Edward De Bono Lateral Thinking Review

Dr. Edward De Bono explains how creativity is a skill where everyone can learn. This is where lateral thinking comes to place when the brain works systematically in the creative thinking process. Some traditional step by step methods may not work and this is where we need to think outside the box. There is a need to go beyond the problem to get new ideas and concepts to solve a problem. He explained further that it is not matter of sitting around waiting for a new idea because you can actually take a step by step method. He compared lateral thinking to traditional brainstorming and how traditional brainstorming is a weak process. To sum up, lateral thinking is where you can generate new and better ideas which can be a skill that we can learn and re-learn.

If I am not in NAFA, I would....

1. Enter a design course in ITE

2. Take private O'Levels

3. Work part time in Nike

4. Enter Lasalle (hahaha)                                          

5. Laze at home

6. Help out with my secondary school events

7. Enter NATIONAL SERVICE

8. Migrate to Bangkok and sell Malay food there

9. Join my favourite band on their world tour

10. Join World Wrestling Entertainment 

Lateral Thinking

In this week's Creativing Thinking class, we were introduced to something new which is Lateral Thinking. Lateral thinking is thinking outside of the box. It consists of two factors which is solving problems through creative approach and the other is traditional step by step. We were given a few questions that made us think through. These questions consist of problems and we need to come out with either obvious methods or craziest ones. To me, I find it great that we now know more about Lateral Thinking as we can use it in the future especially for me. With lateral thinking process, it actually help me out in my process of designing something. I can use traditional step by step or obvious methods and I can also use something crazy and out of the box to help me solve a problem.

PICTURE OF THE WEEK (6)

contribution

This picture was taken recently when I sold tote bags in my secondary school for its Arts Week. We had 50 bags and they were specially designed by a few of my friends. The sales was pretty good as we only left with 3 bags. I feel proud of my team with all our efforts put in to this despite our busy schedule. All of our funds will go to the school's Financial Assistance funds. I feel like I want to contribute more to my secondary school and at the same time having fun especially when it involves Art. I hope our team can get a chance like this once again. Maybe more bags or more varities of items to sell? We'll never know.

Ted Talk Review: Seth Godin & Amy Tan

Amy Tan: Where does creativity hide?

Seth Godin: How to get your ideas to spread

Both of the talks by Seth Godin & Amy Tan has different contents and purposes to it. Seth Godin's talk was about creating something remarkable to sell in the market while Amy Tan's talk was more to how she got her ideas from through her life experiences, childhood, family and science. Both of them has their own focus of a particular subject and as for Seth Godin, he talked on how one can sell their products well in the market and that is being different. People have little time to care for advertising and the only way for you to be able to sell your products is by being remarkable and unique. Meanwhile for Amy Tan, nature, nurture and nightmares inspire her and is where she gets creativity from. Comparing to these two videos, Seth Godin and Amy Tan has their own way of doing things. Seth Godin has more of a method mindset where he thinks of a specific way that prevents him from traditional ideas of marketing. Amy Tan however loves to be uncertain as to her, that is when she gets ideas and discover new things. I personally feel that I can imply both of their methods in the future. It is just that I need to know the right timing to use them. At some time, I can be aware of others selling their products so that I can improve and strategise myself while at some other times, I can let loose my mind and go through adventures and explore myself.

Singapore Night Festival 2015

my own mindmap of Singapore Night  Festival 2015 & 
the places I went to at different timings

In terms of design aesthetics, I think that the booklets that were given out was well designed. Eventhough it is simple, it still lightens up the mood for the festival with the whole booklet in blue and black representing night time. I love how every performance/events are stated in the booklet. There are also different venues for different performances so they are being categorized in different zones which I think is useful for the audience. To sum up, the booklet itself is complete with performance's details, timings, venues and ways to get there.

PICTURE OF THE WEEK (5)

do it for the love

This picture is a mini gallery in a library at Coral Secondary School. The gallery was set up by me and my other friends. Ever since after O levels, our art teacher wanted us to create something different in the school. We thought that we can help out in the school's arts week. We came up with different plans and it all came down to having a mini gallery, art therapy workshop by Red Pencil, booths selling tote bags that are designed by some of us with linography and lastly, a photography competition on Instagram. The competition was kind of my idea as I thought that students are actively using social medias so why not get the hype of arts week through social media. All of the things that we did for arts week were plainly for the love of art. We know that most of the students in our school do not really appreciate art and we want to change that a little at least with arts week. The actual dates are next week and I'm pretty excited to see how students would react. Whatever the outcome is, I really think that our team had made lots of efforts especially my friends who are mostly studying in polytechnic. With their busy schedule, they actually took time off just for group discussions and setting up. I hope all of our efforts will be worth it and I would be more than happy if Coralites feel the love for art as much as how we feel.

