Koreen Odiney: An Internet "Stranger-friend" To All

I stumbled upon Koreen Odiney right before I entered college in fall of 2017. I remember finding her Instagram page, a small boiling pot of curiosity, connection, and creative endeavors. As any college freshman, I was nervous about making friends and finding community at Loyola. But as I matured in college, so did her Instagram, leading to the birth of her brainchild in 2018: “We’re Not Really Strangers”. Her page made me less fearful as I grew through college and encouraged me to utilize the greatest superpower anyone can have: vulnerability. 

Koreen Odiney was born in Israel in 1995 and emigrated to the United States, where she was raised in Los Angeles. Koreen always had questions based on deep feelings throughout her childhood. As a teenager, she struggled with depression and anxiety. She’d often ask her mom questions, who’d answer in Hebrew and began asking teachers, friends, and eventually strangers. At 21, she began her career as a photojournalist and model in L.A. She described her camera as her “passport to people”, as it opened doors to connections with strangers. In 2016, she found herself having a conversation with a stranger in Central Park while on a modeling trip in NYC. At the end of their conversation, the man told her “we are not really strangers” which struck Koreen as an epiphany. Working diligently in hopes of creating a more connected world, Koreen turned to instagram where she’d post her artwork: billboards, stickers, spray painted murals of her soul-stirring questions. As her platform grew, she launched “We’re Not Really Strangers”, where she printed her questions onto glossy red cards to be shared with the world. It was the world’s first purpose-driven card game that aimed to deepen existing relationships and create new ones through open ended questions and genuine conversations. 

The first game of WNRS was played with hand-written index cards in a park. Today, a quarter million "We’re Not Really Strangers" games have been sold at popular retail stores. The game consists of 3 levels: perception, connection, and reflection. Each level grows more intimate, ultimately leading to a “dig deeper” element, cultivating an experience to get to know yourself in the process of getting to know others. Amidst the pandemic, celebrities such as Hailey Bieber and Penn Badgely played the game on Instagram, making her creative product a social media sensation. In April, Koreen released a free download of the game to the two million followers on her instagram in attempts to lessen the loneliness accompanied with quarantine and the standstill of life across the world. In June, following the murder of George Floyd, Koreen released a free racial bias set that asked intrinsic questions on prejudice, encouraging “hard conversations” between friends, families, and strangers. 

Koreen embodies the Life-Course Perspective described by Gardner. This perspective focuses on how discovering oneself through childhood “becomes models for later exploratory behaviors” (p.31) in adulthood. Koreen’s WNRS game was cultivated through a hodgepodge of her own feelings and interactions with strangers and loved ones throughout her life. Furthermore, Gardner notes “what may distinguish creative individuals is their ways of productively using the insights, feelings and experiences of childhood” (p. 32) which is clearly seen in her interviews with Vogue where Koreen expresses her childhood curiosity and her process of continually asking questions to people around her. This exploration of her feelings and environment in her youth led to personal discoveries that ultimately fueled her creative ventures. 

I’d classify Koreen as a "Middle-C" creative. While similar card games such as "Cards Against Humanity" exist, WNRS derives from the comical manner of these games and attempts to dig deeper into forming sentimental connections. Although there are many forms of communicating pre/post-pandemic, I feel as though WNRS asks intriguing questions at random, thus sparking candid conversations that can lead to meaningful change. Her approach is rebellious against the social norms of refraining from having deep conversations with strangers upon meeting them. Especially in times like these, with racial injustices amidst us and the global pandemic keeping us from meeting one another, questioning ourselves and our beliefs encourages us to utilize our vulnerability together. This is a vital tool in instilling long-lasting change.

As I navigate my unconventional senior year and look at the uncertainty ahead of me, I find solace in Koreen’s questions. They prompt me to think deeply of the world and lightly of myself. It is enticing and scary all at once, but I know this: 

"Vulnerability sounds like truth and feels like courage. Truth and courage aren't always comfortable, but they're never weakness." -Brene Brown

With that, I leave you a few of my favorite questions from Koreen’s WNRS set:

1. What title would you give this chapter in your life?

2. What lesson in love have you learned by now? 

3. What is a dream you’ve let go of? 

Feel free to answer in the comments or discuss with friends. I encourage you to follow Koreen’s Instagram: @koreen and @werenotreallystrangers and look into the card game to probe questions that make your mind swirl and your heart flutter. These are the conversations worth having now, more than ever. After all, we're not really strangers...

https://www.forbes.com/sites/karineldor/2020/05/27/how-the-25-year-old-founder-of-were-not-really-strangers-created-a-global-movement-from-a-card-game-and-instagram-feed/#36e7159f3f99

https://www.thenueco.com/blogs/journal/10-questions-with-koreen-odiney

https://www.vogue.com/article/koreen-were-not-really-strangers-interview

https://www.werenotreallystrangers.com

Gardner, Chapter 2

Joefreshgoods: Bootlegging to Streetwear

When you think of Chicago's contemporary creatives, the first to come to mind are probably Kanye West, Virgil Abloh, Chance The Rapper and Chief Keef, among many others. Arguably one of Chicago's most talented icons on the Fashion scene, is often overlooked by non-locals. This hometown hero is none other than Joe Robinson, better known as "Joe FreshGoods". 

