1. List your thoughts as you watched
2. What connections might exist between this video and your OWN studio practice in Architecture Class?
3. If there are any 'suggestions for your own work' that you would apply to yourself- please include them. Example ("thinking to myself-) I love building "x" but i need to be original and scrap that idea... i shouldn't- i should build on it..... or maybe it's opposite, or.......
9 comments:
1)Thoughts:
-A person shouldn't be embaressed to express thier ideas.
-An ideal design envrionement is an trustworthy environment where people can feel free to explore their unique creativity w/o the fear of being critisized- similar to children who don't care about who witnesses their work.
-"friendship is a shortcut to play" this allows a designer the abiltity to take creative risks
-Playfulness is important b/c it allows a designer establish a playful atmosphere in the work place
-Being open is important
-do not self-edit explore ALL creative possibilities
- "think outside of the box"
-Think with your hands, in respect to building prototypes. Build multiple prototypes and a designers will explore the necessary provisions needed to contruct their model. basically it's "learning by doing"
-Role playing is important because it allows a designer to step into the mindset of his/her consumers.
- good designers should have the willingness to play/explore and create
-3 P's=Playful exploration, playful building, and roleplay
-There is a time to work and a time to play
2)Connection(s): Personally, I feel that in our own Architechture studio most of these concepts are present. for example, Everyone in our class are friends, therefore a trustworhy environment is established and nobody should feel that they are being critisized. In our concept drawings, the class is free to explore any/all creative possibilities. In addtion, Jesse stresses the importance of playful exploration, which allows designers to explore their own unique creativity. Last but not least, playful exploration and playful bulding are important for innovative designing, but there is a time to play and a time work.
3)Reflections: For my own developmet as an architechtural designer, I would like to explore more playful building more because it would allow me to determine the practicality of my ideas. In the future, i want to be able to explore all of my creative ideas because I self-edit many of my ideas. because i'm in an environment with many of my peers, whom I feel comfortable being around, I tend to play too much, therefore i must find a balance between play and work.
J.A.D-D.
Thoughts:
Listening to him speak...
- Fear can play a big role when designing
- People can feel confident in their work but not confident that others will like it
-That can definitely limit your creative process
-I like the idea of returning to the basics
- Working like a child
- Gives you a lot more options and less worries
- More possibilities of a design
- More possibilities of a function differing from what is commonly believed to be the function of a similar object
-Adults are trained to self-edit through experiences over time
- It is key when designing to not self edit and let all creations come to life
-Also I like the idea of role playing to help one get a better sense of what is needed in a design and what it will feel like to be in or use whatever on
Connections:
These ideals are definitely present during our studio Architecture class. When I think of our class many words come to mind; free, playful, creative, safe but also serious and focused. I believe our class has achieved a great environment for designing architectural structures. We have all the main aspects of what the gentlemen in the building explained a successful workspace should have.
Reflection:
Concerning my own work, I think I could spend more time exploring, not limiting my creative mind and try doing some sort of role play. When doing brainstorming activities in class, instead of choosing one design that I like, maybe I should try to select 3 designs that interest me and try to develop them. Also, it would be important that of these 3 designs I select a variety of types; abstract, conceptual and anything that interest me. Also I think role play would give me a very good perception of what it might be like to use my designs. This would greatly effect my design process.
D.Gibbles and bits
What I was really struck by was the role play segment of the video. I thought it was very interesting how children try on identities and how there are subconscious rules that children follow when they are playing pretend. For years now I have been watching my my brother play some sort of war with nurf guns or sticks if he can't find one. I have always been stumped by how he can be zoned out and absorbed in this world in his head where he is dogging bullets. And I definitely think that Ted was spot on that people older than children don't play because of their fear of judgment. Even a teenager would be looked at weird if he or she was participating in a sort of role play in his or her head. This made me think of how movies portray imagination and role play. There are tuns of children's movies where children create a pretend world or pretend to be a certain type of person in society, but the only time you see adults playing is in children movies when they are playing with their children. I have never seen a movie where an adult plays with out the aid of children. The only time you will see an adult playing without the aid of children is show that the adult is special or weird. I think its sad that the society we live in has created a norm that looks down upon adult play in the absence of children.
I definitely think our work space is built off a lot of trust which makes it easy for us to allow ourselves to create things that people might see as naive, but I think that has a lot to do with the school we attend. I don't think that we would have been able to have that sort of environment in a place like a large public high school since the beginning like we have now. This is because we probably would no have known each other. It would have taken us a much longer time to get to where we are as a class and we might not even be able to get to this stage. I think that it really helps that we go to a school in which being a community based on trust is a school goal. I think that without our common feeling of trust we would not be a able to do exercises like fold the paper into a bunch of squares and make as many designs as possible.
