Creativity and Making: Kiwanuka

Kiwanuka’s break down of his experience writing his music is very interesting. He talks about how he didn’t think people would like the content and how he didn’t think he had it in him to create more after his first album. I found his lack of full confidence in himself to be probably quite normal.

I think for Kiwanuka, the possibilities were endless. He was motivated and patient by letting things sit on the backburner until he was ready to come back to them. By putting himself on the line and pushing the boundaries of what he believed was going to be accepted, he ended up extremely successful. With his song Black Man in a White World, he felt creatively stumped for about a year. He kept bringing in people to give ideas and one professional lady gave him a chance. This possibility to grow his song and finish it gave him much attention. For him, these possibilities that he took hold of were a chance for him to grow and become successful.

Creativity and Making : Tan

Creativity. I think some of this comes from your background. This shapes who you are and what you do. Some of it can be inherent like Amy Tan talked about. She talked about her creativity as a child. How her art abilities were advanced for her age. However, I found her circumstances to be the most interesting way it shaped her life. Her brother’s and father’s death seemed to have shaped her outlook on creativity and chance. It made her see things more as having a purpose than trying to figure out exactly why things happened, like her mother (who never found the answer).

She talked extensively about her inspiration for books and how she found creativity. I found it to be very interesting how she something would happen in her life and something so coincidental would follow. It was almost like it was her grandmother’s ghost, like she said. I think creativity comes from a deep place of knowledge and interest of the unknown at the same time. I think with Amy’s TED Talk she encompassed both of those things.

Creativity and Making : Harra

 

Design is about something changing or having a new perspective. This first took on form with the club as a weapon and the hands being used as a vessel. This was the first example of design taking its form. Could is really be that simple when it comes down to it? I always thought design was this grand and sensual thing. I had seen so many TED talks on design and what it means that I feel like my head might explode. However, with the beginning of today’s modern society, it moved from being something that was complex to something that was free to take whatever form. Economics has had a huge impact on design around the world. One example that was brought up was Japan after the war. They used design to pull themselves out of a terrible situation.

Design has no bounds. It take no specific form. It can be what you make it out to be. Design is not about big elaborate pieces but instead about the everyday objects around us that were birthed from design. Design is about asking questions.

 

 

Creativity and Making: Pink

Meaning is the new money. That was my favorite part of this reading. I had always been taught that I should follow my dreams and do big things and do what will make me happy one day! But as my parents also taught me, I needed to find a job that makes me money too. How is it that they made it would like money and my happiness were going to be in two separate boats? But I had to choose the one that made me money or I was going to be a struggling artist like my older sister, said my dad. It was drilled into my head that “artist” or “artistic career” and “money” were not correlated. It has brought much fear into my life, this belief. I swore I would not get a degree in something artsy like my sister. Look at me now.

This reading realy brought together the fact that creatives are everywhere and they ARE successful. They don’t always fit into this box of who I paint them out to be: painters, photographers, drawers. They are in many different career positions and ones that make money at that! Who knew? I surely didn’t. Can I follow my passion and have a job that brings me joy and helps me grow creatively? Yes. And those types of people are actually being sought after by different industries. Design and creativity are essential ways of making a product or industry unique in an age where things are faster, more technological, and cheaper.

CREATIVITY and MAKING_Flusser

The Photograph gave me a completely new meaning to what a photograph is. It is a snapshot of one’s perspective and the job of a photographer is for his or her views to be portrayed. The interpretation of mundane concepts or objects to the complex is centered in the way we are groomed to perceive these objects. Seeing how everything is about perception and that I could perceive something so different than my fellows helped provide meaning behind being able to back up my work. I need to be able to explore and lay out my perspective so that others can see the world how I see it.

The different components to a photograph (the interpretation, the photographer, the camera) were all discussed. It showed me how sometimes these things can be working against us as the photographer. There are situations where I think I have the perfect photograph to represent what I am trying to communicate but the image does not turn out how intended. I am constantly trying to understand the meaning behind the objects in my photos. Sometimes it can be hard to synthesize all the components and try to think about every detail as being something that a person could try to interpret or put meaning to. Those things could make a photograph take on a whole new message.