Creativity and Technology

Consider today’s lecture – write about your discipline and what capabilities and restrictions are inherent in the media and production methods used and/or available to you. 
How does this affect you as a creative practitioner?

My discipline is Graphic Design, and there are many capabilities in the media and production methods available. Now that we have the Internet, and emails, we are easily able to get in contact with clients. There are several different ways to get in contact these days as we don’t need to have a hands on meeting with clients all the time, we are able to send across an email, which also allows you to send images across, if you are needing to show them something. Of course meetings are ideal, as it is easier than talking online, but it’s not always the best way to get in contact. Some might have time limitations, effect their work or many other reasons. If it isn’t a major issue to discuss, sending emails is the best way to go. You can also have phone discussions or even use Skype online. Skype allows you to view the other person on the other line. Skype is also a good way to have a interview or meeting.

Using technology with graphic design is great. The Adobe suite has many useful design programs that allows you to help create your work. Adobe Illustrator is a great program for graphic designers, as you can start from scratch and create what ever you like. If you have never used it before, it can be quite hard and you’ll need to learn how to use it first. This is the problem I had with Illustrator, but as you go along, you’ll improve and it can be very beneficial.

The restrictions that technology has on graphic design or anything for that matter is that, sometimes programs can crash and if you haven’t saved your work prior, all of you work could disappear. This then is very time consuming as you have to start all over again. What you have to do is back up your work, save it to external hard drives to ensure that your file is safe. Also take good care of your hard drive, I have broken one of my hard drives and have lost everything I had only there, just because I dropped it. They are pricey as well.

You also need to make sure you have a good, reliable computer. There is nothing worse than a slow computer that takes ages to save one document. Having good Internet connection is a must as well, as I always turn to Google for inspiration and I don’t like to sit there for ages, waiting for one image to load. If you use a laptop, make sure it is charged, there’s nothing worse than starting your work and then 10 minutes later it dies, because you forgot the battery warning sign appeared on your computer.

Overall technology has dramatically changed over time, it has become much more useful and beneficial for everyone. I know I would be lost without technology. I wouldn’t be able to cope with just a pencil and paper.

Creative Environments

•  In your own time, try to create an “atmosphere” of creativity using lighting and images, or activities such as chanting, arranging objects, improvising lyrics to bongo rhythms – whatever you can think of.
•  Report on the relationship between the altered environment, your altered mental state, and your subsequent thought processes
and creative activity on your blog.

 

My creative environment is in my bedroom. I have the door shut, to block out any sound, I have a desk (which is meant to be were I study or do my work), but I am never comfortable enough on my chair, so I work on my bed. I have a big bed, which works great because I scatter all my notebooks, uni books and any other loose sheets of paper on it. This works well as everything is in front of me and in easy reach. I have a Macbook too, so this allows me to lye in my bed and do all my work from there, instead of a desktop computer, where you can only work at a desk. I love my creative environment because I am always comfortable with lots of pillows around. You’d think it would make me tired and sleepy, but I actually get my work done. I work best with a drink and little snacks with me. I have a bedside table right next to so I can easily reach my drinks and food.

Working in my bedroom can sometimes be distracting, as I can just turn on the T.V, watch YouTube, go on Facebook, Instagram etc. but it’s the same as having my iPad or iPhone right next to me and I figure if I want to get my work done i’ll do it then so I have free time afterwards. Leaving things to the last minute is my ultimate motivation. I am terrible at doing things before the due date. But this motivation makes me get on track and I make sure I sit down and get it together. I always get it done on time anyway, so I might as well leave it to when I want to.

I have a fairly big room, I try to keep it tidy, as I like to work in a tidy, clean room, but this doesn’t always happen. If my room is untidy I will probably give it a quick clean up before working as it can be very distracting.
I have a fairly dim light, so I have a bedside table lamp to help me see while doing my work, which works perfectly. I try to keep organised, I have a document organiser which allows me to keep all my notebooks in and any other relevant things I can keep in there to help me keep organised. Sometimes I like to listen to music in the background, I would just play it off my iTunes, but I always seem to repeat the songs I have just downloaded, and then that song get stuck in my head which isn’t ideal when working.