Joe has been on the forefront of Chicago's Streetwear scene since 2006. He got his start interning for Leaders, a community store that was a scene for local rappers to congregate through in-store performances. While at Leaders, Joe started printing his own designs on their clothes and selling them over the counter. Eventually in 2009 he started his first brand DBM (then Dope.Boy.Magic, now Don't Be Mad), with only $80. He first found success in his first rap-inspired t-shirt saying "MONEY H*ES CARS & CLOTHES". Joe describes these early years saying, "Hey, I work at Leaders, but you want a shirt?" I’d pull it out of my bookbag. I was doing that, [and it] kept getting bigger and bigger. I came up with this shirt that said "MONEY H*ES CARS & CLOTHES" — that was the jumpstart of like, “Wow, I’m making like $60 every two minutes.” That shirt went really Tumblr crazy." Shortly after this shirt Joe found his first success on a more than local stage through his first of many cease & desists over a hat saying using Rihanna's name.Many could have seen Joe's early work as uninspired or "played out", as it was pretty typical of the hip-hop scene early on.

 Joe's true creative talents were displayed on a global stage in his work with Chance the Rapper, and his SAVEMONEY collective. Chance, Vic Mensa and Mick Jenkins were among the locals wearing Joe's clothes on tour. The culmination of Joe's work being collaborated on was seen in his famous Obama Collection modeled by Chance the Rapper. Joe speaks on his inspiration behind the Obama Collection saying, "I remember going to sleep that night like, I kept that philosophy — I’m doing what I want to do. [Terrell and I] had this vision in grammar school, and I was just like, So I dropped a flyer in October — I didn’t know the clothes I was doing, I just said Joe for Obama." This sporadic inspiration of random collaborations would later become a Trademark for Joe in his creative projects.

Joe would go on to create collaborations with brands like AT&T, Hennessy, McDonald's and many others, really being a driving force behind the trend of streetwear collaborations. Since the Obama Collection, Joe has had many Pop Up stores in cities all over the country and even been at Complexcon in 2018 and 2019. 

While I would consider Joe a legend in Chicago Fashion, I would still have to say he has demonstrated Middle C- Creativity. As his creative process is very collaboration based, finding ways to make bootleg inspired collaborations with major companies like Adidas, McDonald's, and even AT&T of all brands. He still was not the only person to do collaborations in Streetwear.

 

As a Creative who takes inspiration from his surroundings growing up in Chicago, Joe has to work with many constraints when trying to use these inspirations in his work (often legal and company contracts). He has had to fight Cease & Desists from Kanye West, Rihanna, and Champion for this bootleg inspired work, and as a small business he does not have as much freedom as other streetwear brands. Joe also has stated that he wants his clothes to be true to Chicago's everyday person "“I think companies tend to want that cool guy or the hypebeast guy or girl. They don’t focus on that regular person, and there are way more regular people in the world. Yeah, there’s some cool guy that wants to spend $1,000 on a T-shirt. I don’t make clothes for him. I've always wanted to focus on that regular guy or girl, and it’s worked for me. That’s who I make stuff for.”

Being a little biased, because I own many Joe FreshGoods shirts, I would say Joe FreshGoods has been a driving force in Chicago's fashion scene changing it for the better. He takes a more honest and casual take on streetwear as opposed to other Chicago contemporaries like Virgil Abloh's Off-White and Kanye's Yeezy line, making accessible fashion that the people can relate to— and afford. 

Check out his work at Fat Tiger Workshop and his Don't Be Mad Brand at https://www.fattigerworkshop.com

Sources:

https://www.complex.com/style/2019/04/joe-freshgoods-streetwear-chicago-complexcon

https://joefreshgoods.com/

https://www.thefader.com/2017/03/09/joe-freshgoods-fat-tiger-dbm-chicago-interview

https://www.redbull.com/us-en/mavens-joe-freshgoods-fashion-interview

https://hypebeast.com/2019/10/joe-freshgoods-interview-business-of-hype-jeffstaple-episode-59

https://www.pursuitofdopeness.com/2020/09/joe-freshgoods-plans-to-allocate-proceeds-from-upcoming-adidas-collaboration-towards-cps/

The Sarah Davis Art Academy

When looking back on which creative figures had the greatest impact on my growth in the field of creativity, my brain unsurprisingly automatically directs to my previous art teachers. During my high school years, I grew a great deal as an artist, which can be mostly owed to my art teacher Ms. Davis. Sarah Davis holds a special place in my heart as easily being one of the most creative persons I have ever met. 

