Friday 11 January 2008

A Creative Summery

I decided that it is finally time to draw my thoughts about creativity to a close. Over the past few weeks I’ve tried to break the huge topic of creativity down into smaller more digestible chunks so that they make more sense to me.

The first question that I thought was how do I know that I’m creative? I couldn’t really answer that, as I just knew that I was creative. My interests have always leaned towards more creative pursuits I never really wanted to do anything else. I didn’t strive to be athletic or academic but I always knew that I wanted to do something creative with my life. However that didn’t really answer my question to why I, personally was creative. How was I creative?

I would constantly draw, I would write and did some acting, and if there was ever a project at school I would always make sure that I was head of its art direction. Being creative was something that I was proud of and enjoyed. I guess I was creative in a linear way, as I wasn’t really creative in a logical way, I didn’t like maths or science, I enjoyed history but only because I could doodle in that class and no one would really notice. When I think about my whole life, I’ve always been that way. In my other posts I stated that creativity could be linked to the things. It can be linked as being something new or solving a problem. My own personal creative stems from my life choices and my interests, I fit a creative type.

Creativity is one of those funny words that have so many meanings and guises that I can’t really say that Creativity = X, it’s more like Creativity = X+ Y with a bit of Z. It can’t really be defined with one word. It’s just a very vague word that could mean one thing but also mean a completely different thing entirely. However since it stems from the word create, creativity will always mean to create. Being creative means having the drive, will and passion to create something that been nestled in your thoughts for some time, to produce something that you and others haven’t seen before.


Although it stems from the word create, Creativity is not bound to that one word alone. Creativity is the form of fun, enjoyment, emotion, interactivity and productivity. Creativity is constantly around us in every little detail. On my desk is some Cadburys Digestive biscuits, now somebody had the thought of the biscuit, someone had the thought of chocolate, then somebody had to have the thought of combining the two. Why are the biscuits circler, why aren’t they square, why aren’t the biscuits thicker or thinner? Who made the decision to have the packet purple, who is the company called Cadburys? Just in one packet of biscuits, which seems so trivial, has so many creative decisions involved, and this is only the one packet of biscuits that we see that made it to the production line, imagine all the designs that were made but never used, the designs that were thought but never placed on paper.


My other point is the creative process, since our thoughts move so quickly and we have so many of them at what point to we decide to follow on with some thoughts but let others slip and forget them. What makes us decided to make the creative decision to draw something one-way and not another. We don’t really question our own thoughts as we just go with them as we trust them, listening to other peoples thoughts makes you question your own thoughts in comparison and judge them more, which is why setting a task where everyone has the same word (like what we have been doing in Art with Chris.) however nobody has the same result. Everyone has a different creative process that they go through to reach the final design. I like to think of it as a thought tournament of some sort, where at the very top, the winner is the final design. There were loads of very small quick thoughts that were creativity dismissed and the winner would have much more thought put into to it.

The creative process can be just as important as the final creative product since everyone handles it differently; everyone has different taste and experiences to draw their inspiration from, since no one shares the same memories or ideas the chance of having an exact copy of someone else product is pretty much impossible. People can have very similar ideas considering how they have been brought up, for example most people have the same conception that sharks are powerful, ferocious and frightful creatures so would be good as a villain. So coquencidences like that are bound to occur.

I think that humans had to be creative to survive, if you think of how many different cultures have formed with different style of art, music and speech. I think that it is only human nature to strive to be creative to set themselves apart from others, to seek individuality as part as a group. Many things are based on circumstance, such as expansion of a colony, invasions and resources to have things are done and how we speak and interact with each other. If humans weren’t naturally creative then there would only be two or three names for everything that existed and the wheel would never of been created. It was creative process as names were something new and the wheel was solving a problem.

However humans aren’t the only things that are creative, I also believe in creative design. That everything on this planet has been shaped to intelligent and creative design. Early man had many forms, however some early designs were flawed and therefore died out leaving only the intelligent designs to keep evolving. Everything fits in so well, like a perfect jigsaw puzzle, that everything has been evolved to solve a problem, such as our eyebrows, which keep the sweat out of our eyes, I believe that it is intelligent and creative design. The African lions are coloured so they blend in with the grass, male birds are more colourful and elaborate to attract females. Creative design has shaped the planet and humans being the more dominant species is shaping it to suit it’s own need. The planet is seeing natural creativity and man made creativity all at once.

Well I’m tried to summarize my thoughts on creativity. The journey has been long and tiring. I’ve tried to keep it varied and interesting and I’ve hoped that you have enjoyed reading my blogs.

