Time to Save the Bees

Whenever I get overwhelmed with school and my general responsibilities, I immediately jump to the conclusion that, “I should quit school and save the bees.” (Does anyone else ever have this problem??) I know this sounds a little crazy, but it’s like productive procrastination! If I were to “quit school” and run away from my responsibilities to help a worthy cause, then it’s totally justified, right? Well, I was definitely doing some “productive procrastination” and was researching how to start saving the bees when I stumbled upon this: Seedles.

Seedles blew my mind.

What are Seedles you may ask? They are, in the founders’ own words, “rainbow bright balls of seed, compost, and clay.” Seedles are very unique balls of wildflower seeds held together by clay and compostable matter. Their purpose is to help restore the natural foliage and greenery that grow in each region of the nation to help provide places of “work” for local pollinators.  Seedles had the mission to grow 1 million wildflowers through the use, distribution, and planting of Seedlesl; which was surpassed in 2014! By doing so, the movement and planting of Seedles might just be the right step forward we need to begin saving the bees.

I’m very serious when I say bees need our help. They have been suffering from Colony Collapse Disorder for the past ten years, due, most likely, to parasites, pesticides, and deforestation. With the help of Seedles, the natural wildflowers that grow in your region can slowly be restored, which will, in turn, help create natural jobs for the honeybees. These creations are so unique and all you have to do to “plant” them is to simply throw them on the ground – with some intention of spreading them out, of course. One Seedle can grow enough wildflowers to cover one square foot of land. Because of this, as long as you spread your Seedles out, they will help restore the natural wildlife in your area.

How are you sure that the wildflowers are the correct wildflowers for you region, you may ask? Well, Seedles are sold by region and climate. The six regions that they sell for are: the Pacific Northwest, the West, the Midwest, the Northeast, the Southeast, and the Southwest. [No Hawaii or Alaksa, sorry!] You can also buy “Dry Area Seedles” and “Hummingbird and Butterfly Seedles” to help support the other wildlife that are struggling in the same environment. Unfortunately, the Midwest Seedles are presently sold out. BUT, I definitely recommend that you order some for your hometown – if you’re from a different region – and planting them while you’re home for the summer. I’m definitely getting some that are for the Pacific Northwest and planting them while I’m home in Seattle! These Seedles require honestly no effort, and are a simple change that could be one incredible step towards saving the bees from extinction… One colony at a time.

As Kate Horowitz said on MentalFloss.com, “of 100 major American crops, 70 are pollinated by bees; without them, we might not have apples, almonds, carrots, or avocados” (MentalFloss.com). I cannot emphasize enough just how important it is for us to do our part to help create an environment where honeybees will thrive. [I’m really passionate about this topic, if you can’t tell.]

The ever so creative innovation of Seedles, and their effortless planting, reminds me of our lecture, in which a creative is addressing a problem through a useful solution (Lecture, Morrison). Additionally, the founders of Seedles approached a problem “in a creative way to meet the needs of the community, therefore increasing the quality of life” (McLean 226). If you don’t think bringing back wildflowers in a near effortless and innovative design to save the bees is not creative, then I don’t know what is.

So, maybe I will drop out of school, buy some Seedles, and help save the bees… We’ll see how this semester goes.

Sources:

http://mentalfloss.com/article/69311/throw-wildflower-seed-bombs-bring-back-bees

https://growtherainbow.com/pages/about-us

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjsaZ3hbq14

McLean, Laird D. "Organizational Culture’s Influence on Creativity and Innovation: A Review of the Literature and Implications for Human Resource Development." Advances in Developing Human Resources 7.2 (2005): n.

