A Lesson in Design - Walk from your front door and back in 30 minutes and take digital photos as you go. Turn some of the photographs into slides and as you see a theme emerge, write your text. Compile a lesson based around esteem and creativity. glenn@glenncapelli.com
Friday, October 31, 2008
A Speaking Life
One of the beautiful things in presenting is to travel to different places to speak, educate and learn. My topics are always about Thinking Smarter, Learning Better, developing Innovative & Creative Cultures and Inspiring Leadership. glenn@glenncapelli.com
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Catching and Then Hatching - Dr. Fiona Wood
I had the pleasure of keynote speaking at the National Pharmaceutical Conference in Perth last weekend. The other keynote speaker was the wonderful Dr. Fiona Wood, Australian of the Year in 2005. In her presentation Fiona talked of how she and a colleague were working together and trying to apply sheets of skin tissue for a burns victim. In the struggle of this difficult work Fiona said to her colleague 'If only we could spray this stuff on'. Boom, eureka and magic. Later that day they both raced down to Jackson's Art Store and to the local supermarket and bought every spray nozzle can they could. Their prototype for the skin cell spray (ReCell® and Integra®) was an Italian Deodorant spray nozzle.
The message here is that often we say stuff:
* If only
* I wish
but don't notice that something worth catching has slipped out from our brain and mouth. Other times we might catch it (jot it down for instance) but then get too busy to do some hatching. Dr Woods noticed her sentence was worth both catching and hatching. Her on-going work and spray now do wonders and continue to make progress.
The other beauty of Dr Wood's presentation and work is the sheer entheos (enthusiasm and passion) she has for her work. It oozes. Perhaps even sprays.
Cap
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Choose Joy Song & Art
A Self-Esteem song written by Glenn Capelli & Keith McDonald. Available on Songs for a Thinking Learning Classroom from www.glenncapelli.com and on itunes
Friday, October 17, 2008
Theme:
Some folk think of creativity as being some lightening bolt from the blue that strikes you with an idea, be it to draw a picture on this cave wall, make the wheel round or construct an ipod. However most creative folk have got a discipline to their process, a discipline used not only for getting their ideas but also for what they do once they have the idea.
Beyond Scratching - The Factions of Creative Actions
If scratching is an ideas hunt - digging through everything in order to find something, then what do you do after the scratch?
For me, there needs to be some catching of the scratching. Ideas man and educator Art Costa says that one of the unique things about the human mind is that we Store Information Outside of Our Bodies. In The Thinking Learning Classroom book (Glenn Capelli & Sean Brealey) we talk about one of the organisms of learning as being the SIOOB and ask how do you Store Information Outside Of your Body?
Do you –
• Write or draw on cave walls
• Paint on a canvas
• Type on a computer
• Scribble on a pad
• Fingertip on a Blackberry
And what do you do with the information and ideas once you have SIOOB-ed?
As I scratch (or after I’ve scratched) I catch and my favourite way of catching is my journal. Ever since I was a kid I have kept journals in which I draw and write ideas, thoughts, musings, confusions and other mental ablutions. Sometimes the thoughts spill into black ink on a page, other times they spill into a variety of colours from crayon tips. Some times the ink or colours spill as words, other times as drawings, sometimes as mind-maps but more often as a kind of visual explosion on the page.
In my catching I often draw a little symbol that alerts me to a potential idea imbedded in my inking. It might be that what I have jotted is an inking of an inkling for a potential song, a radio piece or simply something that deserves extra thought & research. Other times I might just write myself a note saying:
• Find and read this book
• Dig more in this area
• Link this idea to such and such a topic
These little notes to self become an extra prompt when I go back and look through my journals. And this is vital. The journal is not just a place in which I catch what I scratch through it is also a place that I revisit often in order to transform some of the jottings into plotting. I plot by asking myself ‘How can I use this?’
So the process is –
• Scratching
• Catching and then
• Hatching
The hatching is the transformation of the musing into something I might be using.
Being fine with rhyme, if I wanted to continue the Scratching, Catching and Hatching I might toss in the ideas of Patching and Latching.
