A6BairdSmithCunningham
A6BairdSmithCunningham
To Do
- please work as a group (minimum: 2 members; max: 6 members) and submit one answer as a group (clearly identifying the members of your group)
- read Fischer, G., Giaccardi, E., Eden, H., Sugimoto, M., & Ye, Y. (2005) "Beyond Binary Choices: Integrating Individual and Social Creativity," International Journal of Human-Computer Studies (IJHCS) Special Issue on Computer Support for Creativity (E.A. Edmonds & L. Candy, Eds.), 63(4-5), pp. 482-512.
Task 1
Critically evaluate the following two claims based on the arguments in the reading assignment (the claims are from: Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1996) Creativity - Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention, HarperCollins Publishers, New York, NY):- "An idea or product that deserves the label 'creative' arises from the synergy of many sources and not only from the mind of a single person."
- to do: comment whether this argument is valid? can you think of exceptions?
- to do: reflect on your own creativity (or major achievements)- does the argument apply to them?
- "It is easier to enhance creativity by changing conditions in the environment than by trying to make people think more creatively."
- to do: provide examples and analyze features/requirements of systems which "change the environment" to enhance creativity.
Task 2
Section 4 of the Paper lists four "Examples of Environments That Support Creativity"; for each four examples, say in one sentence- what you found interesting and
- uninteresting or missing
Group response
- 1. Members of the Group
- Will Baird, Matt Smith, and Dara Cunningham
- 2. Task 1
Task 1 - Matt
I think the argument in the first quote is not correct 100% of the time, but is a very insightful argument. For instance if a programmer creates a creative solution to a problem then it has not been from the synergy of any sources but his mind, it could be argued that his experiences and learnings in life caused him to be creative but they are all a part of him at this point. #bubblec("However great creativity like the idea of gravity was sparked from an apple falling from a tree", "Do you really think that Newton didnt spend a lot of time thinking about the laws and mathematics of physics before this could cause him to think of the force of gravity?"). In my own life i have done countless pieces of artwork which all were inspired by something else, I am not an artist who can just create without viewing what I'm creating. At work when I come up with creative solutions to help customers or design demonstrations it comes from being around the tools i need and access to knowledge I would need to do so I just pull them all together so in both these ways i can see this argument applying. But I still do not validate this argument because there are exceptions.
I think there is a more effective argument in this quote, I would not necessarily agree with it 100% but I do agree that changes in environment are required a lot of times to free ones mind and take them out of the ordinary to think new thoughts. An example I know of is Google, a bout two months ago now each team at the Boulder Google location were given a budget and told to decorate their area in a way the represents them, one group made hundreds of paper cranes and hung them around their area, another group made a legos play area, another made a city, another made a beach, another evan spent the time to put together an extensive ball track that includes it flying through the air and landing at a certain location to continue, and one even took pictures of themselves looking up at the ceiling and blew it up to fit the ceiling tiles so now they see themselves when they work up. This was a great idea to promote creativity, not only did it allow the groups to collaborate to discover what represented them but helped take away the dreary appearance of cubicles. An experience in my work has been that the company has made an effort to update the stores including remodeling the departments to give the customers more creative freedom with their demos as well as for the employees to be more creative in their displays. I think any good change in environment can help enhance the creativity of the people around the area.
Task 1 - Dara
A recent New York Times article entitled "Design is more than Packaging," describes the process of design thinking, as follows:
...(D)esign thinking can weave together elements of demographics, research, environmental factors, psychology, anthropology and sociology to generate novel solutions to some of the most puzzling problems in business."
(Rae-Dupree, 2008)Like the Fischer et al article, "Beyond Binary Choices: Integrating Individual and Social Creativity," the New York Times article points out the importance of collaboration in design. No one is an expert in all of the disciplines mentioned by Rae-Dupree. The modern design firm has experts in a wide range of disciplines to support expert social collaboration.
There are a few exceptions, particularly when referring to some of the geniuses of physics, like Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking. However, even these geniuses built upon other physicist's ideas and collaborated with other physicists. Einstein built upon the work of James Clerk Maxwell, Galileo, and Newton, among others, with the assistance of his contemparies, like physicst Banesh Hoffman and, reportedly, Einstein's wife (Powell, 2006). Hawking has had multiple collaborators, including physicists Gary Gibbons and Don Page, and science writer Dennis Overbye (Larsen, 2005).
I spent many years working as a graphic designer, then an instructional designer, an information designer, and now I am researching building and environmental design. My best work has been in conjunction with others or, at least, began with brainstorming sessions. I have learned over the years to use collaboration as a tool to create truly great designs and insist upon collaboration whenever I'm tasked with a project. I am personally in need of more collaboration in my PhD work and am actively pursuing potential "partners in crime."