J. Craig Venter

Is there a perfect balance of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation? As Collins and Amabile discuss, we stereotype creatives be intensely driven from within (Collins & Amabile, 1999). Rogers describes this motivation in the "context of self evaluation rather than being driven by a concern with being evaluated by others," (Rogers, 1954). Rogers goes on to argue that creativity emerges in environments with an absence of external evaluation (Rogers, 1954). As a society, we seem to value intrinsic motivation more highly than extrinsic. Extrinsic motivation is often associated with searching for fame or money while intrinsic motivation is considered a genuine interest within a domain. I'd like to point to a more positive outlook on extrinsic motivation, and perhaps why external evaluation can be extremely constructive for creative individuals.

Meet John Craig Venter, an American geneticist, biochemist, biotechnologist, and entrepreneur. He is widely known throughout the scientific world as being the first for many accomplishments, some of which include sequencing the human genome and transfecting a cell with a synthetic genome (Shreeve, 2005; jcvi.org). He is the founder of Celera Genomics, was named on the TIME 100 list of most influential people in 2007 and 2008, and received the 2009 National Medal in Science from President Obama.

While his contributions are astounding, many people associate Venter with his ego. He has attempted to patent genes identified in his studies, leading to a loss of funding from the NIH and public disapproval (Expressed sequence tags, 2006). Later, out of frustration with the slow progress of the Human Genome project, he started his own private genome project through Celera Genomics (McElheny, 2010). While Celera started out sequencing composites of DNA samples, Venter later switched the project over to sequence his own DNA samples (Singer, 2007). These controversies have led many to label Venter as egotistical or greedy. However, Venter defends that his main goal has always been to accelerate scientific discovery. When he felt that the public sector couldn't provide him with the resources he needed, he moved to the private sector.

Venter's accomplishments are plentiful. Alongside synthesizing the first synthetic life, he also promoted the Global Ocean Sampling Expedition, and leads the way in synthetic biology. However, most of his accomplishments and contributions seem to be tainted by his ego. Much of his exploration is greeted by a multitude of extrinsic factors: public acknowledgment/rewards, external evaluation, criticism, controversy. While some may not personally like him, all should be able to admit the tremendous impact he has had within multiple scientific domains. From personalized medicine to clean fuel production, his creations and findings have revolutionized multiple fields and paved the way for further advancement. Many argue that the public Human Genome Project would not have finished as quickly as it did without the competition from Celera Genomics.

So what motivates Venter? Is intrinsic motivation more "pure" than extrinsic motivation? He definitely has plenty of both, and I'd like to think that one isn't better than the other... just different. While we'd all like to think that intrinsic motivation offers a more honest sense of creativity, Venter shows us the raw power of extrinsic motivation. Maybe he does have an ego, but that ego drives the entire scientific community to race to be better. He doesn't let anything get in his way, and his determination motivates other companies and projects to move full force ahead as well. Not only does Venter find his own methods to pursue his goals, but he has fundamentally altered the way his domain works as well.


Sources:

• Collins, A., & Amabile, T. 1999. Motivation and creativity. In Rovert J. Sternberg (Ed.) Handbook of Creativity. New York: Cambridge University Press.
• Expressed sequence tags lack substantial and specific utility unless underlying gene function is identified.—In re Fisher, 421 F.3d 1365 (Fed. Cir. 2005)". 2006 Harvard Law Review. 119(8): 2604–2611.
• http://www.jcvi.org/cms/research/projects/first-self-replicating-synthetic-bacterial-cell/overview/ 
• McElheny, V. 2010. Drawing the Map of Life: Inside the Human Genome Project. Basic Books: Arizona.
• Rogers, 1954. Towards a theory of creativity. ETC: A Review of General Semantics. 12: 249-260.
• Shreeve, J. 2005. The Blueprint of Life.
• Singer, E. 2007. After leaving Celera in 2002, Venter announced that much of the genome that had been sequenced there was his own. Technology Review. 