To patch means to use an idea to solve a problem that already exists. To latch means to join the new idea with an existing idea and see what the combination brews.
However, patching and latching are not the only reasons I scratch, catch and hatch. The main reason for my journaling is to create possibilities that don’t already exist.
Racking my brain I seek a rhyme for the Scratching, Catching, Hatching, Patching and Latching and cryptically come up with Watching.
Watching is a process of watching (as in looking) and the sound of the word action. To take waction is to observe with an active intent:
• What can this become
• What can I do with this
• What doesn’t exist now that could exist if I put this idea into action
• What will happen if we did this, what consequence will emerge from this creation
Watching is to:
• Do a variety of potential rock throws into the future
• Build a prototype by kluging some rough bits of plastic, string and such together’
• Do a trial
• Test for potential errors
• Bring a physical representation to the abstraction
Each of us is a creative being to some degree and each of us will have different ways to Scratch, Catch and Hatch let alone different ways of Patching, Latching and Watching our Hatchings. We might even have a different sequence of how we go about our creative process or maybe at times it is not so much of a sequence as a continuous development of parallel processes. All things happening at all times and occasionally entwining like triple or quadruple helixes.
Phew – something to think about or something to scratch through perhaps. Enjoy your hatching.
Where to from here:
• Do any of you keep a creative journal? If so, how long have you been doing this for and what goes into it?
• Who can explain to us (in writing or by phone) how you best scratch (look for ideas), catch (hold ideas) and hatch (use the ideas to create something in reality)
• A kluge is a clumsy or inelegant – yet surprisingly effective - solution to a problem often using bits and pieces. Do you kluge? Do you do your thinking by tinkering?
Glenn Capelli
www.glenncapelli.com
Professional Speaker
Some folk think of creativity as being some lightening bolt from the blue that strikes you with an idea, be it to draw a picture on this cave wall, make the wheel round or construct an ipod. However most creative folk have got a discipline to their process, a discipline used not only for getting their ideas but also for what they do once they have the idea.
Beyond Scratching - The Factions of Creative Actions
If scratching is an ideas hunt - digging through everything in order to find something, then what do you do after the scratch?
For me, there needs to be some catching of the scratching. Ideas man and educator Art Costa says that one of the unique things about the human mind is that we Store Information Outside of Our Bodies. In The Thinking Learning Classroom book (Glenn Capelli & Sean Brealey) we talk about one of the organisms of learning as being the SIOOB and ask how do you Store Information Outside Of your Body?
Do you –
• Write or draw on cave walls
• Paint on a canvas
• Type on a computer
• Scribble on a pad
• Fingertip on a Blackberry
And what do you do with the information and ideas once you have SIOOB-ed?
As I scratch (or after I’ve scratched) I catch and my favourite way of catching is my journal. Ever since I was a kid I have kept journals in which I draw and write ideas, thoughts, musings, confusions and other mental ablutions. Sometimes the thoughts spill into black ink on a page, other times they spill into a variety of colours from crayon tips. Some times the ink or colours spill as words, other times as drawings, sometimes as mind-maps but more often as a kind of visual explosion on the page.
In my catching I often draw a little symbol that alerts me to a potential idea imbedded in my inking. It might be that what I have jotted is an inking of an inkling for a potential song, a radio piece or simply something that deserves extra thought & research. Other times I might just write myself a note saying:
• Find and read this book
• Dig more in this area
• Link this idea to such and such a topic
These little notes to self become an extra prompt when I go back and look through my journals. And this is vital. The journal is not just a place in which I catch what I scratch through it is also a place that I revisit often in order to transform some of the jottings into plotting. I plot by asking myself ‘How can I use this?’
So the process is –
• Scratching
• Catching and then
• Hatching
The hatching is the transformation of the musing into something I might be using.
Being fine with rhyme, if I wanted to continue the Scratching, Catching and Hatching I might toss in the ideas of Patching and Latching.