One of the most simple ways to foster a creative environment is to create a more physical environment. I have worked with groups in rooms that were walled in whiteboard or were covered in paper, so the participants could write anywhere. Providing toys also seems to be an important factor to encourage creativity in groups. Ensuring the group is interdisciplinary is important, as well as providing food and drink (creature comforts), deadlines, and concrete goals.
I recently attended one of the Center for Lifelong Learning meetings and viewed a demonstration and presentation of Firefly and Sensebook, two digital tools meant to simulate a more physical and collaborative process for designers to use when designing in the architectural domain. " FireFly (is) a wireless, multi-user LED pen interface for sketching; and SketchBook (is) an application for collaborative sketching and diagrammatic reasoning" (Sullivan, Banasiak, and Messick, 2008). These digital tools hold promise and have particular benefit in providing the ability to save "versions," move backwards, and allow the capture of the collaborative process.
Task 1 - Will
Generally I believe the statement is accurate is stated in less absolute terms. I would suggest that the synergy of many sources will improve creativity both quantitatively and quantitatively. However, I believe there can be single source creativity. I believe my most productive times have been in collaborative environments. In my experience creativity can be enhanced with new tools such as whiteboards. Additional persons involvement can more consistenly invigorate creativity. Sometimes this is as simple as a listener. By this I mean I can often break through a creativity block by simply explaining the background and perceived obstacle to someone unfamiliar with the project. This simple act of defining and explaining can be enough to dissolve a barrier.
- 3. Task 2
Task 2 - Matt
Envisionment and Discovery Collaboratory: Supporting Communities of Interest
I found the tools the EDC use very interesting that they can manipulate computer design environments with physical pieces , what i found missing was that it did not really leave room to grow the people meet for one specific reason and it doesn't seem anything evolves from solving that one problem.Caretta: Integrating Personal and Shared Spaces
I found it interesting Caretta gives the designers individual space to work and a group space to work to encourage collaboration and creativity but also diversity.Renga Creations: Entwining Individual Creativities in Interactive Art
I think it's interesting in Face Poiesis that the user is not the only and last person to be able to edit the face, it allows for others to come later and change the face which "evolves" the creativity and supports a collaborative interactive art form.CodeBroker: Fostering Social Creativity by Facilitating Reuse in Open Source
I found it interesting that in Open Source Software and the example CodeBroker that even though the software is open source and can be manipulated by anyone there becomes a social code for editing the programs driven by creating a better program and it becomes more creative since it is open to anyone.Task 2 - Dara
Envisionment and Discovery Collaboratory: Supporting Communities of Interest
I heartily agree that the ability to collaborate using a physical representation of the problem at hand is important to the collaborative creative process, while I also feel that this tool may not be as intuitive as designers may require to be fully spontaneous.Caretta: Integrating Personal and Shared Spaces
As a designer who has often worked with teams of designers, I have seen the process of individual work being shared and becoming group work many, many times - my question regarding the Caretta system is what this system brings to the process that could not be achieved in a non-digital collaborative environment.Renga Creations: Entwining Individual Creativities in Interactive Art
Renga reminds me of being a fine art student in that each piece of work I produced was critiqued by the class and, at times, physically altered by the class, making the piece a joint creation.CodeBroker: Fostering Social Creativity by Facilitating Reuse in Open Source
As a former Network Systems Administrator working in AIX, I'm very familiar with open source software which, while it's strength lies in having multiple contributors, so does it's weakness (the systems I worked with was an esoteric and illogical creation with very little documentation - indicative of open source software).Larsen, Kristine (2005) Stephen Hawking: A Biography, Greenwood Publishing Group.
http://books.google.com/books?id=yL3RBMEI5OgC&printsec=frontcover&dq=stephen+hawking%27s+collaboratorPowell, Corey (published online November 20, 2006) "My Three Einsteins," Discover Magazine Online.
http://discovermagazine.com/2006/oct/3einsteins/article_view?b_start:int=0&-C=Rae-Dupree, Janet (October 5, 2008) "Design is More Than Packaging," The New York Times, BU4, New York, New York.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/05/business/05unbox.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=design%20is%20more%20than%20packaging&st=cse&oref=sloginSullivan, Jim, Banasiak, Meredith, and Chris Messick (2008) "Social-technical tools for sensemaking and sketching," Center for Lifelong Learning and Design, September 10, 2008 Meeting.
http://l3d.cs.colorado.edu/calendar/2008.09.10-sullivan.html