What I would like to improve or alter would be to buy a comfy chair so I can work on my desk, as I have quite a big desk, and I can actually use it instead of being on my bed all the time. I would also like to clean up my desk to allow maximum room for everything and it would give me extra space so I can focus instead of being surrounded in mess.

I think that the alterations I would make to my room may not be 100% beneficial as I might not even like working at my desk even if I had a comfy chair. I also wouldn’t really want to purchase another chair, as an ideal comfy chair for me would be one of those big black chairs with arm rests, but that wouldn’t look nice in my room, so I would prefer to work on my bed.

Mythopoesis

Week 4- The Creative Psyche

This weeks lecture was by Glen Spoors, he discussed mythopesis. The inner life of the creative individual.

Mythopoesis:

• Myth seems timeless but is a human construction
• “Mythopoesis” derives from the Greek “muthus” (myth) + “poiein” (to create) i.e. “myth-making”
• It has been (misleadingly) argued that humans once lived in a state of “mythopoetic” thought.
• More commonly used in relation to Tolkein’s use and work.
• It identifies a genre and an approach towards creativity.

William Blake:

-Is well known for his strijing (re)visions of religious beliefs:

• Saw imagination as the “Body of God”: No body/soul split.
• Iconclast who created his own delites, e.g. Urizen.
• Popular for his “Songs of unnocence and of experience”.
• More influential after his death.

“Do what Thou Wilt”
Alastair Crowley was an occulist who may be seem as part of the mythopoetic tradition.
-Developed a mythical system called Thelema.
-Re-designed the Tarot deck.

“Buy what Thou Wilt”
-New age and self help culture also has a “pick and choose” attitude to belief.
-This reduces any notion of the spiritual to individualism.
-It also reinforces consumerism.

J.R.R. Tolkein
-Tolkein wanted to create a mythical past for Britain.
-Middle Earth exsists in a mythical time prior to our time.
-Is a coherent world.
-People have invested money, passion, and belief in his mythic world.

Pop Mythopoesis:

-Mythopoesis informs much “pop” culture:

• StarWars
• StarTrek
• Buffy and Angel
• Twilight
• Neil Gaiman’s Sandman
• Role-playing games

(StarWars, 2012)

Everyday mythopoesis:

-But all individuals psychically invest meaning into symbols.
-In so doing they draw on existing myths, pop-culture, and personal experience.
-This may be passive and selfish or active and productive.

Psychoanalysis and Creativity:

-Sigmund Frued was a psychoanalyst whose theory of the psyche influenced a range of understandings of culture and art:
-Creativity is driven by the individual desires that are socially repressed and staged in a socially acceptable form.
-The complexity of their reformulation is a sign of more or less psychic creativity.
-This process is more intense in those neurosis.

Jung on the active Imagination
-Carl Jung was a psychoanalyst who broke with Freud’s emphasis on sexuality.
-He argued hmas have a “collective unconscious” comprised of core archetypes.
-Self: ego
-Persona: mask over the ego
-Shadow: hidden aspects of ego
-Anima: the feminine
-Animus: the masculine

Archetypes:

-Cultural Archetypes:

• King: Father figure/protector
• Great mother:goddess/creator
• Warrior: disiplined aggresor
• Sage: wise mentor
• Lover: carer/compassion

Active Imagination

-Individuation: Process whereby the ego integrates its shadow and after cohering in itself, seeks union with others and society.
-Projection: where hidden aspects in ones own ego are perceived in others.
-Active imagination: where one actively confronts one’s unconscious mind and shadow.

