Creative Inspiration and Video Innovation

While reading the Art of Innovation, I have really appreciated Kelly's examples of innovative products, and how the teams developing those products have to create a space for innovation, surround themselves with innovative people, and constantly challenge what is the norm.

I have found one musical group to be inspiring in their creativity, the band OK GO.  The group has produced the most amazing videos that I have ever scene, and while the videos are "music videos" in that each video is within the context of one of the groups songs, the content of the video is so far beyond a typical music video.

In the first video I saw from the group, "Here It Goes Again,"  the four members of the group perform intricate choreography on 8 treadmills.  Throughout the whole video, the camera never moves or expands past the treadmills, yet in one continuous take the members question what we understand about choreography and movement in a very entertaining and engaging way. 

In another video, the group again used a continuous take to follow the entire course of a song, but in this instance the video is completely constructed around a Rube Goldberg machine.  The viewer becomes a part of the video, actively following how the machine interacts with the song, how the band interacts with the machine, how they are interacting with the song.  The video also serves to establish the band as a part of a "hot group," obviously displaying passion for what they are doing, on a mission  to create videos with such elaborate sets, processes, structures, for such a small result; a music video.  Although not all the characters are visible in the short videos, it is clear that before these music videos are created there must be a visionary, a troubleshooter, a craftsman, and a technologist. While the other characters may be less present, the final results suggest that the other roles, the iconoclast, the pulse taker etc. are behind the scenes as well.

In another video, the band actually "plays" the music of the song by driving a car through a track of musical instruments.  The music is dependent on the car moving at the right speed, and non traditional instruments, or instruments used in non traditional ways creates the music.  The turn signal becomes percussion at the same time as the car plays a guitar solo by "strumming" down a line of 20+ electric guitars on a fence.  

While there are many other videos, I just want to focus on one more that I recently saw, which reminded me of how much I appreciate the band's videos.  In the video for "The Writing's on the Wall" the band uses the video to play with the viewers perspective.  They create colorful "shapes" from one perspective, and then move the camera so that you see it is completely different from another angle.  Using optical illusions, changing camera angles etc, the whole video is about making you see something, and then seeing that it is not what it appears to be

Again, I am just amazed by not only the innovative idea for a video, but also the work and dedication that goes into making it.  Ok Go has demonstrated time and time again that their music videos are not only about the music the band creates, they are an expression of creativity.  

.

My Creative Box

Brainstorming has been a common theme in all of my classes this summer.  We have discussed the importance of brainstorming alternative options in negotiations, to find a win-win situation for those involved.  Brainstorming is also essential in the business environment, a necessary part of analyzing available options and the necessary criteria in making a decision.  With the emphasis of creativity and brainstorming all around, I have found myself struggling with my own perception of being creatively stuck.  

In the past week or so, I have been trying to brainstorm how I have expressed my creativity in the past.  My brainstorming journey has followed the typical path, coming in spurts and then hitting a lull.  There are the obvious moments, like when I was on the Odyssey of the mind team, or taking on various art or craft projects.  These moments then led to less obvious moments, like Halloween costumes, or recipes. 
As I started gathering these memories of creative inspiration, I decided to make a "box," like Twyla Tharp suggested.  I started collecting pictures of those moments and have started assembling them here.  
My Odyssey of the Mind Team:

and our award winning skit...We hid a balsa wood structure in a "stained Glass" window, and had to create a skit that would take the hidden structure and see how much weight it could hold.  Our team based our skit on "Veggies on Broadway"  we sang, we danced, we crushed a wooden box.

Every year at Halloween I would set a goal for myself, to come up with a pun-y costume for our costume crawl in front of our residents.  The first year I was a Pin Up girl, and spent hours forming an upward pointing arrow on a sweater set with safety pins.  The next year I was a Devils Food Cupcake, and made a cupcake costume with horns and a tail.   Then I found a nice, 50's housewife dress, a calendar and a big knife and went as June Cleaver, and finally, a wedding dress, Stamps, and bubble wrap and I was a mail order bride.  I also made a pretty awesome dress out of trash bags to be "White Trash" outside of work.  Not necessarily a politically correct costume, but it was creative! 

