Here are six selections from last night’s quick exercise in which you wrote, in exactly three sentences, about the most useful constraint you’ve ever used in your own creative activities.
In high school I was in a design class where we were learning how to silk screen but we ran out of screens. Due to my lack of materials, I went home, fixed a broken tambourine, used a pair of ripped stocking as the screen, and used mod podge as the filler. It actually worked really well and many people admired my resourcefulness and creativity.
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The most useful constraint I have ever encountered is never having a ruler handy. It has forced me to determine the spacing I want in my various projects and developed my eye for distance and space. Using random objects as rulers has also led me to integrating new materials into my projects.
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In designing the front page of the newspaper, The Orion, I made it a goal to never do the same design twice. It has forced me to try new things and research more. I haven’t been comfortable or bored since.
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The most useful constraint I’ve ever experienced when attempting to be creative is probably the weather when making pictures. As a photographer, the weather greatly influences how my pictures turn out. Sun or rain has drastically forced me to be creative, even if I don’t choose to be.
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When drawing a picture for an art class I started with a quick scribble. I gave myself the rule that the scribble could not be erased. It forced me to incorporate it and come up with something I never thought I could.
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Fear is the most useful constraint I use with creative projects. Whether it be an assignment or personal goal, fear of not performing to my greatest ability makes me work harder, and faster. Granted, it’s not so much fear or something bad happening as it’s fear of not creating something to be proud of.
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What do all of these have in common? Embracing the constraint and finding a way to incorporate it into the creative activity. I suppose that it’s making lemonade out of lemons, to use a trite aphorism.
Everyone who submitted their exercise at the end of class will be getting four points extra credit.
Questions or comments? Please use the comments link below.
Byron and Alan
Posting commentary, online grades, extra credit
Thanks for everyone for your comments on the Superbowl ads. I was surprised to see that many of you reviewed them in other courses. I suppose that many of us faculty are all going to the same well-spring of ideas.
I will be adding a few extra credit points to folks who joined the conversation on this, and the earlier discussion about Confirmation, Feedback loop, etc. I can't promise I'll get that done today, but its on my list of things to do. The points will be added to the orientation exercise.
Which leads me to my last comment: I've entered 10 points for everyone who properly submitted the orientation exercise. You should be able to access your grades in this class through Blackboard Learn.
There were a small handful who didn't submit the exercise. I tried sending an email and talking to you in class. I'm assuming that since I've not heard from you that you've decided to drop. You should be aware that you are still enrolled.
Questions about any of the above? Please email Byron
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