To patch means to use an idea to solve a problem that already exists. To latch means to join the new idea with an existing idea and see what the combination brews.
However, patching and latching are not the only reasons I scratch, catch and hatch. The main reason for my journaling is to create possibilities that don’t already exist.
Racking my brain I seek a rhyme for the Scratching, Catching, Hatching, Patching and Latching and cryptically come up with Watching.
Watching is a process of watching (as in looking) and the sound of the word action. To take waction is to observe with an active intent:
• What can this become
• What can I do with this
• What doesn’t exist now that could exist if I put this idea into action
• What will happen if we did this, what consequence will emerge from this creation
Watching is to:
• Do a variety of potential rock throws into the future
• Build a prototype by kluging some rough bits of plastic, string and such together’
• Do a trial
• Test for potential errors
• Bring a physical representation to the abstraction
Each of us is a creative being to some degree and each of us will have different ways to Scratch, Catch and Hatch let alone different ways of Patching, Latching and Watching our Hatchings. We might even have a different sequence of how we go about our creative process or maybe at times it is not so much of a sequence as a continuous development of parallel processes. All things happening at all times and occasionally entwining like triple or quadruple helixes.
Phew – something to think about or something to scratch through perhaps. Enjoy your hatching.
Where to from here:
• Do any of you keep a creative journal? If so, how long have you been doing this for and what goes into it?
• Who can explain to us (in writing or by phone) how you best scratch (look for ideas), catch (hold ideas) and hatch (use the ideas to create something in reality)
• A kluge is a clumsy or inelegant – yet surprisingly effective - solution to a problem often using bits and pieces. Do you kluge? Do you do your thinking by tinkering?
Glenn Capelli
www.glenncapelli.com
Professional Speaker
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Scratching - Creativity
Theme:
Where does a creative idea begin? What do you do when faced with a blank page, canvas or a lump of clay? After reading Twyla Tharp’s impressive book The Creative Habit Glenn Capelli discovers that to put on your creative Thinking Cap you might need a good old scratch to get your creative mind to come up to scratch.
Scratching
There was once a man who got into a London cab and in casual conversation asked the driver ‘How’ve you been?’ The driver responded that he was ‘Working hard, in fact it felt like he was working eight days a week’. The passenger had never heard this phrase before and etched it in his mind. When he arrived at his friend’s place – the destination of his lift – he shared the phrase. ‘Right’ said his mate and then the two pals sat down together and started writing ‘Ooh I need your lovin’… eight days a week.
That is one story of how the Beatles got to write and record Eight Days a Week in October of 1964. Another story says that the phrase Eight Days A Week was a Ringoism – a phrase used by Ringo Star to complain about the Beatles workload.
Whether it was a shooting Star quote or a caught phrase in a cab, Paul McCartney had an ear for melody as well as an ear for a phrase. He picked up on a line from ordinary conversation and then he and John Lennon turned it into magic.
Another song writing bloke was in need of a good idea because the operettas he and his writing partner were creating had started to lose favour. To clear his mind and kick-start it in a different way, he went to a London exhibition of Japanese Culture. The man was W.S. Gilbert and the exhibition inspired an idea that became The Mikado. An idea that then inspired his writing partner Arthur Sullivan to compose arguably his greatest musical score.
The American choreographer Twyla Tharp in her book The Creative Habit describes the process of finding an idea as scratching. She believes most creative folk are not simply hit by a thunderbolt of an idea (or an apple falling from a tree) but that most creative folk are scratchers – the thing you do when you can’t wait for the thunderbolt to come and hit you. Scratching is digging through everything in order to find something.
Imagine a woman splashing hot black wax onto panes of glass then looking for possibilities in the way the wax forms patterns. That’s how leading Australian contemporary artist Lindy Lee scratches. In the ABC series Artscape – Artists at Work she describes the patterns as a splat and that the splat is unique. It gives birth to a design on glass or silk or panels.
Imagine a man screwing up a piece of paper and tossing the paper on a table then examining and re-examining the paper before hitting upon an idea of what shape the roof of a Museum could be. The man is architect Frank Gehry and the paper becomes the pattern for the roof of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao though it could have also been inspirational in the design of the Dancing House in Prague or the Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown LA.
