Posts Tagged ‘creativity’

Innovation to go

Friday, July 23rd, 2010

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David Tunnicliffe


What is it: A crowd sourcing website which allows those in search of new ideas to harness the power of the ‘global mind’.  A company, or presumably individual, with an innovation need can state their requirement which then attracts the attention of creative types who busy themselves addressing the issue.  A kind of ‘one-night-stand’ opportunity for those with intermittent rather than ongoing innovation needs.

Why is it cool: If we think of humanity as a kind of holistic organic melange of experience and ideas, this is a great way to draw on the powers of the collective brain.

Where to find it: here!

Submitted by: David Tunnicliffe

CQ

Monday, July 12th, 2010

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John Cucka


What is it: This article summarises a range of studies on creativity, making startling observations about the decline of creativity (in the US), that it can be traced directly back to poor education practices, and its implications on a society’s ability to solve big problems and move forward. The good news is that creativity can be taught, learned and practiced – so we really have no excuse!

Why is it cool: On a practical level, this shows that, whilst creativity is often seen as the domain of artisans, creative thinking is, in fact, useful to most everyone in solving everything from small, everyday problems to dealing with the big stressors of life. On a theoretical level, being able to measure, teach and articulate the benefits of creativity (via the Creativity Quotient), we gain a new understanding of the human mind, and a foil for the much maligned Intelligence Quotient (IQ) and more recent Emotional Quotient (EQ). Finally, perhaps most cool is that the best thing we can all do to encourage creativity is to ask questions, and keep asking questions.

Where to find it: here!

Submitted by: John Cucka

Dreamtime solutions

Tuesday, June 29th, 2010

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Best of the Month, John Cucka


What is it: A Harvard psychologist theorises that dreams are basically extra “thinking time”, but thinking that it is more visual and ‘free’, making it better suited for solving problems requiring “projected visualisation” (e.g. innovating a device) or thinking “out of the box” (e.g. approaching a problem from outside the conventional wisdom).

Why is it cool: Evolutionary principles suggest that biology tends not to be wasteful. So, for something like dreaming, which has been around for millions of years, it must have some functionality – and certainly empowering creatures with a second mode of thinking would be an advantage! Besides, it’s a cool way to explain waking up with one of those “ah ha!” moments!

Where to find it: here!

Submitted by: John Cucka

Night lights

Monday, September 7th, 2009

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Liz Pridham

Ooo, shiny!

What is it: It is incredibly difficult for economists to calculate the GDP of developing nations, due to unreliable data . Economists from Brown University have proposed a new framework which combines reported income data with a country’s observed “night lights” seen from space. Obviously as income rises, so does consumption. Almost all consumption (in the evening) requires lights. In the top left corner of the above images is the growth in Poland lights from 1992 to 2002.

Why is it cool: A beautiful example of thinking outside the box (or out of this world) to look for new ways to solve a problem

Where to find it: here!

Submitted by: Liz Pridham

Embrace your psychosis

Monday, May 11th, 2009

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Best of the Month, Katie Murray

Not all psychoses are created equal... some aren't as fun as this one

What is it: Mental health problems have been observed for thousands of years and evolutionary theory suggests that there must be some kind of survival advantage to them. Research indicates that this survival advantage is creativity, and that the traits associated with different mental illnesses (e.g. anxiety, depression) have different effects on creativity. For example, the creative traits needed to develop scientific theories are very different from the traits required for producing surreal paintings.

Why is it cool: There is a continuum between the mentally ill and the healthy, so we all probably identify with certain “psychotic” traits without having debilitating symptoms of a meeting the requirements of diagnosis as having a full ‘psychiatric disorder’.

These traits (e.g. abstract thinking, flexibility, emotionality) fuel creativity and should be embraced!

Where to find it: here!

Submitted by: Katie Murray

Microbe that eats plastic bags

Thursday, June 19th, 2008

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John Cucka

What a plastic-eating microbe scientist might look like

What is it: A year-11 student has isolated microbes that break down plastic bags, as well as their optimal environmental conditions.

Why is it cool: Not only is it cool that there’s a natural solution to the “plastic bags in landfills” problem, it’s incredibly cool that a year-11 student did it just using a home biochemistry kit and smart, scientific method.

Where to find it: here!

Submitted by: John Cucka

Your brain on jazz

Saturday, March 15th, 2008

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Best of the Month, John Cucka

John Coltrane

What is it: Neuroscientists have put musicians into an MRI machine and watched their brain as they played, using a tiny keyboard, a composition as opposed to playing improvisationally. In doing so, they hoped to better understand the nature of creativity. What they found was that creating improvisationally, the musicians first switched off their inhibition circuitry, then switched on their self-expression circuitry, and finally opened up their sensory awareness.

Why is it cool: Aside from the fact that the article directly references Miles Davis and John Coltrane, the two baddest-ass musicians to ever walk the planet, it’s fascinating that new experiments with the latest technology are confirming that the things we often try in our own efforts to be creative (or get respondents to be creative) are exactly the right things we should be doing.

Where to find it: here!

Submitted by: John Cucka