Innovation and Ideation. A Workshop with Auntie Beeb...

In this module of creative innovation and entrepreneurship, we were lucky enough to be able to attend the workshop which was held by members of the user experience team at the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).

There will be three workshops over the next few weeks, and these will be attended by;
Paul Crowley, Head of User Experience:
Dan Ramsden, Director of Creativity:

The three workshops will cover;
A) ideation; that is, coming up with ideas.
B) testing; validating the ideas and finding assurance through screening.
C) presenting; pitching to customers and selling your idea.

The BBC has always been the front of commercial communication, and as such, they adopt some methods to help them both facilitate and generate new ideas.

A presentation was given and referred to the work of Prof Eddie Obeng, concerning the difference between knowledge and learning.
https://www.ted.com/talks/eddie_obeng_smart_failure_for_a_fast_changing_world

Filmed June 2012 at TEDGlobal 2012

Eddie Obeng: Smart failure for a fast-changing world

Our ability to learn has been outstripped by the amount of knowledge that is available to us. We, therefore, live in what is called a "foggy environment" and this was articulated through a simple quadrant table as follows:

                                   

In this sense, the BBC suggest that the only way to deal with the wealth of information that surrounds us is to what in their words is a mantra for their group which is "run confidently into the fog."

In a way what is being said, is to avoid over-planning. In my case it's about avoiding the Gantt chart and thinking from a fresh point of view;

To have an excellent idea it takes lots and lots of bad ones first. We learn from our mistakes better than we learned from doing something correctly once. The great ideas that have emerged in the last 500 years, in fact in the last 200 years since the Enlightenment, have usually been a product, even a by-product of many many years of struggling failure.

Let's explore the idea of divergences to convergent to divergent and convergent thinking.

We can talk about this as four separate steps.

Start as an "explorer."
engage with the outside world to find stuff that interesting, be a collector but don't judge anything that you've witnessed or collected.

Then become "an artist."
Turn the stuff that you have found into other stuff by combining them. Just create things, but do it without any constraints!

Then become "a judge."
it is in this mode that you critically evaluate your ideas and start to find out through verification and testing what actually works or is likely to work.

Finally, make the step to be "a warrior."
In this step you press ahead regardless with your chosen ideas beating your chest, banging the drum, and selling the idea to everybody come across. This gets momentum behind your idea and starts converting others to your way of thinking.
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We then conducted a short icebreaking session where we were shown a picture of a paper aeroplane, the typical paper dart. The facilitator stated that the next few moments would be spent by the group in designing the best possible way to get those three clean sheets of paper across the room.

Everybody started making paper planes, the typical bear trap. In my case, I suggested to the group that we brainstormed what the actual objective was and how we were going to do it. To get these three sheets of paper as far as possible, we need to compactness tight as possible and also a small surface area that we can. It may have been appropriate for us to only screw up the three pieces of paper into a ball. This would have met the objective, and having seen the outcome of this exercise before, this would have second-guessed the facilitator's demands. But I went one stage further by thinking about the actual objective a little deeper. My solution was to compact all the paper as tightly as possible, and also to reduce the surface area to a minimum, without the use of Sellotape or anything else to hold it together.  The idea gave me the inspiration to simply roll the paper in as tight a formation that I possibly could, and then to tie it into a knot.

Sure enough, this design actually won. It ricocheted off the back wall with a thump, whereas the paper planes fell short, and the screwed up piece of paper while travelling a little further, was unable to hold and sustain momentum. I was well chuffed!

The lesson of this session was the importance of "reframing" the challenge. What does the project need? Really and truly?

The next exercise was what the BBC called the "red ant man". This was a method to reframe your challenge as problems, blockers, constraints and goals.

Step one, define your opportunity by breaking things down into component parts so that the limitations, blockers can then also be broken down.
(I felt this was a similar exercise in the swot analysis, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats: but perhaps with a new name).

