the challenge
We are on a creative exploration today, and our target is Carbon. Capture as many Insights inspired by the Seed throughout the day and come back to this post later today for some reflection.
Let’s play!
my insight
I found the first Insight lying on the ground in the middle of a busy street. This simple square, evenly black and yet full of texture and cryptic lines, is nothing but a paper napkin. But when it is taken out of context, it becomes a mysterious, even out-of-this-world, object.
To get additional inspiration (or a different twist on the Seed), I’ve done something I’m not doing often enough in the context of creative exploration: I’ve Googled the Seed. The first result sent me to the Wikipedia entry, and there I found this drawing which I later used as a visual trigger to capture the following Insight:
reflection
I would like to take a minute to reflect on the second part of my creative exploration.
At first, what I did seems to be as farther as possible from the definition of creative exploration: what does a Google search or a Wikipedia entry have to do with creative Insights?
Well, in creative exploration, we are aiming for an infinite loop of triggers, raw material, and associations. We strive to absorb as much as possible from things we come across and then use at least some of them as raw material for associations. These associations can be used later as triggers for another round of insights. Remember how I always say that “anything goes?” This is precisely what this infinite loop is designed for.
The word Carbon triggered a Google search, which led me to the Wikipedia entry and the diagram of the structure of Carbon, and from there I went on to explore the reality around me with a new pair of glasses — through a different lens. Eventually, I found an Insight which is by itself beautiful and could lead to another round of Insights and ideas.
The different turn I took in my creative exploration (looking for a web-search-based inspiration) is as valid as taking a turn to a small alley in the hope to find there something new and surprising.
In any creative exploration, both inspiration and insights can come from anywhere. That’s what makes the results endlessly surprising. There’s no “right answer,” and there’s also no “right path” to take.
mental notes
- Use web-search as inspiration — it is a valid creative inspiration as any other.
- There’s no “right answer” and there’s also no “right path” to take.
now it is your turn… be creative!