"The Palm Beach-based artist Sarah Elizabeth Davis uses her native environment as a means of visual poetics to discuss the circumstance of modern women. Placing emphasis on landscape tradition and contemporary figurative painting, she explores themes of identification, worship and solitude in her work."

Art class quickly became my haven during the school day, as Sarah's teaching style included a perfect mixture of history, theory, small piece studies, en plein air exercises, observation exercises, guided practice, self-practice, and class critique time. I am unsure if such a breakdown of classtime is common among other high school art class curriculum, but her class seemed and still seems to be a very creative way to teach such a creativity-centered subject. Other exhibited classroom creativities of hers included effective artistic problem solving when something inevitably went wrong with a student's piece or using what classroom supplies we had in new ways in the absence of the proper tools. 

Sarah's work is inspiringly creative and her creative process is admirable for an artist. She works primarily with oil paints, though also pastel and acrylic. In many of her works she creates scenes from local natural settings and uses each setting's painted narrative to juxtapose with the idea of the 'modern' woman, while also proving that the existence of the modern woman pertains to both circumstance and belonging simultaneously. One of my favorite pieces of hers is titled "Totem Watch". This is a favorite because the light and shadow are fully juxtaposed within the totem, as well as the funky totem juxtaposed with the conservative landscape. The effect of these juxtapositions and color theory brings about thoughts on power as it pertains to the 'modern woman'. Does the modern woman come out on top? Can the modern woman remain there? And does the woman actually hold power or does it just appear that way? These are just a few of the many fun questions her works present.

I hope you enjoy and appreciate the creativity of her work as much as I do!

Eduardo Kac: Transgenic Art and Other Living Works

 Eduardo Kac is Brazilian-American artist. Growing up in Brazil, he mostly staged performance art pieces, and also experiment with poetry, graffiti, and multimedia art. He earned is M.F.A in 1990 at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and then began his collaborative work Ornitorrinco, or "Platypus".

Ornitorrico incorporated remote manipulation of a robot, first with telephone and eventually through the Internet. This paved his way for creating works integrating machines, animals, and other life forms into his art, analyzing their relationship with humans. He continued with other telepresence and performance/conceptual works, including Rara Avis and Time Capsule. Time Capsule included injecting a microchip for pets into Kac's leg and registering himself into the tracking database. That year, he became an assistant professor at the Art Institute.

He then went on to create Genesis in 1999. Kac wanted to simulate the relationship between biology, faith, and information technology of the "artist's gene" by translating the sentence, "Let man have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.", from the Bible's Genesis in morse code and from there into DNA base pairs. This synthetic gene was then incorporated into bacteria which were shown in a gallery, where the shining of ultraviolet light could cause biological mutations in the bacteria. This shows the relationship of humans with the physical world, creating meaning in the world how we, humans, want to change it.

In 2000, Kac rose to fame in his most controversial work, GFP Bunny, again mixing conceptual and performance art. This project involved genetically engineering a rabbit to express green fluorescent protein, a common tool in cellular and developmental biology research. The rabbit could then glow green when shown under blue light. 

This work involved three main components: 

1) the creation of the green fluorescent rabbit

2) the public dialogue generated by the project

3) the social integration of the rabbit back to its litter

Kac's controversial project of genetically engineering the rabbit caused debate surrounding the ethics of genetically modifying organisms for the sake of art.

Because of Kac's unique artworks, I would consider him a middle-C/big-C. He revolutionized the perception of art and what can be done. He challenged what people would normally consider what would classify as an artwork, refining the field of BioArt and essentially inventing genetic art and transgenic art. To him, art was more than just what is created-- the public's perception and discussion that results is the purpose and motivator of artwork.

Eduardo Kac's never limited himself to any particular medium, ranging his works from body-based performance, graffiti, poetry, literature, telerobotics, and even biotechnology. It is a beautiful marriage between art and science, challenging the perception or what art can do and the power behind its meaning.

Sources:

https://www.britannica.com/art/conceptual-art

http://www.ekac.org/transgenicindex.html

https://www.chicagohumanities.org/media/eduardo-kac-transgenic-artist/

https://www.vdb.org/titles/eduardo-kac-telepresence-bio-art-poetry-1980-2010

A Glimpse Into the Creative Mind of Hideo Kojima: Video Game Mastermind

One may argue that it takes a certain level of creativity to design a game that appeals to an audience, nestling them in a world that they'll want to devote a significant portion of their time towards. However, I'd say that it takes an even greater level of creativity to maintain such an audience, all while advancing a complex storyline that includes a myriad of critiques on philosophical themes—something one wouldn't necessarily equate with video games. Herein lies the creative ingenuity of Hideo Kojima, world-renowned designer and auteur of video games.