Mindmapping & Critique

Mind mapping to me is a process whereby we expand ideas in a visual manner. We can expand the ideas by having main points that later branched out to key little points. Mind map makes me explore my mind as I get to list down my ideas or key details that I want to remember. It also gives a certain focus to where you would want to emphasise at. There are many forms of mind mapping and personally, I like it to be more visual. Less words and more pictures/illustrations is good to me.

in class when we were told to draw a mind map about ourself

In class, we got to visit other group member's blog and see their works throughout these 4 weeks. We were told to list 5 things that they did well in and 5 things that they need to improve. Honestly, I do not like to criticise other's work as I believe that he/she had done or put in effort in producing the work. However, I thought to myself that if there's no one to voice out a particular thing, how are things going to move forward. For example, if there is no leader in Singapore, how will the country do economically, socially and other aspects. Surely there must be one who voices out. This is the same thing as our blog. If we keep ourselves in our comfort zone, there will be no progress. Good progress is what we want in life and one of the ways is to be critiqued. When we are being critiqued, it is actually a way to improve ourselves as we know our weakness and won't repeat it again. To sum up, yes being critiqued can bring your confidence down but it will eventually pay off as we improve ourselves better than last time.

Perspective

This week we were instructed to lie down on the floor infront of Lim Hak Tai Gallery. Yes, my first thought was why am I supposed to do this because firstly, the floor is quite dirty and secondly, other students would be watching us and of course, laugh at us. However, it was all different from what I expected it to be. Lying down on the floor was actually comfortable and I did not feel embarrassed at all when other students walked past us. I looked up seeing the building's roof. I asked myself, "when can I ever get this view again". Surely I will not lie down again to get that view. We were then told to lie down sideways. Now this got me feeling weird. My view, was not what it was supposed to be. Everything was the opposite. Buildings were horizontal and tables were vertical. I imagined myself as an ant on the floor and how big everything is and how small I could be. Here I realised that different things will be seen differently and there will be an effect. This can be related to our role as a designer as what we do will more or less affect others. If we planned on something, we do have to think about others and how it can affect them, that to me is the main role of becoming a designer. Being able to notice the surroundings and care about others perspectives will build me to become a great designer.

this is what I wrote while lying on the floor

Brainstorming (2)

This week's class was really interesting. Once again, we were told to brainstorm in our different groups. This time however, it was a much serious topic. The topic was about our role as artists/designers. It made me wonder what's my motive or purpose as designer. Yes I want to contribute to the community but in what way can I do so? As a graphic designer I thought that I can contribute visually. I want to influence others through my visual works such posters, advertisements, videos and photography works. The question really made me think hard and opened my eyes to why I am paying a lot for my education in graphic design. To sum up, I think we must know our main purpose when pursuing anything and for me, I have to know how do I play my part as a future designer. We also shared with the class on our topic of "101 ways to kill a cockroach" which we brainstormed in our group and thought of 101 ways.

my group's work: 101 ways to kill a cockroach

we brainstormed and helped each other on the topic of "What is your role as an artist or a designer?"

Isaac Mizrahi TED Talk: Fashion & Creativity

Isaac Mizrahi talks about how he is motivated by insomnia which made him think, create and explore. Most of his ideas came from mistakes that he saw in things and they inspire him. Here are some of the main points on how his ideas came about being a fashion designer.



Mistakes and tricks of the eye

• he followed this guy just because his shoes were nice and he ended up taking a picture of the shoes
• he made the car stop just to look at what it seems like a hole in a shirt or anything that amazed him
• it turns out to be shadow and he thought that if it was to be hole, someone thought of that thought already

Inspirations

• inspired by movies and how light makes the colour in movies
• watch how women are portrayed in movies
• he worked with different choreographers on costumes for operas and his inspiration came from making puppets when he was a kid

To sum up, Isaac Mizrahi explores on how the things in the world inspire him. It can be from people that we meet, the colours in movies or even fashion inspiration. We need to explore in order to get the ideas. Then, we can finally get outcome and create something great.