Lindy Lee scratched with wax, Frank Gehry with paper, Twyla Tharp scratches with anything, anywhere to get a starting point to something, somewhere that eventually becomes one of her 130 plus original dance choreographies.
Some creative folk change their scenery in order to scratch. A trip to Firenze, Kathmandu or Timbuktu might be just the thing to fire the creative fingernails. After a failed album in 1983 (Hearts & Bones), and a failed second marriage to actress Carrie Fisher, singer songwriter Paul Simon cured his supposed Writer’s Block with a journey to the musical sounds of South Africa. In 1986 he released the ground breaking Graceland album inspired by what he heard as he scratched his way around South Africa.
Some folk travel the world and scratch the sounds, sights and tastes of diverse cultures others stay in their bedroom and scratch their bum in memory of things past. French writer and philosopher Marcel Proust, spend most of his time living in his bedroom at his parents’ house rarely straying from his cork-lined room. (Cork lined? Can anyone explain?) Yet, he still scratched his way to bucket loads of ideas that ended up in huge books that influenced many thousands of great minds.
So, whether you stay in and scratch your own posterior or go out and scratch the world, when you need a creative idea, scratch.
Scratch until you find the inkling for the ink, the baby steps for the dance, the hint of the angel within the marble, the cabby’s sentence that unravels the song. Creativity requires a tangible idea to get it going. So, where do YOU scratch?
Do you:
• Collect interesting newspaper clippings
• Listen to music that is not usually on your playlist
• Read competitively (Twyla Tharp says she reads competitively in memory of Mark Twain’s line that ‘the man who does not read has no advantage over the man who can not’)
• Read broadly and randomly
• Visit galleries and art websites
• Listen to the everyday talk of everyday folk in everyday lives full of everyday miracles
Get into the creative habit of scratching; get into the creative habit of a singing nun – how do you solve a problem like Maria? – Scratch.
Then turn the ideas into other ideas; brew them, chumbawamba them, mix them into an everyday creativity – a surprise for your kids, a gift for your partner, a new concept for your work… perpetual scratcher Helen Keller, blind, deaf and speechless wrote ‘Make your life itself a creative work of art’.
Start scratching!
Glenn Capelli
Where to from here?
• Where do you go to get an idea – do you take a trip, go for a walk, have a shower? Consider your own mechanisms of scratching
• Can any writers, artists, sculptors, songwriters… pinpoint where their idea for a particular work started? Was it a thunderbolt or a scratching process or a bit of both?
• I recently ran a series of workshops for scientists and researchers at the Western Australian institute of Medical Research – one of the things we explored is that often science breakthroughs (and Nobel Prizes) have not occurred from a Eureka moment but more from looking at something and thinking ‘that’s odd’. Consider
Where does a creative idea begin? What do you do when faced with a blank page, canvas or a lump of clay? After reading Twyla Tharp’s impressive book The Creative Habit Glenn Capelli discovers that to put on your creative Thinking Cap you might need a good old scratch to get your creative mind to come up to scratch.
Scratching
There was once a man who got into a London cab and in casual conversation asked the driver ‘How’ve you been?’ The driver responded that he was ‘Working hard, in fact it felt like he was working eight days a week’. The passenger had never heard this phrase before and etched it in his mind. When he arrived at his friend’s place – the destination of his lift – he shared the phrase. ‘Right’ said his mate and then the two pals sat down together and started writing ‘Ooh I need your lovin’… eight days a week.
That is one story of how the Beatles got to write and record Eight Days a Week in October of 1964. Another story says that the phrase Eight Days A Week was a Ringoism – a phrase used by Ringo Star to complain about the Beatles workload.
Whether it was a shooting Star quote or a caught phrase in a cab, Paul McCartney had an ear for melody as well as an ear for a phrase. He picked up on a line from ordinary conversation and then he and John Lennon turned it into magic.