Hideo Kojima was born on August 24th, 1963, in Tokyo, Japan. At the age of 4, his family moved to Osaka, the sudden change in scenery from the bustle of Tokyo to a more relaxed Osaka had a profound impact on the young Kojima, who began to spend more time indoors creating crude figurines. It was also at this time in Kojima's life where his parents introduced him to the nuanced form of story-telling through film. On a near-daily basis, Kojima and his family would have movie nights together, and he would only be allowed to sleep when the movie finished, not a moment sooner. When he was a little older, his parents would regularly give him money to go and watch movies by himself, provided that he would discuss the film with them afterwards. Kojima himself states that he and his family would spend multiple hours discussing the themes and direction of the films they'd view together. This love for film would come to a head when a 10-year-old Kojima, armed with an eight-millimeter camcorder, would take his high-school friends to a nearby island to shoot their own short movies, each with its own nuanced story ranging from a plane crash on a deserted island to a zombie infestation.  These frequent creative experiences instilled a penchant and passion for storytelling in Kojima, something that he would actively continue to expand upon with time.

Kojima would encounter the first of many difficult roadblocks in realizing his dream of storytelling with the death of his father, who was not only a major guiding force for Kojima, but an effective supporting mechanism in helping him pursue his passion in an environment that largely didn't care very much for storytellers. The death of his father also brought many financial hardships on his family, forcing Kojima's hand in choosing a career path as the film industry in Japan was largely nonexistent at the time.

As a college student studying economics, Kojima would write novels, hoping to earn awards for them and eventually be asked to write a screenplay for a movie of his own, but his attempts never quite reached fruition. It was here that Kojima became interested in the video game genre, having first laid eyes—and played— on Nintendo's Famicom disk system. To Kojima, video games began to represent another visual medium where he could express his storytelling ability, a medium that so recently became popular that people couldn't have a pre-existing notion about it like they did with film.

Nintendo Famicom Disk System

Unfortunately, Kojima came to the realization that people have preconceived notions about everything when people he knew—from his lecturers to his close friends—criticized Kojima for announcing that he was switching his career focus to making video games. Reflecting on this in a later interview, Kojima would state, "when I announced my decision, all of my friends and lecturers begged me to reconsider. They thought I was crazy, to be honest. It was only my mother who told me that I could do whatever I wanted to in life. She was the only one." Once again, it was Kojima's family who would continue to stand by his side and push him to realize his dreams. Gardner states that creativity—in part—grows out of the ties between an individual and other people in their lives, with the case of Kojima, his creative process would forever be shaped by his relationships with his mother and father who shaped his love for storytelling, as well as people who antagonized him for choosing the path he did. He would soon join Konami Industries as a video game designer, where he would go on to produce the widely popular Metal Gear series.

At Konami, Kojima was tasked with taking over the Metal Gear Project from an aging associate of Konami, he turned the game, which was geared more towards an action/adventure style, to a more nuanced, stealth-based title called Metal Gear, which was loosely based off of The Great Escape, the 1963 film which Kojima recalled viewing multiple times when he was a child. The game revolved around a special forces operative named Solid Snake tasked with infiltrating a rogue state in an effort to destroy a nuclear-weapons-capable walking bipedal tank. It received largely positive acclaim and is accredited with being one of the earliest purely stealth-based titles to grace the video game world, having been released in 1987.

Compounding on his success, Kojima would go on to create a sequel for Metal Gear, named Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake. Building off the mechanics introduced in the first game, Metal Gear 2 would add in a sound mechanic to stealth and detection, as well as introduce concepts such as crouching on the ground, and enemies having a measurable field of vision. Kojima would also create his own scripting engine that allowed for him to have greater control over when an animation or music played during a certain moment of the game, a function that was previously delegated to only programmers, this allowed Kojima to have greater creative control over his games themselves.

All of these developments culminated in what would become Kojima's magnum opus in 2002, what many would call his greatest title to date, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. The game itself would be the first 3D version of a game that Kojima would make. Kojima would incorporate complex storytelling themes into the game, often including his own takes on philosophical themes surrounding the flaws of modern democracy, something that serves as a major catalyst in advancing the conflict and plot of the game itself. The game served as a criticism of censorship and manipulation of the general population as well, which, combining with the game's release date of around a year after the September 11th terrorist attacks and the implementation of the Patriot Act, would have sparked a significant amount of controversy at the time. The game also drew a lot of themes from films that Kojima would have watched as a child, such as a largely futuristic dystopian setting that Kojima adapted from Ridley Scott's Blade Runner. The multiple relevant pop-culture elements, along with the deeper philosophical themes of the game itself, promoted significant large-scale discussion amongst members of the gaming community, largely contributing to the game's impact that can still be felt to this day.

Kojima went on to create additional games for the Metal Gear series, and ultimately broke ties with Konami following gross creative disagreements between the two. He has since released his own standalone video game, titled Death Stranding. The game centers around a character played by Norman Reedus, a "deliveryman" of sorts who lives in a world occupied by supernatural beings that can alter time itself. Death Stranding has also generated critical acclaim as a philosophically profound video game, pushing the limits as to which people view loneliness, addiction, and their own personal identity. It is currently available for all major video game consoles as well as PC, and I recommend that anyone interested in Kojima's unique style of storytelling give it a try.