  

I explored a number of arts and craft activities throughout my life, photography, pottery, lapidary, stained glass, glass blowing: 

I also realized that a constant expression of creativity in my life has been cooking. The first creative moment I can remember is making  my mother a sandwich when I was 4.  It was a masterpiece: jelly, mayo, lettuce and a hot dog on a toasted hot dog bun.  From that moment on I have always been in the kitchen making up recipes.  

While I know that there are going to be many more things that come to mind the more I think about my creative self, this exercise has helped me realize that even while I have felt creatively stuck, I have been creating and expressing that creative side of my personality in different ways.   

Getting help finding a path

Today I met with Margaret Lobenstine, a woman who has influenced me many times in my life. She has been an inspiration as an entrepreneur, starting several businesses including working as an innkeeper, author, and consultant.  With all of these hats, and many other interests, Margaret is a prime example of a Renaissance Soul.  She explains that 

 "Renaissance Souls often get stuck, moving from entry-level job to entry-level job, degree to degree, or hobby to hobby, unwilling to settle on just one thing to do “for the rest of my life.” Or, after achieving success in one field, they yearn for new challenges and begin looking around for something different. Yet they are also afraid that if they pursue their changing interests, they will have to give up on financial security, becoming “a jack of all trades and master of none.”

A situation that has frequently effected my life.  Margaret has turned her experience as a renaissance soul into a book and a coaching business, and uses her experiences and expertise to help people find ways to incorporate their multitude of interests and skills into novel ways.  One thing I've learned from her is that to embrace being a renaissance soul, one needs to be creative.  

Margaret  developed a series of exercises to help people get unstuck, and these have included the series of brainstorming exercises that I found extremely helpful. In trying to figure out what I want to do as an entrepreneur, I have found myself restricting my ideas more and more. I think to myself, "that's not practical" or "that's not something I could you forever".  In going through guided brainstorming activities, Margaret helps to push out the judgement and self-censorship that often happens, yet is able to help narrow down ideas by building one exercise on top of another.  My meeting with Margaret help me to see that there are many possibilities for what I can do, and there are many things I want to do,  and they don't have to happen all at once.  

In our meeting, Margaret started with an exercise of brainstorming "who don't you want to sit next to you on a long bus trip". Using those answers, she was able to help re-frame the question into "who are the customers that you want to serve". The next question was "what do those people like to do", requiring more thought about that customer base from the initial brainstorming session.  

From the first exercise, I found that I really don't want to serve children or the elderly.  With the second set of brainstorming I was able to just really break down that my target customer base was women in their 20's too late 60s. And the things that they like to do was narrowed to planning activities, cooking,  activity and event organisation, and craft things.   The next brainstorming session help me identify which of those things I particularly like to do;  I like to plan, I like to come up with special gifts, I like to cook.  The brainstorming continued to narrow down my interests and my vision for what I want to do now in my life. 

Part of my challenge as I've looked into my future as an entrepreneur is that I have so many dreams that it feels impossible to choose one. I've considered being a chef, an event planner, a caterer, a librarian, an author, an innkeeper, an activities coordinator etc.  I've tried my hand at a number of those activities and found that I really enjoyed them. In trying to decide my future, is it seems impossible to contain myself into one thing only.In many ways this reminded me of our guest speaker.  She not only embraced new ideas, but was willing to put an idea aside for other visions if they seemed more appropriate at that point in her life.   I was also reassured to see that what I do now can be a failed venture and I still have plenty of time to keep working through other opportunities. From her presentation and talking to Margaret, I feel more confident in knowing that I can try something and it can be a temporary situation; that it's not unusual to want to do many things, and that experimentation (and sometimes failure) isn't necessarily a bad thing.


Anyone interested can find out more about Margaret, her work, her book etc here:

http://www.renaissancesouls.com/coaching/index.htm