Archive for the 'creativity' Category

Mar 26 2008

Seeking to work without pretension

Published by Nancy White under creativity

From my friend Philip…

Thus when we used to make our constructions, we produced “pure truth” without pretensions, without tricks, without malice. What we did then had never been done before; we did it disinterestedly, and if is worth anything it is because we did it without expecting to profit from it. We sought to express reality with materials we did not know how to handle and which we prized precisely because we know that their help was not indispensable to use, that they were neither the best nor the most adequate. We put enthusiasm into the work, and, this alone, even if that were all that there were in it, would be enough: and much more than is usually put into an effort — for we surrendered ourselves to it completely, body and soul. We departed so far from the modes of expression then known and appreciated that we felt save from any suspicion of mercenary aims.

Pablo Picasso, reported by Jaime Sabartes in, Picasso: An Intimate Portrait, New York 1948

Good food for thought, especially when working hard and fast…

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Feb 28 2008

Aristotle helps me distill this visual thinking stuff…

Published by Nancy White under creativity, visual thinking

The soul never thinks without a picture.

Aristotle

Aristotle (384-322 BCE): General Introduction [Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy]

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Feb 25 2008

What I missed at Northern Voice

Published by Nancy White under creativity

The challenge of parallel sessions is you have to miss something, particularly if you are playing a lead role in your own session. Makes it hard to skip out. There were two sesssions I really wish I had not missed. One was Dave Olson’s F*ck Stats, Make Art Dossier.

Apparently, Dave was on the same stream as our “Writing on Walls” session - tapping into our creativity. I’m glad the session was recorded and blogged. It was interesting to see that there were quite a few sessions that pinged on a central core of creativity.

I also missed Alan “cogdog” Levine’s preso on 50 Ways to Tell a Story. I’ve been following the evolution of this presentation since last summer and was looking forward to the “live” version, but I was deep in a conversation with Dave Pollard and one does not drop the chance for a great conversation. So Alan, know I was beaming you and I’ll look for Injenuity’s video.  (And I’m glad, Alan, you caught Scott Leslie’sTrackback Love“. Geek poetry!)

(Photo by Robert Scales )

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Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States