Adapt a Classical Style: Creativity Tip

June 29, 2007 By in Art, David Theory, Inspiration 4 Comments

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I just visited the Toledo (Ohio) Art Museum and they had a wonderful painting by Kehinde Wiley. Instead of rejecting the past and trying to do something completely new, he has made himself a clear descendant of classical portrait artists.

Looking at his paintings, you can see all the symbols and elements of classics portraits, but they are in slightly different contexts. Sometimes, just putting someone in a classic pose with modern clothes on creates an amazing new piece.

It got me thinking about how much potential there is in completely owning the past and clearly showing the lineage of what you do. When you are trying to create something new, don’t throw everything out. Keep what works and make it better and different.

One more note about Wiley’s paintings, in person, the skill level and craft is tremendous. In the tiny versions on the web some of them appear tossed off. In person, they are huge, amazingly crafted pieces with great detail.

Idea source: police blotters

June 25, 2007 By in Art, Inspiration, Writing Leave a comment

Looking for a plot twist or a dramatic moment? Police blotters may be the answer. They are a perfect cure for writer’s block. Blotters don’t supply all the information you need to understand a situation, just what happened. The emotions and motivations are completely left to the imagination.

Here’s an entry from a San Francisco blotter:

Officer Amoroso and Officer Sugitan were sent to O’Farrell St. and Larkin St. to meet with a victim of a stabbing.  The victim reported that he was walking in the area when three men offered to sell him drugs.  Instead of walking away, ignoring the men, or saying, “no,” the man said he wanted to buy hashish.  The men asked how much and the victim said, “Just kidding, I have no money.” The sellers became irate and pushed the victim away.  Again, tempting fate, the victim pushed one of the dealers.  The incensed dealers then struck the victim with a cane, stabbed him with a knife and started to pummel him with fists.  The victim, now fearing for his life, was able to extract himself, despite repeated attempts to stab him again.  The victim fled and called the police.  The victim was not able to identify his attackers, despite the fact that the officers detained two men who fit the description provided.  The incident is under investigation.

What kind of a day was the victim having that caused him to act that way? What happened to him immediately before this incident? He joked with dangerous people and then pushed one. He could be having a bad day. Or maybe he just got out of his therapist’s office after being told that he should use his sense of humor to make more friends.

There are so many questions to be answered it’s a perfect short story.

Here’s another from Dartmouth College

Dartmouth Safety and Security reported to Hanover Police that a man had repeatedly feigned drowning to entice lifeguards, usually female Dartmouth students, to swim out to him and discover that he was not wearing any clothing. After detaining 28-year-old Luis Hurtado of Miami, Fla., Hanover Police learned that Hurtado had overstayed his welcome in the United States and turned him in to Border Patrol.

Imagine having a character bio like that for a minor character in a novel.

Just type “police blotter” in google and you’ll have inspiration galore.

How can I make this more fun?

June 24, 2007 By in Uncategorized 3 Comments

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While on a long plane ride, I thought of a great question to ask to spur creativity. How can I make this more fun? Helper monkeys instead of stewardesses? A game show of some kind with prizes? The stewardesses getting together and giving a trophy at the end of the flight to the best passenger? Maybe if the seats were far enough apart that you didn’t actually have to rub up against the person next to you. That would have improved my fun!

Now, you might not be able to actually do the thing necessary to make a situation more fun, but it’s great to recognize that the possibility for fun exists.

One situation that stumped me, how could airport security be more fun?

Work at the top of your intelligence: creativity tip

June 22, 2007 By in David Theory, Genius Leave a comment

Here’s a rule from improvisational theater that I think applies to everything you do.

Always work at the top of your intelligence.

Don’t talk down to your audience. Don’t feign ignorance or actively ignore what you know. Don’t pretend that you’re saying something deep when you know it’s just repeating a casual observation you heard on NPR. Always use everything you know and every bit of your understanding when you’re working.

Bring your unique perspective to everything you do. Every experience. Every opinion. Everything that makes you who you are.

