Blog 2 Open your Eyes!

This weeks class was all about the art of looking, stepping back and looking at things from a perspective we may have not seen before. While we were all born with a sense of creativity, it has dwindled over time in many of us as society shapes our thought process. Nevertheless, throughout this workshop, we were challenged to open our eyes and change our sight of views as we delved into our creative side of the brain.

Thinking outside the box, it's what we strive to do as designers, but is not so simple sometimes to go against the grain and the rest of society. If everyone just accepted things the way they are, then there would never be any innovation or development in the world. If Thomas Edison had shrugged and figured things were good enough the way they were with gas lamps, light bulbs and the electricity to power them might never have been developed at all (Thomas Edison, 2020). If he hadn't thought outside the box, the world would undoubtedly be a more dull place, ha ha.

All jokes aside, I think if we can change our perspectives on the way we think of things we can find totally different outcomes. One example of this was an exercise we did where we negatively brainstormed to find wacky crazy ideas that made no sense in reality. I found this exercise very fun and great for getting the creative juices flowing. By running through many haphazard, fantastical ideas, we were able to create without the limits or barriers that we have become familiar to. Listening to everyone's unique ideas was also great to expand my creative awareness. Throughout the class, we were also asked questions about ourselves to help us step back and reflect the way we design.

Creativity allows me to express myself, express my feelings and thoughts through many different methods and ways. These methods and techniques are my design tools like sketching and creative thinking which I am enhancing throughout my studies. As time passes and I further my studies, my tools get sharper and better. It's like choosing a weapon for war some days a sword might suit rather than a bow and arrow, or in the real world, sketching might be better suited than Solidworks for specific tasks. Creativity, for me, is an exploration of curiosity. It’s an electrifying experience that can be hard to find sometimes. It's satisfying and magnificent.

Towards the end of our class, we delved into the composition of our brains, comparing the analytical left side to the more abstract right-hand side. I tend to use my right-hand side of the brain more as I think slower and more creatively. Using our viewfinder, we looked at things in finer detail, looking at only a particular face of a product for 2 minutes, this helped focusing on smaller details. When I took the viewfinder away, I saw the whole product again, the bigger picture. At first, this was confusing, but then I thought there is more to products than what I can see, I now know that all I have to do is open my eyes!! (a little wider than before).

Chat next week!

References:

HISTORY. 2020.Thomas Edison. [online] Available at::<https://www.history.com/topics/inventions/thomas-edison> [Accessed 5 May 2020].