Category: #creativity

Reinvent

Everyone deserves to be able to re-invent themselves; to decide the person they want to be, and become it; to transition from one life chapter to another. No wonder artists in the past have spent so much time creating self-portraits, for how can you reinvent something that you can’t see, or don’t understand?
Creative Constraints

One of my favourite classical works is Franz Liszt’s piano remix of Beethoven’s nine symphonies (here’s Gould playing No 6). He filters what what was created for an orchestra, squeezes it for two hands and one instrument. For me, it created a bridge to access and appreciate the original; a way in… Black pen on white paper.…
Wikipedia – Active vs Passive learning

This off-the-cuff comment by Lucy Crompton-Reid at the recent OER conference resonated with me, and it illustrates one of the simplest techniques of creating thinkery: to draw out the contrast between two things.
Have bag; can work…

I carry around a lot of stuff in my bag, and as such I can work from anywhere. Some of my best work is done on the hoof, and if it weren’t for the legroom, I’d probably buy cheap train tickets and travel the country, stopping somewhere different for lunch and heading home for teatime…
Stickerful People

What’s the collective noun for doodles? An infusion? A gung-ho of doodlewry? I thought so. One of the highlights of the recent stickery campaign was trawling through some supporters social profiles and turning them into a doodle. Each was like a puzzle – with some easier to figure out than others. Needless to say, I…
My Workspace

Whilst slacking in the Creative Commons Slack channel, a few people were sharing their remote working setups (or for distributed organisations, their normal working setup). So I thought I’d create a quick sketch of mine. On reflection, I seem to have acquired a few boards: White, Chopping and Dart. The Chopping board has been one…
Changing your mind – Ten Learnings

I recieve Maria Popova’s Brain Pickings by email as I’m sure many of you do, and I’m often drawn in by both the imagery and insight she shares in and around other creatives. A couple of months ago, I came across her Ten Learnings from Ten Years, which I thought immediately demanded to be brought…
Fruit of the Commons

Before I started drawing, I was only remotely aware of Creative Commons – if at all. I remember coming across it a few years ago. Ah! Some people have taken a complicated thing and boiled it down so that people can use my stuff in an appropriate way? For free? Creative Commons is now central to…
Creative Commons – which role do you play?

In my experience, the awareness of what exactly the Creative Commons is, and what rights it affords you with respect to other people’s creative works, is at best patchy. During a conversational thinkery session with Alan Levine, we started to think through some of the roles people can play. I could give examples of all…
The Hunch

How little we know of the opportunities life has ahead of us. I often follow my hunch – that warm fuzzy feeling compelling me to go in a particular direction. I need to know some stuff – but not too much – otherwise I’d talk myself out of it. Who knows where it might lead?
That creative commons feeling…

People sharing insights from their sweet-spots of expertise wrapped in Creative Commons licensing shared socially — surely that would be beneficial for all of us? It certainly feels great!
Remix

We are nodes on a network. We’re influenced by others. We, in turn, can influence others. Our creations contain flavours and mixes of whatever has gone before, for who bakes a cake without any ingredients?