Again by using a simple quadrant diagram, one can position the elements as follows;

Goals versus constraints
issues versus blockers

It was pointed out that a "blocker" is something where it is possible regarding overcoming and obstacle or getting inertia and momentum for example. Whereas "constraint" is a continuous limitation that is immovable and cannot be overcome.

We should be asking you "what does success look like?"

For example, if one is to create a website, is that in itself a goal, or is the real goal to reach an audience?

The "five whys" method.

Why is this important

Why is this important

Why is this important

Why is this important

And finally why is that important?

So what is stopping us?



The next part of the method is finding ways that we might reframe the question or a problem and its solution through the phrase "how might we…"

Give our problem a perfect frame for creative thinking, but without suggesting a particular approach. In deconstructing these three words,
"how" invites us to think about many solutions
"might" suggests that there are many possibilities and solutions,
"we" is a collaborative address, which means that as a team we all own the problem together.

1) As an example, how might we appeal to the widest audience?

We brainstormed this idea and came up with creating banners with details of the website to be posted throughout Huddersfield and the University; get a publication in the Huddersfield Examiner, the local newspaper; develop and create posters with details of the website with links and URLs; establish and print leaflets with details of the website et cetera

2) how might we see what success looked like?

• Ask the curator's opinion:
• get opinion polls in the leaflets through some sort of voting:
• ask the public verbally who visit the exhibition, or people in the street:
• build a model and get feedback on it:
• communications with other groups:
• promotional and marketing events in the street, interactive handouts.

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The second session after lunch started with an icebreaker, where we were asked to use sheets of paper with 12 preprinted circles on them. We were all asked to fill each circle with anything we can possibly think of, over the next five minutes. This was an exercise in creative thinking. There is an infinite series of ideas for any given problem, and nothing is a stupid idea because it could lead on to something else.

Another method used in the creation of ideas was what the BBC called their "crazy eights". This was an exercise again to create quantity not the quality of ideas and was solely based on folding a sheet of A3 paper into eight segments and then drawing possible ideas in each of the eight sections. Anything goes, and nothing is wrong or stupid!

In our own team, which had been tasked with creating a website for the new rotor event commencing in February, we need to think about roles and responsibilities and how the site will develop.

We thought in terms of:
pre-event during the event, and future post event.

Each of these phases of the website would need to be managed in different ways, such as the first phase would be about promotion and marketing as to "what will be happening".
During the event, web updates should show "what is going on now".
And the future post-event website should show "what happened".

Therefore content for each of the three phases should be something like 1) static photos. 2) videos of current activities. 3) video archives and interviews together with transcribed discussions and records of debate.

So roles and responsibilities seem to be emerging in the form of;

• content creation
• Web design and layout
• ongoing management of the website and updates.

The third method that the BBC team suggested that we could use is known as the "Beetle" method.

In this process, we come up with a simple idea name to insert in the Beatles head, which in effect, becomes a brand-name for the notion. Keep it simple, so that people can readily identify with it, and conversations can be had with anyone in the team.

In the body of the beetle, we create what is called an elevator pitch; this is a short summary of the idea and its objectives; to open up new possibilities: for example the gallery, learning, attendance, and wider audience.

On the legs of the beetle, six in total, we can either use why, how, what, where, who and when. Alternatively, on each of the six legs, we can use them as a mind map style, an aide memoir, to ask ourselves six tough questions. Such as why would anybody care? Why is this important? And so on.

Once we have gone through the first three methods, we can then map the ideas against a cost versus impact grid. Again this uses a simple four-quadrant grid, with one axis showing "Cost" ranging from low to high, and on the other axis the expected "Impact" from low to high.

And finally considering the "the Warrior mode" remember how the original Olympiads used to think, before starting a battle. They visualised their best possible successes. What is the maximum vision of success? If we were to read a national newspaper headline about our success what would it be? Write this down in as bigger letters as we can find and broadcast it to as broad an audience who are prepared to listen!



So to recap:

1) we thought about methods concerning the fish diagram, as diverging convergent and then divergent and convergent thinking.