Personal Experience:

• Drew and defined as “creative”
• Begrudged effort of realisation
• Escapism in pastoral fantasy
• Surreal association
• Physical and emotional over sensitivity
• Frightening images of wrongness, nausea, and contrast
• Tragic romantic

The Void:

-The “Void”
-The “stage” in the void
-“Stream of consciousness”
-Social hypocrisy and happiness as a negative sign
-No specific trauma

Selves and Personas

-Incompatibility between “selves” and “personas”
-child
-trickster/fool
-(romantic)male
-artist
-philosopher
-death

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The third customer
-“Void” becomes a theme: town becomes alove
-Steam of consciousness manifested as the “indefinite”
-Void personified by Orin
-Evolved into a critique of capitalism

Mythologised Australia
-Romantic use of “nature”
Phobias explored via characters
Juxtaposed horror and cute
Heroine concealed female idealisation with feminism

Early music:

-Prose lyrics
-Maudlin pastoral
-Juxtaposes sweet and dark
-Emotional wash
-Informal/complex structure
-Excessive ambition
-Late playful music
-Almost impossible to play live

Prose Poetry:
-Surreal fragmentation
-Moralising
-Romantic disgust
-The uncanny
-Pathological states

Later Music:
-Overdid “recording”
-Simplified for performance
-Less fidelity to “theme”
-Embraced to urban(e)
-Musical “wringing out”

Critical Mythopoesis
-Self as source of motifs
-Accepted these as significant and charged with meaning
-But also developed writing in a more critical vein

The Pulkin Dresser:
-Abandonment
-Fiction as philosophy
-Taxonomy

So in conclusion, being creative may be a tool for personal expression, exploration to the psyche, as a way of experimenting with belief. Mythopeosis in a context of active imagination, may bridge creative practice, therapy and philosophy. Once ones psychic conflicts are identified you have a better sense of your style and have more freedom to approach material without resorting to self-indulgence. Each medium functions differently and enables unique aesthetic possibilities for perceiving aspects of ones style.

Reference:

Mythopoesis(n.d.) Lecture 5: The Creative Psyche [Lecture readings] Retrieved from http://blackboard.ecu.edu.au/bbcswebdav/pid-3046680-dt-content-rid-2519472_1/courses/CCA1103.2014.1.METRO/Week%205%20Mythopoesis.pdf

Image: Frank Marshall and Joe Johnson Talk Episode 7 (2012) StarWars [Image]. Retrieved from http://www.starwars7news.com/2012_11_01_archive.html

Image: Lecture 4 (2014) Mythopoesis [Image]. Retrieved from http://blackboard.ecu.edu.au/bbcswebdav/pid-3046680-dt-content-rid-2519472_1/courses/CCA1103.2014.1.METRO/Week%205%20Mythopoesis.pdf

Imagination is everything

Week 3-Theories of Creativity

This weeks lecture was by John Harman.

“True signs of intelligence is imagination not knowledge” Albert Einstein.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Creativity- Imagination- Vision

Personal Emotions

• Overwhelmed
• Fear of failure
• Fear of criticism
• Fear of taking risks
• Desire to succeed too soon
• Low tolerance of ambiguity
• Failure to incubate
• Failure to suspend judgement

-Need to be creative

-Domain relevant skills= Really knowing your stuff.

-Creativity-Relevant skills=Understanding creativity.

-Task motivation=Desire of really wanting to create.

So 5 steps to creativity.

1. Preparation
2. Brainstorming (mind map)
3. Concentration
4. Incubation
5. Illumination

Then get verification to test it and improve it.

Mindsets that inhibit creativity

• Certainty
• Fear of change
• Lack of self-knowledge
• Undue focus on rewards
• Lack of self-belief
• Assumptions
• Snobbery and artistic groupie
• Cynicism-opposite of playful

Mindsets that enhance

• Accept yourself
• Suspending judgement
• You learn to recognise your own creativity and intuitive processor
• Confidence

During this weeks workshop we talked about Assessment 1, and chose our topic. We were told that our case study should demonstrate a historical, cultural, philosophical and/or aesthetic context, drawing from the week’s content. We are to reflect on that weeks content and do a presentation for the class. My group consisted of 4 people on the topic Creativity and Industry.

Then we had a quick write with our group to discuss our topic. We made some dot points about what we could base our presentation on.

• We have advantages on already known creativity in the industry.
• Base creative around the rules in the industries for the audience.
• Examples in the industries that already work. (Pixar, Disney, Dreamworks etc.).
• Have questions to ask the audience.
• Collective creativity, people who work together.

