Posts Tagged ‘creativity’

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The Age of Insight: Nobel Laureate Eric Kandel Explains How Our Brain Perceives Art

May 12, 2012

Many strands of Eric Kandel’s life come together in his latest work, The Age of Insight: The Quest to Understand the Unconscious in Art, Mind, and Brain, from Vienna 1900 to the Present. The 82-year-old University Professor and co-director of the Mind Brain Behavior Initiative was born in Vienna, where, as a boy of 8, he witnessed the Nazis march into the Austrian capital. Decades later, he recalls how much his own intellectual interests were shaped not only by the Holocaust that followed, but by the cosmopolitan city that in the early 1900 served as an extraordinary incubator for creativity and thought that shaped the world we live in today.

Q. What made you decide to turn your attention to the neurobiology of how we perceive art?

There are many motivating factors. One was my longterm interest in Klimt, Kokoschka and Schiele, the three Austrian Modernists, my fascination with Vienna 1900 and with Freud. I wanted to become a psychoanalyst and I’m Viennese so I sense a shared intellectual history, particularly with turn-of-the-century Vienna. But the immediate stimulus actually came from [Columbia President] Lee Bollinger. The idea behind the Mind Brain Behavior Initiative is to try to understand the human mind in biological terms and to use these insights to bridge the biology of the brain with other areas of the humanities. Lee expressed the belief that the new science of the mind could have a major impact on the academic curriculum, that in a sense everyone at the University works on the human mind. I felt I was doing this for personal reasons, but isn’t it wonderful that it is also in line with one of the missions of the University?

Excerpts from an Interview at Columbia University in the City of New York

Posted in Art/Aesthetics, Bio, Science, Theory | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

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Our complex, difficult & fragile enlightenments. Katerina Deligiorgi interviewed by Richard Marshall

April 28, 2012

3:AM Magazine: Katerina Deligiorgi is a top Hegelian philosopher. She is a top Kantian philosopher. She philosophizes on history, on art history, on creativity, on literature, on the Enlightenment and what it means today. And what it meant back in the day. And how it has things to say about education. She wonders about action and how we intend to do things. She wonders about morality and autonomy and has a podcast on the theoretical challenges from cosmetic neurology. She has written a cutting edge book on Kant and the Culture of Enlightenment, and edited a book on Hegel: Hegel: New Directions. She has a new book coming out in June, The Scope of Autonomy: Kant and the Morality of Freedom which will dazzle us. She hasn’t burned her armchair like Josh Knobe, but is still a groove sensation.

Read Interview HERE

Posted in Book-Text-Read-Zines, Human-ities, Philosophy, Social/Politics, Theory | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

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Amsterdam DNA

March 6, 2012

The Amsterdam Museum has opened an entire new department: Amsterdam DNA. This exhibition will take you on a three-dimensional 45-minute journey through our capital’s history. The versatile story of the city is presented in seven intriguing films, which we created. Above you can see the second film: Revolt Against King and Church.

In close cooperation with the curators, we developed seven scripts of about two minutes each, which shed light on the most important elements from more than 1000 years of Amsterdam history. Typical core values of Amsterdam were used as the theme for the films: entrepreneurship, freethinking, creativity and citizenship.

Visual material was collected based on the scripts. International collections were used in addition to the collection of the Amsterdam Museum, which has resulted in a selection of international renown. When visual material was not available or suitable, we had to develop the content ourselves.

The challenge was to bring the masterpieces to life without affecting their identity, or rather, their soul. We chose to add an extra dimension by making the images three-dimensional. Another dimension, sound, was added to make the whole even more appealing. Lifelike sounds and soundtracks that fit the spirit of the age add luster to the scenes.

Next to the seven films we also produced a trailer and a video-wall of approximately seven by three meters, in which past en present blend.