2) the red ant man method. Break up the challenge.

3) "webbing or the five whys" this is about dogeared resilience, asking ourselves at each stage why is this important? And then replaying it to ourselves by asking "so what is stopping us"?

4) use dot voting. Democratically select the strongest ideas and avoid any arguments at this stage.

5) reframe the solution and the problem. "How might we…?" Reframe the challenges and the briefs for a fresh approach.

6) the crazy eights. Here we want to come up with a quantity of ideas and solutions to the issues. Quantity, quantity, quantity!

7) the beetle map. This helps the switch from the artist and explorer mode and into the judge. Judge and make the idea practical.

8) needs and impact plotting. Map your thoughts onto a quadrant set to highlight and show up the relative merits of each idea. This facilitates clarity in finding the right solution.

9) write your news headline. Become "the Warrior". What does success truly look like? What would an Olympiad see in victory?

Conclusions:

• The above tools are a useful inclusion into my toolkit for facilitating creative thinking, ideation, setting goals, and thinking about outcomes.
• By coupling these ideas of methods and tools together with other instruments that I have become familiar with in previous work, you should be able to build a flexible set of tools to implement good micro-projects over the coming months.
• It is worthwhile for me to review these tools periodically and make sure that I'm exercising them in the most appropriate way.

Notes on a guest lecture by Liz West, University of Huddersfield, Wednesday 18th of January 2017

Liz West introduced herself as an installation artist. She talked about her own journey, and explained that she was now 10 years out of art school, having attended the Glasgow School of Art between 2004 to 2007.

Liz explained that her initial work seem to be of superficial interest during her first and second years, but she then began to flourish in her final third year and started to explore the work of Ian Davenport, especially his paintings and paint drips. This was of interest to Liz because of the changing glossiness and wetness of the paintings rather than the finished article. Liz seemed to be captured by the changing nature and the temporal nature of the paint during its transition from wet to dry and it was not the pigment itself that she was interested in, but how the light played and how it was reflected in itself.

Her tutors recognised that she was "super-sensory" and had an inherent need to touch and feel, to get qualitatively immersed into her artistic environment. In fact she had indeed grown up in an environment that was very artistic as both parents were professional artists too.

The real break occurred when she used a mirrored chamber to present works based on the primary colours of light. However she then went into a phase where she didn't do any real work for the next 3 to 4 years having done a number of jobs but eventually quit as a security guard and then moved to Manchester in 2011. At this time she got studio space at the Rogue Studios in Manchester and this allowed her to exhibit some further works at these Manchester galleries such as "Difference is Important" (2012). In this work vivid chemical colours were used in a fully immersive environment for a spectator.

In Liz's own words the key to all practice is "just keep making shit" and also start writing about it!

The blog is a great vehicle to get the critique scenarios and invite discussions and as a professional artist outside of university you no longer have access to peer review and critiques.

Liz explained that if you get good feedback from exhibitions and blogs then it's worthwhile to try and invite curators and other artists into your own studios to allow them to critique your work. Don't be afraid of paying their expenses in order to get them onto your premises.

David Batchelor is a key influence on Liz's works.

After having become independent in 2012, she then it rather a brick wall and as a result spent a week in the Kurt Schwitters "Mertz barn" located in Cumbria, in 2014, as a way to engage with herself in deep contemplation. During that productive week, she broke her component of interest down into what was key to her. She constantly asked herself why she would do something, artistically, and then reflecting upon it, and then asking herself "why" again. Repeating the cycle of creating work, then reflecting, then asking "why" is essential as a cycle of iterative improvement.

In 2015, on impulse, she put together an instant relation in an area where she found a 10,000 foot office site which was part of the old Manchester Co-op building (Federation House).

This led to the invitation by Leeds City Council to assist with the "leads right night" however in hindsight she felt that this was a mistake, because she failed to specify the need for a very large space in order for the exhibition to take place. What she got was 1000 ft.², whereas what she needed in order to repeat the Co-op building installation was 10,000 ft.².