Roadkill: A Beautiful Mistake

     You're driving down the road and you see a raccoon on the side of the road, as you've seen countless roadkill in the past. You don't think much of it and you continue driving. For Pamela Paquin, founder of Petite Mort (literally meaning little death in French), she saw roadkill and saw a solution to a heated ethical debate: the fur industry. A woman who grew up on a farm and worked towards sustainability, spent some time in Denmark where the fur industry was taking off at the time. She loves animals and thought that the process was extremely wasteful. Along with other critics of the fur industry, she believed that animals should not be raised to be killed for fur. So, her ultimate solution was to use the roadkill that is abundant here in the US. It is estimated that about 1 million animals are killed on our roads per day, so 365 million animals killed per year. She saw this great abundance of fur that would normally just be picked up and thrown away and thought that this could be a solution to the problem of raising animals for their fur.
     She visited a local taxidermist and learned how to skin and scrape animal pelts that people from the highway patrol, animal patrol, hunters and more have brought to her. She collects the roadkill in her home state of Massachusetts and must maintain a trappers' license in order to do so. She is not allowed to travel to other states to retrieve roadkill though. She must make contacts with others who maintain the license in other states so that she may buy the pelts from them.
Once the fur is removed from the animal, it is shipped to a tanner in Idaho that will work with partial pelts. When Ms. Paquin receives the furs back, she will begin to make what her customers are requesting. The price of her products is expensive, but those who are buying the products understand what they are paying for. They also hope to change the fur industry, but to still revel in the luxury of fur. Each piece made has a silver tag on the outside with the company name so that those who see her customers wearing fur are able to see where it came from and know that it was from a more humane business.
     Ms. Paquin saw an answer to the problem of the fur industry in terms of roadkill and when asked if she sees roadkill as inevitable, she answered that as long as we drive cars that it could be. She heavily advocates for wildlife underpasses and even donates a portion of her profits to this cause.

As found in our readings for motivation, Amabile describes one mechanism of synergistic extrinsic motivators that influence creativity called the motivation-work cycle match. This states that when creatives are involved in solving a problem, synergistic extrinsic motivators allow the creative to remain involved with the process through learning and development of skills that extend beyond their domain, but better help them to complete the task at hand. When Ms. Paquin realized that she wanted to make fur coats out of roadkill, she made contact with the taxidermist in Vermont who taught her how to properly skin the animal for its pelt. This was not directly her domain, but she branched out in order to continue to create her solution to the ethical issues of the fur industry.

The ethical treatment of animals has been a long-standing debate, especially within the fur industry where people are raising and killing animals for the luxury of their fur. Ms. Paquin saw the need for an alternative solution to this problem and created an entirely new line of fur involving the use of roadkill. A novel idea, this fur business is taking off fast with many customers loving her invention around the world.

http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2015/11/13/roadkill-petite-mort-fur
http://modernfarmer.com/2014/12/one-woman-revolutionizing-fur-industry-using-roadkill/
http://arc-solutions.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Wildlife_underpass_Switzerland.jpg
http://petitemortfur.com/
Collins, M. A., & Amabile, T. M. (1999). Motivation and creativity. In Robert J. Sternberg (Ed.) Handbook of Creativity. New York: Cambridge University Press.

South Park, Colorado

South Park has been a proud pleasure of mine ever since my parents stopped monitoring what I watched on television. At the ripe age of thirteen, I was introduced to this fantastic show that features the stories of four elementary school students who are growing up in South Park, Colorado. South Park has a unique perspective of addressing social, political, and economic issues that has doubtlessly never been popularized before. In the most recent season (the nineteenth season), the creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone tried to intersect excessive advertising in news mediums with political correctness and the current presidential election. The clip below can give you an idea of how South Park expresses its view, to put it lightly, in a very open and carefree way. Brace yourself, the video has mature language. 


