This video I came across on Mike King’s blog from Berklee music got me thinking. (You know, that mind-sculpting kind of activity that we do). I’ve always been fascinated by the way that some people can integrate or synthesize seemingly unrelated information, skills, or phenomena into something totally new and different. This particular form of creativity unifies different, even apparently opposing ideas. This can start new and sometimes important trends (e.g. in sciences), or force us to think differently. It can also surprise and delight us. Here is the video Mike King brought to my attention:
Not only is this an example of “think outside the box” creativity; it also brought attention to many musicians’ talents that were previously unrecognized. Kutiman has created something that is most definitely “greater than the sum of its parts”. He also had some serious “left-brain” challenges trying to integrate all these mis-matched, rough-edged pieces together. As one comment puts it, “very awesome sonic psycopathic mixing collage!”
Either that, or serious obsessive tendencies (in the nicest possible way…..)
How about mixing two or more genres, or skills/disciplines in a new way? Here’s one example by the “Baaa-Studs” in Wales, who name their new genre “extreme shepherding”
They’ve managed to blend sheep herding with exquisitely trained dogs, an ancient computer game that we baby boomers remember (Pong!), the Mona Lisa (by “Leonardo Baa Vinci”), LED lights, and fireworks – into one amazing dynamic display.
Sheep art! Go figure….
Robert Sternberg is a professor of Psychology and Education at Yale University. In his book “Wisdom, intelligence, and Creativity, Synthesized”, he names 8 types of creative contribution. He calls this way of putting together two or more types of unrelated ideas – not surprisingly -creative integration.
He notes that this is a key means by which scientific progress is made. He goes on to give two examples of integration:
1. A suspense novel called “Fatherland” is Robert Harris’s best –selling novel based on a combination of historical speculation and suspense thriller genres. In this novel, Harris chillingly speculates what might have happened if the Nazis had defeated the Allies in World War II.
Fatherland was also made into a movie, which is worth watching. Oddly, it is only available in VHS
2. The photo mosaic method of artwork developed by Robert Silvers, in which he combines Georges Seurat’s pointillist technique of using many small dots to form a bigger picture with photography. He does this by using many small photographs to make one bigger image.
An interesting coincidence: the Baa Studs did this very thing – and took it a step further by making a Mona Lisa image out of many small photos of LED-clad sheep!
On a more scientific note, Tim Berners-Lee , the inventor of the world wide web, talks on TED about the concept of “linked data”. This essentially is like a world wide web of pooled data that anyone can contribute to and anyone can access. He argues that this allows a never-before seen opportunity for anyone to gather and integrate seemingly unrelated data to fuel new discoveries. Of course, the biggest concerns with the linked data concept are around privacy –even more so with that kind of open access raw data than with the current WWW.
Stephen Pinker in his popular book “A Whole New Mind”, names 6 aptitudes that comprise a whole mind. The book is summarized in a nice mind map here
In the summary of the “6 aptitudes” Pinker deems necessary for the more competent, “right-brained” mind of the future, he names “symphony” as number 3. He describes it thus:
”Symphony. (not just focus). Synthesize and put pieces together, combine seemingly unrelated ideas and be able to see the big picture.”
(Home business blogger Steve Richards also did a mind map of this book – and if you scroll down the post, you’ll see he also noted he is reading “Fatherland”! (as of my visit April 10. Coincidence?!)
It’s interesting that the term “Symphony” is very literally descriptive of the creative integration that Kutiman did above with his youtube song “Thru You”.
Speaking of symphony and mind maps, I’ll be posting in the near future about mind maps as an invaluable learning, planning, brainstorming, and of course creative! tool for those of you who are visually inclined.
Keep your creative cogs turning in the meantime…..