Strength Training on a Ball?

Working out and exercise mean different things to different people. For me, it might mean going for a run, then lifting some weight, then working out my abs. For someone else, it may mean running 10 miles; or it may mean running, biking, then swimming; or it may mean a long bout against a punching bag; or 4 hours on the beach doing agility drills; or yoga; or a very long list of other possibilities! A necessary element in most of these "workouts" is, some sort of equipment, or space to perform the workouts in.

First thoughts that probably come to mind are the gym, the weight room, the fitness center, the sports club. However, a man by the name of David Weck has introduced some new ways of training to the fitness world that require nothing more than some jump rope, and a Bosu Ball (his own invention).

Weck has shown some creativity in the way he uses jump rope because he's literally taken the jump out of it. He's devised a system of training with rope that incorporates four separate motions, but does not require jumping. Weck has a passion for strength training and fitness, but an extraordinarily dynamic passion. He likes to challenge his body in new ways. He says on his website "I don't lift heavy weights like I used to very often these days."

It's rather difficult to be creative in the world of fitness because it's driven by results. For that reason, many people opt to train in ways that have been proven to show results, and understandably so! In the midst of conservative souls that stick to tried and tested methods of training, Weck continuously goes out and finds new ways to train and does the trying and testing himself!

From that has come the ever so versatile Bosu Ball! There are virtually unlimited ways to train with the Bosu Ball as is evident in this video: http://www.bosufitness.com/videos/4/15

This creation has become a staple in most fitness centers and many trainers now incorporate the use of the Bosu ball with their clients. Weck can definitely be considered a collector. He says he could be considered an Anatomy and Physiology geek, he's studied Traditional Chinese Medicine and Tai Chi Chuan, and many of his experiments are inspired by knowledge he's gotten from various teachers.

Amazingly, all of this is evident in the Bosu Ball. The Bosu ball can be used with both sides, of course, it can be used to work out the abdominals, but also stability in the lower body, stability in the upper body, upper body and lower body strength, coordination, and just about everything else that can be trained. This piece of equipment reflects its inventor's personality and his sentiment towards training perfectly. It allows an individual to challenge his or her body in new ways... Until David Weck shows up with something better.

Tim Schafer-From Pirates to Psychonauts

Video games are my true passion.  When not doing homework or working, I'm most likely playing my Playstation 3 or some other gaming device.  Video games, in my opinion, are quickly becoming one of the prominent medias in which one can demonstrate some form of creativity, but you wouldn't know it just browsing your local game store.  In recent years, game studios have constantly released rehashes and updates to their previous titles, throwing a "3" or "Ultimate" in the title.  While many of these games are a lot of fun and well made, they really do nothing to push a game genre forward.  Games like "Portal" and "Heavy Rain" only come along every couple of years or so (not including the thriving "indie" game scene).

Call of Duty, I'm looking at you.

Enter Tim Schafer, founder of Double Fine Productions, and 20+ year veteran of the gaming industry.  Tim is regarded as one of the most creative, if not the most creative, member of the video game industry today.

Tim got his start with Lucasfilm games, where he assisted with the production of cult classic Maniac Mansion.  His real creative breakthrough came when he wrote a majority of the script for The Secret of Monkey Island.  The game, meant originally to be a serious game, became a hilarious point-and-click graphic adventure, and a game that completely redefined the young genre.  The point-and-click genre, for the most part highly serious, was rocked by the hilarious Monkey Island.  Monkey Island led the way for a genre that began to become known for inventive story-telling and humor.

Tim followed up his success of Monkey Island with other point-and-click graphic adventure games such as Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle, Grim Fandango, and a sequel to Monkey Island.  Much like Albert Einstein, Tim Schafer was already considered a star in the game industry, but his next major contribution didn't come until 2005, seven years after Grim Fandango.  This time, it was in a whole new genre.  During the seven, Tim left LucasArts and founded Double Fine Productions.  This was also a time when games were getting less and less creative.  LucasArts passed on Tim's newest game, a 3D platformer called Psychonauts, deeming it too "creative".  To Tim, being creative was a stigma.  An executive at another major game publisher told Tim, in reference to Psychonauts, "This is really great. This is creative. It's too bad people aren't going for this stuff right now."  Needless to say, Psychonauts was a hilarious hit, and Double Fine continues to make creative, often humorous titles today, such as a game where Halloween costumes come to life or an adventure as a Russian matryoshka doll.

Be the Unicorn.

How does Tim Schafer come up with these titles?  First, Tim creates the world of the game.  As a kid, he was fascinated by miniature trains and the little cities that surrounded them.  He would explore every little nook and cranny of that miniature world, and he translates that process to creating the world of his next great game.  To populate this newly created world, he thinks, "What's the coolest character that could fill this world." He goes through a couple of ideas, before selecting what he believes is the coolest.  He considers characters to be like a robot suit.  Wearing the suit of the character allows you to do things one normally couldn't do. Once this main character is created, Tim fills the world with characters that make sense with the developing backstory.  To Tim, "Backstory is one of the most important things about your character."  Tim wants the gamer to feel that the world of the game has existed all along, and you get to experience it when you turn on the game.


Currently, Tim is still with Double Fine, and has just started work on a new game, going back to his roots of point-and-click adventures.  What sets this new game apart is that it's all funded by fans.  Double Fine has brought the new "Kickstarter" initiative to the mass media.  Double Fine also just released Happy Action Theatre, a game geared towards smaller children and families.  Tim was inspired by his own daughter to create Happy Action Theatre, as one day he  watched his young daughter struggle to play a family game using the Xbox's Kinect.  It is incredibly easy for anyone to play Happy Action Theatre, having no set rules or goals, really.  

The game industry needs more figures like Tim Schafer.  If the game industry doesn't want to end up like the movie industry, it needs creative minds to create new ideas, not just re-hash old ones.  Like a robot suit, a game lets someone experience something that they may never get to do, such as glide around as a superhero or solve puzzles with a portal gun.  I for one am looking forward to Tim Schafer's next big project, and to see what new story and innovations he has given the gaming world.

Nate Slawson is the Man.

This is Nate Slawson and I love his poetry just as much as I love his mustache:

Hipster. 

He's a relatively undiscovered poet (living in Chicago!!) who daylights as the head of Cinematheque Press, a "literary imprint company" aiming to converge text, art, and film. His company is creative in and of itself, as it integrates multiple forms of media in order to share art in a unique way. Their "chapbooks" best illustrate this innovation; they've reclaimed the 19th century penny book, substituting the teachings of God with Slawson's poetry. 

