Notes 07/11/14

Interactivity in art :
input + outcome = meaning

History:

• situation and audience involvement in the process of sensmaking
• specificity of interactive art resides less often on the use of computers, instead it depends on quality of proposed situation and audience involvement of sensmaking. nonetheless...Computers do make the task easier and opens the realm of possibilities of contemporary art
• some of the earliest examples are dated back to the 1920's
• artwork was a kind of optical allusion
• 1960's inappropriate for artists to have all the power when creating art. Give part of power to public. interaction and engagement had powerful part to play within creative process 
• 1970's use new technologies such as video and satellites.
• 1990's computer based interactivity

Forms:

• installation art
• interactive cultures
• interactive films
• art games

Impact:

• not in achievement of the formal shape BUT in design of the rules

Tools:

• Anduino
• I-Cubex
• Max/MSP
• Processing
• Pure data
• Unity games engines
• Scratch + pico board

Art game:

• interactive media digital software art
• sub genre of serious game movement
• video game as work of art
• not just a form of entertainment, made to cause a reaction 
• beauty and complexity in design

Origins:

• Dada
• Surrealist games of 1920's
• Fluxus (1960)
• Marcel Duchamp
• OULIPO

= Procedurality took a central position of certain forms of art, brought into lime-light of art world

Ian Bogost's procedural rhetoric:

• rhetoric is not sufficient to explain how video games communicate meaning
• addresses process that occurs in computer environment or game process
• Individual can only grasp meaning by interacting with model instead of simply looking at it = more convincing
• understand better using models (board games is an example of a model)

The artwork of Borduas and of the Automatiste groupe was very raw and spontaneous. Each painting had different themes, motifs and emotions but the underlying idea for all of them was that art needed to be automatic to mean something and make an impact on the world.

Borduas wrote the total refusal which was a written manifest opposing Quebec culture. This manifest had a huge impact on Quebec's culture. It is said to be one of the causes of the quiet revolution. The quiet revolution occurred in the 1960's after the "grande noirceur" of the 1940's. This period was marked by drastic change in Quebec's culture

Childhood: Paul-Emile Borduas was a Quebec artist born in Saint-

Hilaire on Novemeber 1st, 1905 . He was the fourth child. His

father was Magloire Borduas, a carrier, and his mother was Éva

Perreault.  His first known artistic activity was bricolage. He only

received five years of primary school education- to age twelve.

When Borduas was sixteen he became the apprentice of Ozias

Leduc, a Quebec church painter. Borduas learned all of his basic

skills from Leduc. He also helped young Borduas get into the

Montreal fine arts school.

Backround: The Quebec in which Borduas lived in was vastly

different from modern-day Quebec. He began his work as  painter

in the 1940's. This period as marked by extreme conservatism and

religious ideas. The prime minister at the time,         was a religious man with questionable ideas .   His ideas where not questioned at the time. Borduas was one of the few who openly opposed the ideas represented in the time. As a painter, Borduas showed his opposition to the strict nature of his society through his artwork.

Influences: His mentor and teacher, Ozias Leduc as well as

Borduas had a tremendous influence of Quebec art as well as Quebec culture. In     , he created a group named the Automatists. The Automatists were a group of young artists with similar negative feelings towards Quebec's rigidness. They expressed their dissatisfaction through their abstract, surrealist art. The group\s main concept was that true art is automatic. Artists should not learn their techniques in an art school. Artists should not wait for inspiration to strike them. True art came without thought. It was free of inhibitions and worries as well as social norms. When an artist made an automatic art piece, they were learning about themselves in a way that would not be possible with though-out artwork. This kind of artwork allowed the artist to let their feelings, thoughts and emotions flow out in a truthful, natural manner.

Draw-bot

My experience creating the Draw-bot was quite interesting. I had never attempted to make a robot that can draw with such simple materials. Although I wasn't able to create a robot that easily drew n the paper, my partner and I came pretty close. I would like the opportunity to try making another rbot, now that I understand the concept

metro poem

strangers on the metro

fixing her hair in the reflection
open book, studying the most important section
baby held close to his chest
student wearing school's crest
looking down at the bright screen
what could their conversation mean
drinking coffee- dark roast
eating peanut butter on toast
We're on the metro for more than a mile
would it kill you to give a smile

09/26/14

Divergent vs. Convergent

Divergent thinking: thought process that follows logical steps to attain solution.
There are many different solutions

convergent thinking : ability to give answers to standard questions that do not require creativity
HIGH I.Q ALONE DOES NOT PROMOTE CREATIVITY
curiosity, willingness to take risks, persistence
creating lists of questions, meditation,, brainstorming, subject mapping , keeping a journal , creating artwork and free writing are all techniques that help creativity.

