my things. I just drop unconsciously drop them. I kick my shoes in opposite directions, and toss my keys into a corner.
Another of my strange habits that I must look at in order to determine what type of creative person I am is this weird tendency I have to wait a strangely extended period of time before answering upon someone asking me a question or simply making a statement to me. This is not something I do intentionally, or something I am even aware of. I just get so absorbed in what was said and what I was already thinking that sometimes I take an extra few seconds to process. Again, it was not until this was pointed out to me that I knew it even happened.
I have found that these neurotic tendencies have something in common. They stem from the fact that I am a person who gets completely lost in thought. I am so distracted by this world going on in my head that sometimes reality takes a back seat. Not in profound ways. Just in strange little manifests throughout the day to day. And that’s what type of creative person I am. My creative process is all consuming. When I have an idea I can become obsessed. Absolutely absorbed. I began enamored by it. I can think about the same exact thing for days and days and days. I am a messy creative person. I find beauty and reality in disorder. I find that organization and logic stifles my creativity, and makes me feel caged in.
As far as inspiration goes, I am particularly fascinated by words. I feel extremely inspired by song lyrics. There are a million bands that have lyrics that entice and fascinate me, but there is one band in particular who has a way of putting words together so brilliantly that it amazes me time and time again. That band is Atmosphere. I put the link to their song “scapegoat” below. Pay no attention to the stupid video that accompanies it. It’s the lyrics to this song that are important to me.
What I love about this song, is the different levels to it’s meaning. I love the relationship between the text and subtext. The text of this song is the lyrics on the surface. He is listing things about this world that affect how he feels. The subtext of this song is found in the length of the list, and it’s never-ending nature. The things he speaks about are said one after another after another with no pause in between, and with no defined relationship between one and the next. This gives the listener a sense of chaos as they are bombarded with this overwhelming list. The increasing intensity of his voice gives the listener a sense of building tension. The release comes when the chorus is played. The listener has a break from the list of stresses and can mull them over for a second before it continues again.
Another person who inspires me is Christopher Guest. He is a writer, actor, director, musician, and composer. His movies have always made me laugh so hard. His dry sense of humor pokes fun at the world, and distorts it in such a brilliant way and honest way. My favorite Christopher Guest movie is Best in Show. This is one of my favorite scenes in the movie. It makes me laugh ridiculously hard every time.
This scene of the movie employs contrast and affinity. The contrast comes from the difference between the calm nature of the dog and the extremely uptight and insane behavior of its owners. The affinity comes from the fact that the owner’s are continually upset, no matter what situation they are in. They are always in a crisis throughout the entire movie.
One last thing that inspires me is the movie Almost Famous. This is one of my favorite movies of all times. It was written and directed by Cameron Crowe. I am inspired by so many elements of this movie. The sound and music is beautiful, as well as the acting and the writing.
This is one of the most classic scenes in the movie. One of the lead characters, Russel, is on acid and is about to jump into the pool from the roof. In this scene active and didactic information is told to the viewer. The viewer is told actively that Russel is on drugs. The viewer is told didactically, however, that Russel is very egocentric and somewhat out of control.
Jan 7, 2011
8 AM...
Hello. I find myself to be not fully awake in this 8 am class this morning as my sleepy fingers try to type my first blog. As much as I attempt to convert myself into a morning person, on most days it is a lost cause. Because this bright and early morning class was my only option that would fit into my schedule, I will do my best into tricking my brain into thinking it enjoys being awake with single digits still on the left side of the clock. I will pretend that the blaring sound from my alarm does not make me physically ill, and I will drink as excessive of an amount of coffee as it takes to keep my eyes open and my mind from drifting back into dream world.
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