Thankfully though somebody spotted it and this was enough to win a commission to create a piece of installation in Bristol. This commenced in 2016 and was called "One Colour". This was so successful, that 3500 people attended on the last day to that exhibition. This essentially launched her career.

There have been other exhibitions in between however such as in 2015 "An Additive Mix" together with "Through Number One" which was exhibited at Derek Horton's "And Model" gallery. For this work she used gelatine lighting film, which she sourced from the company Roscoe.

More recently she has been using dichroic glass and film to generate ideas and outcomes in order to make her final pieces. For example "Our Spectral Vision (2016)" and now her new permanent work called "Sevenfold, 2016" installed that Bury council offices.

To look at more work by Liz West visit www.Liz-West.com or alternatively her Twitter feed @LizWest_art.

Reflections on the lecture regarding 'Documentary Image'; by Richard Mulhearn.

Richard opened the lecture by describing an interesting juxtaposition of ideas where the presentation of his images may  appear to be a meandering wander, and yet his presentation was in fact entitled "Stand Still"...

This is like the notion of a photographer shouting to a subject "don't move" and then later a viewer coming across an image and suggesting "you set that up". This notion of photography being the capture of the temporal moment is articulated very well by Susan Sonnestag who says that "Photography becomes interesting when it is constituted, yet static".

In this sense documentary images are the most fertile of photographic practice.

For example taking a look at the work by Gary Winnogrand and his image taken in Los Angeles, in a later period of his life post New York (where he originally came from), his work was much more querky.  No longer just taking images to sell to magazines, he was more interested 'As a student of Photography, and a Student of America' in the juxtapositions found in real life. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RM9KcYEYXs)

Source: http://www.atgetphotography.com/The-Photographers/Garry-Winogrand.html

 This is an observed situation, where the photographer recorded an authorial point of convergence.
Gary Winnogrand was intuitive. There is a narrative, and yet this image is very aesthetic. There is an element of commentary.
- In the extended un-cropped image above, there is a sign displaying "No left or U turn"... The woman appears to be compliant, but she also appears to have removed her shoes. What on earth is going on here? - Was the image "staged"? - Allegedly not.  This is a real life documentary evidence of a momentary event, captured forever.  Winogrand's intent was, through his photography, "To question what you 'think' you know!"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RM9KcYEYXs

Consider also the work by Henri Cartier Bresson, "Valencia, Spain 1933" "An image can stop time"
how we intuitively see a moment in time is often replayed to a viewer who assumes that a photograph is set up. The experience and the image being connected is known as the "indexable".
This is discussed further by the work by Roland Barthe's in his book "camera lucida". The description shows that the person is present in time and space and therefore the photograph becomes indexical.

Consider the work by Alexander Gardner: the portrait of Lewis Payne. This image is amazing, this is the murderer of the President, Abraham Lincoln, after his arrest.
See the website HTTP://Lolaclairmont.WordPress.com
the "future anterior tense" and consider it with the title "he's dead but he's going to die" (Roland Barthe's, in Batchen)

Taking the snapshot of time… Andre Bazin (the ontology of the photographic image 1960) in Wollen: 1984, page 116.

The indexicality of a photograph is apparent when it becomes an influence on our own psychology.
"The unspoken emotions of people in the room", from the work by Don Dellello "Underworld".

For further theory on these notions, take a look at the work by Michel De Certeau "Walking in the City", which describes the fascination of being in a particular place and at the same time looking at and being there to.

This relationship of photography to invent an event is of interest here. Look at the work by Gert van Kesteren, such as "Baghdad Calling" a book by this author which describes a world event, but from someone else's point of view. Gert Van Kesteren was an independent photographer who was unattached to any news company and he gave out cameras to Iraqis in order for them to take their own photographs of the war.