The important thing to note here is that South Park's vulgar language and cartoon violence is not what makes it creative. Their ability to connect different issues in episodes and create characters that embody and contrast opinions is what I believe to be so creative about them. In the clip above, Reality is a character who has been trying to get people in South Park to realize Parker and Stone's view on society. Reality is used as a soap box for the creators of this show while asserting itself as the right opinion. Although I will not comment on whether I think they typically present the "right view" or not, it is important to notice that Parker and Stone use the juvenile and seemingly ignorant perspective of the four elementary school students (Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny) to establish what opinions might seem native to humans. By this, I mean that opinions held by these four are meant to establish a view and message that South Park wants people to consider, and it is powerful because it is coming from fourth-graders. Furthermore, the plots and adventures these boys go on are almost unthinkably wacky and creative.

 If Parker and Stone were to take a Gullford Alternative Use Task for a brick, they could probably tell you the history behind it and what its thoughts are on socioeconomic issues. If you do not believe me, I encourage you to watch the clip below or a full episode on the Comedy Central website. Note in this clip, Stan's dad joins a social fraternity that seeks to help people realize their privilege. The wacky part of this is that later on in season nineteen, spoiler alert, the president of this fraternity will battle an anthropomorphic advertisement and he will also attempt to censor a elementary school newspaper.

Trey Parker and Matt Stone are commonly known to be masterminds when it comes to comedy. They are also known for creating the puppet movie, Team America: World Police and the hit musical The Book of Mormon. This musical went on to be nominated for the "Best Original Score" and "Best Direction of a Musical" Tony Awards. Matt Stone and Trey Parker do the majority of vocals for South Park and have also made nearly every song heard on the show. South Park has also won various Emmy Awards and continues to have high ratings on Comedy Central. Overall, Parker and Stone are hyper-creatives who love to present their opinions in any medium possible.

Sources:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005295/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0121955/

Batman Begins (The 1939 Edition)

With this year’s recent release of the anticipated blockbuster Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, it is incredible to look back at the longevity of these superheroes. This year will mark the 77^th anniversary of Batman’s creation. And parallel to many of Marvel’s famous creations, such as the Hulk, Thor, or Captain America, the creation of Batman did not fall on the shoulders of just one man. It was due to the collaborative work of Bob Kane and Bill Finger.

Kane and Finger originally met at a party, and began their working relationship with a comic strip, “Rusty and his Pals.” Both men shared a love of comics and newspaper strips, which can be traced to their motivation for creating Batman. The creation was due in part to the success of Superman. Kane, who worked for DC in 1939, was tasked, along with other writers, to create new and exciting heroes. Traditionally, Bob Kane is credited with the creation of Batman, and his name is solely found on every edition of the comic as well as appearances in other media. However, had Bob Kane’s original design for Batman become published, he would be a completely different superhero.

The two versions hardly compare. Kane showed his original concept of “the Bat-Man” to Finger, who worried that the hero looked far too similar to Superman. It was Finger who advised Kane to add a cape and cowl, add gloves, and change the color scheme to a darker gray-and-black, rather than bright red. In their early work, the men were not driven by a desire for fame or fortune. They simply enjoyed comics and wanted to make a hero that reflected that love and would be well received by the audience. The design for Batman has a number of different inspirations, and it is a combination of characters such as Douglas Fairbanks, Sherlock Holmes, and The Shadow that helped to create a unique Batman.

In its time, Batman was a fairly radical character. Though it took several comics to create his entire background, Kane and Finger pioneered a new style of comic books. Their unconventional personalities allowed for them to step outside of traditional boundaries on comic heroes and create a dark, gothic background. They also created a flawed superhero, who suffered early on in his childhood through the deaths of his parents. This started a trend in many other superheroes, such as Spider-man, the protagonist faces the death of a close family member and have to struggle with feelings of loss and failure. This was unique to audiences reading the comic in the 1940s.

However, there is a dark side to the origins of the Caped Crusader. Years after both men have passed away, details are beginning to surface that Kane was not the same man that the rest of the world perceived him as. While he initially created Batman because of his love for comics, it seems that at some point in his career, Kane had a shift in motivation. He became fixated on the extrinsic rewards of his craft. Early on, he signed an exclusive contract with DC, crediting him as the sole creator of the majority of the elements seen in Batman comics, despite the fact that Finger arguably played a greater role in shaping the superhero into the face we are familiar with today. It was not until the later years of his life that Bob Kane credited Finger for his work, and it was not for another 30 years that DC has finally given Finger the official credit that he deserved, by including his name in upcoming Batman features, such as Batman v Superman, and the hit television show Gotham.