What I think Slawson should be most commended for, however, are his raw and beautiful poems. To me, he reappropriates the sonnet, using a single run on sentence to convey love, heartbreak, and regret. His metaphors are seemingly spontaneous, making his poems feel rough and full of emotion. 

While I am no expert in the poetry field, I've never seen anything like his work and I believe his style to be unique and creative. Few other poems have conjured emotion in me like his do, and I attribute that to his repeated use of a noun after a noun rather than the typical adjective-noun sequence. While other poets have previously cast aside conventions of the English language, I think Slawson does it in a original way, creating broken down images of a world I can identify with.

This is my favorite poem from the series he calls "The Teenage Sonnets." They all begin with the title "you are (blank)" and proceed to compare his lost teenage love to a whole number of preposterous things.

you are ohio

so I had this dream we
were a map of the midwest.
you were ohio & I was
michigan & I was all over
you & it was so fucking hot
your spine was on fire all
the way down to cincinnati,
& god damn if that ain’t
the most depressing thing
because I knew I’d wake
up wishing I was kentucky
& your ankles were a river
wrapped around my throat,
but it don’t matter either way
because motherfuck if you aren’t
always telling me the same thing—
it’s not happening, uh-uh,
not in this time zone, brother,
or any other place.

I love the feeling of nonchalance that his work conveys. His unabashed use of swear words and vulgarities make it clear that he's not putting on any airs--these are his honest to God feelings. It's a realness I admire and I think it's both remarkable and innovative that he's able to achieve this through a few crazy metaphors.

In regards to his creative process, I can only begin to imagine how he comes up with the phrases he uses in his poems. I would imagine he is consciously aware of the feeling he is trying to convey, and then is struck spontaneously by the words that do it.  In this interview (here) he describes how some poems he must "edit, and fidget, and fudge" while others "went on wild adventures." This process seems comparable to the creatives we've been studying in class, where the solution to his problem is achieved through a Eureka moment.

While Slawson has yet to be embraced by a wider audience, I have no doubt that his creative work will eventually lead to acknowledgement.  Here's a link to more of his poetry, and I also recommend buying his book Panic Attack, USA. It's angsty and bitter and wonderful.

United States of Tara

United States of Tara is a Shotime tv show that centers around main character Tara and her dissociative identity disorder- or multiple personalities. The show has won several awards including an Emmy and a Golden Globe. Created by Diablo Cody (creator of Juno and Chicago native) and Steven Spielberg, United States of Tara is a fascinating look into the disease known as DID. The American Psychology Association has extensive research related to the topic of personality disorders, believed to be caused by several factors including trauma (childhood or otherwise), genetics, high reactivity to certain situations, as well as verbal abuse. Before personality disorders were properly researched and investigated many psychologists and doctors believed these people just be evil since behavior caused by 'alters' was often criminal, antisocial, and incredibly abnormal. Psychologists today have many solutions to individuals living with DID including pills, hypnosis, and intense therapy.

Tara, played brilliantly by Toni Collette (Little Miss Sunshine) is an ordinary woman living in Kansas with two teenage kids, a son and a daughter. She is married to Max, played by John Corbett. Far from ordinary however, this family has several hilarious and somewhat unconventional additions. We are introduced to three of Tara's personalities who come out when she needs help with a situation which may arise in the hectic life of a mother.

Meet T, Tara's slutty teenage alter-ego who Tara 'uses' to bond with her own teenage daughter, Kate. T enjoys smoking pot, having sex, playing arcade games, and giving the morning after pill to Kate. T often says stuff like, "Do you know how much it sucks to be stuck in this ancient body? Look, I have a muffin top!"

This is Alice, a second alter of Tara, a 'desperate housewife' of sorts who enjoys cleaning, baking, studying the bible, and washing Kate's mouth out with soap. Alice comes out whenever Tara has trouble around the house, for example when a social worker comes to see if the Gregson house is a suitable place for the two kids. 

 

Finally, meet Buck, the Vietnam veteran, beer chugging, biker dude. Tara is bad at confrontation, Buck is not. Buck is not afraid of speaking his mind and at one point carries out a lesbian relationship unbeknownst to Tara. Buck says stuff like, "I am Buck and I will F*ck you sideways!!"

sources: www.apa.org
www.imdb.org

Roadkill Couture

The fur/anti-fur debate has spanned generations and centuries, with vegetarians, animal rights activists, and even celebrities voicing their opinions. People don't like the thought of killing an animal in order to wear its skin and fur, even if they are willing to eat the animal. With the increase in publicity about this debate as well as the influence of environmental activism, alternatives to fur have been created and worn by the masses.

Jess Eaton proposes a completely different alternative-wearing clothes made from animals who died naturally, were consumed, or donated by pest control. In her current collection, Roadkill Couture, models can be seen wearing high-end fashion created from those who are dearly departed. This brings up the question, is this environmentally friendly? Does picking up something that would decay into the earth benefit the planet? To Eaton it is, cutting out the need to throw the remains into a landfill.

Eaton also points out that no animals were harmed in the process, making wearing fur not such a cruel choice at all. In her words, "no one died for this collection...for their fur". This puts such an interesting spin on wearing pelts. Unlike an industry that promotes luxury and downplays inhumanity, Roadkill Couture promotes recycling, without sacrificing luxury. This is a feat that is very rare to find without seeming forced. Eaton's clothing is incredibly edgy by highlighting the cycle of death.

Death is often desensitized in the media, and cruelty is involved in the lifeblood of much of the public. Eaton wishes to encourage that viewers see the beauty in the cycle of life, as these animals' beauty is immortalized. She draws from the principle that there is a use for all parts of an animal-much like Native Americans and other such groups saw sustenance. Roadkill Couture also makes art out of individuals' pets so that their owners can forever be surrounded by their pets.

This fashion line is incredibly creative as it is incredibly novel and solves a problem. We are surrounded by decomposing animals, yet we kill others for their meat and fur. It seems completely natural to do this in order to provide us with what we consider necessary for our survival. To consider animals to have importance after nature takes its toll is a new concept. Eaton encourages us to look to the circle of life and beyond the power of human choice over animals' lives.

Upon learning more about Eaton, her creativity in the visual arts is very apparent. She began as a makeup artist in the 1990s, traveling with celebrities all around the world. It is a breath of fresh air for someone in the fashion world to have a conscience about the inside of the wearer, or in this case, the means of getting a beautiful garmet. In a time when luxury is valuable, she has decided to take a substance that has little value in society and immortalize it, giving it upmost value and prestige. She has been met with standing ovations over her roadkill creations, which hardly seems precedented as many of these animals were literally picked up off the pavement.