Tony Fadell TED Talk: The first secret of design is...noticing

In this talk, Tony Fadell talks about how we should open up our eyes and note all the details in life. Things are the way they are because that is what they have always been and this is our mindset. However, we can make the habitual things in life better and easier for us. Here are some of the key points on how we can explore and stop ourselves from habituation.




Sticker on fruits

• We have to peel and dig on the fruits for the sticker to come off and it is not a fun thing to do
• you will wonder if there is another sticker and this is how our mind works as we get used to everyday things easily
• our brain made all these everyday things into habits so that there is space for new things

Habituation

• It is good that our mind habituate things because if not, we will need to remember every little details and it will be hard on us
• Sometimes habituation is not really good as it does not make us notice the problem that lays around us and even harder if we do not fix them

Designers

• Mary Anderson who had an experience in a streetcar where the driver opened the window to clean the excess snow, which troubled all the passengers with the cold and wet air that were entering
• She thought what if the driver can clean the windshield from the inside and stay safe in the car and at the same time not troubling the passengers
• Her thoughts was drawn in a sketchbook and what would become the first windshield wiper

Working at Apple with Steve Jobs

• seeing their products through the eyes of their customers
• to solve the problems that customers faced in the past such as charging the batteries to use instead of playing with the new item immediately

there are invisible problems that we can solve but firstly, we need to see them and feel them

Look broader

• when solving problems, there are a lot of steps that lead to a problem and and sometimes a lot of steps after it
• thermostats designers decided to program thermostats, which was previously just turning up and down
• people were afraid of the energy crisis during that year and wanted to save energy
• it turned out no one save energy through program
• designers then made better documentation and came out with machine learning algorithm
• the machine worked and people started to save energy
• when solving a problem, sometimes we need to take a step back , eliminate steps or maybe combine the steps 

Look closer

• Tony and his grandfather had to come out with products for their customers that are easy to install
• they decided to put 3 different types of screws in the box but that did not worked
• after analysing, they figured they did not get it right and came out a special custom screw that is easy to use
• the special screw worked and they ended up having just that one screw in that box

Think younger

• his three young kids often asked questions and some of them were very smart
• kids have not been long enough to get used to things and when they encounter a problem, they would want to solve it immediately
• with young people in the team, everyone will start to think younger

Tony Fadell had broke down different types of ways to handle a problem and restrict from habituation. You need to feel the problem, see the details, look broader, look closer and think younger. These steps may be hard as we try to not ourselves drown in the basic things of how things go but once we are able to do it, the product will be amazing.

PICTURE OF THE WEEK (4)

Great experience

This is a picture of a band's concert named Kodaline that I went on Thursday, 13 Aug. They are my current favourite band. It all started 2 years ago when i was clicking random music videos on youtube and came across 'All I Want' by Kodaline. The first part of the song already made me fell in love with them. I went on listening to their first album and I told myself that I must watch them live. 2 years later, my dream came true. It was a great night as the crowd sang along with them. It's my first concert and am glad that it was my favourite band's. I will never forget this amazing experience.

Steven Johnson TED Talk: Where good ideas come from

Steven Johnson shares about how an idea is not a single item but a network in which it need to be shared. He talked about how ideas can be generated through group meetings where people can discuss or improve each other's ideas. Here are the main points of the talk:



Coffeehouses

• before the spread of coffee and tea in British culture, people used to drink alcohol day and night
• Steven Johnson love the idea and relate being drunk with the rest of the people in the coffeehouse to being more sharper and alert
• people would have better ideas
• it is a space where people could get together from different backgrounds, different expertise and share with each other
• when people share with each other, ideas can be generated 

Ideas from others

• how to keep incubators working like cars
• Timothy Prestero and his team were inspired by automobile parts that keep cars working on the roads
• this we take ideas from other people we met like in coffeehouses and create something new
• that is where innovation happens

Researchers

• Kevin Dunbar, a professor in McGill university studied that most important ideas emerged from lab meetings where researchers gather around and share their works.
• this can be seen that the starting point of an innovation was not from the microscope but instead from the meetings

To sum up, I learnt that in order to create something, we must gather ourselves around with others who can give your opinions or can expand your ideas. This will make us explore even more after the brainstorming. Yes we can think of an idea individually, but the outcome might not be as good compare to a group's idea.