Also, admit to not knowing things. Sometimes exploring your own gaps in knowledge produces great revelations and interesting work.

Always working at the top of your intelligence is the key to producing things that you are proud of.

Choose your avatar!

June 20, 2007 By in David Theory, Games 2 Comments

Screen Shot 2017-08-05 at 7.41.11 PMThe New York Times posted a few pictures from the book Alter Ego: Avatars and Their Creators. The concept behind the book is to show real people and the characters they create to represent themselves in video games. It’s a real insight into people to find out how they would choose to look.

How would you choose to look? I think it’s valuable to know what you look like to yourself in an idealized form. Do you look the same? Are you covered with armor? Are you sexier? Would you just accept all the defaults that were given to you?

It’s worth thinking about, these characters accomplish a lot, most more than the people that control them. Imagine if the confidence and skill people had with their characters translated into their lives. If you could create a visual image of yourself when you were at your most creative, what would it look like? Could you become that character?

In truth, are you yourself or your avatar?

Art for nothing’s sake

June 19, 2007 By in Inspiration, Web/Tech Leave a comment

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Pointless Sites is exactly what it promises, a trip into a universe of pointlessness. With links to everything from Google in Klingon to chicken coop web cams, you’ll find everything you need to waste time.

Sometimes you need to something completely unproductive and impractical to come up with your best ideas! Imagine what a great idea you’ll have after watching chicken’s sleep for a few hours.

Bar none, my favorite “pointless” website is Superbad. It’s half art, half confusion. Just trying to navigate it is a beautiful adventure. It’s not only pointless, but inspiring as well.

If you only click one link today, make it Superbad.

Be inconsistent today

June 18, 2007 By in David Theory, Inspiration, Quotes Leave a comment

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Today, try and do something inconsistent with your regularly established behaviors. It can be as small as choosing a different brand of soda than you usually drink. Or, as big as endorsing a political candidate from an opposing political party. Do it front of someone who will notice.

People get frozen into their reality because they are afraid to appear inconsistent even when their consistency hurts them. They would rather suffer than to have other people see them change their mind or challenge their own image of themselves. Don’t be so attached to the status quo that your world never grows. How many decisions have you made that limit your world instead of allowing you to experience more of it?

If called upon to explain yourself, quote Emerson. Because then you appear smart and inconsistent. A great combination.

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day.–“Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.”–Is it so bad then to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood. . . .

I do my best thinking in the shower

June 17, 2007 By in David Theory 2 Comments

Two people told me today that they do their best thinking while they were in the shower.

If I did my best thinking in the shower, I’d be pretty darn clean because I’d double or triple the number of showers I take. It’s such an easy thing to do, why not take a shower every time you need to ponder something.

Where do you do your best thinking? Is there any way to expand that time? Could you recreate the mind state of when you’re at your best? What about that place makes it so conducive to thinking?

Is there any way you could take a shower all the time?

Waste some time: creativity tip

June 15, 2007 By in David Theory, Inspiration 2 Comments

This weekend, set aside a half hour to completely waste. The only limitation is that you have to waste it actively instead of passively. Don’t watch TV or listen to music or nap on the couch, waste it doing something impractical.

Use the time to imagine the stupidest, most foolish idea you possible can. Use it to sew a windbreaker for a monkey complete with tail hole. Write a proposal for the worst movie ever. Break new ground in hot dog technology. Solder a stained glass Pauly Shore.  Make up an imaginary friend who gives you bad advice. Come up with a reality show idea that would only appeal to people over 75. Improve the rubber chicken. Invent a machine to re-straighten used staples.

Actively wasting time is called playing. Try it for a while this weekend.

Make it memorable: creativity tip

June 13, 2007 By in David Theory, Inspiration, Marketing 4 Comments

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I was thinking today that being memorable is a hell of a lot better than being mediocre or even good.

Shoot for being amazing. That way even if you fail, people will talk about it.

Some of my favorite artists have built their whole career on a series of interesting failures.