Like many of the creatives we studied in class(Z Boys, Frank Gehry, etc), Eaton's creativity is flourishing in the right place and right time, when environmental activism and sustainability are really coming front and center in society, and when fashion is not being constrained. Eccentricity is welcome in the 21st century. Activism is encouraged. Roadkill Couture is fueled by strong imagery and analogical thought, a major creative factor according to Barron and Harrington (1981), bringing out the focus on keeping up with appearances as well as the place of life and death in the universe. It is both shocking and beautiful.  I would not be surprised to see one of Eaton's designs gracing Lady GaGa at the next possible awards show.


For more information about Jess Eaton or Roadkill Couture:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/04/roadkill-couture_n_1183554.html


http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=8cJJoI_EpgE


http://www.treehugger.com/sustainable-fashion/roadkill-couture-jess-eaton.html

Are Mushrooms the New Plastic?

To most people this cartoon just provides a good laugh by showing us an "exaggeration" of what we are doing to our planet and suggesting a radical idea that this could be a thing of the past.  However, this cartoon is truly touching on a serious issue that our country and world is facing today and trying to expose a truth that we can possibly prevent landfills the size of mountains. You may be wondering, "How?"

Well this was a question that was also sparked in the mind of Eben Bayer which in turn caused him to create something called Mycobond. 

It all started with Bayer's realization of what our world could look like in a thousand years if we continue disposing of trash that way that we have been for decades. He realized that the plastics we use today, which are require an absurd amount of energy to make, act as a poison to our Earth once they have fulfilled their purpose and make their way to the landfills which contributes the the future "Mount Landfill." He was especially concerned with styrofoam, which occupies about 20-25% of our landfills and uses an enormous about of energy for a piece of styrofoam that comes around your computer or a large television. Essentially, we are "throwing 1.5 liters of petrol away every time we get a package." 

He knew there had to be a better materials. These better matters he stated should follow three main principles, "Firstly they should be able to be created almost anywhere on the planet. Secondly, they should require considerably less energy to produce than current materials. Lastly, they should be able to be disposed of by nature's wonderful open-source recycling system." 

So, he did just that. He co-invented a product called Mycobond, which is a technology that uses filamentous fungi to transform agricultural waste products into strong composite materials. In simpler terms, stated by CNN, "They grind up seed husks and glue the small pieces together with mushroom root." With this creation they are able to make products that replace packaging and styrofoam, and are currently also working on a product that would act as a a rigid insulation board for builders. What is so great about these products is that they require less energy (actually 1/10th of the energy) to create than synthetics and when they are no longer need they can be home-composted or even used as garden mulch. For more information about how they accomplish this, please watch the video below. 

I feel that this product is unbelievably creative! Taking something that is farming waste and turning it into something that can help reduce waste in our landfills is an idea that the world hadn't thought of yet. I believe this fulfills the definition of creative because it has the two qualifications that we talked about in class, novel and appropriate. It is novel because this is something that had never been created or made, people had practically come to accept that "Mount Landfill" was unavoidable. It is also appropriate because it addresses the problem of our ever filling landfills and solves it by creating a product that is completely bio-degradable and doesn't even make it to landfills! 

I believe that this would fall into the category of "Big C" that we discussed in class. This is certainly a paradigm shift, creating a whole new use for something that had previous been waste and preventing more waste through the use of this "waste"! (See if you can follow that one.) It has the potential to completely change our culture by changing the products that we use and the way we dispose of our trash. Who would have ever imagined taking the packaging around our new plasma out in the yard to use it as mulch?

Eben Bayer's background illustrates the proces of "collecting" since each part of his background him allowed him to gather information about different things and motivations that allowed him to develop this product and to develop a passion for the product he ended up creating. Similar to what we discussed in class, he connected the information that he gathered through out his life in a structured way that lead his mind to create something extremely creative and world-changing. These experiences that allowed this to happen include him earning a dual B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering and Product Design and Innovation from Renesselaer Polytechnic Institute. After this he worked at ARA designing humanitarian de-mining vehicles. His education and experience lead him down a path that engrained in him the desire to truly make a positive difference in the world, using the knowledge he had acquired through his education. 

Overall, the public seems to be in agreement with me. That this creative product has the potential to seriously change the world. People see the endless possibilities and unbelievable effects it could have on this planet. Some people, though, have an issue with it like they do with corn-based ethanol. There feeling is that using a food product for an eco-friendly invention only hurts the fact that their are millions of people in the world starving. However, this criticism is flawed because this product is not created from a food we would eat, but rather it is created from the waste of food we eat (corn husks). What this is made out of would provide us with no nutritional value and therefore does not add to the food shortage in parts of the world. Other than this main, unsupported argument, people are extremely supportive and excited about Eben's new creation! 

Creativity . . . (Considered a second time)

Creativity is a productive effort that combines novelty and utility.  In my last post, I attempted to raise some issues about Psychology's attempt to give a working definition for creativity.  The main ideas were that novelty and utility need to be firmly contextualized.  Without context, both attributes can be useful guideposts at best and boring empty words at worst.  Furthermore, context allows for a deeper analysis.  I type before you now, making the bold claim: Creativity must be evaluated using some form of emotional and aesthetic criteria.  Creative things have that strange ability to make humanity feel something and remark on beauty.  To be sure, not all things created find themselves being evaluated positively.  In addition, some things are very beautiful (aesthetic) while not being particularly emotional.  Here are some examples.  The rugged design and gas blow back system of the AK47 rifle make this an extremely useful weapon.  At the time, Kalashnikov created a novel weapon platform that was more useful than any other automatic battle rifle.  I would argue that this weapon is creative, by our psychological definition, yet it lacks in positive emotional valence and aesthetics.  AK47s are not pretty.  They look like clunky machine guns.  Also, I find it rather hard to make any positive emotional connections to a tool that allows for such a great deal of destruction in such a small space.  True, connections of firearms to senses of personal freedom and liberty could be made, but, this is not a course on psychopathology.  A second example, concerning something beautiful but low on emotional valence, is the proof for infinite prime numbers.  I won't bore you with the actual proof.  It takes only seven or eight lines to demonstrate with absolute certainty that the number of primes is infinite.  Think about that.  A few sentences and one can prove a universal law about numbers.  The sheer elegance of this proof is a thing of beauty.  The precision of the thought and axiomatic application is absolutely amazing in the most unemotional way possible.  I urge you to look up this proof for yourself.  In the end you will be a smarter human being.  You will also be rather underwhelmed. (Note to reader: Do not bring this proof out at parties.  Downer. Trust me.)