PICTURE OF THE WEEK (3)

Trying out something new     

A picture taken during Printmaking workshop that I attended recently. It was a great session as I more or less learned how things go about it in the workshop. The first part of the workshop was all about safety, regulations and also the tools that we might use in the future. The second part was where we had our practical test. After a demonstration, my group did the test pretty well. We followed the procedures carefully and at the same time practicing the safety way. Overall the workshop was a great experience and it made me fell in love into printmaking. I hope I get the chance to produce works through printmaking in the near future.   

Brainstorming

In this week's Creative Thinking class, the class was taught more in depth about brainstorming. Brainstorming is a process where we work together and give ideas for one motive, which is to solve a problem. It is spontaneous when we generate and share ideas to each other. We were told how different it would be when we are out in the working world and in the art industry. We will be collaborating with people or our clients and how are you going to go about dealing with different backgrounds, different personalities and also different cultures. It is a matter of whether you do it for the money or do you do it for something you believe in. For example if you are against animal abuse and was tasked to create a poster to promote it instead, will you give or restrict your ideas? Moving to group activity, we were tasked to brainstorm about how we can prevent animal abuse. We then did what we were supposed to do and give solutions. I really thought that he solutions my group gave was pretty cool and unique. However there were interesting solutions too that were given from other groups. To sum up, I thought this week's class was pretty interesting as I do have experience in many group works but I did not know the process more in depth. 

giving ideas on how to prevent animal abuse 

Coincidentally on that day I saw someone carrying a bag with a badge that says "STOP ANIMAL ABUSE" and I thought that the badge is actually a way to stop animal abuse as commuters in the train like me will notice it and spare a thought. 

PICTURE OF THE WEEK (2)

             LOOKING DOWN

This is a picture taken from Project Dreamcatchers 2015: Take Me Places. It is a huge sculpture and inside it there is a cactus. The artist of this work purposely position the cactus down below and the audience has to look down at it. This is the same way of how the NUH patients feel, which is being looked down at. The artist felt as if like the cactus inside the huge sculpture. Listening to this explanation really touched me as I never would thought of such a simple yet strong artwork in terms of conveying a message. Sometimes we do not realise how fortunate we are to have such a blessing life and have everything in front of us. We do not realise that there are those who are suffering not only physically but mentally and they are surviving each day. Yes, we do have problems but comparing ours to theirs? They are still strong like us or in fact some are stronger and this is truly an inspiration. This  artwork and exhibition had really opened my eyes and appreciate the little things we can find in Art. I believe that the patients had shown a clear statement through their works that they do not let their struggles and conditions prevent them from achieving great things in life.

Project Dreamcatchers 2015: Take Me Places

 

Project Dreamcatchers 2015: Take Me Places was nothing but a successful exhibition. Organisers and departments had did so much for this exhibition. Not to forget the 5 collaborative artists, including Mr Ezzam Rahman who had worked with patients from NUH. These youths have chronic illness and they are surviving against all odds. Through the art display in the exhibition, I was touched at how they were able to tell us how they felt throughout their artworks. I love how one of the youths, Ong Su Ya took pictures describing moments of her life and her struggles everyday. The pictures were in black and white and the simple words were in red. I really felt her emotions while she was explaining her works. I truly feel that these youths are such an inspiration and they are the true superheroes.

In terms of design aesthetics, I think the catalogue and poster are well designed. Even though it's simple, it still matches the theme which is Take Me Places and the colours were chosen nicely.

Take a journey

                                                                   Different route

I went home with a different route the other day. Instead of the usual route from Bugis, I decided to go back home from Bras Basah MRT Station. It was a much longer route as I live in Pasir Ris and I felt different. However I thought to myself that if I keep on taking this route, I will surely get used to it. This is the same concept in Art. When we know the circumstances, then we can break the rule.

No music in the train

Long train journeys, surely I need music right? Well that was what I've been doing since school starts. The long trip from home to school and school to home don't really feel bored when I play my favourite playlist from phone. However, I tried something different the other day, which is not listening to my playlist throughout the journey. All I can say is that it was a such a BORING journey. Despite the boredom, it actually made me felt good as I heard people laughing and parents joking around with their children. I felt really easy. This we can imply in Art and breaking the rules. When we explore and break the rules, we can find something extraordinary out of it. Now call that exARTordinary.