            There is no denying that Batman has become a cultural icon. And in recent years, we have seen an influx of superhero movies being released at high frequencies. Despite the success of Marvel and The Avengers, Batman remains the number one highest grossing superhero movie franchise of all time. Many different comic book writers, editors, as well as directors, have taken their own unique twists on the character, but through all the different versions of the hero, Batman remains rooted in the image created by Kane and Finger.  While they may not have realized it at the time, their “bat-man” hero would go on to become one of the most well recognized characters throughout the world. 

Sources:

http://www.legionsofgotham.org/HISTORYfinger.html

http://www.forbes.com/sites/robsalkowitz/2015/09/19/batmans-co-creator-bill-finger-finally-receives-recognition/#31b9c1f2eb87

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Kane

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Finger

Images:

http://screenrant.com/wp-content/uploads/batman-v-superman-the-complete-guide-to-frank-miller-dark-knight.jpg

http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/original/10/107966/2457815-kane_arlen2.jpg

http://www.wallsauce.com/uploads/wallsauce-com/images/products/web/batman/standardmurals/large/batman-dccomics-rope-swing.jpg

http://www.theimaginativeconservative.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Bob_Kane_33717.jpg

The Devil's Son

Niccolò Paganini was an Italian violinist with a bit of a dramatic flair and unusual past. Paganini’s father began teaching his son the violin at a very early age- some sources even claim he was only three! Even at this early age, Paganini was such a virtuoso that the first rumors began to spread. Some people said that his mother sold her soul to the Devil for her son to be a master violinist. Whether or not this is true, the rumors only got worse. Legend has it that Paganini’s father used to lock his son in the basement for days at a time, forcing him to play the violin nonstop. If Paganini did stop, his father would beat and whip him. Miraculously, the music never did stop after that, and Paganini claimed that the Devil would sit and play while he ate and slept.

 Eventually Paganini escaped his father, but his motivation surprisingly never wavered. He continued to practice 15 hours a day, and began touring the country. Paganini was the first violinist who memorized his pieces instead of reading sheet music during his performances. He also developed many fingering techniques still in use today. For example, he would deliberately mis-tune his strings to play in multiple keys at once, he would bounce the bow on the strings, implemented pizzicato (plucking the strings), and use extensive harmonics. He could also play twelve notes per second, and three octaves of notes across the four strings. Sometimes he would also write entire pieces solely using the G-string. Although he never really spoke of his creative process, it seems that most of his inspiration would just happen in the moment and that he'd play what he felt like doing. A famous story is that his strings would break during concerts, but instead of replacing them, he would continue playing just on the remaining ones. Once, all but one of his strings broke, which is how he got the idea of writing entire pieces for only one string.

(It should be noted that Paganini potentially had Marfan Syndrome, a genetic disorder that can lengthen limbs. Although his fingers weren’t particularly long, they were extremely flexible and multi—jointed. Thus, it was concluded that his hands were probably warped from so much practice from an extremely young age).

Paganini’s motivation was both extremely intrinsic and extrinsic. He motivated himself to play simply because he enjoyed playing. However, he did also enjoy playing the part of the “Devil’s Son.” Very thin and pale, Paganini would wear all black to concerts and arrive in a black coach pulled by four black horses. By his 30s, Paganini skipped practicing because he only delighted in playing concerts, even composing his pieces the day of the performance. 