Another song writing bloke was in need of a good idea because the operettas he and his writing partner were creating had started to lose favour. To clear his mind and kick-start it in a different way, he went to a London exhibition of Japanese Culture. The man was W.S. Gilbert and the exhibition inspired an idea that became The Mikado. An idea that then inspired his writing partner Arthur Sullivan to compose arguably his greatest musical score.
The American choreographer Twyla Tharp in her book The Creative Habit describes the process of finding an idea as scratching. She believes most creative folk are not simply hit by a thunderbolt of an idea (or an apple falling from a tree) but that most creative folk are scratchers – the thing you do when you can’t wait for the thunderbolt to come and hit you. Scratching is digging through everything in order to find something.
Imagine a woman splashing hot black wax onto panes of glass then looking for possibilities in the way the wax forms patterns. That’s how leading Australian contemporary artist Lindy Lee scratches. In the ABC series Artscape – Artists at Work she describes the patterns as a splat and that the splat is unique. It gives birth to a design on glass or silk or panels.
Imagine a man screwing up a piece of paper and tossing the paper on a table then examining and re-examining the paper before hitting upon an idea of what shape the roof of a Museum could be. The man is architect Frank Gehry and the paper becomes the pattern for the roof of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao though it could have also been inspirational in the design of the Dancing House in Prague or the Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown LA.
Lindy Lee scratched with wax, Frank Gehry with paper, Twyla Tharp scratches with anything, anywhere to get a starting point to something, somewhere that eventually becomes one of her 130 plus original dance choreographies.
Some creative folk change their scenery in order to scratch. A trip to Firenze, Kathmandu or Timbuktu might be just the thing to fire the creative fingernails. After a failed album in 1983 (Hearts & Bones), and a failed second marriage to actress Carrie Fisher, singer songwriter Paul Simon cured his supposed Writer’s Block with a journey to the musical sounds of South Africa. In 1986 he released the ground breaking Graceland album inspired by what he heard as he scratched his way around South Africa.
Some folk travel the world and scratch the sounds, sights and tastes of diverse cultures others stay in their bedroom and scratch their bum in memory of things past. French writer and philosopher Marcel Proust, spend most of his time living in his bedroom at his parents’ house rarely straying from his cork-lined room. (Cork lined? Can anyone explain?) Yet, he still scratched his way to bucket loads of ideas that ended up in huge books that influenced many thousands of great minds.
So, whether you stay in and scratch your own posterior or go out and scratch the world, when you need a creative idea, scratch.
Scratch until you find the inkling for the ink, the baby steps for the dance, the hint of the angel within the marble, the cabby’s sentence that unravels the song. Creativity requires a tangible idea to get it going. So, where do YOU scratch?
Do you:
• Collect interesting newspaper clippings
• Listen to music that is not usually on your playlist
• Read competitively (Twyla Tharp says she reads competitively in memory of Mark Twain’s line that ‘the man who does not read has no advantage over the man who can not’)
• Read broadly and randomly
• Visit galleries and art websites
• Listen to the everyday talk of everyday folk in everyday lives full of everyday miracles
Get into the creative habit of scratching; get into the creative habit of a singing nun – how do you solve a problem like Maria? – Scratch.
Then turn the ideas into other ideas; brew them, chumbawamba them, mix them into an everyday creativity – a surprise for your kids, a gift for your partner, a new concept for your work… perpetual scratcher Helen Keller, blind, deaf and speechless wrote ‘Make your life itself a creative work of art’.
Start scratching!
Glenn Capelli
Where to from here?
• Where do you go to get an idea – do you take a trip, go for a walk, have a shower? Consider your own mechanisms of scratching
• Can any writers, artists, sculptors, songwriters… pinpoint where their idea for a particular work started? Was it a thunderbolt or a scratching process or a bit of both?
• I recently ran a series of workshops for scientists and researchers at the Western Australian institute of Medical Research – one of the things we explored is that often science breakthroughs (and Nobel Prizes) have not occurred from a Eureka moment but more from looking at something and thinking ‘that’s odd’. Consider
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