So what are some things out there that are new, useful, emotionally fun, and beautiful?  What contexts do they need?  What are the components that make them up?  All of these questions defy any simple answer.  The specter of relativity looms near, forcing any examples and analysis to be somewhat subjective.  What I present may bore you.  On the other hand, the following two creative acts may really hit the nail on the head.  These examples are more in the middle of the spectrum of novelty and utility.  That said, these examples strike me as ways in which creativity exemplifies positive emotion and aesthetic beauty.

Anyone who has taken a world music class knows about the postal workers from Ghana.  If you have not heard these men go about processing mail, then you are in for a treat.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vf0I5s-Ghhk

This is a recording made in 1975 of several postal workers cancelling stamps.  Basically, they were checking if the stamps were affixed to the envelopes and then marking the envelopes as ready to be delivered.  Imagine that, stamping mail for eight hours a day.  That would be some of the most mind numbing work possible.  Yet, stamping is percussive.  The sliding of letters creates a certain swish sound.  As Bacall said, "Just put your lips together and blow."  Creativity rears its head here by doing several things.  Putting boring work to song makes for happier workers (utility).  The use of stamps and letters as musical instruments is a wonderful example of analogical reasoning being done on everyday objects (novelty).  The song is catchy at the least.  The mixing of contemporary filing with traditional rhythms lightens the mood, both for listener and worker (emotional).  Finally, the simple and elegant combination of musical production with clerical work is beautiful.  As listener, we are given an example of the human mind needing more than just simple survival (aesthetic).  Work is necessary, but let's make it fun and pleasant sounding.  This example strikes me as being somewhere in the middle of the continuum of useful/boring and useless/high art.  I would argue that this act of creativity is best appreciated as an example of creativity being a necessary part of the day.  The creative product is neat but ultimately only somewhat useful.  The act of creation and coordination by these workers/musicians demonstrates the need of the human mind for something more than what is provided.  Creativity is used in such a way so that one can become a greater master of one's environment.

As a kid, I had a Star Wars lunch box.  I thought it was awesome.  There was Han and Luke doing adventuresome things.  Invariably, I had a piece of fruit, sandwich, some cookies, and a thermos of milk.  Lunch was always very similar.  Eventually, my box was scuffed and scratched.  Han blasted away evil with what looked like a small broom handle.  At around this time, I stopped thinking my lunch box was awesome.  Basically, it would have been really great if some part of my lunch kept me connected to my fantasies and was somehow replenished everyday.  Well, the Japanese figured out how to do this, the answer is kyaraben.  In Japanese culture, kids to business workers bring a box of lunch to school or work.  These lunch boxes (Bento boxes) are usually a base of rice with some vegetables and proteins.  So where is the creativity?  Please follow this next link and take a moment or two looking at these lunch boxes.  Each one is made by a mom or dad somewhere in Japan who just couldn't stand sending a kid or spouse to work with boring lunch.

http://cookpad.com/%E3%83%AC%E3%82%B7%E3%83%94/%E3%82%AD%E3%83%A3%E3%83%A9%E3%83%99%E3%83%B3?page=1

Every single bento is made with popular lunchtime foods.  Ham, cheese, seaweed, rice, vegetables, and sausage are re-purposed as art supplies.  Some boxes are popular kids cartoons, while others are inside jokes amongst adults.  Also, these are made five days a week minimum.  Again, we have some amazing analogical thought here.  Food becomes representational media.  Seaweed becomes hair or eyeball.  The detail is limited only by technique and time spent.
So how is this creative?  Think about getting children to eat a balanced diet.  These boxes generally have over 10 ingredients in them.  The child is being given a diverse diet in such a manner as to be fun to eat.  Salad as salad is boring.  Salad as super popular cartoon monster is cool.  The restructuring of food is creative.  The added nutrition is useful.  Also, these make life fun.  Seeing your favorite character or seeing your favorite joke is a sign that someone understands you.  Finally, some of these are really pretty.  I may not be comfortable saying that food Pikachu is beautiful, but it is much more aesthetically pleasing than the Hot Pockets I often have.  Once again, context is very helpful in seeing these whimsy boxes as truly creative.  These lunches illustrate how families or even just lovers feel the need to communicate in fun and creative ways.  By adding just a few more steps, people creatively communicate very important feelings like care and love. 

Arthur Penn's "Bonnie and Clyde"

Being a film studies major, it was only a matter of time before I posted on something film related. There are a vast number of things and people I could have chosen in regards to film, but one of my classes this semester is COMM 324, entitled "Film Genre: New American Cinema", and this is where I found my inspiration. I had never really understood what was so spectacular about these movies that my dad knew and loved from the 1970s and constantly kept bugging me to watch for all these years, but after about 4 weeks of class, I finally understood. Arthur Penn was one of the directors who kickstarted the era of New American Cinema, or New Hollywood Cinema (which I'll abbreviate NHC from here on out). The era in film was an era of response and initiative to take action against things that many found to be unsatisfactory. Arthur Penn's film Bonnie and Clyde (1967) was the creative boost that American cinema had been in desperate need of for years.

Much like my last post about Noel Fielding, Penn's creative product relies majorly on the collection of objects and ideas from not only the past, but what was currently happening in the French New Wave of cinema with directors such as Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut. There was violence abound in both the U.S. as race riots raged on and the Vietnam War proceeded to escalate. In addition to the escalating violence, youth rebellion and unrest grew in proportion. Of course, there were Vietnam War documentaries and news coverage segments shown on network television, but these outlets only helped forge the burgeoning generation gap. With the destruction of the studio monopoly in Hollywood and the creation of a new, less restrictive MPAA ratings systems for films, directors were jumping at the bit to push the limits of what could be shown on screen and how they could toy with the previously indoctrinated narrative structures of films.

Arthur Penn was a product of film school and an extensive background in network television and writing/directing for Broadway. He read up on all of the past film movements and kept a close eye on the French New Wave. Famous for its radical techniques in cinematography, the French New Wave because a huge inspiration for Penn and others of the NHC era. In Bonnie and Clyde, Penn employs the use of jump cuts and extreme close up shots of Bonnie in the opening sequence, completely opposing the traditional Classic Hollywood Cinema standards and forging a new path from the very beginning frames of his film. His use of French New Wave techniques in such a succession implies almost immediately that he is the creator of something entirely new to the American cinema regime.