Kojima's Latest and Greatest Video Game Title,
Death Stranding

To me, Kojima represents a cross of both middle-C and big-C creativity. In my eyes, he has introduced a profound change in the gaming community that goes beyond just his own personal viewpoint. While introducing such a change, he essentially married his love for western films with that of his own unique style of storytelling, combining the two with innovative gaming mechanics that he employed in his video games to create something wholly new in the gaming world. Regardless, it can be said without a doubt that his creative mindset is what makes him such a powerhouse in the gaming industry, even after he has been in it for upwards of 30 years.

Sources:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/gamesblog/2012/may/23/hideo-kojima-interview-part-1

https://screenrobot.com/hideo-kojima-video-gamings-first-auteur/

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/03/magazine/hideo-kojima-death-stranding-video-game.html

https://www.engadget.com/2017-04-29-hideo-kojima-tribeca-games.html

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/dark-side-psychology/202002/death-stranding-manipulating-the-brain-good#:~:text=In%20Hideo%20Kojima's%20most%20recent,addiction%2C%20loneliness%2C%20and%20identity.

Gardner, Howard. Creating Minds, Ch. 1 & 2

Making "True Sadness" beautiful--a glimpse of the Avett Brothers

The Avett Brothers’ music is more than just music—it is poetry, and life, and emotion all in one. Their music is entertaining and fun, but it also invokes the deep feelings that come with life. This is not something that every artist is able to capture. But the Avett Brothers do, and they do it with beauty and grace.

Scott and Seth Avett, self-proclaimed hillbillies, grew up on a farm in Concord, North Carolina. They were surrounded by music from an early age and took lessons in piano, guitar, and banjo. With wholesome beginnings playing at their high school talent show, the brothers aspired to be musicians and knew if they were going to do it, they were going to do it together.

Although in their youth they were self-obsessed boys who dreamed of being famous, their dreams eventually shifted, the focus now being on sharing their songs with the world. An opening line from their song “Victory” on their newest record “The Third Gleam” states,

                                            “Accolades and happy days, they don’t ever last.”

The Brothers have found fame and popularity, but that is no longer what they seek. Writing songs that are real and filled with emotion, spending time with their families, and living life have become the priority of these incredibly talented brothers.

In an interview with the brothers, Seth shares, “We don’t want to be where all the action is… We just want to be where we’re from.” Rare is it these days to find celebrities who seem to have no interest in being famous. Home is where the Avett Brothers were born, and home is where they will remain.

There are many different mechanisms that breed creativity, but the one that appears to be the most important for the Avett Brothers is the process of collecting. Seth and Scott write their songs on real life experiences, and raw emotions that they have felt. In their documentary based on their album “True Sadness” they share,

    “we’ve been accused of being fatalist as a band, but we’ve seen enough tragedy in our lives, and we                                             know that tragedy comes from out of nowhere.” 

Their songs cover topics like...

Racism in America (We Americans)

Gun violence (Bang Bang)

Living in a world full of bad news (I Should’ve Spent the Day with my Family)

...as well as love, life, death, and so much more. And they accomplish this in a style that sounds like poetry. The Avett Brothers are not something that you can listen to in the background—or at least I don’t recommend that until you know their songs well. Their lyrics are so intricate and have so much depth, you could analyze them for days. Each time you listen to their songs another line will find a new meaning in your soul. When I can’t seem to find the words to express what I’m feeling, I turn to the Avett Brothers, and they seem to have a way of helping it all make sense. Their newest album is the third in a series of smaller records entitled “The Gleam.” The Avetts explain these albums as the in-between albums, that aren’t at all focused on entertainment, but are stripped down and emotional. 

Apart from their lyrics, which the Avett Brothers admit to writing before they play a single chord, their music is something special. They seem to embody rock, folk, country, bluegrass, gospel, and alternative styles of music all at the same time—it is truly unlike any other band you will ever listen to. This, again, highlights their creative process of collecting, as they borrow sounds from a multitude of genres. If you ever have the pleasure of seeing this band in person, you will be in awe of their impressive musicianship and energy while they dance and jump around, which will be immediately contrasted with a somber solo where only one brother remains centerstage.

I would strongly encourage this band to anyone. Of course, I am incredibly biased as they are some of my favorite musicians, but their creativity in bringing life into music is unique and special, and the most authentic I have ever found. They have a way of taking life, in all its ugliness, and making it beautiful. 

Sources:

https://www.theavettbrothers.com/band

https://americansongwriter.com/the-third-gleam-the-avett-brothers-album-interview/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4dcxt6DUM0

https://americanahighways.org/2019/10/21/interview-full-in-all-the-way-scott-avett-talks-about-music-art-and-the-creative-process/

https://gardenandgun.com/feature/the-brothers-avett/

http://www.georgeamphitheatre.com/events/the-avett-brothers-the-head-and-the-heart-shovels-and-rope/#.X3FPDmhKg2w

https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2015/9/29/avett-brothers-boston-calling/

 

Lindsey Stirling: Modernizing the Violin

When you think about the violin, what kind of music comes to mind? Probably either classical or really twangy country, right? Well, Lindsey Stirling is here to challenge that sterotypical image of the violin. She sees the instrument as being just as relevant in the electric and pop genres playing on any given radio station today. 