In this sense the photographer then becomes a "selector" instead of a "composer"
see the sequence of images by Paul Graham "American night, the hidden and the visible"

The reevaluation of the perfect image is what is being tested here. Nothing is certain.

For another extension of these ideas, look at the work by Daan Paans entitled "Rhinoceros". In this work he kind of explores and plays with the idea that Albrecht Durer once drew and made a woodcut of a rhinoceros completely from an explanation and description, given by another person and Durer never actually seen one of these creatures, yet was able to present the perfect image through the woodcut.

Further work to explore might be that of Lorenzo Vitturi, the Dalston Archive (the book) 2014.  This provides layout and design ideas based on the collusion of experience and evidence.

The work can be seen through multiple strategies such as that of Jack Latham and his "Sugar Paper Theories".  See www.miniclick.com.

At this stage in photographic development as an art, we are now breaking the indexable relationship and the documentary image. In digital media there are multiple issues for photography including for example multiple layers; digital composite's; and hence authenticity.

The plausible relationship of two images being thrust together can break the old paradigms of photography and its expectations that are historical. Are the digital and the indexable opposite terms therefore?

See the work by Moira Ricci, at www.we-find-wildness.com/2011/04/Moira-Ricci/

http://www.we-find-wildness.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20b839cc2018.12b839cc2018.53-10b839cc2018.08b839cc2018.04__mamma_e_zia_carolina__15x21_cmb839cc2018.jpg

How can the book engender a sense of honesty?  In Ricci's work above, she appears to be photographed in the centre of the image, next to her mother and mother's friend.  However, Ricci's mother died when Moira was quite young.  How is this possible? Is it a real photograph? - Yes it is, but what do we want to believe?

The speed of presentation of an image is now what is critical. The criteria of what is real and what is unreal is now based on an emotional engagement. For example migration.

Alternatively look at work by Mohammed Bourousissa, which looks at political contexts and motifs and strategies of moving image and studio production.

Take time out to look at the TED talk "photosynth: 2007" which can also be found on
https://www.ted.com/talks/blaise_aguera_y_arcas_demos_photosynth


www.HTTP://photo media photo mediations open book.net

Or even HTTP://petapixel.com/2016/05/31/trained-algorithm-makes-beautiful-photo/digital


References:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RM9KcYEYXs
www.we-find-wildness.com/2011/04/Moira-Ricci/
http://www.we-find-wildness.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20b839cc2018.12b839cc2018.53-10b839cc2018.08b839cc2018.04__mamma_e_zia_carolina__15x21_cmb839cc2018.jpg

Introduction to Digital Media Processes - lecture by Richard Mulhearn, Friday 20th of January 2017

An overview of this new digital media processes module TMA 1407 was given during this lecture and included general observations and feedback from our previous module. Overall our individual critical voices seem to be lacking in some of the feedback that we had given for the previous module. The main issues of our presentations seemed to be a lack of comparative analysis with other practitioners and the demonstration of our ability to pick through a multitude of viewpoints. This critical analysis is key to develop as a master student.

In this new module, digital media practice, the critical outcomes will be;

A) analysis! The clear articulation of our practice, including the what and why certain things were done and ask yourself again? Why?

B) know your audience, is it working for them?
Who are you trying to engage with?
Develop the critical life from a different point of view.

C) demonstrate "what has gone before and what is your relationship with it"?
How will the work that is historical influence what will you will do in future?
What are the new meanings in your work that you derive from your practice?

D) demonstrate and provide evidence of your research.
Your research should be informed, intuitive clear experimentation.
This is necessary in order for students to approach the final major project.
By expanding the scope of your research, you can then spend more time in practice and be more critically reflective to position your work correctly.
Be selective again! Describe what and why in your research and practice!

E) it will be necessary to write a critical reflective summary again for this module which outlines your individual process and direction to create a framework for practice.

F) this is a clear requirement to evidence your critical analysis of your individual processes and outcomes.

Overall the module requires an approximate word count equivalent of 9000 words including the presentation and portfolio.

