the challenge
Today, we are back to a creative exploration assignment. The Seed we will play with is the Time Zone Seed.
my insight
I know this building for some time — from when it was still populated. At some point it was sold, or more accurately, the property on which it stands was. Then, it was invaded by street artists. Then some signs warning people that this was a private property appeared. And since then it stands still.
It’s not unique is any sense, but when you zoom out and see it in context — with the shiny tall buildings surrounding it — it looks as if someone copied and pasted it from a different location or from a from a different time zone. It seems to be stuck in time while everything around it keeps moving quickly.
reflection
Let me take you for a second behind the scenes of this post. The Insight above is not the Insight I captured today. This one is:
I saw this wall, all beaten up and cracked, and thought of the contrast between how it looked and its surroundings. This brought up a non-trivial association with the title of the Seed. Instead of thinking of the obvious interpretation of Time Zone, this wall made me think of something which was frozen in time — something from a different era — while everything around it keeps moving forward in time.
When I started to write this post, I remembered that two weeks ago I took a photo of an old building covered with graffiti surrounded by new and shiny buildings. I felt this photo, which was taken with no relation to the Time Zone Seed, captures the idea I had of much more vividly. The contrast between the old and the new, the neglected and the shiny, is much clearer in it.
So, in fact my brain did two leaps today. The first one, from the literal interpretation of the Seed to a more subtle one, using the wall Insight. And the second leap, to a different time zone in my mind — a memory from two weeks ago which I happen to capture in a photo back then without knowing when and how it will be used.
This is a typical flow when you are in a creative mindset. It is arbitrary and surprising, and yet in retrospect it has a solid inherent logic — it just makes perfect sense.
mental notes
- When in search for a creative Insight, don’t limit yourself to here and now. Take a journey in space and time using your memory and your imagination.
- Rules are meant to be broken. Wisely. When the time is right.
now it is your turn… be creative!