Improvisation - How is the brain able to be creative?

Shutting down the part of brain that says: “careful!” and letting the mistakes come out as creative new ideas.

I want to share this TED Talk with you: 

“Charles Limb reviews his groundbreaking work studying creativity and the brain — by putting musicians inside an fMRI and watching as they improvise. For the past decade, he’s been working with jazz piano players, revealing astonishing new data about the way the brain creates art.”

http://blog.ted.com/2011/01/18/hip-hop-creativity-and-the-brain-qa-with-dr-charles-limb/

How is the brain able to be creative? asks Charles Limbs.

First, I noticed that his basic assumption is that the brain is able to be creative.
and I do believe that any human brain, can reach any level of creativity, as long as the brain owner  ;o)   will not stand in the way.

Rap and Jazz

Charles Limb researches the area of Jazz and Rap musicians.

Rap
He threw random surprise words at rapers, as they were rapping - and he let them integrate the words into their improvised text. they did not know what’s coming next - they dealt with each surprise as it came.

I found this very interesting, because this is exactly what I enjoy doing with writing:

When I improvise - allow myself a free move between those surprising connection-less words, I give my self permission to make stupid mistakes, or silly connection, writing down the first thing that comes to my mind - I allow this first thought, first idea, to be on paper, and have a chance to exist, and maybe grow.

It comes from listening very closely to 1 and to another 1, and letting the combination 2 - come easy, be what ever it will be.
when I produce a lot of those - some will come out boring and useless, and some will come out cool and funny.

So I was super curious to see - what did Limb discover studding those rappers brains?

So, He says that when you are free styling, versus memorising, you have got, of course, language areas active in the brain.
More interestingly though, also happening in the brain:

visual activity,
motor coordination activity.

So, yes... after listening to this TED talk I became even more intrigued with the subject.

Because I’ve always thought that Improvisation opens a door to creativity. and recently, I read that Steve Jobs believed "Creativity is just connecting things.“

What I think is, that Improvisation trains the brain muscles for finding new connections between seemingly connection-less things (people, places, events).

for more about that: http://lessons.drawingwithlihi.ch/details/creative-lunch

Happy happy happy holidays, and new year  ;o)

Trying new ideas is messy

Writing to share with you some of the messiness I’m going through now. and my attempts to find inspiration in order to try new ideas. Making changes. 

Maybe you know how I feel, and you’ll find help in the materials as well.

So, Before I dive in, It’s nice to start positive, and remember Pablo Picasso. He said:

“I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.”  

Sorry to admit, that I always feel my two options are either to try the new trial, which I don’t know how to do. or to hide in a safe place. far away from anyone’s examining and judging eye.

So. Lets see. What's the new idea I am trying? I would like to develop my business, change it, and offer a new course.
If I don’t offer a new course, then I can’t fail. very safe. I stay as I am, teaching courses that I’ve been teaching, in which I know exactly what I’m doing. I have a group of pleased students, all ready to go on.
If I  offer a new course, maybe I will teach it badly, or maybe no one will come.

No one could not-want-to-come-to-the-course, because I didn’t offer it.
I couldn’t teach it badly, because it doesn’t exist...

On the other hand, if I don’t offer it -

I could never know if people would have been interested in it.
They could have come, enjoyed, benefited.
I could have been learning what they need, and how can I give it to them.
But they didn’t come. because I didn’t invite them.

It does feel very safe. Safe and far away from failure.
Or … am I failing to begin with by not offering the course?

as I said, I’ve been reading about this issue on line, looking for some inspiration, and found a Math teacher’s blog, Sam. He wrote:

changing things is messy. Because you don’t know what works yet, and what doesn’t. It’s taking a risk. It requires more work. And you feel like you’re constantly failing and failing. And that’s not a good feeling.

http://samjshah.com/2011/10/19/the-messiness-of-trying-something-new/

Ye... It’s not an easy one. I’m trying to find the right balance.

What do you think?

Move from fear to believe and action

Creativity starts with believe and action.
I always start with the easiest action.
The first easy action will take me forward into the next complicated one.
It will take me there with compassion, and understanding.
It will take care of me, and all of my complaints.

I watched this sweet, inspiring video. and then it ended, and I was left alone.
alone with the doubts. with out the nice cartoons and dramatic music, to decorate them.