Formative presentations will be conducted on 17 February 2017,

Summative presentations will be presented on 5 May 2017.

In order to meet this module objectives correctly, it is extremely encouraged to create an individual study plan.

• Develop your own project brief;
• explain different processes and outcomes
• contexts and platforms for your work to develop.
• Demonstrate divergent and heterodox practice.

The critical reflective summary should be created early, to test your ideas.
Referencing of all research articles must be correct to the APA 6th edition
& the presentation should be clear in a specified manner.

• Overall the focus is on creating a distillation of what is important? 
• And why? 
• What in my own practice needs to change in order for this distillation to be done demonstrated?

By creating and continuing a line of enquiry from which work later emerged emerges.

Thinking about last term's activities; feedback with Richard Mulhern.

In Digital Media Concepts, my overall mark for this module was scored as a 'B' (middle of the scoring thresholds for this grade). I was a little disappointed with myself in not having achieved the minimum of 70% or above for an 'A' grade, however in reflection, this lower mark is probably appropriate for my work in the actual practice outcomes that I have made during the last term.

I think Richard may have found difficulty in my critical reflective summary, in locating appropriate contextual references within my work. This is let my markdown significantly.

In my critical reflective summary, I mentioned the book "the Peregrine" as a key influence and as a backbone for narrative, but again in the actual practice, there does not seem to be a reference to this. Coupled with a lack of thematic reference to speculative realism and contextual association, makes the critical reflective summary a little confusing. In Richards feedback, if there had been a linear narrative to the Peregrine, then the non-linear narrative should be explored.

In the review of the critical reflective summary, Richard felt that this output seemed to be an exercise in writing a report, "without saying anything at all". My response was that this was intentional at this stage before the major project had actually started so that I could keep a broad proposal approach to avoid tying myself down too much at this early planning stage.

My focus was about putting concepts together rather than the outcomes themselves, but Richard correctly pointed out, that the process needs to be critically underpinned. There is neither a presence or absence clearly articulated of speculative realism. The presentation in Richards view seems to be to overly task orientated, but open-ended; therefore the research has become freewheeling, and it needs to be focused on a question so that my methods can be tested more rigorously.

I explained the current feeling that I had, that the break in academic studies over the Christmas period has allowed the early ideas to start to crystallise, for me to put more meat on the bone as it were. That is to bring the three elements together of speculative realism, digital media and drawing, against the backbone of the Peregrine. My intention is to collide all of those ideas together, and I feel that I do not want to use the book "the Peregrine" just simply as a narrative, (some sort of story just to create an animation). But what I want to do now is to use the description in the to try and articulate what the Peregrine saw so that it's an observation of JA Baker. What goes on in the Peregrine's mind may be completely irrelevant in the way that JA Baker recorded the Falcon's movements. It is here that the speculative realism aspect of my planned work will start to come through.

Richard felt that my CRS was quite a hard read in that issue in the sense that I appeared to be talking around the subject matter. However, Richard also pointed out that all the work around my engagement with Photoshop seemed to be unimportant. What I must do is focus on what is important and also on how to make sure that in the next module the same problems do not re-occur.

In my response to the above, I agreed entirely with Richard's views, and so this whole process underlines the importance of having regular reviews and conversations, not only with Richard but also other academic staff and my peers.

The lecture which I attended on 24 January, regarding documentary photography triggered some salient points that I want to pursue. For example, one item that was cited was the drawing by Albrecht Durer many centuries ago, where traveller described to Albrecht the creature that we now know as rhinoceros. On the description alone, Durrer was able to firstly draw a rhinoceros, but then was able to create a woodcut print of the creature, and the outcome was so accurate it seems almost impossible that he was able to recreate this vision of the creature without ever having actually seen one.

