New content needs new forms

Jonas Mekas (1922-), an independent film-maker, is with the Joseph Conrad notion of the shadow line: a moment of great cultural change that occurs every so often, sweeping all that is old and exhausted out of the way. "It is overdue," Jonas Mekas says,"but I think the shadow line is falling and things are starting to be born anew. New content needs new forms, new technologies. That is what is happening right now with the internet and digital technology. We have had 40 years of regurgitating the same old stuff and there is a necessity for change. Necessity is what matters." http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/dec/01/jonas-mekas-avant-garde-film-interview

Ideation Silicon Valley style

'If you have basic programming ability – which we'll all have if we complete the Udacity's beginners' online course in computer science, – and a bit of creativity, "you could come up with an idea that might just change the world"', says Sergey Brin, Google's co-founder, and one of the collaborators with the online course. But then that's Silicon Valley for you. Udacity is an offshoot of Stanford University, and their online courses are offered for free, aiming at revolutionising access to higher education. http://www.udacity.com/

Ideation sketching

Sketching on paper is not just a technical skill. It is a form of visual thinking with a pen. Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks are prime examples of ideation sketching, and part of the design process. Today, the pen is used in both analogue and digital modes to help designers build form. Indeed the Renaissance artists' freehand perspective sketch has its contemporary equivalence in CAD modelling and 2D graphic software tools.

In praise of handwork

Just as the cinema did not herald the death of theater, so freehand drawing will survive the onslaught of digital media. Arguably what is created by human hands is the true luxury in the digital age.

Constructivist ideation

Modelling is one of the ideation tools which embraces Constructivism as a mode of problem solving in the material world. Constructivist techniques and processes include assemblage, bricolage, and collage utilising everyday items and found objects. Constructivist ideation, then, encourages experimental thinking and making that give material shape, form and spatial presence to new ideas.

Attention ideas!

Ideas are elements of thoughts generated in the mind based on memories, interpretations of past and present events, and their future projections. The ideas gain power from your attention and interest. Your attention is the fuel for your ideas, and the skillful use of ideation tools will help you stay focused. So every time your mind generates a creative idea, give attention to it, capture it with your tools. This will cause your mind to attract more ideas, setting in motion a true creative cycle.

Ideation tools

Ideators have a range of ideation tools to choose from, including words, sketching, and modelling (physical and virtual). But given that tool use is situational and contextual, there's no such thing as an all-purpose ideation tool.

Let's Face it: Drawing is alive and well

Draw Something is a title of a mobile app developed by Omgpop. It is a game where two players alternate turns between drawing a picture for the other to guess. The app has done so well, that on March 16th, 2012 it was reported that it was the most played game on Facebook, registering 10.8 million daily active users.

To bring ideas to life

While drawing is his speciality, graphic artist and illustrator Jamie Hewlett of Gorillaz fame, says he has no fear of exploring different media to bring ideas to life. "I'm always having ideas," he says. "I'd like to continue being able to realise the ideas I have." At the moment he is enjoying writing.

Ideation cycle

Conceptual tools support the ideation-cycle, from capturing and developing the idea, to communicating and converting the idea into action. Moreover, the tools, and whether words, sketches or modelling, not only support but influence and help articulate the ideation process: Concept > Context > Creation > Communication

Why studio?

"A studio changes depending on what you need at a particular time. It can be a laboratory of ideas; it can be a safe haven; it can be somewhere you don’t want to go because the work’s not going right." Jenny Saville, UK: Oxford.

"What I try to use the studio for is what I call ‘thinking with material’. To do that you need an arena. You need a page to write on. You need a space to work in. That is what a studio is." Tony Cragg, Germany: Wuppertal

Ideation, groupthink, and brainstorming

“Decades of research have consistently shown that brainstorming groups think of far fewer ideas than the same number of people who work alone and later pool their ideas.”
Keith Sawyer, a psychologist at Washington University, in summarising the science of brainstorming:

Read more http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/01/30/120130fa_fact_lehrer

Tools and confidence

Sometimes we build up wonderful ideas in our head, but get so afraid of ruining them by trying to realise them. It is then skills in using ideation tools, be it hand sketching or physical 3D sketch modelling, give us the confidence to start making the idea happen.