Example of Paganini's Sheet Music

 Paganini’s life really supports Gardner’s ideas that extreme discipline often leads to quick success (367). Paganini played his first concert at 15 in conjunction with his father’s mandolin playing. Unlike many of Gardner’s creatives, however, Paganini’s works were pretty accepted during his time. The audience was often brought to tears, and another rumor surfaced that Paganini could literally hypnotize and control them with his playing. He would be mobbed in the streets, his concerts would sell out, and he was even considered to be music’s first rock star. My personal favorite rumor is that the Devil would appear onstage as Paganini’s double and play with him. 

Modern video game character based off of Paganini

 

So does Paganini actually owe all of his success to the Devil? Whether or not these rumors are true, it’s no rumor that Paganini became a master violin player. He created lasting pieces of music and violin techniques that are still used today. The dedication to his craft was outstanding, and he even died playing the violin on his deathbed. When he was buried five years later (turns out being the potential son of the Devil has some drawbacks, like needing to appeal to the Church in order to be buried), it was said that music could still be heard coming from his coffin long after.

P.S. Apparently there was a movie made about him called The Devil’s Violinist. I haven’t watched it, but it got decent reviews.

http://www.violinstudent.com/biographies/paganini.html

http://inmozartsfootsteps.com/1032/paganini-violinist-helped-by-marfan-syndrome/

http://www.biography.com/people/niccol%C3%B2-paganini-21196451#musical-career-

http://www.guitarramagazine.com/nicocolopaganini

My weird collection of knowledge about people with interesting pasts.

Building Creativity

In May of 2009 Markus "Notch" Persson took the gaming world by storm with his release of the very creative Minecraft. Minecraft is a sandbox video game in which the player is tasked with a simple mission: Be creative. When you start the game you are immersed into a random world that the game generates for you with nothing but your hands and feet. The world is composed of an infinite number of blocks, which can be made of just about anything (grass, sand, trees, stone, minerals, and even animals). Minecraft takes the phrase "The world is what you make it" absolutely literally. The point of the game is to destroy certain blocks in many disperse locations (collect resources) and then use those blocks to create whatever your creative mind desires while defending yourself from monsters.

The creator of the game, Markus "Notch" Persson, has always had a passion for indie games, which are essentially just video games created without the backing of a large publishing company. He actually quit his job at two of the largest game companies in Sweden, Avalanche and Midasplayer, in order to pursue indie games. His explanation for this is that he believed the lack of funding fostered creativity and allowed for game developers to "focus on new and interesting gaming concepts rather than on elaborate graphics and expensive manuscript." He was also swayed by the fact that the developers had complete control over their projects. His intrinsic motivation to create "the best game possible" was far greater than anything any extrinsic motivation could give him (money, fame, etc.). 

Example of a player built world

The game was initially inspired by another Indie game by the name of Infiniminer where the object of the game was to collect more resources than the opposing team. What especially inspired Persson was the layout of this game. It was a first person game in which the graphics consisted of cube blocks made out of different materials. Persson had to build off of this. He created a game with the similar block designs but expanded greatly on the game. Instead of having an objective competition based game he changed the format into a game more focused on exploring a never ending world, creating extravagant contraptions, and fighting off monsters at night. 

This also goes a long way for people that aren't very interested in video games. Parents often quarrel with their children over video games that are too violent. Parents are afraid that children will pick up on some of the violent behavior they see in these games or at the very least become more aggressive as they are exposed to a vast amount of aggression and violence. Children, on the other hand, don't want to give up their fps (first-person shooter) games because they are arguably the most fun to play. As a pretty seasoned gamer, I can attest to this. Minecraft is a win-win for the parents and the children. It lacks any serious violence and even promotes creativity. Players compete to see who can have the "coolest", most creative world. The children win because the game is a blast. As a prior skeptic of how fun a building block game could be, I can proudly say that I have spent more time playing Minecraft than any other game I have played. Once you get started on a project you simply cannot step away from the controller. The game is a reflection of your creative self, which is truly the beauty of it. Here are some cool creations by strangers united by a common goal: To build.

How cool is this??????