I need to detach myself from just using the images of photography, as a documentary repetition of something that has happened, as I do not want just only to recreate a documentary record of what JA Baker observed. But instead, is that I want to do something halfway between the life of the Peregrine and the world from a Peregrine's point of view, and hence maybe just have JA Baker as a small presence in the distance. Richard picked up my need to resolve at this stage again and made reference to a recent television programme on the BBC called Planet Earth. Within this program, the camera was strapped onto an Eagles back, and during this program, there is a sequence that shows the Bird's Eye view. I quickly retorted that I'm not looking to try to repeat this as it becomes a mediated in between thing, that human would only recognise as a view from a camera strapped to an Eagles back. Our own perception, through visual colours and queues, are very different from that which an Eagle or Falcon might see. I, therefore, want to mediate through the language of drawing and in particular digital media based drawing. I feel that it is a complex task that I'm trying to achieve and understandably, Richard feels that we need to simplify this approach and start to see examples of what it is that I'm trying to do. Because I see things as complex, I tend to make things over complex and their re-presentation. It . However that the image might not have the visual strategy, however, I project onto it, so it is, therefore, interesting to look at the work of Daan Paans, and that idea of an observed notion, an image of something observed but never seen. This is exactly what I want to do, and clearly Richard understood my challenge. My idea that this should be done through drawing that is not photographic or imagistic, as it is purely from the mind. The work of Albrecht Dürer is not a million miles away from what I'm trying to achieve. I'm trying to articulate something from the point of view of what the Peregrine might see and then drying it through digital media. So it is not that complex? Richard agreed that we need to consider all of the angles between perception, time, fiction and science and narrow down focus upon those areas which this topic circles. It is not about the resolution and that beautiful relationship that he has with the tradition of beautiful animal painting such as Stubs and his horse paintings: there is a real history of this in Belgium and the Netherlands.

Hypothetical archetypes from natural science and science fiction can be found in the work of Daan Paans, and hence these images colour our perception in the present day. And therefore we assume images colour perception in the future. He calls these counter images and plays with this juxtaposition of present and future and the contradictory nature of the images that protect themselves. Richard recommended a deeper engagement on a practice level with a review of Daan Paans work.

Structure and strategies used by similar artists and photographers are what are being looked for in the presentation of my work for academic assessment. By looking at emerging practice and theoretically exploring, together with critically exploring is what is required. Richard also pointed out that it seems to him that on reflection of our discussion I would need a period of quiet contemplation myself, to reflect and put into order my thoughts more clearly. I need to initiate that myself, by making work early in the process and giving myself both chance and time to review reconsider and critically analyse my outputs. The suggestion was then that I try to complete as much as I can before Easter, and allow those three weeks of reflection for the ideas to permeate. You're working on things intuitively and exploring some good ideas, but I'm not giving myself time to process those ideas so that I can look back and say to myself, instead of doing this as I have done, I can then do that, et cetera. This then becomes a process in itself! If you are a producer of work which we all are, one doesn't work until the final deadline (unless one can of course), for example turning up for a train at 10:09 to catch at 10:10, you're not going to catch it easily! If however, you plan for contingency and aim to arrive at the station at say 9:50 AM, then there's a much better chance of having a successful journey.

Overall, Richard felt that it was interesting work but I need to be kept on track, not in a constrained way, and definitely not seeking resolution at this stage, but nevertheless through regular conversations and feedback. The kinds of debates and discussions need to keep going, and when we do the formative assessment, we might do this through a peer group reflection and maybe get some sorts of artefacts together that each of the students can then review which gives us the ability to test our ideas out with people. If there is physical work laid out, perhaps on the floor or on desks that can be scrutinised this would make a much richer environment to get good critique and feedback from. Perhaps this could be done as a form of pinup style display? This is what is usually done with undergraduate students. Maybe this could be incorporated in the Masters study? We can then split up into say four groups, and then group 1 reviews and critiques group 2 and group 2 reviews group 1 and so on to get feedback.

Ideas to commence the Creative Innovation & Entrepeneurialism module.