most effective in situation when answer already exists, simply needs to be recalled. no room for ambiguity in answers

linked to knowledge as it involves manipulating existent knowledge by means of standard procedure.

used as tools of broken solving- use critical thinking
often used in conjunction with divergent thinking
there is one best solution although it is difficult to determine

when it's too complex, you have to rely on intuition, gut feeling

by finding a solution, you are changing your world view
targets your conception of the world as a whole - there is a relation to the conception of the fast and world view
when you solve your own problems, you become stronger, problem-solving skills are improved

mind maps help organize info 
organization 
key words
association
clustering
visual memory
outstadingness
conscious involvement 
how can we make cycling in city the safest and fastest possible? 




  

Creative Person Proposal

                                                       Paul-Emile Borduas

For my presentation on a creative person, I chose the painter Paul-Emile Borduas, who was born in 1905 in Saint-Hilaire, Quebec.  Although he was not on the list of artists, I thought it would a good idea to present on him. I know just a bit of information about him and I am intrigued to learn more about this creative man. Borduas used a very automatic way of creating his art. He doesn't think about what he will paint, he simply begins painting. His paintings are very surrealist and abstract. What I find interesting about Borduas is that his works were extremely progressive and liberal for the period of time he was living in. 1940's Quebec society was extremely conservative and religious and the art works created during the time reflected this reality. Borduas' liberal ideas were shown through his artwork as well as the manifest he later published with the help of the group he founded : the automatists. This group consisted of young artists who shared in Borduas ideas about the church and state and who were against the rigid Quebec society.

Essentially, the reason I chose to present on this artist because he sheds light on the fact that art does not only play a role in adding beauty into the world and creating and viewing art is not only for the purpose of pleasure. Although these facts are true, Borduas is a clear example that art can make a real impact in the world.

Notes 09/12/14

Use constraints to stimulate creativity :

Experiment: one playground with fence, one without.
importance principle: paradox of structure
can a fence make us explore more area
is structure necessary for creativity?

Oulipo: workshop for potential literature
loose gathering of writers and mathematicians that use constrained writing techniques.
constraints are used as means of triggering ideas and inspiration
members define themselves as : rats that construct the labyrinth for which they propose to escape

Documentary (*-*)

what does a Oulipo do?
uses restraints as principle to uncover potential literature
creative  ownership

what is n+7?
an easy constraint
simple word algorithm0

when was Oulipo formed?
-1960

what does Oulipo stand for?
-ouvoir de littérature potentielle

can someone apply to be part of the group- NO

who founded oulipo

Raymond Queneau, Francois Le Lynnais
what is the schism
the divide within the group

who wants to hide/ reveal rules
Perec wants to hide constraints, Calvino wants to reveal them

anticipatory plagiarism
writings before

what is the difference between Oulipo and Surrealism

what is Ou-x-po
potiental to apply any art form to another


skills vs. literacies
skills are self-reliant , literacy implies a community
what is the first and second step

(1) knowing how to answer the questions, formulate good questions
(2) figuring out if the information is accurate









                                                                                 

Short story using random words:

"Brr, it's cold in here!", said the human named Tanner.
He decided to put his favourite sweater on - the one with the octopus on it.
He wanted to show his sweater off so he called his friend Sierra to come over.
She agreed. "I'll bring the pizza and alcohol" she added.
When she walked in, Tanner noticed her T-shirt. There was a picture of a pencil on it.
Tanner was jealous, he wanted that T-shirt.
While he thought of a plan to attain it, he turned the television on.
There was a show about a chef making chocolate-covered sushi in a microwave.
Tanner was so distracted by the show that he almost forgot the task at hand.
While Sierra was distracted by the "weed be gone" commercial, Tanner left
the room.
He came back with a huge stick and proceeded to knock Sierra over the head with it.
A new commercial came on the television with message written in bold : Don't do drugs.

