Keep the Creative Juices Flowing - Issue #5 - About Creating
Hey! Ciao!
so happy to see you again and I hope to find you ok!
What's new in this newsletter?
One thing in the Catch All section.
I have a lots of things I would like to share and tell you but I do not want to bore you to with a "Don Quixote" size text. I want to be fun, to make you smile and make you actually want to hear from me... so what?
I made a video to tell you everything!
It's an experiment and it would be so helpful if you can tell me what do you think about it, about the length, if you like the idea or rather prefer reading, things like these... Ok?
Second thing is that I'll try to make this newsletter more practical by adding things you can use straight away (like the map you'll find below and the making of video, just to start ).
Let's go.
What am I Creating?
What we aim for when we start the final step of the Creative process?
Sometimes is crystal clear, sometimes is a jump in the dark we deliberately take for the sake of experimenting.
There are both objective and subjective reasons to engage in the creation of something and, when we reach the "done" point, the main goal is to be happy with what we did.
But, wait a second, can we measure happiness? Not really, however, we can be compassionately critical about our creation.
This map is the result of years of messing up and a few successes.
Creativity builds up on Creativity and the Creative process itself for a single Creation is an infinite source of Signals and Dots.
Then, It is important not to rush the "done" phase. As a mountaineer and climber I used to say that the next climb start at the top of the previous wall.
That is very wrong.
I learned to take my time, to look around, to enjoy being alive and at the top and savoring the sour-sweet feeling that, once you are at the top, the only way is down.
Give this a try, seriously. You may not agree with me about perfection but just consider the relativity.
No, I’m not bringing Einstein in this :) , I’m just saying that perfection lies in a relative place according to the point of reference you use to establish the "perfectness".
And the same is for the opposite, the so called fail which, by the way, in the context of a Creative process, it’s not "a thing".
Let us listen to our elders and adjust a bit the old motto:
Creativity is like the hog: we use everything, the oink too!
Signals&Dots
fun: Minimalist Games
Do you remember Snake? That game on our old,old,old phones? This is something like that: o simple and immediate to be addictive. Thomas Palef masters the art of creating minimalist games. If this is not Creativity... nothing is!
think: Stop Worrying and Start Using Your Fancy China
This post is not directly related to Creativity but I like it because... it happens to me all the time! Those beautiful beautiful notebooks with wonderful paper, that piece of good wood... the things I jealously treasure and keep for the time I do something special with them. Yeah, they get old, the paper becomes yellow and the wood get forgotten waiting to that special occasion.
think: Jodi Picoult: “You can’t edit a blank page.”
The last seven books Jodi Picoult has written have all hit number 1 on the New York Times bestseller list. In an interview with Noah Charney, she talks about her approach to writing and creating…
I don’t believe in writer’s block. Think about it — when you were blocked in college and had to write a paper, didn’t it always manage to fix itself the night before the paper was due? Writer’s block is having too much time on your hands. If you have a limited amount of time to write, you just sit down and do it. You might not write well every day, but you can always edit a bad page. You can’t edit a blank page.
This is a snippet of a larger post titled The Daily Routines of 12 Famous Writers . This is AWESOME and perfectly summarize one of the concepts I depicted above AKA Creativity block or failure is NOT a thing!
think: Desirable Difficulties: When Harder is Better for Learning
This post by Scott Young is almost perfect for this issues. It is an interesting companion of the last sketchnote and it's an introduction the the "Challenges" and "Discovery Journeys" projects that I will explore in the next issue.
The Catch All
Hello again! Welcome to the "experimental" Catch all" Section!
I'd like to tell you a story about a Creative Journey the led me to what many may call failure but, for me, turned out to be a success.
Have you ever heared about Dorodango? Here a couple of video about that.
I find it fascinating and I wanted to try to make one since... ages. The real obstacle is that it's a messy process and I really don't dare to do it in my small house.
But I want to try it so badly.
So here the "experiment": rather than a loooooong and boring read, I made a video. Let we talk!
Do you like this kind of video? Let me know if you want more!
Plus, if you have a couple more minutes, here is a "making-of" of the ball and a bit of the blackbird.
Ok... why I'm telling you this story?
Because this can be seen as "discovering hot water" by some people but, for me, it was a very important learning experience.
I'm particularly biased about paper and cardboard that are my go-to materials for rapid prototyping (I'll talk about the go-to set in the next issue too) and I'm always experimenting to find new, creative and fun ways to make things with them.
It's not by chances, I believe, that the following link popped up in my Refind feed.
Found Text Weaves New Narratives in Sculptures of Common Objects by Cecilia Levy | Colossal — www.thisiscolossal.com Colossal | Art, design, and visual culture
My Stuff - Support
Here is Phrenville!
Phrenville is a card game. The goal is to challenge the players to draw a city in a specific style by adding elements and features that needs to be “translated” in the city style.
This is a game for people who love to draw, regardless to their level or skill. This game will give them a great opportunity and a challenging occasion to improve their skills, playing with others will create opportunities to share, to ask for suggestions, to see how other people draw.
One of the early players gave this definition of the game: “it definitely is a game about just letting go, don’t over think it, don’t let experiences or life dictate, just let you hand speak for itself”.
Here you can find the Official Guidelines and you can learn more about Phrenville You can get your copy on The Game Crafter
That’s it!
As always, thank you so much for reading this issue! I
Of course if you have suggestions or ideas I’d LOVE to hear from you, just reply to this email or DM on Twitter, even if we don’t follow each other
Stay Awesome
Stay Creative
Hope to see you the next time: June, 6th 2022 h7.30 AM CEST sharp!
Ciao
Mauro