I loved that how the designers had playdough in their design studies. This is a stage that I would like to add to my work because I feel that I struggle demonstrating my tree dimensional ideas with paper and a pencil.
I loved all of the playful activities, they all seemed very fun and I think I would have enjoyed them. Playing is my favorite part of the design process which is why I probably gravitate toward the games and things. I think that role play is a big part of how I design things, I always think about how people will feel in what I’m making and how they will interact with all the space and that sort of serves as my way of editing. For example, with the building I am making now, I’m focusing on how the tenants of the building would like their floors to look: high ceilings, how many levels up, how much space and so on. I might like to do more building as a preliminary and exploratory thing rather than a finalized thing because I don’t have much experience with that and it would be interesting to see how that worked for me. We did that a little with using paper to make buildings, but I didn’t find as much inspiration from that as other people may have.
Nora
I really loved all the cool activities and I wish I could have participated. Most of the themes that were emphasized - creativity, playfulness, doing things that are fun, not limiting ideas, exploring, not self editing - I found to be similar to my own creative process. However, one idea presented during the circle drawing activity struck me funny. He strongly encourages quantity over quality, and this is where I felt my own process and my own habitual idea creating method diverged from his presentation. Although this was a cool activity, and it may be similar to brief concept drawings, I disagree with his sole emphasis on the number of circles people filled rather than what they filled them with.
Another intriguing aspect of his presentation was his emphasis on experience and imagining how one would experience a design during the actual designing process rather than saving that until after the process is completed. This is something that I can loose sight of from time to time during my creative process and hearing this reiteration of the importance of thinking about experience gave me a clearer perception of how i could change my process (ie: how are people going to feel when they enter my skyscraper?).
One last thing:
I like the idea of a time for work and a time for play and finding a balance. But i also think there needs to be a time where you just mix'em all up into a big messy pile of craziness.
-Nick
1. Thoughts
.Just as much as thinking on something for a while can make it better, it can also detract from its creative energy and brilliance -- and originality.
.When people refine something (say a design), they tend to mold it to be like the things around them, which, as stated above, can rob the concept of its angularity or originality.
.It is very hard for an adult to drop all preconceived notions about what something "should" be like -- this is why children are often more creative than adults. They are less concerned with what others thing and more concerned with what looks/feels right to them.
.Adults need help doing this (for example, the 30 second limit Brown placed on drawing a person next to you) -- not leaving time to refine and destroy.
.Thinking physically (with your hands) helps induce creativity, partially because it is an unusual way of thinking and partially because it makes it easier for the average person (e.g., not an adept artist) to visualize new and angular concepts.
.Not to sound cliche or anything, but people should not be afraid to "think outside the box."
2. Connections
.This is exactly what we have done in our class, and I have found myself reluctant to do -- to drop all preconceieved notions (a crumpled paper doesn't look at all like a skyscraper!) and just explore dimensions and figures. Given that we are familiar with the people in our class, we may be comfortable dropping our guard and exploring in an unfamiliar way, but we may also (even subconsciously) be worried about embarrasing ourselves with a "ridiculous" idea. The fact that everyone is forced to do this makes this a lot less likely, but I thought it was worth mentioning. The quick, almost time-limited concept drawings at the beginning of each quarter are another way in which our class follows what Brown talks about. We need to learn how to be creative before we learn how to make our ideas a reality.
3. Reflections
.When I originally signed up for the architecture class, I envisioned drawing straight lines with rulers and protractors on grid paper. I have since learned that that is only a small part of architecture. I think it is a common misconception that architecture is all about accuracy, precision, and feasability -- because in order to get there, one must play, too. Otherwise, all the buildings in the world would look the same. Also, Brown's demonstrations of people's reluctance to be creative, especially in front of their peers, was an interesting glimpse of human psychology. Everything ties back to our desire to fit in and be like those around us -- and if we have creative urges, to suppress them so as not to risk being different in a bad way -- this is why there is so much monotony in everything we see in the world. If someone walks around with their shirt off as an expression, they are considered weird. However, when children do this, "Oh, he or she is just young." By the same token, "Wow, that idea is really crazy and weird." "He or she is just another kid with a crazy imagination." Pretty commonly heard terms, always passed off as that being "normal" for a child. But do people really out-grow it? Or does society pull it out of them? What would buildings, cars, and people look like today if there wasn't this unsaid expectation of and pressure on everyone in the world today?
