"Picture A Day"

This picture is one of the many examples for me that simply shows Creativity and Play. Growing up in a family of six and majority are females, makeup was never not a normal thing to see. Ever since I was younger, I loved seeing my mom and sisters getting ready having to gloss their pink shaded lips.. Applying their mascaras to their set of eyes.. The list is endless! I do blame makeup for the reason I love to experiment and play on different mediums when it comes to the artistic aspect. Be it with music, painting or even cooking! I feel like a kid again, having an empty palette at hand and just go crazy with the colours to fill my moments with. A simple foundation can facilitate us in the near future to do more than a thing one can do. It is about the idea of exploring our own beauty, our own curiosity, our own tastes and aesthetic through the medium itself. At the end of the day, it is just about having fun and enjoying ourselves.

TED | Tim Brown : Tales of Creativity And Play [Summary]

After watching the interactive speech made by Tim Brown on video, basically he talked about the powerful relationship between creative thinking and play -- given examples that can be done work and etc. He experimented an activity with the audience whereby everybody was given 30 seconds to draw their partner. Time was up, and the room were mostly filled up with laughters and many "sorry's" were heard. Now this was then explained as the fear of judgement. He then compared the being of a child and an adult. The contrast was vividly clear.We don't know enough to  be self-conscious when we were younger. Every kid lived freely in their own wilderness but at some point, we lose that ability in ourselves. And so, he began another activity using Finger Blasters and 30 circles where he instilled that we have the ability play with no boundaries. 

 The fear of being un-liked or un-wanted was too great for us to overcome and this is why it is common for us to see that in the working environment now. Therefore, creative thinking and play makes up a very distinct difference within each other. Without it, our engagement to explore more possibilities are limited.He told it is not necessary that creative and play involves only playful building and exploration. It could also involve playful role-play. To create does not only put thought into the product but also the environment and one self. Tim named a few successful companies like Google and Pixar where their offices were designed to feel relaxed, focused but buzzing with activities such that the Google office in Switzerland have an indoor slide. Working environments like these would influence one self in participation and use it as an empathy tool. When they imagine and act it out, they provide these intuitions that would not confine oneself to not only work better and creatively but also emotionally. Tim mentioned that it's not an anarchy, the game of life has its rules and we ought to know how to play. 

Creative thinking and play needs to be practiced more especially by us adults because it is insatiable once we get going, and that the enlightenment is our potential. We won't settle for anything less, we would self edit to do our jobs better. We would engage to do more. The consciousness in realising that creative and play shows freedom that would evolve our own choices. Its builds that sense of trust with colleagues and they are now your best friend. It is a visual language. 

Creative Thinking | Introduction

My name is Nur Syahada. Currently studying in NAFA [Diploma in Graphic Communication], I'm 19 this year and as part of a weekly assignment we were required to do an E-Journal for Creative Thinking module.

To start off, we were being welcomed by our lecturer [Ezzam Rahman],

Similar to the Ying and Yang theory, our lecturer is stern in nature, which could be said to be a pain in the ass at times but he balances it with his best friend-like attitude. 

This in turn, relates to this week's introduction on Creative Thinking when we were asked a peculiar question. Is there a relationship between play & creativity? A lot of us were taken aback by the question as we were wondering and it made me think about how he was able to incorporate fun when we were to be serious during class.

Mei Qi and Si Mei simply baffled at the thoughtful question, haha!

 Of course given it being a group discussion, we had various opinions about it. Basically, the keyword in creative thinking is create. To create something is to bring into existence. To produce something. To make something. It is normally questioned as to how we are going to make it happen. How do we solve the problem? As said by Mr Ezzam, we are not originals, our creations are merely an echo of others or our own ideas. However, as we 

were discussing, I do believe when we create, we have to relate and involve our own 

imagination or original ideas. 

Groups chatting away and discussing 

Without a doubt, I completely agree that there is a relationship between play & creativity.When we are in a fun situation, it brings out emotions that stimulates creativity. For example, building sandcastles. Its an outdoor activity that suits all ages be it you're young or old. Playing in sand is like playing in water, soothing and entertaining. Even as adults we catch ourselves running our toes and fingers through the sand and already enjoying its texture. Building sandcastle not only allow us to build a structure but also to expand on it throughout time by digging, sifting and pouring. It stretches our imagination from a simple bucket shaped sand to... BAM! 

A car! 

Not only that, we also incorporate artistic expression and social skills when play or work creatively. Such that, we play music in the midst, starting to decorate even more elaborately and all for that we are in a common play space. 

Especially as adults, it does not necessarily mean as we grow older.. it is very limited for us to explore and find that creativity. We have to relearn and consistently teach ourselves playfulness and creativeness. As we discussed within the group, there were some among us who disagreed and agreed that playfulness can be taught. Personally, like every other game of life, there are rules to anything these days so yes, it can be taught. However, it depends on the individuals willingness.  

 Selfie with my Group 6 C.T teammates!

On our way to think of ways to play "Tag You're It"

Our attempt at tagging a random shopper.

So as part of our assignments every group must-play The "Tag You're It!" Game .......in public! Of course all of us were starting to feel nervous. At least I knew I was. When was the last time all of us actually played Tag right? Exactly my point. Not only that.. game twist was that we had to tag strangers without getting into trouble. It was something out of the everyday norm and to see how far can we go with creativity and playfulness with a simple game. It was hard at first trying to  connect with our teammates and with a game plan. Thankfully, no matter how shy and embarrassed we ought to feel, my teammates managed to at least give the game a go.

Mei Qi (above) with her attempt to Tag by grabbing his drink! 

Darren being chased after tagging the man

Overall, I am liking this module because it challenges me to go out of comfort zone even though it was quite a crazy experience! With all that could happen in this module, assignments are already piling up. It'll probably get more chaotic as time passes. Whats NAFA without chaos right? Gradually, its realising the fear that's limiting us to be playful and creative is non-existant. Even though, it was a social assignment we did had quite a laugh and made days like these unexpectedly interesting.