The difference between Penn and other directors of the time was that Penn used these techniques of the French New Wave, as well as those of Japanese director Akira Kurosawa, to create a product that forced his audiences in the mainstream American film stream to dwell on and contemplate the subject matter presented to them in a film that was not a documentary nor an educational piece. The images of violence, especially in the finale in which Bonnie and Clyde are riddled with bullets by Sheriff Frank Hamer and company, are composed and shot not in a way which audiences had very well seen before. Penn took direct influence from Akira Kurosawa and one of his scenes in his famous masterpiece Seven Samurai (1954). Penn shot the sequence with a number of cameras, capturing the scene from different angles, and upon editing Penn placed some of the frames in slow motion and others at normal speed, causing the scene as a whole to last almost a solid 60 seconds. Penn uses his collected knowledge of cinematography to not just simply make the movie "look cool" or "fresh" for audiences, but to present them with a topic which they had been avoiding for so long even though violence was peeling through their backyards and in Vietnam. Bonnie and Clyde was also one of the first films to extensively use blood in violent acts, where films before could not show blood upon a person being harmed. The scenes were still stylized, yes, but they became more realistic as blood was put onto the screen, and in vast quantities too.

As far as narrative structures go, Penn also denied any sort of knowledgable pleasure to the audience. His film portrayed gender reversals, as Bonnie hounds Clyde for sexual satisfaction, and she remains the aggressor of most of the film's action (which was usually the male's role in the narrative). Clyde has a number of hangups, all which inhibit his relationship skills (which was typically a set of traits that females would have in films). In addition, the film plays with youth and rebellion, as one character named C.W. Moss gets a tattoo and his father becomes obsessed with it and how "wrong" it is for his son to have that tattoo. These topics of gender reversal and youth rebellion would not ever be touched before the blow up of the studio monopoly, but Penn uses the changes in narrative to complement his creative endeavor to both attack and push the limits of screen restrictions.

Penn's film was creative in that it found new ways to make audiences face the music. He did not write a narrative attacking the industry for its hangups, and proceed to make a film showing burning film reels or anti-studio protests. This would have been the easy way out. He used techniques he had collected from the French New Wave, in the jagged jump cuts placed in long takes and extreme close ups which both reveal and hide various traits about the film characters, thereby avoiding giving the audience full knowledge (which was a must in the traditional cinema). He also used narrative arcs which also deny knowledge and satisfaction to his audiences, as the genders become switched and the youth seem to have power over the older generation. His film was creative because he was able to light the spark for a new era of cinema in which the films could force the audiences to think about violence, to think about protests, to think about why gender standards are such, and to think about why these topics were never before touched upon in cinema. By using techniques such as jump cuts and extreme close ups, he firstly caught the mainstream American audience's attention and thereby keeping them connected through visual cues, the audience could further speculate things brought about by the narrative. Many found the films of the NHC, including and especially Bonnie and Clyde to be simply gratuitous expressions of rebellion with the means to glorify violence and corrupt the youth, but this view of the film was mainly due to the generation gap. The older generation saw the film as trash, only meant to corrupt, while the youth saw the film as relating to them and the restrictions they faced themselves. Years later, film scholars applaud the creativity of Penn as he went above and beyond to present issues to all audiences, but when the film was released, it was not met with such applause and ended up being re-released the next year, doing much better in theaters the second time around. Penn's years of collecting information and techniques were finally put to good use, and a very creative use at that, in his film Bonnie and Clyde as he brought issues to the forefront of American cinema, and the NHC era directors followed his lead further making films to make audiences think and reflect on current issues through mainstream cinema.

Kevin Olusola's Creativity, Round 2.

After asking Eric’s permission and getting the “okay,” I decided to write this post on Kevin Olusola, the beat boxing cellist, who Eric posted about a few weeks ago. After seeing the Danielson Family Band documentary in class today, I was even more inspired to write this post. There were a few comments on whether Kevin’s beat boxing and combined cello playing was truly creative, or simply beautiful, entertaining, or maybe just fun. I personally think that Kevin is extremely creative, and hopefully in this post, I’ll be able to explain to you why.

According to our class’s definition of creativity, the product that the creator creates must be novel, or new, and solve some sort of problem. And I think that Kevin’s music does just that.

As was mentioned in the comments, I am sure that Kevin did not come up with the idea of beat boxing and playing the cello at the same time. I’m sure that he wasn’t the first human being to ever try to do this. I completely agree. But in all fairness, Gandhi wasn’t the first human to come up with the idea of nonviolence; his ideas stemmed from Jesus. Martha Graham wasn’t the first person to come up with dancing; she learned from others. And the Z-boys weren’t the first to get on a skateboard and invent the sport. The reason that Gandhi, Graham, and the Z-boys are seen as creative is because they reinvented their field. They permanently changed their domain. They put a little bit of themselves into their work. They put their own spin on things. This is what makes their work novel.

Gandhi was the first to implement the ideas of nonviolence on a large scale and mobilize the masses. Graham was the first to dance the way she did. The Z-boys were the first to skate in their own unique style. And Kevin Olusola is reinventing music one note at a time. Maybe you haven’t heard of him yet, but a lot of people hand’t heard of Gandhi, or Graham, or the Z-boys when they were first becoming popular either. The point is, that just as other creators that we have studied in this class didn’t necessarily invent something brand new, but reinvented it by putting their own spin on it, Kevin Olusola is doing the same. He says, "I want to sing through my cello, I want show people that a cello can sing just as well as any artist." Maybe people have been beat boxing and cello playing for awhile now, but I know I haven’t heard of them. Kevin Olusola is bringing this type of music to the main stage, to pop culture, to Christian music. Just as the Danielson family was creative in it’s approach to Christian music, Olusola is creative in his. He is combing a type of classical music with modern day hip hop, and reaching all sorts of people in the process. And to me, that’s something quite creative.

Now to solving a problem. I feel as if this argument is more difficult to defend because it depends on what one actually views as a problem. What problem was Martha Graham actually solving by dancing? It’s not as if someone would have died if she had not “invented” modern dance. (No offense to you studying Martha Graham- I think she is awesome and extremely creative, but I’m just saying.) You can use the same argument with my post from last week- Qmilch. If Anke Damaske wouldn’t have invented Qmilch, would someone have died or the world ceased to exist? Well no, but she was still solving a problem of skin allergies, people’s comfort, etc. What problems were the Z-boys actually solving? One could argue that they “made” problems as they pushed themselves to their limits and tried to invent new moves. But like I said before, this part of the definition is trickier, because it depends on what you define as a problem.