Oh, how I would like to put my fears aside, and just do do do new brave things.
I know that some days I can do this, and some days I can not.
and most days, I’m doing as much as I can, and accepting the fact that fear is here.
I don’t like fear, but I try to accept it, find ways around it.
The main thing is not to believe it too strongly, because it will make me stop trying  new things.

How can I move from fear to believe and action?

I struggle to find the right people, friends, teachers, books.
The people who can help me find ways to believe and act on possibilities,
and not stop on account of fear.

Creativity starts with believe.

Believe that you are allowed to play with an idea and experiment with it.
While believing that something could come out of it. But it might not.
And that would be fine.
Then you can try another one.

The easiest action

Action can take me from doubt to hope. from doubt to creativity and good ideas.
Which ever action I take.
It can be the simplest thing.


Doubts

Maybe its not the right idea...
I can’t do this...

Well, maybe it’s not the right idea. Maybe I don’t know how to do this.
but that is the way new ideas are.
they are all wrong, they are born unskilled,
they are cheeky and rude, much more then correct or knowledgeable.
Just like kids.
It’s possible to try something new and stupid, and discover it’s actually creative.
being new and stupid is not so different from being creative.

It’s good to start with the easiest, most doable action. I always find it unbelievable, but I try to approach it with believe:
The first easy action will take me forward into the next complicated one.
It will take me there with compassion, and understanding.
It will take care of me, and all of my complaints.

Trial & Error - Making mistakes in a good direction and letting go of the God complex

trial and error. an error may happen when I take a pencil, and start drawing. the proportions are all wrong! I don’t understand why it went wrong, I feel helpless and without answers.

Tim harford says we can understand and solve complicated problems, but the question is - what is the way we go about it.
Tim Harford's writings reveal the economic ideas behind everyday experiences. read more about him: http://www.ted.com/speakers/tim_harford.html

Tim Harford talks about letting go of the God complex.
I think I understand the way the complex world works, and why.
but the world if far too complex to understand.
Maybe instead, we can understand the need for a politician to stand up and say: “I want to fix our education system, I have no idea how, I have a few ideas, lets try them, they will probably all fail, then we will try some others, and slowly will find solutions.”

How about admitting that not every question has one right solution?

It’s a hard thing to do. it feels so hard and even painful to have uncertainty, to be challenged.

So, I aspire to make mistakes in a good direction.

I think that when you make a lot of mistakes, then some of them are good, in the good direction, and some are bad.
In drawing and in life - I was never able to avoid the most disturbing mistakes. but maybe that’s not so bad, maybe there was no other way, and they taught me my next steps, my better steps.

But I always find it hard to avoid the God complex, I look at the world around me, or at my attempts to do things, can’t help but thinking I already know what will happen if I try a new dance class, or try calling a friend I haven’t talked to in a while.
What’s going to happen if I’ll go to my drawing class today, or skip it because I’m feeling insecure? I truly don’t know. only after trying I find out.
One terrible drawing session, one wonderful.
Never has much to do with my projections.

Trial and error. an error may happen when I take a pencil, and start drawing. the proportions are all wrong!
but wait, if trial and error are good enough for science, commerce, and medicine, who am I to get it all perfect and boring right in the first try.

Aimee lacks legs. So, which are my "legs"?

**

My personal struggle lately, has been about drawing and writing struggling.
No one wins.
Nothing gets done.

Questions are whispered in the darkness of my mind: What do I prefer (drawing or writing?), What do I want as my focus? What kind of writing? What kind of drawing? (Those are no easy times...)

Watching Aimee Mullins, I found my self believing that those questions are crippling me. Those questions are leaving me with NO legs! No drawing! No writing!

Aimee Mullins is lacking legs. And seeing it as a possibility to wear different legs, be different heights,  run like a chita, be a chita, a frog.
Fly like a super hero.

Super-able instead of disabled
**

Who is Aimee Mullins?
Aimee was born without fibular bones, and had both of her legs amputated below the knee when she was an infant. She learned to walk on prosthetics, then to run -- competing at the national and international level as a champion sprinter, and setting world records at the 1996 Paralympics in Atlanta. At Georgetown, where she double-majored in history and diplomacy, she became the first double amputee to compete in NCAA Division 1 track and field. read more: http://www.ted.com/speakers/aimee_mullins.html
**

Aimee lacks legs. So, which are my own "legs"? What do I lack? How can I grasp it as an opportunity and not as a disadvantage?