At only five years old, Lindsey started clasically training on the violin and immediately grew a passion for the instrument. She continued her training and the typical classical style until she was in college. Due to some personal struggles with anorexia and depression, she almost gave up on playing altogether along with essentially all other hobbies. After seeking some professional help and getting an adorable emotional support Chihuahua, she decided that giving up on her passion would probably only emphasize the pain she was going through. Instead, she started experimenting with her talent on the violin in order to create some music that was more reflective of her emotions. The music that emerged was something unlike anything that was expected from a violin player. It was aggressive and electric, it's even been categorized as EDM since she stated creating it. As her music grew, she started dabbling with an electric violin as well as aucistic, which only added to the uniqueness of her style. 

In 2012, the music video for her song "Crystalize" reached the eighth most watched video on YouTube. Her fame only grew from there, she has since performed with huge names in the music industry like the Pentatonix and John Legend. Her music is still relatively unique, there's not really anyone else out there currently doing what she does on the violin. She has pretty much single-handedly reimagined the instrument. 

I go back and forth when trying to categorize her as either big-c or middle-c creative, I think there are valid reasonings for both. Big-c seems fitting because she is pretty famous now and she essentially created her own genre of music with the violin. On the other side of that, middle-c could also be fitting since she technically bridged two styles of music together in order to form her own. I guess it really just depends on how you want to look at it. 

Anyways I hope you enjoyed learning a little more about her, I love her and she has been a big inspiration in my own personal life. I highly suggest giving some of her music a listen, it's a really cool sound and I've yet to meet someone that truly disliked it. 

Sources: 

• https://www.golden1center.com/news/detail/lindsey-stirling-7-fun-facts-about-the-vibrant-violinist#:~:text=Now%2C%20the%20video%20has%20exceeded,a%20year%20from%20her%20videos.
• https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/lindsey-stirling-33186.php

Polymath Pianist- Lydie Solomon

   My discovery of Lydie Solomon was very strange and unconventional. I was having a conversation with my eclectic, knowledgeable boyfriend about our childhood celebrity crushes. I was surprised when he mentioned Lydie Solomon, as most boys growing up in the 2000s might mention Emma Watson or Selena Gomez (however, knowing him, I shouldn't be surprised). Intrigued, I looked her up, and thus I began my search into the life of the internationally acclaimed and diversified pianist. 

    Born in Paris, France, Solomon hit the ground running in the world of music. At age two and learning completely by ear, she was able to recite Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" on her family piano. Solomon was admitted into l’Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris-Alfred Cortot at the age of five and gave her first concert at the Printemps Musical de Silly in Belgium at age ten. By nineteen, Solomon began touring throughout South Korea, performing pieces from her produced CD and conducted by the renowned Gum Nanse. Lydie Solomon continues to gain international recognition with age. Solomon grew up in an environment that fostered creativity and experimentation through piano. The freedom to play and learn music at an early age was undoubtedly foundational for her success as a composer. Rather than discovering her passion later in life, like Martha Graham, Lydie was more like Picasso, displaying strong aptitude for her field from an early age.

    The realm of piano did not limit Solomon's extent of wonder. After studying piano professionally, Solomon returned to school to receive an MBA. She has taken time away from music to act in French television shows. Lydie Solomon is also known for her singing, occasionally accompanying her piano performances. As a woman who speaks four fluent languages, English, Korean, French, and Spanish, it seems as though there's nothing that Solomon can't do. This polymathic personality challenges Gardner's study of creatives in a particular domain.

    Her masterful skill as a pianist was what originally brought Lydie Solomon to international recognition. Solomon's rendition of Mozart's Concerto No. 20 was described to have been played "with impeccable feeling" and her playing style is routinely expressed as "sensitive". However, Solomon directed and composed pieces for her concert program « De Chopin à Cuba » (Chopin in Cuba). While performing her Eldorado Trilogy Concert, a concert series inspired by Cuban composers, Solomon noticed musical subtleties that evoked the style of composer Frédéric Chopin. Solomon discovered that Cuban composer Nicolás Ruiz Espadero, who was trained by one of Chopin's prodigies, Juliana Fontana, developed a musical style that incorporates Cuban flare and Chopin's lyricism. Lydie Solomon's Chopin in Cuba communicates this cultural fusion by comparing Cuban compositions with Chopin's famous works. This analogy was never before recognized by the pianist community. Solomon's program illustrates the interconnectedness of a globalized music world, how music transcends oceans and cultures. Lydie compiled pieces from Cuban composers, Chopin, and Juliana Fontana, as well as composing her own song, <<Invocation>>. 