The requirements of the assessment:

-case study on real life examples, how it may or may not work.
-understand your work
-engage with weekly readings

Presentation:

-Way you present it creatively
-Organised
-Handouts
-Three questions to provide the audience and guide a discussion
-Reference list
-PDF on blackboard on the day of the presentation

After we went through that we were asked to ‘Describe yourself in one paragraph”
We were then asked to post a blog about it on WordPress, which I have already posted previously.

Reference:

The Creative Personality(n.d.) Lecture 3: Creative Personality [Lecture readings] Retrieved from http://blackboard.ecu.edu.au/bbcswebdav/pid-3046727-dt-content-rid-2519424_1/courses/CCA1103.2014.1.METRO/Week4Csikszentmihalyi%281%29.pdf

Image: Tag Archives:Intellegence (n.d.). Albert Einstein [Image]. Retrieved from http://www.quotesworthrepeating.com/tag/intelligence/

Creative Project Updates

So I have gone out an taken some photos for my creative project. I think it went very successfully, and really enjoyed taking them. I got to put make-up on my model to look like she was part of a tribe, along with some on her arm as well. I managed to find a good location, with bush, trees and rocks, with great lighting too. The only problem was that the area didn’t look 100% tribal, but since Australia doesn’t have any tribal looking locations, I decided to stick with what I could get best. The photos turned out really good using my Canon 60D. I have taken lots of photos, different angles, positions and poses, so I have provided you with a sneak peak of one of the images I really like before my editing. As you can see the image looks a bit too bright, with the flash that I used, but I plan to edit my images so hopefully I can successfully make the photos look their best.

Community-based Creativity

This weeks lecture was by James Hall, a radio presenter for RTRFM 92.1. He discussed creativity within the community, basically in the radio industry.

Considering Community:
-It is used in various ways and context, e.g. global and local community.
-Mainstream music doesn’t feed to everyone, stations such as 92.9 and Nova937

Backas explains “Community arts networks unclude community arts agencies, collegues and university, public and private schools, librarys, parks and recreation commisions, non-arts local government agencies, and performing and exhibiting centers, all having in common participation in a support system that developed sustained and delivered arts activities at the community level.” (Backas, 1977)

-Community arts does not aim to build up audience for traditional art forms like theatre, although this may be a spin-off”

Community radio is different from public.

-Commercial radio such as, 96FM, Nova937, 92.9 have no limit to advertising times. Shock jocks, comedians with highly paid staff. Commercial radio stations can be on both the AM and FM bands, and most of these stations commonly base their programming around any number of different music genres, a mix of genres or talk-oriented programs.

-Public Radio include ABC, TripleJ, SBS, which are government owned, no advertising and very strict media laws. Non profit media enterprise. Funded by member stations. Public media include all broadcast, print, and Internet media whose mission is to serve the public rather than to make a profit. Public radio is designed specifically to inform, educate, and enhance the lives of the public.

-Community Radio such as RTRFM, feature music of interest. They broadcast content that is popular and relevant to a local, specific audience but is often overlooked by commercial or mass-media broadcasters. In terms of community radio, ‘community’ means people who listen to the same kind of music, who live in the same area, who have the same cultural background or who have the same educational needs. Community radio offers the listening public access to a more diverse range of music, information, news and views than would otherwise be available from commercial or government-based stations.

So community arts and creativity is dependent of broader commercial interests and influences. Participation is key.

The celebration of global creativity is measured by, and supported by the economic ideology of capitalism.

A work is a succress, or recognised as worth if it makes money (at the box office, on best seller list, at auction etc). For example Game of Thrones, Fifty Shades of Grey and Coldplay.

 

The winner take all society promotes certain voices and silences of others.

The importance of solidarity:
“Artistic creation is demant for unity and a rejection of the world.” Albert Camus, The Rebel, Rebellion and Art.

References:

-Hall, J (2014). Lecture 11: Creative Communities.

-Wikipedia. (2014). Community Radio. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_radio

-Meyer, D. (n.d.). What is the definition of commercial radio. Retrieved from http://www.ehow.com/facts_5923985_definition-commercial-radio_.html

-What do we mean by public media? (2014). Retrieved from http://www.mediareformsc.org/index.php/why-are-public-media-important

-Community Radio. (2010). Retrieved from http://australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/community-radio

-Booms Beat. (n.d.) Game of Thrones. Retrieved from http://www.boomsbeat.com/articles/1095/20140310/50-interesting-facts-about-kerry-washington-a-super-soul-sunday-game-of-thrones-fan.htm

Inspiration on looks (clothes, pose, facial expression)

Pose:

Some more Katy Perry inspiration of pose and costume.