In my opinion, Kevin Olusola does solve a problem with his beat boxing. To help explain, I should tell you: I’m a Christian, (please don’t stop reading my post right now just because I said that) and I enjoy listening to Christian music. And I’m going to be honest with you, a lot of it sucks. If you even agree that there is a “Christian genre” out there as Daniel alluded to today in the documentary, then most of the music that comprises the genre is not very creative at all. Chris Tomlin’s “contemporary” songs all sound the same, but if I just listen to old hymns from my grandmother’s time, I don’t get much spiritual-ness out of it. The Christian band, Gungor (who Kevin played for on tour, and I saw live this past October) describe Christian music in their blog. They say that Christian artists many times follow these rules: 

“Use whatever musical style you wish as a medium to communicate your message. It’s not about the art, it’s about the message. So use whatever tools and mediums you have at your fingertips to do so. If you want to reach emo kids, then sing emo music but with Jesus language. The problem with this is that emo music is not simply reducible to certain sounding tones and chords. There are emotions and attitudes of different genres of music that are the soul of the music. You can’t remove the anger from screamo and have it still be screamo. It’s the soul of that music, whether that soul is good or evil is not the point, simply that it is the soul. So when you remove the soul from music and transplant the body parts (chord changes, instrumentation, dress, lights, and everything but the soul…) and parade it around with some more “positive” lyrics posing as Christian music, then what you have is a musical zombie.”

So in my opinion, there is a problem. And it’s that Christian music sucks. As Gungor said, to so many Christian artists, it’s not about the art, but about the message. There’s no soul, there’s no originality, there’s no uniqueness. And Kevin Olusola is helping to change that, much like as we saw with the Danielson family today in class. When I saw him in concert, and the crowd literally went silent when he began to play, I was awestruck by his talent. He was using his gift of playing an instrument, along with his ability to beat box to help reach people. And when bands like Gungor, John Mark McMillan, Chris August, and other people with genuine talent and not auto-tune (this goes even into secular music), lyricists, and their own personal back up band, can help reinvent an industry, and take a stand that Christian music can be inspiring and good music, too, well, that’s creative to me.

Kevin Olusola may not have invented cello beat boxing., but does it make it any less incredible that he didn’t? When you Google “cello beat boxing” he is the first person to come up anyway. He’s adding his own spin to the industry, to his field, to his domain- just as other creatives we have studied did before him. And he’s helping to solve the problem of worn out, passionless, “failure to inspire” worship music; not even brushing on the fact that he is bringing new life and passion to classical music, which to many has a connotation of being boring or only for old people. Maybe not everyone in the public agrees that he is creative, but people in his domain are taking notice. In fact, “after Olusola placed second in an international music competition… renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma called his celloboxing performance "inventive and unexpected." ”

Kevin says about his talent: “I love it; it's something that the Lord gave to me and I want to see what I can do with it."

Now to me, that’s creative.

http://www.thegrio.com/black-history/thegrios-100/2012-kevin-olusola.php
http://gungormusic.com/#!/2011/11/zombies-wine-and-christian-music/

Just Google It

Imaging you're going to dinner, or trying to find directions, or trying to find information about a colleague. Chances are, at some point along the line, you're going to use Google to satisfy your need for knowledge.

When I was growing up, my parents would tell me how hard it used to be to find information before the Internet. My parents are older than most and frequently cited, "When I was in college, we didn't have the Internet to [insert cliche here]." Nowadays, if I want to find information, I open up my web browser, go to Google.com, and find my answer instantaneously. Since it's founding, Google's mission statement is "...to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful." In addition to their powerhouse search engine, Google has begun to usher in a new era of employee encouragement and benefits. Google Inc. has revolutionized how the world searches for information and has begun to change the way businesses encourage creativity in the workplace.

When Google Inc. began, it combined just the right mixture of ingenuity, drive, and opportunity. The world was calling out for an easy way to navigate the Internet, but none of the search engines at the time had efficient methods of organizing information on the Internet. But why not just control the influx of new information and sites? Some critic used to argue that by controlling the influx of information, all of the information can be organized. But, trying to harness the Internet violates the #1 rule behind the World Wide Web: Users have the right to freely share and discover information. To control the Internet is to control the information submitted to the Internet, which violates the first rule of the Internet. But, how do search engine's help people find the information they need in a database that is currently changing?

Seven years after the introduction of the world's first user-friendly Internet browser, Google Inc.'s co-founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, discovered a way to effectively search for information. At the time of Google's inception, many companies were attempting to perfectInternet searching (i.e. Yahoo and Excite). But despite their best efforts, they failed to perfect the Internet search engine. Google's search engine works by compiling a massive list of keywords, in over 65 languages, and connecting them to articles that include said keywords on the web. Through Artificial Intelligence (A.I.), Real-Time web analysis of websites, and massive servers, Google has been able to keep up to date with new websites, making its search engine the most comprehensive search engine on the market. In addition, Google has collected information about each user's search history for the past 10 years in an effort to condense and simplify web searches. By finding correlations between users interests and their searches, Google has been able to find appropriate results for users with specific interests. Google's "synaptic pruning" of their user's searches makes each search more efficient and faster.

Yet, Page and Brin would never have realized their potential without the right circumstances. Other innovators like Einstein, Steve Jobs, and Gandhi, were only successful because they provided knowledge and insight during a time that called for their knowledge and insight. So not only were Page and Brin leaders in their field - even in their young 20s as Standford students - but they created a business model that provided a service in high demand and stimulated the creativity and happiness of their employees. Early on, Google realized that happy employees meant great business. Because of this, Google employees have exceptional benefits and a state-of-the-art workplace in Mountain View, CA, called the Googleplex. In addition, Google "Innovation Time Off" is an "informal methodology" that encourages Google engineers to spend 20% of their work time on project of interest to them. Google claims that as a result of independent intellectual stimulation has resulted in more than half of Google's new features and solutions.

Yet, the question still remains... Is Google Inc. truly creative or did they just have an idea 15 years ago that changed the world? The truth is that for the past 15 years, Google has continued to be a source of new products and services that simplify and enrich the way we use the Internet. For example, Gmail (or Google Mail) has over 1 billion users worldwide and Google's "Google Apps" provide users with a focused search concerning topics in the news, shopping, Google maps (with street view and comprehensive directions, among other things). Recently, Google introduced Google Doodle, an innovative way to commemorate holiday and events.

Therefore, Google Inc. has provided consumers with inventive ways of organizing and searching for information while encouraging employee well being and creativity at the same time. Google fits the benchmark definition of creativity, providing the world with unique, but necessary service during it's time of need.