Thursday 10 January 2008

The future of creativity

At the moment Britain seems to flagging behind as a creative power in the world, gone are the days of the British Empire where we use to export useful materials such as iron, coal and china and be known for it. Now we just import pretty much everything we use, do you remember the last time you saw something that said, “Made in Britain”. We aren’t really leading in anything like education, medicine, transport or technology or even art, in a way I just think it’s kind of sad that Britain is really producing any pioneers in the fields anymore.

I was just thinking about the future of creativity in Britain since more and more games art courses are cropping up throughout Britain to try and keep up to date with technology. I believe that I read something ridiculous something that Britain is about 13 years behind Korea in terms of technology. However, industries that Britain was famous for such as the industrial revolution is slowly fading away. For instance I live in Dudley also know as the Black Country because it was covered in black smog from the working factories however the government is slowly investing money into the area to bring new business and higher-class families into the area. I believe the same can be said about Tesside University getting tons of funding into their game design course since they have lost one of the biggest industries that they had, so the government is placing more money into a new technology.

If I think about where this industry is going then I kind of worry, as Britain doesn’t house that many game developers and it seems that I might have more chance of getting a job elsewhere. However the fact that Britain has any game developers is quite hopeful.

I do think that we were promised at lot of new gadgets to improve life such as the flying car, jetpack and robots where creative technology hasn’t really gone that far that and is still slowly catching up with our creative ideas. However as long as Britain recognizes that it needs to put funding into new technology such as game design then only then are we going to keep up with the rest of the world.

In terms of creativity I do think that we are on a par with the world, I wouldn’t say that our creativity is stifled be where we live however there isn’t as much opportunity to work on huge blockbusters or really expensive projects when mostly things like that happen in America where most big budget studios are formed.

However one thing that I really hate being exported into Britain from America is Political correctness and I do think that is stifling not only creativity but also freedom of speech. I do think that a lot of projects are only given the thumbs up from officials if they tick all the boxes. Such as children’s programs have to have morels and can’t really be just a fun program. If children aren’t learning from it then it isn’t any good. Same can be said for movies, it’s like they have figured out a formula that works and makes money so just keep making the same movies over and over again till all the movies are just a remake of a remake with some new fancy title and just another overpaid actor that funnily enough can’t really act. The same thing with games, I wouldn’t really say that sequels are made to expand the story anymore they are just a tool to keep growing the title and suckering more people to keep buying. Such as the final fantasy series, it’s great that with every new game they make a new storyline and new characters as well as trying to expand on the gameplay however there is also Final Fantasy X-2, a horrid sequel only getting sales because of it’s predecessor Final Fantasy X. Also let us not forget Dirge of Cerberus and how it rode on the white horse of Final Fantasy 7 and Advent Children to gain publicity for this shoddy title.

Anyway the point that I am trying to make is that creativity is slowly being dwindled from the industry from fat cats that only wish to fatten their wallets and therefore will just stick to the same old patented formula and produce meager titles. However there are those ingenious titles that occasionally get through however when they do, everyone seems to realize this and then whore it out.

Brooding = Creativity

I had meant to include this in the last post that I did but I felt that it would just be easier having a blog of its own. The Topic that I kind of want to touch upon is the misconception that every artist is this broody self-loathing, body-scarring manic-depressive. Personally I’m not a tortured soul and I yet I do art, surely not!


What I am going to explore is creativity darker side since all artists, poets and writers have this stereotypical view of being sick twisted individuals and I would like to know why this is so. Many scientists believe that individuals with complex brain habits such as bipolar disorder, TB and epilepsy have a more heighten sense of creativity.

Creativity and bipolar disorder

There is a common belief, although without empirical basis, that many famous historical figures gifted with creative talents have been affected by bipolar disorder.[1] Many of these have been retroactively "diagnosed" as suffering from bipolar disorder after their deaths based on letters, correspondence, contemporaneous accounts, or other material, most notably in Kay Redfield Jamison's book Touched with Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament.[3]. Touched With Fire presents the argument that bipolar disorder may be found in a disproportionate numbers of people with creative talent such as artists, comedians, musicians, authors, performers, poets, and scientists, and some credit the condition for their creativity.

Several recent clinical studies have also suggested that there is a positive correlation between creativity and bipolar disorder, although it is unclear what the relationship is between the two.[4][5][6] Temperament may be an intervening variable.[5]

A 2005 study at the Stanford University School of Medicine showed for the first time that a sample of children who either have or are at high risk for bipolar disorder score higher on a creativity index. Children with bipolar parents who were not bipolar themselves also scored higher.[7]

As Quoted by wikipedia .