“How to make a Katy Perry ‘Roar’ Costume for halloween” (WonderHowTo, 2013)

 

A very sturdy pose, looking like she is about to fight. A very jungle like pose.

Costume:

“Vintage Leopard Print Fringe Crop Top”(Etsy, 2014)

 

A frayed, tasseled, leopard crop top would tie into my theme very well. I’m thinking putting it with some plain black leggings. I will add jewellery, headbands, possibly a choker.

Look:

Leopards give off a very fearful, frightening, petrifying look. I want to create this look with my model.

“Leopard Photo Gallery”(Discover Wildlife, 2013)

References:

Image: WonderHowTo. (2013) How to make a Katy Perry ‘Roar’ Costume for halloween [Image]. Retrieved from http://halloween-ideas.wonderhowto.com/how-to/make-katy-perry-roar-costume-for-halloween-0149018/

Image: Etsy. (2014) Vintage Leopard Print Fringe Crop Top [Image]. Retrieved from https://www.etsy.com/au/listing/163468973/sexy-vintage-leopard-print-fringe-crop?ref=market

Image: DiscoverWildlife. (2013) Leopard Photo Gallery [Image]. Retrieved from http://www.discoverwildlife.com/gallery/leopard-photo-gallery-greg-du-toit

Creative Project-Change of Mind (second synopsis)

I have now decided to change my Creative Project into a Photography based project.
I have a hobby for taking photos, and I thought that this would be easier than my previous idea which was making a collage. The collage project was based on getting images from magazines and the internet, mostly about fashion. But as this can be very hard to get the exact images you want, and through magazines I am limited in the way that there weren’t very many images I could cut out from them.
Instead I am going to take a series of photos of my sister as a jungle girl in leopard clothes and makeup done to look like she is from the wild. I think that a wild, jungle theme is interesting as you can get different angles with each photo still being unique. I chose this theme as Katy Perry’s song ‘Roar’ inspired me with her very entertaining video clip of her mixing in with the jungle.

I then decided to further extend the Katy Perry’s whole outfit in ‘Roar’ and have decided that I will add some jungle theme makeup to my model. I am going to add some head pieces and jewellery to add to the outfit. It will give more of an effect and will be more appealing to the viewer.

The purpose in this photo shoot is to advertise more themed based photography. To inspire people to take photos that have a theme to it, and to greater extend that idea and possibly make it into a video clip like Katy Perry’s. I think I will very much enjoy this project as a series of photos that no one has seen before.

I plan to take my images on my Canon 60D, to get high quality photos. I will then display it digitally on my blog, but then I will also print the photos for myself.

My target audience is for people who are interested in photography. They are probably going to be interested in theme based photography, as well as photography of people rather than photography of nature like the ocean, forrest, sunsets etc.

 

References:

Image: Marathonmultimedia. (2013) 10 Wilderness Survival Tips We Learned From Watching Katy Perry’s ‘Roar’ Video [Image]. Retrieved from http://www.marathonmultimedia.org/10-wilderness-survival-tips-we-learned-from-watching-katy-perrys-roar-video/

Image: Pintrest. (2013) Welcome to the Jungle [Image]. Retrieved from https://www.pinterest.com/pin/222998619021173520/

Image: Buzznet. (2011) Jungle Girl [Image]. Retrieved from http://natalyaandreya.buzznet.com/photos/highfashionmakeup/?id=64668321

Synopsis-Creative Project

I’m not a hundred percent sure on what I am doing my project on, but I like the idea of making a collage, with fashion bits and pieces put together. As a child I grew up fairly creative, I used to scrapbook all the time, make birthday cards for friends etc. But I have a interest in fashion, photography and drawing, so I was thinking I would put a collage together, maybe about a size of an A3 poster. I would cut out some pictures from magazines, possibly take some of my own photos and then have some of my own drawings merged into the collage. I would be simply cutting and glueing the pictures on paper, taking photos and printing them out and drawing straight onto it. I plan to make it all in black&white, so if all the magazine photos are not black and white I will try and scan them to my computer and edit it from there.
My target audience will be for teens to young adults. Generally anyone interested in fashion and design.