Oh, but you didn't need me to tell you all of this. You've probably Googled it already.

A Musical Production

As I'm sure many of you have seen, or at least heard about, the band OK Go has yet again released a stunning music video to the world through YouTube. The band, best known for these video spectacles and relatively catchy singles, has truly worked to redefine what music videos can be, and also what viral videos can be. While I believe most lyricism and music writing to be a creative endeavor in and of itself, combining these two things to make a song and then go above and beyond to bring it to life in a completely new way made this band and this video catch my eye. As lead singer Damian Kulash states in the making of video (below), "This project is unique in that the visuals actually are going to be the sounds." A relatively simple sentence, but its consequences result in a ton of creative work on behalf of the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=qae4gAbXOZ8#!
(can't get this to load in the post, sorry guys).

It's newest release, entitled "Needing/Getting," is creative on a variety of levels the band has never reached before now. A typical music video - even one's made by OK Go in the past - usually features the band or artist doing a variety of things, such as dancing, dancing on treadmills, exploring some foreign land, etc. You get the gist. What's really amazing and creative about both the song "Needing/Getting" and the video is that they are dependent on one another. The video is highly entertaining as you follow the band in its Chevy across the desert while it basically enacts a highly musical Rube Goldberg machine, but it's still music. Literally, it's a music video perhaps in the purest sense.  While the idea of a music video and the idea of the Rube Goldberg machine are clearly not new entities, the creativity put forth to imagine this idea and then actually go about enacting it on such a grand scale is seriously cool.

This is not just a Rube Goldberg machine for the fun of it; the band uses everything at its disposal to create music in real-time to drive (pardon the pun) its song. Think about that for a second: the band members are in a car, using its engine, doors, various percussive aspects, hundreds of perfectly lined-up guitars, sounds of tires on the sand and hundreds of other devices to empower its music. While synchronized treadmill choreography is absolutely impressive, the sheer magnitude of this conception is a spectacle to behold.

Check it out:

The band members spent weeks rummaging through warehouses working to find suitable instruments and other objects that could be whacked with a Chevy car to produce music. While physics of instrumentation may not sound exciting to most, the band and helpers from Chevrolet clearly put a surmountable effort of thought and uncanny creativity into making this happen.

For instance, it is one thing for the band to get its creative juices flowing to conceptualize a Rube Goldberg music video. It's another thing to say, let's have the car makes chimes. But the band and the production team also had to imagine exactly how to enact this crazy convention. For example, the first 30 seconds of the video are very telling of the insane amount of detail that went into creating the video. The chime sounds had to come from somewhere -  so it was determined that the car would drive over boards with nails attached at precise increments to 'ding' the various chimes.

One last thing that I think really ties the entire creative process together. The lyrics actually seem to make some sense in context of the musical production. The lyrics outline someone who has been waiting on presumably a significant other to change. "Waiting" being a key word in the song. But now, the singer is done waiting, ready to move on. And the video explores that theme, albeit in a quirky way. The band is not waiting around, "wasting [its] time" despite being in the middle of the desert - it's acting. Though the band may not have intended such an interpretation, it nonetheless works quite easily to tie musical lyricism, musicality, story-telling and video production elements all into one.

I hope that bands such as OK Go continue to conceptualize novel ways of producing music videos. Though the band may not be critically revered for its indie-style music, its uniqueness and superb execution (two traits found in all of our eminent creatives) give something to the music and music video community that at least as of 2/9/12 (four days after initial publication), 10 million some-odd YouTube fans have enjoyed.

Person to Follow - Jack Ma

He has been called China's Steve Jobs, Jack Ma is the founder of one of the biggest private business conglomerates in all of Asia. Similar to Jobs, Mr. Ma was able to create this business out of nothing in one of the most competitive places for business in the world. He considers himself a simple man, and is looked down on by his colleagues in other companies for his plainly-dressed, humanistic approach to business affairs, but he has single-handedly changed the way that online business is done in China, has brought unique and innovative ideas to what a positive business is about, and has helped to promote creativity in everyone around him.

 Jack Ma's life began with many difficulties. He was unable to afford to go to high-school, and despite studying on the side he wasn't accepted into college. Ma has admitted that were he born a generation earlier in China, he would never have lived through the Cultural Revolution. Despite all this, Ma taught himself English and worked as a tour guide and translator to gain more chances to expand his knowledge. He formed the Alibaba Group, which now has as much as 1 billion members between its many services, while sitting at his home with a group of his friends. The group includes Alibaba, Taobao, Alipay, and others, which are Chinese equivalents of Ebay, Paypal, Craig'slist, and Amazon all under one group. The group includes the biggest business to business market in the world, and has rewritten how small- and medium-sized businesses (SME's) in China contact suppliers and buyers. Ma is proud to be able to say that he has made business possible for hundreds of thousands in China that otherwise would have been unable to.

Regarding what makes Mr. Ma so creative is the fact that he truly speaks his mind, and looks at business in a way that is contrary to popular handling. When he conceived the businesses that he founded, his thoughts were not on how he could make the most money. Ma believes that in the modern age, the reason for a new business is to find a problem in the world and to solve it. All of his businesses have been created not to make himself rich but to solve a problem. The riches naturally followed. When running his business his primary concern is to make the customers happy, and second to make his workers happy. He considers the stockholders to be the last of his concerns, saying that they are the least loyal and the least valuable to the business. This has proved successful for Alibaba, as the loyal customers and employees have been able to keep Alibaba consistently earning a positive income, much to the dismay of those that disagree with Ma's management style.

Many business environments are harshly competitive places, where every worker is fighting against his or her co-workers for success. Ma's business model creates a much more nurturing environment which actually encourages teamwork. He refers to his team as his family, strongly promotes communication between workers and their superiors, and has implemented one of the most powerful ethical codes of any large business, even more impressive because this is an internet business, and a Chinese one at that. Ma even considers the protecting environment to be an important factor in any decision made by the business group, and contributes stupendous amounts to charitable organizations. Something that it is worth noting; Steve Jobs gave very little of his massive fortune away, showing that Ma's innovative mind may prove as successful as Jobs's and is more generous. Many of Ma's donations are to programs that will help increase creativity in Chinese schools and for the workers in his company. Any worker within Alibaba that has a business idea is financially and personally supported to follow through with his ideas, and several successful businesses have been created from this process.

