Color Your World

        The purest and most thoughtful minds are those which love color the most.  John Ruskin

I really have been wanting to do a blog on colors and creativity because the first thing that pops into my head when I think of creativity is colors! One of things I was trying to see in my inquiry project is can different sounds and images affect creativity. Another thing that I think can influence creativity is certain colors.Certain colors are said to bring out different emotions and feeling and people. For instance, people say they feel calm and collected in rooms that have a blue background. In a yellow interior room, people are said to feel cheerful and light. I think that colors have a huge role in affecting the feeling and moods of people therefore affecting a person's creativity. If a person sees a blue sea, they will feel calm, however, if they see a red sea, they will feel anger and passion. Here's a chart of what different colors mean. 

 

I believe that color is important and by putting a certain colors in an environment, i honestly believe it can enhance creativity in people. What do you think?  

 

 

Mere color, unspoiled by meaning, and unallied with definite form, can speak to the soul in a thousand different ways. Oscar Wilde

 

Colors, like features, follow the changes of the emotions.Pablo Picasso

Get Creative's Stage Improv!!

In our Get Creative class, we each had a chance to experience Stage Improv. Improvisational theatre is performing acts that are spontaneous and unplanned. In class, we played a couple of improv games. One of them was called zip zap zop where we had to point to a person and say zip that person points to other and says zap, and that person point s to another and they have to say zop. You have to keep pointing and saying zip zap and zop in that order and this goes around until someone says one of the words out of order. This was a listening and being aware of your surroundings game. If you weren't listening, you were going to mess up. Another improv game we played was knock knock who's there. In this game one person would act as if they were answering the door and another person would knock and ask a question for instance, "Do you have any sugar?" The person answering the door would have to think quick and reply. The replies in improv can only be positive and yes and you can't ask questions. This one was very fun to play and you had to be quick. We also played a game where acted out a scene and then one person would freeze and another would come in and make up another scene to the action that was frozen. That was a lot of fun. One show that is great at improvisational is Whose Line is it Anyway? The actors have to come with answers and actions quick in response to different situations.

Improv shows creativity because you have to think of new and crazy ideas each time. You reach a state of flow as you quickly insert yourself into different situations and think of new responses. While we were doing these excercises, I realized how hard it was to think of answers to situations quickly at first, but as you kept on doing it, you started to be quick and respond better. Improv can definitely aid in improving creativity by challenging you to think in respond to situations quickly and multiple ways.

Do You Want to Sundrop?

I saw this commercial on TV the other and I just have to say that this is one of my all time favorites! I saw it and I actually wanted to get in my car and buy a Sundrop drink! I don't feel that way about a lot of commercials advertising drinks but this one was good. I don't know what it is about this commercial that makes it so appealing. I guess this commercial is different and creative because you have this girl who is trying to dance to "Drop Like It's Hot" but she really isn't doing it right. I guess what I'm trying to say is this commercial was appealing and creative because people can relate to it. Everyone has had an embarrassing or silly moment in their life and the sun drop girl reminds of it. When I see the commercial, i think "This girl is crazy and can not dance". I then remember all the times I hung out with my friends and we would dance silly.

The places she's dancing in are hilarious too. She on the boat, dancing through the yoga session, and everywhere with her Sundrop drink not caring. This commercial is different from other commercials like famous people like Fergie and Brittany Spears drinking a soda because it everyday people can relate to it. This girl is just like them, silly sometimes and normal.I just wanted to blog about this commercial because it just seemed really creative to me and actually had me wanting to drop it like its hot and buy a Sundrop drink

Teach for America? Can they bring that Creativity We Need?

Something new that I came across when I went home was Teach for America. I discovered this because I was wondering why they were so many new really young teachers at my old public high school. One of my former teachers told me that allot of teachers from this program are teaching in deficient poor parts of the state since we are really short on teachers. They are people ranging from those who have just finished undergrad and have bachelor's degree to older more experienced people. When they finish the program, they have a really good chance of getting into some of the top graduate schools. They are paid during the program in order to pay off any loans and things they received during their undergraduate year. I was wondering does teach for america bring the creativity we need in our education system. Most of the teachers are very young and inexperienced, but get the hang of it after their second year of  teaching. Teach for america has a very high success rate, and I was wondering, is the high success rate due to an introduction of creativity, intrinsic motivation, or what?