Works Cited:

https://minecraft.net/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minecraft

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markus_Persson

http://www.wired.com/2013/11/minecraft-book/

Urban Farming

Imagine a world in which we could speak to plants. Imagine a world in which you could plug a climate recipe in and grow a plant. Imagine a world in which we could send plant information internationally instead of actual plants. Caleb Harper, a research scientist at MIT’s media lab and the founder of the CityFARM research group, envisioned a world just like this one and has actually been successful in making it a reality!

Caleb Harper got his bachelor’s degree from Washington University in St. Louis and his master’s degree from MIT. He is a consultant to many development agencies that work on low income housing projects. He has also worked on development projects in the high tech space industry, including health care.

Caleb saw that in the world, we could not balance having too much food, or too little food, or GMO’s that help, or GMO’s that hurt. He asked himself, “What if climate was democratic? What if each country had its own productive climate, what would that change about quality of life and nutrition?” He saw a problem with the way that the world operated with regards to agriculture and food production and decided to solve the problem. He decided to build a digital farm and send food through particles in the air. This way, people didn’t need to wait for their groceries to be picked from some far around the world and then get stuffed with preservatives to last the journey, people could have fresh groceries in the house in just a day. He also saw that farming was not a very attractive field to go into as an occupation, and many young people did not want to take up farming. To combat this pattern, he realized that making it more technological would attract the younger population.

Caleb saw a problem and used his creativity to think outside of the box to come up with a solution, and even the scientists in his field saw how amazing his ideas were.

He set out to build a farm in a digital media lab and succeeded in doing so. His farm was enough to feed about 300 people and could be harvested once a month. He saw that when plants were grown in a malign climate to their growth, they would turn sweet to protect themselves. This showed how much climate had an impact on the plants. In this digital farm, Caleb was coding climates to express nutrition, shape, color, and texture of a plant. He had IP addresses of each of his plants, and each came with a profile. This profile showed downloadable progress of each plant, and any problems it was having, such as too much water or too much sun. With this new technology, plants could essentially talk to the farmer.

He made a computer database that operated kind of like a game where kids could try out different types of environments and grow different types of plants. This was the first time some of these kids had even thought about farming as a profession or farming at all.

Ultimately, Caleb’s goal is to be able to put climate recipes that people, with their own personal food computers, can pull up and grow in their house. We could send information about food instead of actual food to make it healthier.

A Food Computer

Building a digital farm in urban settings is a concept that I never thought was even possible. Sending food particles digitally was never something I thought would be achieved! Caleb, however, was really creative in that he saw a problem with the way food was being produced and created a digital farm and revolutionized the farming industry.  Simonton describes a creative idea as “having the joint properties of novelty or originality and utility and usefulness,” and I think this describes Caleb’s idea of an urban farm (Simonton, 494). His idea is original, no one has successfully achieved an urban farm that programs food, and it is useful, in that it’ll make food healthier and farming a more attractive occupation for youth.

Here is the link to the TED talk he gave:

https://www.ted.com/talks/caleb_harper_this_computer_will_grow_your_food_in_the_future#t-938236

Sources:

http://www.tedxbeaconstreet.com/speakers/caleb-harper/

http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2014/10/features/server-farm

Conquer Disabilities: Chuck Close

Imagine that you love painting. You love everything about it: the colors, the brushes, the process, the mess, the people, the objects, and liberation of your body and fingers as you let your creativity pour into the blank white space or canvas in front of you. You love to focus on painting detailed close-ups of human faces, with the eyes, lips, nose, the skin texture, and the raw emotions. Now, imagine that you were diagnosed with dyslexia and facial blindness. How will that affect your love for painting? Later on, imagine your situation if you were diagnosed with neuromuscular condition which prevents you from having full control of your muscles. Will that restriction change the way you love painting? If your answer is still "No, I would still paint," then imagine that you were paralyzed from the neck and below.