Going back to Ma's personality, the driving force behind his companies has been the innovative way that Jack Ma can communicate and can give straightforward plans. Ma has very little technical knowledge - he is not afraid to admit that he can use a computer for little more than checking email - and yet he is running one of the world's largest technology-based firms because he understands what role the world needed filled, and because he treats his (technologically-savvy) employees with utmost respect. Only 45 years old, Ma is going to be someone that will be on the front-line of innovative businesses for a long time, and will be adding great things to the world. Although Ma has already made his fortunes, he says that he has no intention of stopping. He sees no use in the money he has earned if it is not solving more of the world's problems, and when he retires, Ma plans to become a high-school teacher and continue to bring creativity into the lives of the future generations.

The following is a video with Ma, explaining the importance of innovation in business, and about human potential.

Think Differently (In 140 Characters or Less)

Many have said that the late Steve Jobs, former CEO of both Apple Inc. and Pixar Animation Studios, taught the world how to "think differently" by creating products that the consumer did not know they needed but then could not live without. It can be argued that Jobs and his consumer electronics company redefined an industry and changed the way human beings connect and communicate through advances in technologies in computers, tablets, and cell phones.

Jack Dorsey, Founder of Twitter, Inc. and Square, Inc.

One man who has greatly been influenced by Jobs' work and who has expanded the functionality of many of Apple Inc.'s products is Jack Dorsey. Dorsey may not be as well-known as his contemporary, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, yet he has arguably been just as, if not more, influential. If you have ever "tweeted" something to share with your social network in the cyber world, you have Dorsey to thank for that.

Jack Dorsey grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, and became interested at a young age in creating software that could be used to dispatch couriers, taxis, and emergency services from the internet. In the early 2000s, sites such as LiveJournal and AOL Instant Messenger began providing internet users with an outlet to communicate with peers and express themselves online. Influenced by his dispatch software background and inspired by these new social media sites, Dorsey envisioned a service that could provide real-time, short-message status updates utilizing the SMS (text message) technology available on most cell phones. He created a prototype that would evolve into Twitter in about two weeks. Twitter launched in July of 2006, and Dorsey vowed that his company would focus on "simplicity, constraint and craftsmanship." Today, Twitter has over 300 million users generating over 300 million "tweets" (personal status updates of 140 characters or less) per day and has become for many users a primary means of communication.

 Jack Dorsey describes how Twitter and Square are connected "utilities" for their users.

Dorsey found much success in Twitter, and while he remains the company's Executive Chairman, he left his day-to-day leadership role in the company to develop his next project, Square, Inc. Dorsey was inspired to create Square in 2009 after an artist friend lost a high dollar sale due to his inability to accept and process credit card payments. Dorsey envisioned a simple, efficient app that could be created using technologies already available in iPhones, iPads, and Android devices. He and his team created a small plastic device that they distribute for free that can be inserted into the audio jack of a smart phone or tablet. Users create an account directly linked to their checking account and a 2.75% fee is charged per transaction processed through the device. Clients or customers are able to use their finger to sign for their purchases on the device's touch screen, and a receipt can be emailed to the consumer.

 

 Twitter and Square creator Jack Dorsey discusses his new product, Square.

Dorsey attributes both Twitter and Square's success to the fact that the products are "utilities" that anyone can take advantage from an individual holding a garage sale to a large global organization. A seven-year-old girl running a lemonade stand now has the ability to accept Visa or MasterCard as payment for a fifty cent cup of lemonade she is selling in her driveway thanks to Mr. Dorsey. Jack Dorsey envisions his two companies as being a foundation that small start-up companies and independent artists and contractors can utilize to quickly and easily get off the ground. 

Dorsey did not found either company to solve any drastic problems, yet both companies' products have established themselves in unique niches within the social media and consumer marketplaces. Due to his vision, people have redefined how they communicate and buy things. While neither of these elements of societal interactions were necessarily flawed or problematic prior to Jack Dorsey entering the scene, his products' impacts on the world are now immeasurable. Like Mr. Jobs, Mr. Dorsey has created products that we did not know how much we needed until they were introduced to us. Furthermore, like the late Mr. Jobs at Apple, Jack Dorsey has every intention to further improve the capabilities and services of his companies. His products' real potentials, however, lie in the fact that they now rest in the public domain. Through the use of these technologies, other people can continue to redefine the world in which we all live. Through use of Twitter and Square, anyone has the ability to possibly become the next Jack Dorsey or Steve Jobs and to "think differently."

Zorbing

Since the 1970s, no hamster cage is complete without the hard, plastic ball for the little rodent. If you put a human into a very similar sphere, you, however, have creativity.  Growing up watching American Gladiators, I knew just how competitors could use the atlaspheres, in all their metal glory, to score points and look silly while doing it.

In 1994, brothers David and Andrew Akers and Dwane van der Sluis reinvented the idea of a human hamster ball. They scrapped the idea of a giant metal or hard plastic sphere, and instead turned their attention to flexible plastic or clear polyvinyl chloride.

Their new idea created a sport all of its own: zorbing.

Zorbing did not come as a solution to a pressing problem, but this does not jeopardize its creative nature. Instead, the Akers brothers and van der Sluis generated something completely unfamiliar. This novelty makes zorbing a very creative discovery in the realm of recreation.

The first zorbing site still stands in Rotorua, New Zealand. The zorb looks like a large bubble, measuring 10.5 feet in diameter and weighing over 200 pounds.

Originally, the Akers brothers and van der Sluis wanted to make the spheres for walking on water. They somewhat quickly reinvented their vision. With the rolling hills of New Zealand at their fingertips, they invented the sport of zorbing as it stands today.

In New Zealand, zorbing is a rite of passage for thrill-seekers. Zorbing sits right next to bungee jumping and skydiving in the realm of extreme sports. Zorbers can either pick a dry run or hydrozorbing (with gallons of water in the sphere).  

When I ventured to the zorb hill, only the zigzag course was open because two people had fallen off the cliff after gaining too much momentum earlier in the day. Now that is an extreme sport. Luckily, the double-sectioned inflatable ball with air in between kept them safe.

There are two world records for the extreme sport. The longest ride is 1,870 feet by Steve Camp, and the highest speed is 32 miles per hour by Keith Kolver. 

Zorbing has caught on. The sport, sometimes referred to as globe-riding, orbing or sphering, has infiltrated over 18 countries. Even Rick Reilly with ESPN featured zorbing in his book Sports from Hell.

The Akers brothers and van der Sluis came up with a unique and creative new product that has now become a prominent sport worldwide. The closest place to Chicago to try your hand at zorbing is in the Wisconsin Dells.

Still, the zorb looks like a giant hamster ball.