So is this where creative types get their dark stereotype? That the most talented of all artists were very deep and disturbed? Surprisingly it reads true as most of the most the most famous artistic names such as Van Gogh, Edvard Munch and Monet all had such problems that affected their personal lives as well as their art. Monet had failing eyesight that caused him being one of the leading artists in impressionism. Munch was surrounded by death and therefore most his paintings surrounded that topic and yet Van Gogh was so caught up in his own depression it eventually drove him to suicide.


http://student.bmj.com/back_issues/1201/life/471.html

So our greatest painting minds are tortured souls that lives are strife with depression and death. Is that why they can paint so well? My belief is that to have an emotion to tap into whilst working can bring a lot more personality to whatever your working on but to go so far and torture yourself for the sake of your art is completely another thing entirely.


Someone told me that going into Art will never be much personal satisfaction into my life as I would be my own worst enemy and worst critic. After finishing a drawing I am never pleased with it and always strive to do better although doing this means that I will constantly try to improve it also means that I won’t get any satisfaction or pride finishing a piece. Perhaps that is what these artists also went through.



Perhaps leading a life of happiness of personal fulfilment would mean that these artists wouldn’t have been as successful as they were when they were brooding and miserable. Van Gogh only sold one painting in his lifetime so he wasn’t exactly a popular artist however what is fascinating about him is the tragedy that surrounded his life. I don’t think the story of Van Gogh would be quite as interesting with a “happy ever after” added to the end of it. I think secretly people love the idea of a tortured soul and a grim tale. This also reminds me of Nirvana whose front man Kurt Cobain whose rising success and drug use pushed him to take his own life. However since he took his life at the height of his fame he will always be known as a musical genius where as most musical talent have their 15 minutes with fame and then disappear out of the spotlight and get forgotten.



I think the idea of a dark brooding artist is a romantic idea but not that close to reality since everyone has their dark moments but won’t really put any energy into it to creative something out of it like a artists, writer or poet would. The only reason that they probably come across so dark is that at the end of it you can see the product of a deep emotion.

However I think that in this day and age that too many have cottoned on to this idea of a deep brooding soul and decided to make a new trend of it. Being labelled “Emo” isn’t necessarily a bad thing as it stands for emotional.


In recent years, emo, in the popular media, has been associated with a stereotype that includes being emotional, sensitive, shy, introverted, or angsty.[18][19][20] It is also associated with depression, self-injury, and suicide.[21][22]


As quoted by wikipedia

However since it has became so popular it has became common belief that you have to act that way to fit in with that crowd. I can’t imagine acting suicidal being good for anyone. However not only is it associated with depression and such it is also associated with art and music. However type in Emo art in google image search and you’ll see that emo art is becoming more of a movement in art as well as music.


Any the point that I am trying to make is that an artist is often that off as a dark brooding soul as the French romantics saw it that way but also now in our day an age the new movement of emo also adds fuel to the fire of this misconception with emotional music and art. However all I can say is that I don’t really know any dark emotionally scarred people and I’ve been on many art courses…


And now for some uplifting entertainment of a game (which is named Emogame funnily enough). You play as Alkaline Trio vs Hell, and you get to fight Hitler so it’s all good. Click Here

Front Line Creativity

I thought that for this blog that I would a little bit more about different types of creativity as I feel that I’ve only kept close to the kind of creativity that I’m involved with and wanted to stray from this and do some further exploring on the topic.

Shall I start with the obvious types that stem from the typical sort such as Art, Music and Drama which in most people’s opinion are the most creative, I would agree since creativity can be defined as “something new” which all those subject exhibit. New Art is made everyday which hasn’t been seen before, music gets made which hasn’t been heard before and films get made which haven’t been seen before. So what is my point?


Well creativity is also pinned down as “solving a problem” so does this also reach out to other topics such as Maths, Science and Medicine since they all solve problems albeit that those problems have cropped up time and time again only to be solved using the same creative solution. The question is that is that really even considered creativity since it isn’t something new, since there is already a solution to most problems in these fields. A mathematician is going to know that the answer to 10 + 10 will always equal 20 no matter how many times he repeats the problem, the solution is stable and never changing. Ask an artist to paint a flower everyday the outcome will constantly change as the solution is dependable on variables such as the artists ability, the mood, the atmosphere, the weather and lighting and on time. The point that I am trying to make is that as creativity is defined as being


  • Something New
  • Solving a problem

So if I’m looking at creativity in that light then isn’t only fair to say that anything has an air of creativity since it can be based on different variables and yet at the same time a stable solution to a problem. There are many problems that surround the topic creativity such as are we born creative? Can we be taught to be creative? Are people only creative in one aspect in their lives?


I do believe that people are born creative; everyone is creative however some are more liberal to how and where they apply their creativity in their lives. Life choices may shape how they choose to be creative but I do honestly believe that everyone is creative as is it evident in speech, letters, homes etc. However I do also think that once it goes past a certain point some people rely on so called “creative types” such as artist, writer, actors etc to be creative for them as they don’t believe that they a creative type themselves. I also believe that some people have better skills and are more suited to doing some things then other people are such as some people are more logical and practical minded and would make a much better scientist then say an actor and would probably enjoyed that type of field more. That is where that individual would spend his creativity, just because he isn’t in the typical “creative” field doesn’t mean that he isn’t creative.


