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Measuring creativity

bobulate:1

When musicians improvise, their brains turn inhibitions down and creativity up.2 Scientists set out to measure exactly what is going on in the heads of musicians, using jazz as the constant:

[T]hey go into what we call a “dissociated frontal activity state.” There’s this notion that someone like Coltrane is “in the zone,” he’s far away from the concerns of everyday life. And he is in some other place where all of these novel ideas are flowing out of him.

How does he do it?

The brain really alters itself into this creative mindframe where its purpose at that moment is to generate novelty and to decrease inhibition.

Consider that for a moment: improv decreases inhibition and increases novelty! As I mentioned recently,3 people are already improvising. With the emergence and adoption of a new set of tools and services, the line between creator and consumer has narrowed and, in many places, blurred completely. And this is the great opportunity for designers (or creators or any kind): to create room for this sort of free flow of ideas4 in our design process and in the products and services we create for people. Plan for improvisation. Make room for novelty. (These are not oxymorons.) In the meantime, head over to hear a series on the field of “neuromusic,”5 research at the intersection of cognitive neuroscience and music.

Measuring creativity

NOTES:
1) Liz Danzico, “Measuring creativity,” Bobulate, Feb 9, 2010, accessed March 2, 2010, https://bobulate.com/2010/02/measuring-creativity/
2) Susan Stamberg, “Study: Jazz Improv Cranks Up Brain’s Creativity,” NPR, MArch 22, 2008, accessed March 2, 2010, https://www.npr.org/2008/03/22/88827029/study-jazz-improv-cranks-up-brains-creativity
3) Liz Danzico, “Frames: Notes on Improvisation and Design,” accessed March 2, 2010, https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/notes-improv-design-ixd-10/3097395
4) News Staff, “Study: Prefrontal Cortex In Jazz Musicians Winds Down When Improvising,” Science 2.0, February 27, 2008, accessed March 2, 2010, https://www.science20.com/news_releases/study_prefrontal_cortex_in_jazz_musicians_winds_down_when_improvising
5) Library of Congress, Concerts from the Library of Congress, accessed March 2, 2010, https://www.loc.gov/events/concerts-from-the-library-of-congress (event web page no longer available)

“Facebook Friends”

I remain suspicious, however, of anyone who argues that online social networks, like Facebook, will revolutionize human interactions. Whenever I encounter some utopian celebration of Facebook, I always go back and read some Jane Goodall, or Robert Sapolsky, and remind myself that our social lives haven’t changed that much since we were hairy apes patrolling the African forest. In fact, the most obvious parallel for just about every primate troop remains high school. It’s not that Facebook doesn’t matter – it’s just that our social lives are stubborn things, and tend to revolve around the same constants regardless of the technology.

Jonah Lehrer, “Facebook Friends,” The Frontal Cortex (via somethingchanged)

Ten Unexpected Collective Nouns

wordjournal:

  • rout • a rout of wolves
  • clowder • a clowder of cats
  • descension • a descension of woodpeckers
  • disworship • a disworship of Scots
  • mute • a mute of hounds
  • raft • a raft of ducks
  • unbrewing • an unbrewing of carvers
  • neverthriving • a neverthriving of jugglers
  • drunkenship • a drunkenship of cobblers
  • shrewdness • a shrewdness of apes

Another drawing from an old sketch book

I used a new & an old sharpie marker… it’s a technique i learned in school… a sharpie marker that is expiring provides a charcoal impression…

Sketch from the 90s

along with those old fountain pens i found some old sketch books from university days… here’s a sketch from the 90s…

15:59 – snowfall. 2 march 2010.

13:46 – snowfall. 2 march 2010.

snowfall, viewed from the east wing of the estate…

Sometimes we have a conversation like this one

Verona De Tessant: Burt, are we f***-ups?
Burt Farlander: No! What do you mean?
Verona De Tessant: I mean, we’re 34…
Burt Farlander: I’m 33.
Verona De Tessant: …and we don’t even have this basic stuff figured out.
Burt Farlander: Basic, like how?
Verona De Tessant: Basic, like how to live.
Burt Farlander: We’re not f***-ups.
Verona De Tessant: We have a cardboard window.
Burt Farlander: [Looks at window] We’re not f***-ups.
Verona De Tessant: [Whispers] I think we might be f***-ups.
Burt Farlander: [Whispers back] We’re not f***-ups.

— from the film Away We Go

decaffeinated coffee table

I bought a decaffeinated coffee table, you can’t even see a difference.

Author Unknown (via coffeechat)

Some day, I’m going to grow up & look like this

some day, i’m going to grow up & look like this hipster… (via lteagarden)

(Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lteagarden/)

Wie trinkst du deinen Kaffee?

http://assets.tumblr.com/swf/audio_player.swf?audio_file=http://www.tumblr.com/audio_file/378333170/tumblr_kwpnpfSwOd1qzz5rt&color=FFFFFF

germanheit:

Wie trinkst du deinen Kaffee? How do you like your coffee?