Having chosen the option to assist with the Huddersfield gallery "Rotor" project, we had a brief discussion with Dr Bailey regarding the requirements for developing a collaborative website for this event. The deadline for the submission of our findings for this module is week commencing 1 March which does not give us very much time to prepare. Furthermore the submission of group presentations will be week commencing 22nd of March and final submission of our electronic portfolio will be 7 April 2016. We have a date in the diary to meet with Dr Liam Devlin who is the curator for this event, and this will be conducted in the postgraduate suite on Friday, 27 January.

This meeting will be an opportunity for us to check and find out the vision that he has towards a website. The question we need to ask ourselves is what will success like?

With regards to the public facing website questions such as Willis archive and publicly available window have items such as;

• interviews?
• Critical essays?
• Events?
• What are the milestones and venues?
• Will there be a series of group discussions?
• What will the promotional activities be?

It is already established that there will be a full event launch and a preview night at the beginning of February 2017. The exhibition will then continue for the next three months, and then a closing event will need to be promoted.

For our own management and internal activities we need to ask ourselves;

• What are the timescales?
• What are the deadlines for each of the activities?
• Is there a funding budget?
• What skill sets reside in our group?
• What roles and responsibilities will each of us have?
• What are the disciplines need to be involved?
• How frequently do we need to establish creative workshops?
• How will the website develop, become a platform?
• Will your website just support the show, or other intentions such as an archive?
• What other examples can we draw from?

There are approximately eight exhibitors with work for this exhibition ranging from Alex Baldea, Sieba Kurtis, Leila Sailor, Sarah Eyre, Richard Mulhern/Richard Higginbotham, and ASMA.

Creative Innovation & Entrepreneurialism; Lecture by Dr Rowan Bailey on Wednesday, 18 January 2017

The options for the various activities for term two were put forward in this lecture.

Mostly, this next semester will focus on our individual practice; how we manage our practice, experimentation and trials and ultimately reinforce good behaviour to practice, practice, practice in an entirely immersive state.

At this stage, it would be useful to update my personal development plan and outline my new learning objectives from the feedback I gained from Dr Bailey.

I am currently asking myself what goals I need to set for myself to achieve the self-directed study, and what do I plan to achieve a tangible outcome during this term?

I'm pleased to understand that following the submission of the next PDP, there will be one-to-one meetings with Dr Bailey and other academic staff, however, to achieve that the PDP must be completed by 1 February.

As part of the submission for this module, a new website will be used to demonstrate evidence of collaboration with other students. Also, my blog must continue to reflect my own development and provide a platform for my thought processes.

The lecture continued with an overview of Dr Tina Selig's creation engine. This is something that I came across last year at my undergraduate study, which is based on a Mobius loop, and describes the six elements of creativity which include:
 Imagination; to encourage play. This can be continued through reframing a problem, in a playful way such as how a joke may switch an outcome from the anticipated. Imagination is about connecting and combining ideas. Putting things together that aren't obvious. Challenging our assumptions and opening our minds.

The next element concerning "knowledge" is our toolbox of innovation. For this, to work, it is essential to pay attention to everything that is going on around us to find new points of view.

The third element is an attitude. Creativity requires a mindset, the motivation and drive. This is about engaging with vigour, and is not just about being a puzzle builder, but making and adapting constantly, and leveraging the resources that you have available.

On the inner level of the Mobius loop the three elements essential for creativity are "environment, resources, and culture. With regards to the environment, the habitat in which we immerse ourselves whilst creating require items that are easy to manipulate. Dr Selig calls these "easy manipulatives". It is essential for rules and constraints to be flexible, which also includes our ability to find the necessary resources. Moving on to resources, clearly it is critical that this element plays a massive part in what is created. The more resources available and the more of what you need will undoubtedly help in generating desired outcomes. Perhaps this element itself is the most important. However, it should not be forgotten that adaptation of resources that are to hand is perhaps an essential quality rather than the resources themselves. And finally, the culture in which the creative individual finds themselves within is equally important. The background influences on work produce future ideas through the combination of all the above elements, underpinned by a cultural foundation.