The word creativity is derived from the word create so does this mean that people who create something new such as inventors, artists and writers are the only truly creative people? I surly doubt it, as I think that people that create are more “spontaneously” creative and that people that solve a problem with a creative solution are more “logically” creative. I imagine it that if it was a creative war then all the artists, poets, writers, actors, musicians and photographers would be at the front line taking the hits from the enemy as we are all on show displaying how creative we are and then just as we are about to get our asses kicked the cavalry ride in which are made up of Teachers, Scientists, Chefs and Programmers to save us as the enemy didn’t expect them (not sure why I decided to add this but just summarized what I was thinking about at the time.) . That probably made much more sense in my head then out in the open like this.


Anyway I thought I would leave some links on truly amazing creative things.
Proving that it is good to play with your food. Creating chocolate sculptures. Click here
Check Out this Nathan Sawaya's Lego Sculptures : Click here

Wednesday 9 January 2008

Refrain from going to the water cooler..

Just a cool video on creativity which I thought I would share.
Makes a lot of good points, and has a great backing beat.

Just some quick links

Just thought that these might be useful to some people.

Since we are going to be tackling a group project soon I thought that this article would be fairly interesting as these students were going though a similar situation. Click Here

Since it is the new year, this articles gives some hints and tips for some resolutions regarding game design. Click here.

Something for the girls regarding the 360 and the male population. Click here.

Interesting and a rather bitchy post about game design, worth a read if you haven't got nothing better to do. Click here.

A great site for Art called Character designs, an Artists resource - don't really need to say much more. Click here.

A site which hosts monthly 3D competitions, worth a look. Click here.

Well that's about it, if I see anything else more interesting I'll be sure to post them.

Games – The ultimate in creativity?

I wonder how my life would have been in I never discovered games? I wouldn’t be University doing this particular course and perhaps many people would simply scoff at the sheer amount of hours that I’ve “wasted” playing games. Simply put if I was born say 15 years ago I wouldn’t of really had the opportunity to do what I’m doing now, I wouldn’t have been able to put my faith into a university course to teach me the fundamentals of game design.


Game design courses are becoming more and more popular across the county and more tailored courses and campuses are cropping up such as DigiPen, a campus dedicated to creative technology - http://www.digipen.edu/main/Main_Page . Since this a fairly new career the hardest part would perhaps be finding lecturers that have had enough experience in the field to teach young and new hopefuls.


Having is picking Game Design an easy career choice, is it taking the easy way out? Since doing art the attitude that I always received was that it was an easy choice after all drawing is surely easy, right? It’s not like I was doing “real” work such as maths and science. This attitude towards the creative industries in my school such as Art and Graphics ensured that so many students enrolled in those classes expecting an easy ride and once things got that bit harder stopped coming or simply dropped out. It exactly the same with this course I feel, the class started with about 48 and now we are down to just 30? I think that some people thought that they liked playing games and thought it would just been 3 years of doing just that. Once some people figured out that it was a bit harder then they expected they stopped coming.


Now this brings me off the point slightly and might sound a tad superficial but when having my hair cut at the hairdressers they always ask me the same questions, if I am going on holiday and What course I’m doing at University, and for some reason I never say Game Art Design since saying this it just brings a lot more questions and most people simply don’t know what the hell Game Art is. One of the girls thought it entailed making board games and stated that she loved monopoly.


For some reason saying that you’re doing Game Art doesn’t really get as much respect as say doing Graphics simply because it’s such a new course. People just think I’m just doing an “Arty” course, which obviously has no work and no deadlines, yeah right. It’s hard work and time consuming and not just an easy choice. I don’t think that anyone on this course has found it a cakewalk and if they have then they should already be in the industry.


When I look back at starting that god damn wheelie bin and how hard it seemed at the time and take a look at what I’m doing now in comparison then it brings this into perspective, at times I do wish we had a lot more input from the tutors to prepare us for the second year and third however it pushes me to learn it for myself. I just think that with the rise of popularity of gaming over the years that it should be a bit more recognised as a creative industry by now instead as the “fun, slacker choice”.


For example here is the infamous Westwood College advertisment, showing off their game design course in rather bad taste. It’s really badly acted too…just plain awful. LoL tighten up the GRAPHICS a little bit…because making games is just that easy don’t you know.


Game design should start being seen as an educational progress instead of just something recreational. Something that was interesting to read was this article on game courses, at least worth a good read

http://www.gamecareerguide.com/features/469/innovation_or_vocation_the_.php?page=2

Well this turned more into a rant then a post.