Ze Frank: The Shift From 0 To 1, What Is Creativity?

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I was recently reminded of this classic The Show episode by Ze Frank. Worth revisiting. 

(via Ze Frank’s The Show)

 


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Antonio Ortiz

Antonio Ortiz has always been an autodidact with an eclectic array of interests. Fascinated with technology, advertising and culture he has forged a career that combines them all. In 1991 Antonio developed one of the very first websites to market the arts. It was text based, only available to computer scientists, and increased attendance to the Rutgers Arts Center where he had truly begun his professional career. Since then Antonio has been an early adopter and innovator merging technology and marketing with his passion for art, culture and entertainment. For a more in-depth look at those passions, visit SmarterCreativity.com.

The Week's Links (4/7/12)

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All the links posted to Twitter, Facebook and Google+ this week: 

  • Why Magicians Are a Scientist’s Best Friendowl.li/a0KvN
  • Ken Robinson Talks About How To Be In Your Element owl.li/9hZ2t
  • And You Can Dance. For Inspiration. (Five Views On Dance) owl.li/1iCC5f
  • Two Ways To Think About Nothing owl.li/a0KsF
  • Felicia Day: A rising star for the Internet geekowl.li/a7yZS She is also an example for anyone wanting to create content.
  • What It Takes To Innovate: Wrong-Thinking, Tinkering & Intuiting owl.li/a0KoJ
  • A Modest Proposal By John Bohannon: Get Rid Of Powerpoint And Use Dancers Insteadowl.li/1iCnEm
  • To Promote LEGO ‘Star Wars’ Miniland, Ads Use The Movie’s Iconic Scenes owl.li/a0KixOnce again, brilliance in ads.
  • Disruptions: Top 10 Lists Lead to Less Choice on the Web owl.li/a0E7Q
  • So You Need A Typeface owl.li/9hZ09
  • How does laughter bring the left and right brain together? owl.li/a0DYL
  • So good: Videos to help you rethink education, learning, and school owl.li/a0AiT
  • Dance Your PH.D. owl.li/1iALfQ
  • 25 jQuery Plugins to help with Responsive Layouts owl.li/a0xxq
  • Want To Boost The Economy? Boost Internet Speeds owl.li/a0xzd Interesting idea.
  • Kill bad meetings in 9 easy steps owl.li/9hYZn
  • 15 Favorite iPad Apps As Selected By Teachersowl.li/a0xmv
  • lorempixel - placeholder images for every caseowl.li/a0xkQ
  • David Parsons’ Caught vs Wrecking Crew Orchestra’s Tron owl.li/1izbqB
  • Why Straight Plays Can’t Make It on Broadwayowl.li/a0vLB
  • Creativity Top 5: April 3, 2012 owl.li/1iyhtw
  • Microsoft Gets Brutally Honest About Its Bold New Design For Windows owl.li/a0vem
  • The Evolution of Storytelling - A TEDx Talk by Sean Stewart owl.li/9hYYj
  • 25 Lies Writers Tell (And Start To Believe)owl.li/a0qUY
  • Michael Bierut: The Main Failing Of Design School, Kids Can’t Think For Themselvesowl.li/a0psl
  • The Secret Lives Of Dancers owl.li/1ixBJ7
  • The latest Think Quarterly is out and this one is the Creativity Issue. owl.li/a2uQ6
  • So good. A Metaphor Database owl.li/a0pnS/via @mefi_tweed
  • Training Working Memory: Why and Howowl.li/a0p7V
  • Merlin Mann Makes You Wonder ‘Who Moved My Brain?’ owl.li/9hYWF
  • Cofounder TV | A curated library of the web’s best entrepreneurship videos owl.li/a0p3T
  • New NEA report shows: Arts Involvement Narrows Student Achievement Gap owl.li/a0oDv
  • Dancers In Slow Motion owl.li/1ivUzH
  • What book publishers should learn from Harry Potter e-books and Pottermore. owl.li/a1fL2
  • Reasons for Optimism, a website full of exactly that. owl.li/a0dbW
  • April Fools’ Day 2012: Best of the Brand Hoaxesowl.li/a0DWL
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Antonio Ortiz

Antonio Ortiz has always been an autodidact with an eclectic array of interests. Fascinated with technology, advertising and culture he has forged a career that combines them all. In 1991 Antonio developed one of the very first websites to market the arts. It was text based, only available to computer scientists, and increased attendance to the Rutgers Arts Center where he had truly begun his professional career. Since then Antonio has been an early adopter and innovator merging technology and marketing with his passion for art, culture and entertainment. For a more in-depth look at those passions, visit SmarterCreativity.com.

And You Can Dance. For Inspiration. (Five Views On Dance)

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I didn’t intend to make dance the theme of the week but as it happens sometimes all of the ideas come together at once and so, in case you missed them earlier, here they are, five views on dance:

For more posts on dance check out the Dance category. I also encourage you to check out The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life and The Collaborative Habit: Life Lessons for Working Together, two fantastic books by one of America’s greatests choreographers and collaborators Twyla Tharp. 

 

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Antonio Ortiz

Antonio Ortiz has always been an autodidact with an eclectic array of interests. Fascinated with technology, advertising and culture he has forged a career that combines them all. In 1991 Antonio developed one of the very first websites to market the arts. It was text based, only available to computer scientists, and increased attendance to the Rutgers Arts Center where he had truly begun his professional career. Since then Antonio has been an early adopter and innovator merging technology and marketing with his passion for art, culture and entertainment. For a more in-depth look at those passions, visit SmarterCreativity.com.

A Modest Proposal By John Bohannon: Get Rid Of Powerpoint And Use Dancers Instead

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It started with “Dance You PH.D.” (covered here yesterday) and now John Bohannon, accompanied by Black Label Movement, takes the concept of communicating ideas through dance further in this fantastic TEDxBrussels talk. 

