Lateral Thinking | Edward De Bono

Edward de Bono made known that lateral thinking is a type of thinking. He knew that there are others that questions creativity if it just so happens that an individual can inherit such skill or even some kind of talent, although he believed as much that creativity and the ability to imagine is something that anyone can learn from with proper training. No doubt, some may be better than others. But hey, that is how some things operate. I can be good at cleaning but not at cooking? Like I can paint well but I can't draw well? Of some sort like that. 

It so happens that one idea can be a tad more usable or creative than the other also because of our own effort. There are tools accessible for anyone to go beyond and develop this skill in workshops and such. No kidding! He really believes, which I agree, that in order for us to constantly think outside of the box, in any creative thinking session, we got to refrain ourselves from this habitual mode of traditional steps - he's got a great point though. We generate new ideas also to stock the mind with potential concepts that may not be at such use now but in near future. This theory on lateral thinking shows that he has good explanatory value with the need of creativity. 

Lateral Thinking | Week 6

Lateral thinking - ability to think "outside of the box" or creatively.

It involves us to discard away the obvious & get rid of our own traditional mode of thoughts so we can make use of inspirations and imaginations to look at problems and solving it in a different/unexpected perspective.As coined by Edward de Bono, it is basically changing concepts and perceptions. Not only playing around with the pieces but changing the pieces as well.

 Connect the dots without having to lift the pencil off the paper. 

Trace the lines in one continious movement without crossing a line on the way.

We were to get into groups of three to figure out on a few examples like about the neighbours chicken causing the hole in my fence. 
What would I do to solve it without having to offend him/her? 

Hm.. And so here are our top picks that may seem a tad crazy but possible, maybe? Haha!

1. Put a mirror as reflection for confusion

2. Turn the fence upside down 

3. Dig a whole as a trap for them chickens

All in all, lateral thinking is as important us to imply to the external world, especially in the world of designers. Sticking to the same ole same ole, would not expand creativity for us to illustrate it then.  Who would be there to do so? If not ourselves? Who? 

Effort plays a huge part in change. With change, there comes evolution. There comes, growth. 

Ending off with a thinker given from our lecturer,

"What would you do if.. you are not in NAFA now?"

  Realistically

1. Proceed with the course offered in RP (Diploma in Health Services)

2. Continue working retail / kids art teacher / babysitter

3. Start a Youtube channel - personal or travel vlogs/ beauty & wellness 

4. Take up on a design workshop and build up on portfolio 

5. Finish up my movie/series to watch list!

6. Stay unemployed and decide to just revamp my whole room 

7. Re-retake O' Level

Unrealistically & Crazy

1. Make a sex tape, get discovered in hopes to become like Kim Kardashian 

2. Go on a hunt for a rich husband 

3. Join a circus  

Amy Tan: Where does creativity hide? | TED

In Amy's TED talk, I can see how she projected and forsee her ingenious ways of what creativity is for her. Right off the bat, it is obvious that she loves uncertainty, how it was unclear when she comprehended life. As quoted by her,"There is no absolute truth." 

"The value of nothing; out of nothing comes something."

Her presentation manage to give a glimpse of her muses, be it by accident or was it serendipity? It helped her either way a lot in understanding the specifics, the about-ness or the discovery of that happening at that point. She questions theories of life likewise when she doesn't understand quantum mechanics but still uses it as a reference. Consciously or sub-consciously in her mind, she discover new things over her doubts/questions constantly running through a regime of her life experiences be it good or bad. There are quite a number of theories about how one can be creative. Simply with all these factors of having different life experiences/traumas/world views/backgrounds that any of us could have gone through, we ought to make that connection to vary these factors and make something new out of them. 

Seth Godin: How to get your ideas to spread | TED

I have to admit, I had to re-watch Seth Godin's TED talk on sliced breads, multiple times well because.. I could barely understand what he was saying! Although generally, it was quite an informative presentation, I did get the gist of it all. Basically, Seth talks about basic marketing in the now overstimulated advertising world. There is no escape that sponsored banners, TV & radio commercials, billboards are our permanent friend. Them catchphrases, exclamations all of which are fighting for attention. All these messages, they have one goal and that is to make sure it embeds in our memory. This not only applies to commercial products but to all kinds of ideas. Seth encourages us to stretch the margins, innovate further and to not play safe. 

