A little art/app project I've been working on. More to come.

A peek at some work in progress. Collage, drawing, and digital manipulation.

More ideas for SuperCollider icon. Moving into a "colliding" theme here. #2 works in a sort of a phonograph reference, then we get down to straightforward particle collisions.

More icon ideas for SuperCollider, from 2011. Now for some color, continuing with the hypercube concept.

Exploratory icon design work for SuperCollider audio application (from 2011).

I started with the hexagon/cube shape from the current icon, to keep some continuity (1st icon) with the current (SC version 3.5) icon. Then I started playing around with some concepts, such as tying in to a real-world Supercollider (2nd icon, a view "down the tunnel"), then bringing in a second cube for a hypercube effect (3rd and subsequent icons). #5 has a sort of I Ching look going on, but is probably a little too flat overall.

Haggling ensued.

Highlights:

• Originality doesn't come from having clever ideas.
• Notice things, and notice what you notice.
• Build your Toolbox out of ideas that are core to you.
• Anti-notice: the things you notice are missing from your field may turn out to be your work.
• if it doesn't serve your aim, let it go.
• Pull some things out of your Toolbox when you are working.
• Make lots of things. Don't treat the first thing as precious -- make a hundred of 'em!
• If you have a burning question, that can lead to a whole body of work.
• Be amazing. If you can't be amazing, or if you're still on the way to being amazing, be authentic.
• Be financially independent (expenses way lower than income) if you want to be an artist.
• Be aware of the challenges -- don't fool yourself into believing it's easy.

----

John Cleese on Creativity (1991)

I

Creativity is not a talent--it is a way of operating.

Closed & Open modes

• Closed Mode - Active, anxious, impatient, tense, pressures, dealing with trivialities, not much humor. Creativity is not possible in the closed mode.

• Open Mode - Relaxed, expansive, less purposeful, relaxed, more playful; humor. Curiosity for its own sake. Low pressure. Allows natural creativity to surface.

• Example: Alfred Hitchcock got through blocks by telling unrelated stories: slow down, stop working too hard & relax, the solution will come.

• We need to be in the open mode when pondering a problem. BUT, once we come up with a solution, we must switch to the closed mode to implement it (increased efficiency, undistracted by doubts).

• Once decision taken, narrow focus while implementing.

• After that, switch back to the open mode to review feedback in order to determine success or continue with next stage.

• Then back into closed to implement next stage, etc.

• We need to be able to switch backwards & forwards between modes. Too often we get stuck in closed mode. Tunnel vision when we really need to step back & contemplate wider view.

Creativity is not possible in the closed mode.

II

How to make it more likely to get into the open mode.

The Oasis:

(1) Bound by Space

Make space for yourself -- a secluded, quiet oasis to think, away from ordinary demands.

(2) Bound by Time

Time in the Oasis should have clear start & end. 1½ hrs is ideal--about 30 minutes to get into open mode, an hour to think. Don't set aside a whole morning; you need a break after about and hour and a half. Without the time limit, it isn't play (needs to be separate from everyday life).

Now creativity can happen.

How to use the Oasis:

(3) Time to Play & Ponder

Don't go with first inclination; give yourself more time to play with the problem & ponder it before resolving. Figure out when issue needs to be resolved--keep pondering and don't resolve it until that time.

Otherwise we are tempted to relieve ourselves off the hook of the discomfort of uncertainty, etc. Creative people are able to tolerate that discomfort longer, think of more solutions, are thus more creative.

Taking decisions too quickly is the best way to strangle creativity.

(4) Confidence

• Once in open mode, don't fear mistakes or being wrong.
• Be playful. Experiment. Play "What if?"
• Whatever happens is OK, nothing is wrong.
• Any drivel may lead to the answer!

Alan Watts: "You can't be spontaneous within reason."

(5) Humor

• Gets us into open mode more quickly than anything else.
• Laughter brings relaxation. Important discussions where original, creative ideas are needed to solve serious problems often stifle humor, just the opposite of what is needed.
• Distinguish between serious and solemn. Solemnity serves pomposity and self-importance.
• Humor is essential part of spontaneity and playfulness.
• Giggle all you want!

Your mind will wander; gently but persistently bring it back to the problem (as in meditation).

The solution will come. Now or later on when you're not thinking about it, a new idea will suddenly appear.

III

It is often easier to be creative in collaboration with others, throwing ideas back & forth. One danger is: if anyone in the group makes you defensive, they will reduce your confidence to play. Choose people you like & trust.

Avoid criticism. Be positive & encouraging. Build on what others come up with. Pretend.

IV

A new idea is the connection of two hitherto separate ideas in a way that generates new meaning.

Play with random juxtapositions, then try to see which ones might lead somewhere significant. A computer can come up with a billion random connections, but hasn't the intuition to tell which ones are interesting.

Try deliberately crazy combinations (Edward de Bono, Po: Beyond Yes and No) - "Intermediate impossibles:" every idea doesn't have to be right -- it can be a stepping stone to an idea that IS the right solution.

V

How to stamp out creativity in your organization

• Allow subordinates no humor -- it threatens your omniscience. Humor is subversive.

• Undermine employee confidence to cut them down to size.

• Use your authority to zero in on all the things you can find that are wrong.

• Never ever balance negatives with positives -- always criticize. Remember that praise makes people uppity!

• Demand that people always be actively doing things -- if you find them pondering, accuse them of laziness and indecision.

• Starve employees of thinking time -- otherwise, it will lead to creativity and insurrection.

• Demand urgency, use fighting talk and war analogies to maintain a permanent atmosphere of stress, breathless anxiety and crisis -- Keep that mode closed!!

In this way, we non-nonsense types can be sure the tiny quantity of creativity that exists in the company will all be ours.

BUT--

Let your vigilance slip for one moment and you may find yourself surrounded by happy, enthusiastic creative people you may never be able completely to control ever again, so be careful.

Thank you, and good night.

I'm not sure which is more astounding, that the Camera app is accessible to the blind, or that the Maps app is.

http://svan.ca/blog/2012/blind/

(via daringfireball)

1. Choose a person you admire and sketch a bust of them; Draw views from the front, from the side, and from above.

2. Construct a chicken-wire model of the same bust, using the drawings as a guide.

3. Apply papier-maché to the outside of the model, covering it entirely. Let dry for 3 days.

4. Coat the outside of the model with a thick layer of cement. Let dry for 3 days.

5. Paint the model in as photorealistic a manner as possible.

6. Without breaking it, quickly turn the model inside-out.

• Nik Bärtsch's Ronin - Live 
  Tight, disciplined, cellular math-jazz (or "ritual groove music," as Bärtsch calls it).
• Belong - Colorloss Record
  Ethereal, distant, obfuscated, would-be pop with a gorgeous patina of noise. Soak in it.
• Jim Guthrie - Sword & Sworcery LP
  The soundtrack to Superbrothers' Sword & Sworcery EP iOS game will bring you back to 80's computer game soundtracks of yore (but with much better fidelity).

But now I think it's that I've made the connection between the utility and the beauty that I've developed a real attachment to this non-form...

This is dangerous, in a way, since as an intermediate step in the design process, sketches should be throwaway and not precious. But I think of my appreciation as transforming them into a kind of aftermarket artwork source.