Is it due to the creativity they bring or is it the intrinsic motivation they inspire in their students. I will speak more on this once I really figure it out. What do you think?

Now You See It Now You Don't

I didn't realize until I took this class the creativity that was absent in the first two years of my high school experience and that was present in the last two years of high school. I never realized how unique the MSMS (Mississippi School of Mathematics and Science) was from normal public high schools. In my public high school, I wasn't really challenged think differently or even think at all. All I had to do was listen and class and put those answers on the test, voila!, you have an A. They really didn't want us to think outside the box,but rather know these facts. We were constantly pressured by the superintendent and our teachers to score high on the state tests so we could become a level 4 or 5 school and receive money from the state. We lived for those state tests, and as long as we remembered the information our teachers taught us, we would pass those tests.

It wasn't until I got to MSMS that i realized all that I was missing. They did not place a big emphasis on the state test that was left to take, the U.S. History test, at MSMS. In fact, it was not even brought up until two weeks before then, but the teachers didn't really care what our score would be, just that we would pass it or not in order to graduate. Also, in the classrooms, they would not directly give us the answer in our classes. We would discuss it with each other before our teacher would tell us if we were right or wrong, and even then they wouldn't say right or wrong because they were no wrong answer, but would try to get us to realize the point he or she were trying to make. It was our job to come up with the answers and we would have to back why we felt that way. I  was excited about all of my classes (except math), because they cared about what I thought. We were encouraged to ask why and see the meaning behind everything. There was one thing I always remembered from my U.S. History and Economics teacher. In order to arrive at the right answer, you have to see every side of th problem from different perspectives, the right and wrong one. If all classes are taught like this, I believe that the value and quality of American education would greatly increase.

Creativity in NIKE

In order to get people to buy  their products, many companies make advertisements and commercials to promote these items, and it seems that no one knows how to do it better than Nike. Nike takes creativity novel and usefulness to a whole new level. Every ad comes back to the same point, just do it. These next three ads will show you the ingenuity and thought Nike puts in to making sure their products sell.

In this commercial, Nike tries to relate their product to the people by showing us that failure is scary and that it can lead to a whole different situation.They show different soccer players, like Wayne Rooney, lives if they lose the game or if they win and score the winning shot. Nike is telling the watchers that we have the power to write our own future. We have the power to succeed or fail.This was one of the most creative commercials I have seen that shows you what your life could be like. It made me really want to buy the product and write my future.

This one was really creative to me! I have never seen a poster created that looks like it came through the side of the building. In this ad, Nike creates the optical illusion that the runner has ran through a complete building.

It is something new and very useful in order to get people to buy their product.

These ads were my absolute favorite and the most creative in actually getting women to buy nike products. These parts of women are the parts that women feel very insecure about because of the standards society set on the body of a woman. Now and days women are trying to be stick thin and need to be the same size as a model, but nike is saying, hey, this is normal. Be proud of  your parts athletes. They are normal and alright. By making women feel safe and secure they will buy the product. It is a very creative approach to advertising. These are pretty effective ads.

Get With the Flow

Mihaly's chapter about the the flow of creativity was very intriguing to me..He says one thing all creative people have in common is that they take pleasure in what they do.They don't do it for the money or for the fame, but genuinely love their job whether it is being an advertisement agent, a painter, writer, musician, or architect. I would have to agree with Mihaly If you don't love what you do, then how can you be creative. If you hated your job, you wouldn't try and come up with new ideas. Mihaly also elaborates on what is enjoyment, how do you know you are enjoying it? Mihaly noticed when talking with people who have been creative, that "it was clear from talking to them that what kept them motivated was the quality of experience they felt when they were relaxing" (110). Mihaly goes on to say, "this optimal experience is what I have called flow, because many of the respondents described the feeling when things were going well as an almost automatic, effortless, yet highly focused state of consciousness"(110). I have experienced this flow many times in my life. In track, while I stand at th starting line on the track, I am very nervous and scared. But, once the gun fires, my mind just goes in to state of total concentration. I have one goal in my and that is to win. I don't think that i;m going to lose, but only that I can win. Nothing else matters except crossing the finish line. This flow powers creativity.I believe that to be a creative person, you have to get with the flow sometimes. Only then, will creativity fully blossom.