"Be remarkable" 

To constantly make notice of ideas that can help spread the word, ideas and products should break from tradition and turn it more contemporary. Give the audience what they can't/won't expect. Something that is not the already-known. Something that causes curiousity because it's "new". That marketing tool will draw that needed undivided attention and make people really look and wonder. An example he gave was the cow. 

Would you rather stop halfway driving for a regular b&w cow or a cow with  both black and pink.

Exactly. 

Also he made a point especially for marketeers to focus on the audience, for those who actually may spread the word out of passion. The thing is, this all seemed pretty straight forward & common sensed but it's the approach, it is just not commonly done. 

Mind Mapping | Week 5

This week, we started off with an introduction of mind mapping. 
It was 9am, & of course everything else just sounded like "blablabla" 
As we got into it, we came across a personal mind map, some sort like a biography. 
Which led Mr Ezzam asking us,
"If you could be someone for a day, who would it be?"
To be honest, I was thinking hard about this.. It was the golden opportunity I could take advantage of! To think of the moment being able to be somebody you've been admiring or idolising for the longest time. I could be Charmaine Olivia, Lana Del Rey, Louis Cole, all these people with all I can but unfortunately, I was so blank I could not think of anyone but...
Heck yeah, the Queen B herself,Beyoncé.

Why? She was the first that popped up outta my head. To my defence, I would not even mind being Beyoncé any day. EVER. She just has it all together! And for her, she does everything discreetly but insistenly and wholeheartedly, which is a good thing. Usually what Beyoncé Knowles wants, Beyoncé Knowles gets. She got em voice, smokin' body & not to mention ass as well, favourably confident and dominant, a rappers' wife etc.. I mean I would trade any day to be her. Who in the right mind not?! 
C'mon, lets be real here.

   Hmm.. personally, I find mind mapping a complete waste of time & sometimes unnecessary simply because I do not put in effort to do it... However after much thought put into it, knowing myself, I am a visual learner. Mind mapping saves more time actually. I tend to be more interested anything associated with images, colours or maps. I mean it just adds more personality and liveliness to it or everything would've been extra EW! dull & boring. Would've you not agree with me, haha! 

On a side note, mind mapping is more than just note-taking. A mind map links information to the central subject and branches out to subtopics, key points or any related ideas. That's the thing about mind mapping - once you start, the possibilities seems endless. It's very intuitive and helps organise our thoughts, in a fun way I would say. There's no limit a7 s to how and where we can apply this graphical tool of mind mapping. It can be used when we are planning our career, studying a subject or language. Pretty much anything! 

Later in class that day, we were told to actually do a mind map of ourselves as part of our activities, and so here is mine:

You can pretty much know the kind of person I am straight off the bat. Anyways, this just came to mind as I was summing up my "About Myself", oh well. 

Thats right, that's what I would have written on my very own tombstone [shown above]! Honestly, I went completely blank (yet again) and came up with the shortest descriptions ever.... 
Though this would most probably be outta three I'd have to choose from for myself,haha!
 Speaking of tombstones and death, we were told to think of a scenario or ways how we would want to face and taste death all at once, if given a choice. I'd have to say, 
"committing suicide by jumping off a building backwards."
 Well, this was what happened to my cousin way back when. I have never met her not even once which is an unfortunate because my family always have talked about her, her life, her daughter etc. I would definitely want to feel for that exact position, and finally knowing and understanding what she was really thinking and why what she did, was done. Till now, no one could respond for her with that solid answer. & no one ever will. It does not have to have the limit to only her, but also for those that face death knowingly, consciously and sometimes even decisively. When you'd think situations and people are really that fine and normal, you'd surprise yourself with these depressing unpredictable wonders of life that has yet to happen.

Pic of the Week | Week 4

My parents giving their blessings and word of advice before she departed, haha!

This day.. I was dreading for this particular day. Why? Its the day where I had to send my sister off to pursue one of her many dreams in life; flying. [Well, equivocally speaking of course!] I think I was actually finding for ways to distract myself having to accept the fact that she'll be leaving. Of course being me.. I did not express much to her when she left. I kept questioning, "Oh no.. who am I always going to report to now!? Who am I going to have those late night talks with if not her? & even when I get annoyed sometimes, when she squeezes next to me just so she could sleep alongside me [Well, she's scared of the dark honestly], I am definitely going to miss that most.Gosh.. Anyways to start off, we are have that sisterly love/hate relationship going on. We fight all the time [No kidding!] even for the littlest things, sometimes even out of nothing! But of course, they're just those silly and random fights that we have occasionally. No matter, we'll always forgive each other within the minute and still look out for the good & bad too. Be it about guys, friends, parents etc.