Notes 09/05/14

• There are many ways to solve a problem
• If you are creative, you will discover all these ways including the less obvious ones

Surrealist techniques and games :

free of consious control
surrealism uses many techniques and games said to fee the imagination
your mind will limit you, if you let it become too rational
promote thought that is spontaneous
reveal psyche, consciousness
automatism: remains primal importance - do things automatically, without thought, improvised
means of subconscious, free of rational control
hand freely moves around paper
André Breton and Supot: wrote books on automatism
Paul Emile Bourdeouis, Jean Paul Riopelle :  Defining figure of Montreal art scene. Under authoritarian rule (rigid society)
signed Manifesto
surrealistic painting used completely non artist procedure
express somebody's deep personality but they want to that that away


Techniques:

Entropic graphomania: dots are make on sides of impurity
took out artists out of art, instead scientific techniques

Collage: assembling of different elements to create a whole
art form of novelty

Cubomania: randomly putting images together

Etricessment: visual poetry, cutting off pieces of image to create new image

Decalcomania: spreading paint on canvas, putting paper on it while it's still wet to create a starting point

Fumato: put matches on canvas, light them up
Involuntary sculpture: absent-mindedly manipulating something

Latent news: news is cut out and stuck back together

Games

not only form of recreation...
method of investigation
goal is to make unique outcomes
exquisite corps : images and words put together fold paper give it to other person
collective artwork- see it as experiment, author's name is irrelevant

Notes 29/08/14

                                                                                                                                     August 29th, 2014

• Creativity doesn't always need to remain in the realm of Art
• The quality or ability to create something
• "Process of having original ideas and values"

- HISTORY OF CONCEPT -

Ancient views:

The belief was that creativity is already there and you have to uncover it
Plato did not believe in art in the form of creation
poet merely imitates what he sees in the world
Creativity is spoken about in Genesis
Only gods can create things not human beings- humans only express gods will
"Muses" are channelling god's willRomans and greeks made the external concept of demons linked to the divine

Renaissance:

creativity was seen as coming from the abilities of great men. the abilities of the individuals and not from god.

Enlightenment and after:

Creativity began to seriously emerge in the late 19 century because of Darwinism (theory of evolution)
mathematicians started to analyze when they found themselves more creative

20th century- present

theorists  presented model of creative process
in his model: creative

Wallace's 5 stages in book

1) Preparation : preparatory workk on problem that makes you focus your mind on that problem

2) Incubation: internalize that problem in unconscious mind, let mind absorb, rest.

3) Intumation : person gets a feeling that a creative thought is coming

4) Illumination: creative idea comes through unconscious to conscious mind

5) Verification :conscious idea is applied


Darwin: creativity helps us adapt to surroundings

1927: Philosopher (Alfred Whitehead) gave lecture, published a book that coined the term "creativity"

1950: phycologist Paul Guilford studies creativity, made it popular
able to measure creativity separate from I.Q inteligence
above the threshold level of I.Q the relationship between the two types of intelligence was broken down




- FACT: -

The mind automatically connects and completes the information, to complete the pattern. This is why we have to sit down and try to make up new ideas, we unfortunately think of old ideas. Creativity occurs when we focus the information to flow into new channels and connections. The way your brain works is you have already formulated ideas in your brain and as you get older it is harder to change perspective on things. Pathways(neurons) that we are used the most become stronger.




Techniques : Curiosity, connections, learning, collaboration

To create, you must be curious
learn about different subjects, read, talk to new people the more you know, you more connections you can make with ideas and the things you know
constructive criticism : asking questions, never take info as absolute truth, cross-reference this info with other sources, triangulate( look for three valid sources of information)
making connections between apparently unrelated fields or subjects to make new meanings. you can do this with words or images
develop your ability to make relationships between two subjects
learn about what other creative people have creative before; get inspired
learn other languages, proven that it makes your mind more flexible
relax - this is when great ideas arise
listen to intuitions- do not block incoherent thoughts
keep a journal to keep track of ideas
write down dreams
the more people who look at a problem, the more likely it will get fixed



John Cleese Video:

being creative is difficult
research on creativity: confirmed observations
creativity cannot be explained
childhood shapes your creativity
creativity is not a talent, it is a was of operating
not an ability that you have or don't have, not related to I.Q
most creative people figured out how to get in a mood to be creative - known as ability to play with ideas, explore them just for enjoyment
when you are not under pressure, natural creativity flows
you need to be in open mode when thinking of problem, pondering
when you have found solution, switch to closed mode
switch backed to closed mode to determine how to proceed
you must be able to switch backwards and forward between both modes

close mode :your mind is consumed with the thought of getting things completed

how to reach open mode

1)space - quiet space, undisturbed

2)time - space will last until you need it to- specific time. After an hour and a half, you need a break
 
   time - how to use it: most creative people played with the problem longer, facing the anxiety that comes with the problem. do not fear disconfort

3)confidence - do not fear mistakes, experiment, ask "what if", you cannot be spontaneous with reason, be spontaneous, weird, theres no such thing as being wrong

4)humour - transitions us from closed mode to open mode quickly
central part of of solving problems, no matter how serious they are


Surrealist Techniques:

free the imagination
free of conscious control
truth beyond realism
escape against harshness of reality
dreamlike, unconsious work