The scenario you envisioned above is a short synopsis of the life of Chuck Close, a multimedia artist from New York, who is very versatile as he paints using oil, water, acrylics, and more. He has received the National Medal of Arts, the highest honor for an individual artist, from President Bill Clinton in 2000. The unique characteristic of Close is that he suffered a collapse of an artery in the spinal cord which left him paralyzed from chest down. Despite this tragedy, he regained enough strength in his hands to paint again after some therapy. He argues it was not the actual therapy that helped him get his muscle movements back but the positive attitude he had to get back to his passion. He also suffers from neuromuscular weakness, learning disabilities, dyslexia, and prosopagnosia from childhood.

Close views his childhood as one of the primary ways he discovered his love for painting. Since he grew up in a family living in poverty, he had his fair share of  daily struggles.  Since he has trouble reading and focusing as a child, he used several different mechanisms such as sensory deprivation and attempting to concentration on one thing at a time. For example, he would stare out the window to listen to class because nature was constant, and he was able to isolate the voice of the professor easier. Similarly, he utilized painting as extra credit to show the professors he was interested in the subject rather than being ignorant. Both of these strategies are used in his painting strategies now. Once he discovered his passion, he gravitated towards what he is capable of doing despite his limitations. He uses sensory deprivation by painting differentiating variables. He would isolate color, constant increments, size, shape, and heads to focus on so he can overcome his disabilities to use what he can actually do. I was fascinated by how he was able to use only 3 colors, cyan, magenta, and yellow, to create flesh colors by the end. Furthermore, it is amazing how his brain was able to pick and mix colors that were so different to create the end product. He worked with constant increments, such as fingerprint and paper palates, to paint extremely detailed paintings; however, how he does so without errors is unknown. Another characteristic that surprised me was his detailed three-dimensional paintings of faces when he suffers prosopagnosia, face blindness. He has to work off of photographs of the people rather than the actual person, and he converted 2 dimensional photographs into 3 dimensions paintings in his head. He works by creating grids of 3 colors and converting smaller shapes into bigger sizes automatically. Although in a wheelchair, his paintings are more than 10 feet tall. Close managed his anxiety by approaching his problems one step at a time.

“If you break things down into smaller, incremental units,” Close says—whether it is faces, directions, or the process of reading—“then it's just one little piece of information at a time. Just one little decision, one little goal, and each can be a positive reinforcement.”

In Kaufman and Beghetto's Four C Models, Close would definitely be classified as a Big C creative. He not only created a new form of painting, he also won the highest award an individual artistic can win by the president of America. He had both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations to painting. The extrinsic motivation is that he can make a career and a living out of his talent. The intrinsic motivation is seen when he still continues to paint even after being paralyzed and in wheel chair. According to Smith and Ward, Close used divergent problem solving every time he was faced with an issue. For example, he found different and unique ways to incorporate his wheelchair into his painting room. He found ways to use limited motion, gained through therapy, into using it for the different painting techniques. He also tried different painting processes no one has ever used before, such as mixing the colors and using unique objects for his project as mentioned above. The same idea is also concluded in Weisberg's research. Problem solving happens when there is a connection between the problem at hand and the individual's knowledge, which will result in an appropriate and unique solutions as seen with Close. 

I learned from Close the importance of “problem-creating” rather than problem-solving. It is more creative to construct problems about a topic of interest because no one else’s answers are applicable. He overcame his neuronal issues through perseverance and positive attitude. His views on art are relatable to every aspect of a common man’s life, ranging from basic functions of body, studying something new, research, and/or hobbies. He is an inspiration for people of all ranges and proves that nothing can stop you from achieving your passion if you put the work into it.

To see the famous works and processes of Chuck Close, please watch these videos. 

Works Cited:

http://www.theartstory.org/artist-close-chuck.htm#biography_header

Smith and Ward - Chapter 23: Cognition and the Creation of Ideas

Weisberg - Chapter 4: Creative Problem solving

Kaufman and Beghetto - Four C Model of Creativity