Music by: Greg Brosofske Minneapolis, USA based composer. Dancers: Jessica Elhert, Bryan Godbout, Stephanie Laager, Edward Bruno Oroyan Nelle Hens, Camille Prieux, Mariel Blaise, Gabson Nenaks, David Zagari & Marcio Canabarro This performance originally took place at TEDxBrussels on 22 November 2011 info: http://www.tedxbrussels.eu About TEDx, x = independently organized event In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience.

In a follow up post at TED.com he explains how and why the talk came to be. 

Over the summer, I worked with Black Label Movement, a dance company based in Minneapolis led by Carl Flink. We had a shoestring budget, not even enough to get all the dancers to Brussels. So we had to create the dance and rehearse in Minneapolis in our spare time for free. Then we hired 6 Brussels-based dancers and arrived in Brussels 10 days early to rehearse with them. I’m amazed we pulled it off, but Carl wasn’t surprised. Professional dancers find this kind of pressure routine.

The piece changed drastically over the course of its creation. As I got to know the dancers and see how they struggled to make ends meet, especially when injuries occur without healthcare coverage, my mood darkened. What began as a small piece of optimistic theater about science turned into a satire about the status of artists in the US. As inspiration, I looked back to Jonathan Swift’s 1729 essay, “A Modest Proposal,” It was a masterpiece of political satire that proposed a seemingly rational solution to the problem of the poor in Ireland: They should sell their babies as food, generating much-needed income and reducing their population in one stroke. It was a reply to some of the brutal utilitarian policies being discussed at the time by the aristocracy. Where you hear antique language in my presentation, I am quoting Swift verbatim.
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Antonio Ortiz

Antonio Ortiz has always been an autodidact with an eclectic array of interests. Fascinated with technology, advertising and culture he has forged a career that combines them all. In 1991 Antonio developed one of the very first websites to market the arts. It was text based, only available to computer scientists, and increased attendance to the Rutgers Arts Center where he had truly begun his professional career. Since then Antonio has been an early adopter and innovator merging technology and marketing with his passion for art, culture and entertainment. For a more in-depth look at those passions, visit SmarterCreativity.com.

Dance Your PH.D.

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In 2008 science writer John Bohannon launched the first Dance Your PH.D. contest. The rules were simple, each dance had to be based on a scientist’s Ph.D. research, and that scientist had to be part of the dance. In an article he asked the question “Can Scientists Dance?” and the answer turns out to be yes, yes they can. Since then The New York Times and NPR have reported on the contest. 

I think the idea is inspired. Forcing scientist to get our of their heads and connect with their bodies to convey complex concepts probably led to additional moments of insight.

Below you can see for yourself last year’s winner, which besides showing new physics research in dance form also demonstrates a great panache for filmmaking reminiscent of the dance pieces discussed here yesterday. 

Microstructure-Property relationships in Ti2448 components produced by Selective Laser Melting: A Love Story by Joel Miller. 

Hip replacements have a limited life before they too need replacing. This is known in the medical field as revision surgery and it is a source of much pain and inconvenience for the patient. Revision surgery is most often because the underlying bone has deteriorated. Bone needs stress to grow and to maintain strength, yet current hip replacement implants are too stiff - they constrain the affixed bone and prevent it from stretching. The bone around the implant starts to deteriorate and the bond between bone and implant fails. Titanium, used in orthopaedic implants because it is strong, lightweight and biocompatible, transforms at temperatures above 883°C. The atoms rearrange from a densely-packed structure (called the alpha phase) to one that is loosely-packed (beta phase). Both alpha and beta phases are strong, but the beta phase is half as stiff and has elastic properties closer to that of bone. By adding elements such as tin, niobium and zirconium, our titanium alloy keeps its flexible beta structure at room temperature. If the alloy is then re-heated to 450°C, some alpha phase re-emerges, complicating the microstructure. This makes it more difficult for cracks to progress through the metal, making it less susceptible to fatigue failure. If the amount of alpha is controlled, a metal with good fatigue properties and low-stiffness is made. To further reduce the stiffness of the implant and match it to that of bone, we use flexible scaffold structures. The scaffolding also allows the bone to grow into the implant, creating a strong bond. These complicated scaffolds are built from thin layers of titanium powder that are melted with a laser, then cooled to solidify. This manufacturing method is called Selective Laser Melting (SLM) and it is like 3D printing. Because SLM is good at producing one-off items, customised implants are possible; the patient’s CAT or MRI scans can be combined with Computer Aided Design to ensure a perfect fit. My research at the University of Western Australia uses these new materials and advanced manufacturing techniques to try to overcome the main reason why orthopaedic implants fail. If successful, this work will help lead to more durable implants, reducing the need for revision surgery and allowing orthopaedic implants to be used on younger adult patients. This video was created with friends and family for Gonzolabs "Dance Your Ph.D" 2011 Contest. It illustrates a central part of my research: the effect of the titanium alloy microstructure. The video was created using 2200 photographs because we didn't have a video camera, but also (and more importantly) because stop motion, even though tedious to shoot, is fun. The music is "Mischa" by unsigned Perth indi-electropop outfit The Transients. Hear more of their music at www.thetransients.net

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Antonio Ortiz

Antonio Ortiz has always been an autodidact with an eclectic array of interests. Fascinated with technology, advertising and culture he has forged a career that combines them all. In 1991 Antonio developed one of the very first websites to market the arts. It was text based, only available to computer scientists, and increased attendance to the Rutgers Arts Center where he had truly begun his professional career. Since then Antonio has been an early adopter and innovator merging technology and marketing with his passion for art, culture and entertainment. For a more in-depth look at those passions, visit SmarterCreativity.com.