the challenge
Today we take our creative practice to the kitchen. Our assignment when playing with the Sous Chef Prism is to create an Insight using things we can find in the kitchen. What things? Well, practically anything, as long as it is in your kitchen. And the outcome of this challenge is as open: a sculpture, a kind of drawing done with stuff you find, a dish you prepare — anything goes.
The Seed we are playing with is the Time Zone Seed.
Ready? Let’s play!
my insight
Looking around my kitchen I got hooked on these espresso capsules. They seemed like a versatile raw material to play with.
Thinking about Time Zone, my first association was of a clock. And so, I took a handful of capsules and started to arrange them to create the face of an analogue clock.
While I was playing with the capsules and explaining to my four-years old son what is it I’m doing on the floor, I thought about how my choice of material has a deeper meaning when combined with the idea of the clock. I could have used any other artifact from my kitchen to create the clock, but my unconscious decision to use coffee-related objects made my Insight more profound. This caffeine clock represents how at each given moment part of the world is wide awake — how the Time Zones mean that our planet is awake 24/7.
reflection
When you are engaged in a creative activity, whether you are creating something or solving a problem, being surprised is part of the game. We often associate the ideation process — coming up with diverse ideas — with being surprised. After all, if the idea you are generating is creative, it means by definition you were not aware of it a second before it was conceived.
And yet, often, the surprise does not stop with that. The reflective insight I came up with after the basic idea was already being implemented was no less surprising.
Our brain doesn’t stop working. Associations, interpretations, and new ideas are constantly being generated in the background. That we are already pursuing a certain path — implementing one idea — is often a trigger for deeper thoughts about that idea. It might extend the original idea, or a set us on a new direction. This is not something we do consciously, but we can and should be aware of it. We need to be attentive and notice when an interesting Insight is created, and instead of ignoring it, bring it to the front and play with it.
mental notes
- Our brain never stops working — even when we already have an idea to pursue.
- Pay attention to background Insights and try to identify the value of bringing them to the front.
now it is your turn… be creative!