 

 

 

References:

Image 1: Black&White (2013).  [Image]. Retrieved from http://iamturquoise.com/tag/black-and-white/

Image 2: Black&White (n.d.) [Image]. Retrieved from http://www.pinterest.com/pin/86553624061669526/

The Creative Personality

Describe yourself in a paragraph:

I hate talking about myself, it always seems like you may be trying to boast yourself. But i’ll have a go. First of all, I live close to the beach, I love coastal walks, lying down in the warm/hot sand, listening to the waves crashing. It gets your mind thinking about everything. How did we get here? What if I grew up with different friends? How different my personality would be? Quite freaky I must say. Anyway, I consider myself to be quite active, although I do enjoy relaxing at home, watching movies also. I would have to say I’am a bit comedy person. I find that action movies are quite boring. They can surprise me though. Take ‘Taken’ for example. I don’t have a favourite movie/song/book, anything like that. It’s too impossible to answer with one answer.  I have quite a few favourite actors, Seth Rogan, Zach Galifianakis and Jonah Hill. The list could go on..

“The Wolf of Wall Street”(The Independent, 2014)

Featuring Jonah Hill and Leonardo DiCaprio.

I can be quite shy, but I can be quite loud at the same time. I am quite social, although I don’t see my friends too often anymore, we all just have a life of our own at the moment. I like to muck around and have fun, but I can also be quite lazy. The main point is that I enjoy my life, I think I have it quite easy at the moment, no worries, just work, uni and a social life. I love the fashion world. I’am constantly wanting to buy new things, especially clothes and shoes. Although I spend a lot of money on food, my favourite would have to be banana pancakes, with butterscotch sauce. Mmmm. I plan to save up my money and afford to go somewhere out of Australia. Maybe Bora Bora. Although that would be a dream come too soon. I hate planes! I can’t stand being on a plane for more than 5 hours. But if I want to enjoy myself, I’m going to have to suck it up. I’m not that excited for Winter this year, as this year has been probably my best Summer holiday. The cold and rain doesn’t appeal to me right now. Although Winter season falls on my birthday, not such a bad thing, as I will probably enjoy being 20.

The thing is I think people change all the time, but they still stay the same, if that makes sense. We all stay the same, we are brought up different ways, to be polite, kind, respectful or which ever traits you’re brought up with. But as we grow, we have different interests, have different friends and seem to be more mature as we get older. You’d hope so anyway. John Reed, a financial leader states that “Reality is relative and constantly changing.” (The Creative Personality, n.d.). The whole world changes. I was certainly different a year ago.

I’am ‘A great deal of physical energy, but often at rest.’ I find myself active, I try to go to the gym 3-4 times a week. I like to walk along the coast, I enjoy eating out, being surrounded by other people, but then I also enjoy staying inside, watching a movie, browsing YouTube or even just reading magazines. I would not be able to stay at home all day. So without a license, It would seriously be a problem.

‘Playful and disciplined’. I find myself lively and full of fun. I always like to have a laugh and enjoy making people happy. But when things become serious, I can bolt down and get my work done, if I put my mind to it. Its a time where I could choose to procrastinate, which I used to normally do, but if you have a good mindset, achieving what you were suppose to do, it can be rewarding and it makes yourself happy.

References:

Image: The Independent. (2014) The Wolf of Wall Street [Image]. Retrieved from http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/wolf-of-wall-streets-jonah-hill-accepted-just-60000-to-star-as-donnie-9077313.html

The Creative Personality(n.d.) Lecture 3: Creative Personality [Lecture readings] Retrieved from http://blackboard.ecu.edu.au/bbcswebdav/pid-3046727-dt-content-rid-2519424_1/courses/CCA1103.2014.1.METRO/Week4Csikszentmihalyi%281%29.pdf