    Through Chopin in Cuba, Lydie Solomon displays the creative mechanism of convergent thinking. Solomon noticed the influence of Chopin in Cuban music. In order to solve this inquiry and understand this connection, Solomon utilized the habit of collecting. Using her knowledge of the domain of professional piano, Solomon determined the link between Nicolás Ruiz Espadero and Juliana Fontana to be the driving force for the development of Cuban classical style. Instead of letting her discovery sit, Solomon manipulated this information and created Chopin in Cuba to communicate this connection to the public. Additionally, Chopin in Cuba is fundamentally collaborative. Solomon must interact with different composers in order to create Chopin in Cuba. Creating a piano program requires interaction between the individual and other pianists in the field. 

    Overall, I would assess Lydie Solomon as a Pro-C creative. Though recognized in the field of professional pianists, Solomon has yet to reach international recognition throughout the domain of music at the level of modern musicians like Yo-Yo Ma or (I suppose) Kenny G. Solomon's discovery and commentary on the influence of Chopin in Cuban music are important to the development of professional piano, yet do not deem her as a Big-C creative. It's possible that Solomon's desire to explore and dabble in a variety of domains hinders her from making large impacts in one specific domain. Rather than allowing herself to specialize, Solomon desires to learn skills from many domains. Her time is not exclusively spent developing creative strides for piano. However, this in no way undermines Solomon's many achievements. Solomon's career speaks for her masterful piano playing. She is an internationally renowned musician and doesn't cease to continue to learn about the world, a quality that might not encourage Big-C creativity, but certainly for a deeper, interdisciplinary view of the world.

    I encourage you to search for Lydie Solomon's performances on Youtube. She's truly incredible.

Sources:

https://www.lydie-solomon.com/biography-2/

https://www.colleensparis.com/2014/01/llydie-solomon-from-chopin-to-cuba-concert/

https://www.commnprod.com/lydie-solomon

Hayao Miyazaki: A Whole New Universe

 I grew up watching the amazing animated movies of Hayao Miyazaki. From My Neighbor Totoro to Kiki’s Delivery Service to Spirited Away, Miyazaki’s creative limits are nowhere to be found. For 5 years straight in elementary school, I dressed up as a different character from one of his movies. Watching these movies as a child made me feel as though there were no bounds to reality. 

Hayao Miyazaki was born in 1941 in Tokyo, Japan. After graduating from Gakushuin University in Tokyo in 1963 with an economics degree, he took an entry level position as an animator at a company known as Toei Animation, the largest animation studio in all of Asia. Working his way up at the company, he worked on various television shows before his departure from the studio in 1971. He published his first film in 1979. He continued with his own personal career and published the manga (comic) strip, Naushika of the Valley of the Wind, which was a huge success. This led Miyazaki and his wife, Takahata Isao, who was also an animator, to establish their own studio: Studio Ghibli. 

                                                                                        "Spirited Away" (2001)

Studio Ghibli is where he found his true success. Each film released was one success after another. They began with the creation of the popular, Castle in the Wind. However, after releasing one film previously to the US and receiving negative feedback, Miyazaki was discouraged from releasing any future films to the West. My Neighbor Totoro was released in 1988 and achieved phenomenal success.  In 2001, he released Spirited Away, which was award-winning as well as displacing Titanic as the "top-grossing film in Japanese history".  With the release of Howl's Moving Castle in 2004, Miyazaki received his first Academy Award nomination. In 2005, Disney released a fully English-dubbed version in the United States, starting the expansion of Miyazaki's already amazing career. 

His work transforms traditional anime styles of animation to create a brand new universe. Many of his big films center around themes such as the conflicting patterns of human progress and the natural world. In addition, his films focus heavily on spiritual beings and a spiritual world. 

"My [creative] process is thinking, thinking, and thinking-- thinking about my stories for a long time". Unlike most people who work in animation, Miyazaki disregards traditional methods of story boarding while producing his films, and instead develops the film's narrative as he designs the storyboards. "We never know where the story will go but we just keep working on the film as it develops". In a majority of his films, the protagonist is a strong young female. In addition, the antagonists in each movie typically have redeeming qualities and are not like the typical villains you see in other films. He emphasizes themes of pacifism, environmentalism, family, and feminism throughout all his films. 

I would say he is middle-c creative because although he may not have invented animation, he definitely recreated the genre by expanding past typical plot lines or themes. He creates brand new worlds through his films, almost sending the viewers to another dimension. 

Miyazaki has left a huge impact in not only the world of animation, but also the hearts of many. His unique films will serve as his legacy. Miyazaki's films are not just cartoons, they bring a whole new level of perspective, meaning, and depth most films lack. I urge you to check out some of his films if you are unfamiliar with his work and would like to experience an entirely new level of animated films. 

