Wednesday, September 26, 2007
9/26/07 Uncommon Genius 4
Stated simply, it is that creative efforts are neither glib, nor ignorant, but rather stem from a solid base of knowledge...It’s from giving oneself over to the doing that the creator accumulates an intimate fund of knowledge that will inform his efforts. It is through the doing that he exposes the knotty tangle of relevant questions...It is in the act of doing that he opens himself up to the unanticipated directions that may lead him to something new, something useful, something beautiful, something creative. (Shekerjian pg, 74). How are you preparing yourself to be a creative person? Has your liberal arts education contributed to your creativity? Respond to the above quote.
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[First of all, I'm not sure if these comments are supposed to be scholarly or "hey, what's up!?" .. so here goes nothing.] Though I may have always had a strong creative trait, I am just now preparing myself to be a creative person. (After all, I need to be to be able to survive in a Graphic Communications career.) I understand that creativity takes time, as stated in Shekerjian on page 44: "It might come as a disappointment ... to realize that behind any creative piece of work is a lot of earthbound effort..." In the time-consuming task of preparing work for class, the creative process - the 'doing' - can be enjoyable or it can be a huge pain in the you-know-where. Sometimes, I'm not satisfied with the way a project is turning out and don't have the time to start over. On other occasions, I just don't have the time - period - because I have such a huge amount of incomplete work to finish for other courses (extremely stressful this semester.. don't overload.. ever). Basically, I'm still learning how to manage my workload, both school and my job hours, yet still place my major's courses as top priority. Since I've always been somewhat of an overachiever, I can't bear to see other grades slip as Graphic Communications courses prevail. However, those liberal arts courses contribute to my creativity as well.
Creative Photo is a great learning process and further enforces the fundamentals of art. Experiencing the Arts also enforces these fundamentals, but also exposes me to theatrical works I would have never attended on my own. New material and inspiration is always welcome, I'm just not motivated enough to go looking for it (forgive me). What intrigues me the most is the insane connections between almost all of my six courses this fall. Accounting directly relates to the management aspects of Challenge of Business. Topics read about and discussed in American Experience (Colonial times) inspired a thesis for a paper in Challenge of Business that also relates to my major (go figure). The book on management that we are currently reading in COB also occasionally touches upon the same points Shekerjian emphasizes. I read over something new in a book for whichever class, and immediately connect it to something I just learned in another. Wasn't one of the MacArthur Award recipients talking about being able to make connections? Basically, I'm learning to utilize what I have to the fullest.
How I am fully preparing myself to become a creative person is by exposing my mind to everything that I can get into. For example I am taking on various jobs, clubs and activities to see what else is out there besides Graphic Design. By having this broad spectrum of knowledge, I am able to look into different aspects of my creative mind, just incase one day it is needed for my career in graphic communications. I feel that in order to be creative, it’s not the knowledge of the medium that is needed, it’s knowing the knowledge of your client in order to sell your design. In other words if I know what my client’s job is, I can help produce what my client wants. That’s how you become successful in this career. By having the liberal arts education it is also allowing me to broaden my horizons in my creativity. By taking classes in math, science, reading, business, and in history its allowed me to become a well rounded person by exposing my mind to everything. By not having a tunneled education in graphic communications I feel I have a slight advantage in my education, as opposed to people who have. As with the quote selected I truly agree with what it is stating. I agree with the fact that having a well rounded knowledge boosts your creativity in anything, not just with graphic design but in life as well.
It is my understanding that it is very hard to be creative when you have no knowledge about that subject. Creativity is more of a chance happening that takes knowledge to put to use. For example, if you have no idea how to design a poster, it would be quite hard to come up with a creative idea. How can you tell the difference? If you have no idea how something works or operates, you cannot expect to magically know how to implement a “creative idea.”
A liberal arts education prides itself on making everything relevant to each person’s intended field of study, or at least fulfilling the “why would I ever need this” factor. I might not be an English major, but it is rather hard to write anything without having some knowledge of conventional grammar. Shekerjian says that you need a “solid base of knowledge,” and that fits in with the ideal liberal arts education (74). In a rather basic example, I can use a play on words because I know the fundamentals of grammar.
But the best way I am preparing myself to be a creative person is by allowing myself to think outside the box, if you will. I don’t need to go with the first thing that pops into my head, and I know enough never to completely scrap any idea. It is from your mistakes that you learn the most. Things you know, see, hear, or can remember best influence creative ideas. Like a group brainstorm session, certain words or ideas can instantaneously produce an idea of some sort. The human mind works in weird ways, and someone saying “tapioca” can possibly trigger an idea.
So why choose a liberal arts education? Because you are truly surrounded by people whom by nature think on different wavelengths, if you will, and help me to see things that I wouldn’t normally. Is creativity not just a unique answer to a common question, or as Shekjian says, “something new, something useful, something beautiful, something creative” (74)? It would be something new in a design sense to approach something from the perspective of a history major. If I just wanted to learn the programs, I’d go to a tech school. That’s what you’d expect. So, in a sense by going to a liberal arts school, I’ve taken one step to becoming a more creative person.
Over many years I have had a closed minded thought process, where I have an Idea and I only go with the one. It was too complicated for me to just throw a bunch down and pick one, so I usually took the easy way out. But that was then and this is now. To be more creative I usually spend time alone alot, but sometimes its even better when I am not alone, but surrounded by people. I just watch and observe life around me, soak in everything, and let my mind process it. Although my mind is all over the place now and then, I find it to be helpful in the process of being creative. And I believe that my liberal arts education is a large contribution to my creativity because it has shown me the different directions I can take, looking at more then one perspective, and it has tought me ways to filter myself through my work, to be original.
Well an obvious answer first, extending my education by attending college and eventually grad school will help prepare me to be creative. I am interested in so many things and I enjoy studying all kinds of fields. I believe that many things are connected in lots of different ways; studying one field could help my creativity in another. I’ve also been researching what architecture is all about; I want to know who major architects are, why they are so known and why they’re doing the work they’re doing. I also want to know past architects, and famous buildings, and styles of designs. Basically I would like to learn anything I possibly can about the subject my career will spring from. But I don’t think just research will prepare me for much; I plan on completing an internship at an architecture firm before grad school. Actually working with someone and learning directly about architecture by doing will hopefully prepare me, at least for grad school. However I don’t think I’ll ever be completely prepared to say I know I can create something creative. I won’t know if I can until I get there, and start doing it, and I think that’s when I’m going to learn the most; once I’ve seen what I can do wrong I’ll be able to see what I can do great. And I doubt I’ll have an amazing idea until I’ve pursued hundreds of bland ones.
I think as long as you’re dong something, that something can help you be creative, and sometimes the things you don’t plan and least expect will help you the most. Most importantly, you have to keep your mind open and take in everything you possibly can.
A liberal arts education has definitely helped me, because of the fact that I enjoy learning so diversely. Being here gives me the opportunity to study all kinds of fields without it hurting my chance to graduate, unlike schools that force you focus specifically on your major.
To me this quote means that most importantly it takes knowledge and experience to get, well, just about anywhere. The word "doing" is repeated three times which emphasizes the need for experience. Do it, make it, redo it, think about it, change it, and keep doing it, and eventually something great will come out.
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