Week 2 (Activity) - For this Spark forum, think about times when you have needed to channel your own creativity. What did you do to foster this, and did it change the way you see things?
It’s hard to think of specific occasions where creativity has been the driving force in leading me in a certain direction. Only by reflecting and analysing upon certain events in my life can I say that being ‘creative’ was the reason I got where I am, today. I’m not saying it’s impossible to know whether you are being creative in the moment but certainly for me, I would only take notice after the event had happened. Therefore, I believe I have an example of a time where being creative resulted in a positive outcome!
When I was at primary school, pupils were split into houses (much like Harry Potter). If I remember rightly, there was Beech (Red), Oak (Yellow), Pine (Blue) and Elm (Green). I was a student of Beech house. Each year, pupils and staff would elect a new ‘House Captain’ to represent said houses for all upcoming events. It was truly a great honour! and when the time came, I decided to put myself forward. I was up against five other pupils and our task was to write and give a speech as to why we wanted the position and what we could offer our houses. At the time, I did not consider that I would be talking to hundreds of other pupils, needless to say, I was terrified.
I needed to write the perfect speech, but at the time, I was unable to even form a good sentence! I enjoyed rhyming words, so I sat down with my mother, and we decided to write a poem instead. We would foster this creativity by bouncing ideas off one another until we had finished the poem. The next day, I read the poem to my peers and was rewarded the position of House Captain! I was beyond happy! I stood out from the crowd and by turning a simple speech into a poem I was able to confidently deliver my proposal for Beech House Captain. Thanks, mum ❤️.
Looking back at this moment made me realize that it’s okay to be different and that sometimes being different can lead to positive things. I did not realize the impact the poem would have. Although, I did go on to lose all upcoming events as new House Captain... but that’s hardly the point of this story! 😆
Choose and modify an artefact in some way using the techniques you selected. The aim is to remediate it into another form of the artefact.
For the week two challenge, I decided to use two techniques (mind mapping and collaging) to remediate the popular Coldplay song, Viva la Vida. I started by highlighting sentences in the lyrics and coming up with keywords or phrases that could be associated with them. Once my mind map was complete (Figure 1), I then transferred my findings into a collage (Figure 2). I decided to use these techniques because my initial goal was to remediate Viva la Vida into a piece of art. I felt that transitioning from a mind map to a collage was a great way to visually represent what the song would look like. If I find more time during the week, I will then take the collage and transform it into a drawing.
Other techniques including 'SCAMPER' and 'Opposite Thinking' did intrigue me, although I felt using a mind map and then a collage was an organic way to create a visual piece. I was inspired by my peers and happy with the overall outcome.
Figure 1: Mind map used to deconstruct "Viva la Vida"
Figure 2: Collage of findings
The collage (Figure 2) depicts a variety of images associated with words I thought of during my mind map phase. Firstly, there are knights holding swords and shields. This represents the less ambiguous side of the song, the mention of soldiers such as the "Roman Cavalry" and "be my mirror, my sword and shield". Secondly, there are three distinctive elements: fire, water and earth. Fire represents the destructive nature of the song, water is the fact that the King had control over the world and all its elements and lastly, the collage is in the shape of the Earth to reinforce the bond between King and country. Objects within the collage such as the puppet on a lonely string and the dice are literal interpretations of certain lyrics.
Conclusion & Reflection
The activities were both captivating and interesting. It was good to reminisce about a time I needed to channel my creativity. Although, I felt my example lacked techniques in fostering creativity, however changing a speech into a poem was a good example of remediation. After researching the course material I felt confident in selecting an artefact (Viva la Vida by Coldplay) and using certain techniques to then remediate it into another form of itself. Although, due to time, I was unable to use the collage (Figure 2) to create a drawing of the song.
References
Berryman, G., Buckland, J., Champion, W. and Martin, C., 2008. Viva la Vida. [Song] Parlophone. Available at: <https://open.spotify.com/track/1mea3bSkSGXuIRvnydlB5b> [Accessed 3 February 2022].
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