– schwarz (black)

– mit Milch (with milk)

– mit Zucker (with sugar)

– mit Süßstoff (with sweetener)

Ich trinke meinen Kaffee gerne schwarz mit Süßstoff und manchmal auch mit Milch. Mmmh. Lecker.

(I like to drink my coffee black with sweetener and sometimes with milk, too. Mmmh. Yummy.)

Blizzard?

Asheville – 29 jan 2010

What are the top ten books you believe designers should read?

Earlier this week we did a post on a printed piece created by British design firm Spin that details the top 10 books from 50 major figures in graphic design.We sorted through the 500 listed books and found that there were 14 books that appeared in almost every list.

Here’s the list in no particular order:
01. A Designer’s Art Paul Rand
02. Typographie Emil Ruder
03. Mode en Module Wim Crouwel
04. A History of Graphic Design Phillip Meggs
05. Jan Tschichold: Typographer Ruari McLean
06. Design as Art Bruno Mari
07. 8vo: On the Outside Mark Holt
08. Tibor Kalman: Perverse Optimist Peter Hall
09. Weingart: My Way to Typography Wolfgang Weingart
10. Designed Peter Saville
11. How to be a graphic designer with…Adrian Shaughnessy
12. The Tipping Point Malcolm Gladwell
13. Modern Typography: An Essay in Critical… Robin Kinross
14. Envisioning Information Edward Tufte

liz:1 plaidinc:2

NOTES:
1) Liz, “Follow up: Spin asks: What are the top ten books you believe designers should read?” accessed January 27, 2010, https://liz.tumblr.com/post/352754770/follow-up-spin-asks-what-are-the-top-ten-books
2) Plaid-Creative, accessed January 27, 2010, http://blog.plaid-creative.com/post/346685665/follow-up-spin-asks-what-are-the-top-ten-books-you (page no longer available, Tumblr account deactivated)

Field notes

dear tumblr, i really need to quit you.

Clients

Clients are the difference between art and design.

Michael Bierut (via soulellis)

Field notes

special thanks to @malaprops for hosting the poetry reading!

Field notes

also, thanks to those online friends i got to mirl… nice to finally meet face to face…

Thanks to all for joining me at Malaprops…

I was surprised to look up during the reading & find the cafe full & with people standing in the back!

Poetry reading tonight

Tonight’s one-hour poetry reading at Malaprop’s Bookstore (55 Haywood St., Asheville, NC) begins at 7 p.m.

I’ll read from 7:00 to 7:30. Here is my set list:

  1. Immigrant
  2. Quits
  3. Leave my girlfriend alone
  4. Three shots in the night air
  5. Autobiography I
  6. Autobiography II
  7. Wander
  8. Immolation
  9. Dream catcher
  10. We are so far from home
  11. Stone upon stone I’ll bleed the river
  12. Always departing
  13. Where can men weep?
  14. Harvest moon
  15. Winter roost
  16. Bonfire
  17. What divides us
  18. We shall carry our pajamas in our book bags

This list is subject to change.

Field notes

just returned for the celebration singers of asheville’s winter concert. the soloist, a 9-yr old, performed memory from the musical cats! amazing!

Blogging is an art form

ireadintothings: Blogging is the art form of the 21st century. When you’re blogging, you’re doing art. Quote me on this one.

Upstart Publishing l Seth Godin

fluffynotes:

Consider this quote from a high-ranking book publisher who should know better, “We must do everything in our power to uphold the value of our content against the downward pressures exerted by the marketplace and the perception that ‘digital’ means ‘cheap.’ …”

Hello?

You don’t have the power. Maybe if every person who has ever published a book or is ever considering publishing a book got together and made a pact, then they’d have enough power to fight the market. But solo? Exhort all you want, it’s not going to do anything but make you hoarse.

Movie execs thought they had the power to fight TV. Record execs thought they had the power to fight iTunes. Magazine execs thought they had the power to fight the web. Newspaper execs thought they had the power to fight Craigslist.

Here’s a way to think about it, inspired by Merlin Mann: Imagine that next year your company is going to make 10 million dollars instead of a hundred million dollars in profit. What would you do knowing that your profits were going to be far less than they are today? Because that’s exactly what the upstart with nothing to lose is going to do. Ten million in profit is a lot to someone starting with zero and trying to gain share. They don’t care that you made a hundred million last year from the old model.

If I’m an upstart publisher or a little-known author, you can bet I’m happy to sell my work at $5 and earn seventy cents a copy if I can sell a million.

Smart businesspeople focus on the things they have the power to change, not whining about the things they don’t.

Existing publishers have the power to change the form of what they do, increase the value, increase the speed, segment the audience, create communities, lead tribes, generate breakthroughs that make us gasp. They don’t have the power to demand that we pay more for the same stuff that others will sell for much less.

And if you think this is a post about the publishing business, I hope you’ll re-read it and think about how digital will change your industry too.

Competition and the market are like water. They go where they want.

Via Seth Godin