The Creative Collector

Since the start of the Masters degree programme at Swansea College of Art, which began with the thought experiment module, I have been on a mission to collect as much information and experiments revolving around creativity as I can..

I have become a collector of creative experiments, games and tests, in the aim of eventually sharing these experiments in the Creative laboratories, which will begin as a fake company in the Faketrix Universe, exploring creative ideas through video, then in time moving into more of a reality setting where it can develop into more of an actual business exploring creativity, and teaching creativity, becoming a creative consultant in a way, going to businesses, schools, colleges and helping groups of people to think more creatively in an ever expanding and changing world of employment, and non employment.

The plan would be to explain the concept behind the business in an artistic, comedic sense, playing with creativity and fictional characters, relating it back to my personal practice and building a following before slowly introducing actual online workshops and other physical events, essentially, proving my own creativity through the use of the fictional world before teaching creativity.

I feel like this is something that isn't addressed in current creative education, we get lectures online at the moment that are about creative thinking, but usually done in the most un creative way.. a lecturer in a box on a screen talking at you for two hours whilst flicking through an over crowded PowerPoint presentation, this is by no means in disrespect, I've learned a lot, atleast for the amount of time I've been able to sit through these lectures. And this way of working, teaching, and learning is still brand new, forced upon us throughout the Covid pandemic, but it's the obvious thing to do, jump on teams and talk for two hours... And it's not just in my current lectures, it's across the board, anything I've searched online, other online lectures or video series, video lectures, they're all the same and it's got me thinking about the physical lectures I was apart of during my BA degree, the physical ones, I couldn't sit through them either... maybe it's a fundamental issue with lecturing in general.. it's just boring, no matter how interesting the subject matter.

Now, I respect that in general at Degree level and especially MA degree level, there's a certain amount of information that simply needs to be put in front of the students, which can lead to the obvious talking at students for two hours..

What I've realised through this research is that I have been incredibly lucky in my own life to have had people teach creative thinking to me through out my higher education journey, it started with the creative Media production Diploma and extends through to the BA and now on to the MA, I have been taught about creativity, and how to expand my creative thinking through formal education in specific 'creative learning' classes. This is something students on most education pathways don't get.

I believe that creative thinking is going to be one of, if not the most important factor in employability in the not so distant future. Due to robotic technology, artificial intelligence, un manned machinery and automated services, jobs are slowly being lost, some are replaced with other jobs, yet others go extinct.

It's something like 80% of all jobs that will exist in the future, don't exist right now. Our kids, and grand kids will be doing all kinds of weird and wonderful jobs, some we cant even begin to imagine what they could entail.. So how do we prepare our kids, and the future of the human race, and even ourselves, for a future where we have no idea what kind of jobs are going to exist.. In a world where any mathematic equation can be done, at the moment on your phone, but in the very near future, can be done much more instantly within your glasses or whatever neurochip technology will exist.. which would mean the same for any skills based profession that can be learned very quickly, and machinery and technology make it incredibly diverse in terms of who can work these skilled jobs.. essentially taking skill out of the equation... The only thing that we will have left that will be totally ours, and a factor that can be highlighted to employers, is how creatively you can think. Coming up with new ideas, different ways of doing thinks, looking at problems in a diverse way, using less materials, saving companies money etc, all through creative thinking.

With this being said, it suddenly becomes incredibly important how creative education is delivered, if it's (from a certain point of view) one of, if not the most important education you can receive in terms of thinking about the future of the planet.. it really bugs me that creativity is taught in such an uncreative way.

I believe that that 'thought experiment', the way it was delivered, the freedom it give, and the concept of starting in one place, and literally building from it without a goal, was the best, most inspirational, mind bending and futuristic module I've ever undergone. It was a mixture of pure freedom in play, artistic development and the constant reminder not to head towards a final outcome was just liberating. I think this way of educating is something that needs to be implemented throughout the whole of the education system, and importantly, not just in the arts and design courses. I think it's important that creativity is explored across the board, in maths, sciences and business studies.. there in no innovation with out creativity.

It starts at grass routes, in the important stage of a child's brain development, before a child is 5 years old they're brain grows to 80% of what it will grow in to. It's incredibly important to teach creativity from as early as 1 years old, through creative play, circling back round to Anji play and the castle project I've been working on, although I have made a conscious effort to not stick to any one project throughout this module, and give myself the freedom to move from one interest to the next without feeling bad about it, everything is still very much connected, this is creativity, it's the combining of multiple points of interest and research, it's the bringing together and forcing of ideas into the same space. It's the taking of inspiration from one place and seeing how it fits with another idea or project.

I've been working on writing some creative workshops. These are very loose, early drafts that could be taught both online and in physical space. they aim to combine both physical play and experimentation with written and lectured information, I'm looking into creative ways of delivering these workshops/lectures.

I feel that teaching creativity in a very normal environment, in the same way you'd lecture about history or whatever, is just not it. I believe that when presenting a case for creativity, it should be presented in a creative way...

Actually, I'm completely contradicting myself by presenting this blog in a very normal way of presenting a blog, whilst presenting a case for creativity..

Alright... So this is an absolute prime example of how the Thought experiment changed my way of thinking.. This is a simple blog that I have to write and submit as part of my research during the Masters Degree, something I haven't really been that thrilled about doing.. Keeping myself free without an end goal, has helped me come up with.. what ever the fuck this is:

The mask has come from the start of the thought experiment project when I started 'playing the animal', but I never used it, until today. I uploaded that first video and placed it in a file I just decided to call 'lab rat documentation', which reminded me of the start of the thought experiment project, and this latex piece I made.. Putting things together through association is something that I have for some reason avoided in the past, I think maybe due to the 'genius complex' which I will talk about in the future.. but at it's core is a belief that creative ideas are something that are inside an individual, that are 'brought out', as if creativity is this mythical thing that few people poses, and developing an idea from anywhere else other than your own thoughts, is like cheating... This is a huge problem in the market of creativity as experimentation and association, through thought and play are where ideas come from.

So, who is this lab rat dude and what's his purpose in all this? I have absolutely no idea, but I look forward to exploring him with you in the future of these now creatively presented blog posts presenting a case for creativity..