So if I lack focus - can't decide if I want to write or draw, and even though good books about creativity tell me to focus - I can't - I lack focus!
Watching Aimee made me less guilty about that - I can wear my writer legs for a few weeks and then back change to my painter legs.

I don't have to be restricted to one pair of leg. don’t have to choose, there is no advantage to choosing, adversity is better, richer.
**

Art matters, Aimee says.
The art that of her different legs, gave her the freedom from the need to emulate the "normal" (what ever that means...), and connect with her own many possibilities and identities.

I have my two leg, but I also find myself trying to emulate the normal, be like everyone else. It's safe, the way is clear, don't be different, fit in.

but only when I dare to walk on my self-chosen legs, enable myself with a little something different, even if just for a little while - then I feel truly able.

We are born makers, we make the worlds we live in

Dale Dougherty, A technology and publishing enthusiast, Dale Dougherty founded MAKE magazine and created the world's largest DIY festival, Maker Faire.

If you want to make something just for the sake of making it, it's probably because you are human, and humans are makers. We not only live in our worlds, we make them.


Dale Dougherty talks at TED (http://www.ted.com) about this subject. I invite you to watch him and be inspired.
I watched him, and remembered -

As a child, I wanted to make things, and I made them. Never asking: “why? Is that worthwhile spending time on? will others appreciate it?”
Never! The curiosity just killed me - and I am not special. It made my day to have the house to myself, one day, me and my friend, mixed different ingredients from all over the kitchen, just to learn and experience how it turns out. Let me tell you how it turned out: into a bowl of a sticky brown material. We had fun with it and then left it in one of the kitchen’s cupboards. forgot it there. after a few days, my mother confronted me regarding an unusual amount of ants attacking the apartment.

As I said, nothing special about that story, the question is - why do I stop to ask “why?” as an adult?
I still want to make things, so why do I stop my self? I’m afraid -
- other people will not like it, maybe even tell me I’m wasting my time.
- I will tell myself the same things.
- We are used to the fact that everything we do is supposed to have a productive purpose, and it should be smart and elegant, and clear, and perfect.
If it won’t turn out just like that - we don’t even want to try it.

Problem is - if we stop our selves from making the things that are shouting within us to be created - then we will never have the chance to find out:
- How much other people like it, and why.
- How much we love it, and why.
- How can we make it work out better then we thought we could.
- How we can find ways to make it elegant.

If we let our selves be children for a short while, and play - we get this chance. and we feel relieved, because we no longer hold inside our biggest desires. even if no one will ever see what we’ve done, or like it - we will still know - Yes! It’s terrible, I didn’t have enough time or skill for doing this, but I went ahead and made it! What am I going to make next? now I know how to make the next one better.

A little girl is drawing a picture of god, her teacher comes to her and asks: “ What are you drawing?” she says: “I am drawing god”. teacher says: “but nobody knows what god looks like.” The girl say: “They will, in a minute” (Ken Robinson).

I invite you to watch Ken Robinson.

He explores creativity, with humor and smarts. Very inspiring.

Our creativity, he says, is a necessary part of our intelligence - It’s our responsibility to nurture it. Within each of our children. Within ourselves.

as children, we  take a chance, we don’t hold back just because we might be wrong.

But what does education do to us? Ken Robinson talks about our concept of education. He says this issue runs deep with everyone. What happens to us as children within the borders of that “education” - as we grasp it?

Inspired by this video, I think we should all invest in ourselves, give it some thought and great attention - just as if you were your own small child - When ever you go to a teacher, a class, especially the ones concerning creativity - find the teacher that will not crash your creativity.
Some of us need a teacher that  will help us find our creativity, and some need a teacher that will not crash the existing one.
I belong to both these groups...
But I have a friend who feels that she needs someone challenging her creative ideas, in order for them to exist,  to grow.

The important thing is to pay close attention to what is it we need. It might be different from what others need.
Find it, maintain it.
Need help to find it? educate it?
Find the right education for you.