--Steve
1.) Thoughts
- The drawing exercise he had them do at the beginning reminds me of the quick gesture drawings I've done in LCD. I can see how they'd help in art and architecture-they make you expand your mind and create in a less constricted way.
- I like the idea of a "trustworthy environment." It's something that allows for creative ideas and thinking.
- Totally random, but this looks like a fun lecture to actually hear in person.
- Playfulness and creativity can lead to so many things (just look at the aluminum foil outfit on the kid in the video).
- I think when you're rushed to do something, or have a time limit for creating something, it definitely forces you to be much more creative and open.
- Quantity over quality--interesting that he seems to say it is good in some cases.
- I don't quite get why he is so adamant in his distinguishing between adult thinking and creativity and that of children.
- I distinctly remember playing with blocks when I was younger, and I agree that it definitely teaches a lot about what does and does not work to make something stand or look a given way without compromising functionality.
- Without a doubt, I think it is important as a designer to imagine what it would be like to use the product or live in the building I'd designed. I would want to design something that I would want to use or see, trusting (and maybe assuming) that others would agree with my opinions and like the same things I like.
- "Playful exploration and playful building"--important in good design. You can't work from inside a glass box with a set of unbendable rules. You have to think outside that proverbial glass box.
2.) Connections
- I really need to use the quick drawing idea when we first start a project. It could definitely help me with ideas as we do concept drawings.
- To be quite blunt and truthful, I am definitely one of the people who fear showing my work and creations to my peers. I know I should be less self-conscious about my ideas, although I don't really think it makes me more conservative in my ideas.
- I think we definitely all feel comfortable working with and near each other. We trust each other not to be harsh in a bad way, but to offer constructive criticism that will only help us in the future (or I trust this at least).
- I think my work could be more productive if I tried to focus on quantity when we focus on developing ideas. I tend to focus in on only one and just tweak that.
- Quick and small prototypes would be useful, although I know we don't really have enough time to include that. I noticed that Steven made a quick prototype of his skyscraper, and although I can't say for certain, I imagine that it helped him refine his design.
3.) Applications and Reflections
- In general, I think I need to work on relaxing a little bit. I recognize the importance of being playful with designs, but part of me is still too timid to really reach for something that is truly different.
- In terms of our current project, I really like my design, but I do feel it lacks a little creativity. I don't think I thought quite far enough out of the box. I know I tried for quantity in the beginning when we did concept drawings, at least more than I did for my desk design last quarter. For our projects next semester, a house and a bridge, I want to stretch my own design limits, especially on the house project, because I've always sort of fantasized about designing houses.
--Samantha H.
Keenan really liked the video and the ideas expressed in said video. Most of his points I completely agree with, such as how playfulness helps to create better solutions, and how thinking out of your "adult" mind is also good (in the payote experiments). PErsonally, I only create out of playfulness (I'd say 9 out of 10 times), and the creative ideas that I come up with while doing so are the reason. I found that when I create an Idea out of playfulness, such as a random english story, where I could make the story, I often got better grades than when I was told to do one specific task. I dont quite know if my mind qualifies as an "adult mind", but I would like to think that when I do think out of my "whatever age group i'm in" mind, it helps me to progress towards better ideas.
The only thing that I did not agree with was the part about how kids often play with the toys rather than the boxes, but maybe things are different in England (or wherever he grew up). Also, I thought that the Idea of roleplaying experiences was brilliant.
-KEEWEE
thoughts:
-children aren't embarrased by their drawings of others. shyness about one's work is acquired.
-feeling comfortable with people you work with.
-google offices
-playfulness in the work place.
-need to put things in categories.
-adapt circles into objects
-psychedelic drugs and creativity
--purdue creativity test (paperclip)
--before and after drug
-hard to break adult habits
-exploring possibilities and physical objects
-construction play
-prototypes (surgery)
--post its
-think with hands
-POV ER patient
--living thru experience / roleplay
-di/con vergance: con: serious di: playful
--ability to move thru modes
2) While we don't have a slide or a dinosaur with flamingos, we have a cow skull and rafters and a skylight. Although not intentional they provide a more creative/playful atmosphere than if we were working in a windowless class room, or were each designing our projects in a cubicle. Also I'm comfortable with the group of people in our class and if I wasn't i would probably be more hesitant with my ideas and be more conservative. When we crumpled the paper to try new ideas we came up with design and figures that we probably would not have been able to come up with on our own, and if so, not as fast as we could by crumpling papers.
3) I would like to spend more time coming up with less conservative designs and trying new ideas.
-Liaa
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