Commissioned by: Amsterdam Museum
Agency: PlusOne
Direction: Martijn Hogenkamp
Production: Marcel Vrieswijk
Motion Design: Sander van Dijk
Lead 3D: Tim van der Wiel
3D: Noam Briner, Chris Rudz, Hans Willem Gijzel, Richard Lundström
Music: Lennert Busch
Sound Design: Mauricio d’Orey
Thanks to: Harold van Velsen
Client: Bianca Schrauwen, Joost van de Weerd, Norbert Middelkoop, Laura van Hasselt

Via Explore

Posted in Digital Media, Film/Video/New Media, Human-ities, Motion Graphics | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

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Groupthink: The brainstorming myth

February 12, 2012

In the late nineteen-forties, Alex Osborn, a partner in the advertising agency B.B.D.O., decided to write a book in which he shared his creative secrets. At the time, B.B.D.O. was widely regarded as the most innovative firm on Madison Avenue. Born in 1888, Osborn had spent much of his career in Buffalo, where he started out working in newspapers, and his life at B.B.D.O. began when he teamed up with another young adman he’d met volunteering for the United War Work Campaign. By the forties, he was one of the industry’s grand old men, ready to pass on the lessons he’d learned. His book “Your Creative Power” was published in 1948. An amalgam of pop science and business anecdote, it became a surprise best-seller. Osborn promised that, by following his advice, the typical reader could double his creative output. Such a mental boost would spur career success—“To get your foot in the door, your imagination can be an open-sesame”—and also make the reader a much happier person. “The more you rub your creative lamp, the more alive you feel,” he wrote.

Written by Jonah Lehrer, The New Yorker. Continue HERE

Posted in Human-ities, Performativity | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments »

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The Power of Introverts: A Manifesto for Quiet Brilliance

January 27, 2012

Author Susan Cain explains the fallacy of “groupwork,” and points to research showing that it can reduce creativity and productivity.

Do you enjoy having time to yourself, but always feel a little guilty about it? Then Susan Cain’s “Quiet : The Power of Introverts” is for you. It’s part book, part manifesto. We live in a nation that values its extroverts – the outgoing, the lovers of crowds – but not the quiet types who change the world. She recently answered questions from Mind Matters editor Gareth Cook.

Cook: This may be a stupid question, but how do you define an introvert? How can somebody tell whether they are truly introverted or extroverted?

Cain: Not a stupid question at all! Introverts prefer quiet, minimally stimulating environments, while extroverts need higher levels of stimulation to feel their best. Stimulation comes in all forms – social stimulation, but also lights, noise, and so on. Introverts even salivate more than extroverts do if you place a drop of lemon juice on their tongues! So an introvert is more likely to enjoy a quiet glass of wine with a close friend than a loud, raucous party full of strangers.

It’s also important to understand that introversion is different from shyness. Shyness is the fear of negative judgment, while introversion is simply the preference for less stimulation. Shyness is inherently uncomfortable; introversion is not. The traits do overlap, though psychologists debate to what degree.

Continue on Live Science HERE

Posted in Human-ities, Performativity, Science, Social/Politics | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

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A Group Of Schools In Sweden Is Abandoning Classrooms Entirely

January 22, 2012

A new school system in Sweden eliminated all of its classrooms in favor of an environment that fosters children’s “curiosity and creativity.”

Vittra, which runs 30 schools in Sweden, wanted learning to take place everywhere in its schools — so it threw out the “old-school” thinking of straight desks in a line in a four-walled classroom (via GOOD).

Vittra most-recently opened Telefonplan School, in Stockholm. Architect Rosan Bosch designed the school so children could work independently in opened-spaces while lounging, or go to “the village” to work on group-projects.

All of the furniture in the school, which looks like a lot of squiggles, is meant to aid students in engaging in conversation while working on projects.

The school is non-traditional in every sense: there are no letter grades and students learn in groups at their level, not necessarily by age.

Admission to the school is free, as long as the child has a personal number (like a social security number) and one of the child’s parents is a Swedish tax payer.

Written by Meredith Galante for Business Insider. Continue HERE

Posted in Architectonic, Education, Performativity, Public Space, Social/Politics | Tagged , , , , | Leave a Comment »