Sources:

http://www.midnighteye.com/interviews/hayao-miyazaki/

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/vvyb4m/8-pearls-of-wisdom-from-hayao-miyazaki

https://knepublishing.com/index.php/KnE-Engineering/article/view/3603/7517

Marissa Goldstein: Spreading Smiles

One of the major changes that has come about since Covid-19 has been the use of masks and facial coverings. Masks are one of the most effective ways to curb the risk of infection. Although wearing masks is uncomfortable and less than ideal, for some it hinders their ability to effectively communicate with others. Specifically, people with hearing impairments and those who rely on reading lips and facial expressions to communicate are affected. Not, only does this affect those with impairments, but it affects others and children as well as sound can be more difficult to hear through a mask and it is more difficult to rely on facial expressions to interact. 

To combat this issue, Marissa Goldstein, the founder of Rafi Nova (a handbag company), recognized this problem and sought to alleviate its strain. As the pandemic hit, less people were interested in purchasing handbags and more and more were interested in purchasing masks. As a means to help the community as well as to avail popular demand, her company shifted their work from bags to masks. She realized there was a concern regarding masks and those who have difficulty understanding without seeing facial expressions and reading lips so she created the Smile Mask. The Smile Mask is a mask similar to a regular mask, but it contains a piece of clear plastic over the mouth area allowing that portion to be protected, but also seen. As she introduced these masks as well as traditional masks to her consumers, demand for the Smile Masks increased tremendously. 

For Marissa, the creative process started as a means to help the community. It also consisted of finding the best way to reallocate resources to incur minimal loss. As we talked about in lecture 3 regarding mechanisms of the creative process, she employed memory, concepts, and categories to find similarities between materials and the production of handbags and masks. In this way, she was able to reallocate her resources to produce masks with minimal waste of her supplies. Because her store also included other items besides handbags, see was not constrained by the concept of expertise, in which people are  unable to reallocate resources because they can only think of an idea in a certain way. 

image and article: https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2020/09/21/clear-smile-masks-coronavirus

Heather Day & Studio Table: Art, Food, and Community

You come and go in your apartment, maybe making eye contact with another resident in the elevator or turning up the music in your headphones to avoid small talk. Perhaps you live in a building with hundreds of other people, but how many of them do you know? Is it a community?


This was not how the story played out for Studio Table’s co-founders Heather and Michelle. After meeting each other in their San Francisco apartment building, they became “fast friends” and began to discuss the community (and the lack-thereof) that they were experiencing. This was the birth of Studio Table: an innovative dining experience that meshes art, food, and community.


I first found this collective of creatives through one of the co-founders, Heather Day. An abstract painter by day, Heather creates gorgeous pieces that combine color and movement in a way that draws the viewer in instantly. While she has pages and pages of credentials and gallery showings, I prefer her fun instagram that shows both her process and finished pieces. It doesn’t take much scrolling to notice her incredible San Francisco art studio with massive windows and the coolest industrial vibe. Anyone who knows anything about the city of San Francisco knows that their real estate is a whole other ballgame. With some of the most expensive prices per square foot, a studio like this is a big deal. Not to mention her stunning works propped up against the wall (and her cute dog too!).

So what about the food or the community, you may ask? That’s where Studio Table comes in. After Michelle and Heather met, they formed this company, or experience rather. When writing a reflection on the birth of ST, they said:

“Studio Table began as a question. If we assembled a group of strangers in a unique setting to share art, food, and conversation, could that experience spark creativity and forge long-lasting community?”

Essentially these women and their team of planners, coordinators, and chefs create an entire dining experience in Heather’s gorgeous art studio. With the supplies and paintings pushed to the side, they assemble a homey long wooden table filled with greenery and candles right in the middle of the chaos. They invite a group of strangers together, who all apply, and serve a fancy meal created by professional chefs.

In a blog post entitled “What We Do”, they say the best part of what they do is having “the chance to watch a group of people begin the evening as strangers and leave as friends.” Using art and food as the icebreaker, the ST team says they bypass small talk and “believe these elements can encourage people to be a little vulnerable in conversation, and ultimately make deeper connections.”


Embodying creative collaboration to a tee, their bio says, “With Heather’s artistic vision, Ben’s culinary prowess, and Michelle’s business and marketing savvy, the three realized their collision exemplified what San Francisco could be when people of different fields are brought together.” In measuring personality, we have discussed the importance of being open to experience and its role in measuring one’s creativity. Each of these collaborators were open to experience a new form of community in a way they felt was lacking in their own lives. While their individual personalities were certainly creative in their own respect, they wanted to combine their fields in a way that would be meaningful and new. They saw a need in San Francisco and decided to address it with something creative. In the same sense, those who attend the ST events share the same sense of openness. ST recognizes that it is not easy to share a meal with a group of complete strangers under the assumption of creating a community. Everyone involved is open to cultivating something new, different, and exciting.

While this collective of creatives certainly formed on a whim, they have in turn created space for a new community to form over artistic food and intentional conversation that could be on its way to becoming a San Francisco staple!

https://heatherday.com/

https://www.studiotable.com/

https://www.instagram.com/heatherday/

https://www.instagram.com/studiotable/


--Grace Hall