 I like to think that we're each others reminder, to root for the greatest goods of life & to always stay grounded especially with family. I am not going to lie, she is like a copy of me.. like a twin. We talk alike, walk alike, look alike most would say.. I wasn't ready to not have her around as much as we use to. Although, I didn't want her to know how sad yet incredibly happy I am for her journey. I would not want her to worry or hold her back from anything ever, though I know she knows that I'll always wish her every happiness & blessings in life. This is definitely not the end of us sister sisters!

Brainstorming Pt.2

This weeks topic was a continuation on "Brainstorming". However, we begin the first half of the lesson doing presentation of the group assignment given. Each groups were given a topic that started as "101 ways to.." per say. Well, my team was assigned with 101 ways to cross roads. Well, we kept it simple for which each of us had to brainstorm for the least of 25 ideas and write/draw it then on paper. Mr Ezzam expected us to think outside of the box, most impractical yet still creative.

I realised there were many of us had really interesting topics, I'm not going to lie. I really liked the group that had to come up with ways to use an umbrella and also kill a cockroach! They had really funny yet crazily possible ideas that I would like to see it happen in real life,haha! I think with the help of brainstorming,  this activity really taught us how to expand our thinking and come out of familiarity.Afterwards, our lecturer gave us another topic to brainstorm on as a group. We had to give more than just a general answer. 

What is actually our role as a designer/artist?
Besides the fact that I went blank for most of the given time.. This was definitely a tough one! Not many knew what was the answer, or they just thought otherwise. Well, as a group, it was interesting to experience how my teammates view their future as.. Especially knowing what matters to them when it comes to their passion for art. 

Honestly, most of our "guestamation" were not in depth. It was to the point and simple.
 For example, conveying a message. This takes effect to most graphic designers. Normally it is seen as to how we can raise/promote awareness or spread news through our visual work. Be it, in posters, advertisements etc. Also in a sense to create trend with use of fashion design, or even beautify nature through interior design. Undeniably, there are many roles of a designer. ANY designer. Yes, we still do earn money, we still try to live life in a different perspective and enjoy the world but that does not limit only to designers having to experience all of that. The real question here is, with whatever we ought to do in life as part of a career, especially in the design industry,
 How can we affect such change to the world?
How do we conserve what we have left and still be able to succeed? 
How do we make the good out of it without having to waste it all in the end? 
Now, THAT'S a thinker. Am I right? 
Damn... and I am still in search for my answer and purpose to it. I think most of us are. 

Later then, we were told to meet outside Lim Hai Tak Gallery onto our next class activity.

Are we gonna visit the museum? Explore the corners of the school? 

What could it be this time? 

Remembering the times we played TAG as an assignment, this definitely got to be huge as well.
I just got a hunch about it! And so, we were instructed to lie down on the floor in front of the gallery. [Pic shown above. Exactly!]
 Lie down. Be quiet. Write down our thoughts and basically just do nothing.

Okay, so I thought well, this is no biggie.. I got this!
There I was lying down sideways, flat on the ground. All these thoughts starts to come to mind.
"OH GOSH ANTS!" "My butt! I know its irrelevant but..  ugh!"
"ROCKS. I see tiny rocks!" "My hair! There is an ant in my hair! I can feel it!"
At that point, I just took a deep breath and just laughed to myself. I was too focused. I was zooming to details in such a rush, which led me feeling flustered, uneasy & uncomfortable. Exactly the feelings I was trying to avoid. But nooo... it happened anyways.
I continued to write though, as I settled down.. I got pretty calm and felt weirdly at ease. Despite being on the rocky ground, the silence made me reminisce a time when I was traveling. I looked into the blue sky and could just hear the wind and feel such weather, as though I was somewhere on a holiday. I could hear little echoes of passerby's chatting & laughing away. I felt small and tiny that my presence was pretty much insignificant to anyone surrounding me. Maybe this is what it feels like, sometimes when we draft away from chaos. As I turned and face upwards to the ceiling, it felt like everything was so opposite and out of perspective. In a good way though, haha! It is not everyday that I just lie down staring blankly and talk to myself.  As simple as it may seem, this is a perfect example of ways we could imply when we design in future. We have to constantly be sensitive. Look at all perspective, even those out of the norm, good or bad. It can take effect for us either way where we will evolve.