OPENING ACTIVITY — MACHINE IMPROV

Mary Ann got the ball rolling with an idea...

we could do groups creating human rube goldberg machines.. then set them in motion to a rhythm someone in the group beats out and then have someone in the group film it or snap it. whichever groups want to get up and share can. then post/display them for all to enjoy!

ties in rube,tech,innovation, music,creative movement, improv,collaboration, creativity and fun!

in improv/theatre games it is called,"make an offer, take an offer", or the "yes, and..." game, where you take a suggestion and , add to it, tweak it, modify it..etc. so this is a starting place.. let's see where it will evolve into something fun for our starter!

A few more ideas get tossed in...

Maybe with the sound that you can incorporate your name in some interesting way to go with your movement? Maybe try adding the red ball in somehow too? And then of course you be sure to add the big invisible steering wheel or button adjust for the machines sound volume and speed.

...and we share some video examples of what we are talking about...

Improv Warm-Ups: Machines -- powered by eHow.com

The Warm Up activity goals are:

• Make sure everyone introduces themselves.
• Make sure that everyone can feel comfortable enough to say something, but keep it moving so you don't get anyone stopping the activity from picking up momentum.
• Make sure that you encourage people to work in a variety of social interactions: together in a big groups, in small groups (or partnering) and individually (quiet journaling + out there crazy collaborative games).
• Make sure that there is built in success for everyone.
• Make sure that it's fun, fun, fun.
• After everyone has fun, fun, fun, be sure to deconstruct the lesson in an engaging way. (so everyone understands the step — break it down — so they can duplicate the activity with their kids in the classroom)
• Allow for comments/reflection/journaling.
• Give everyone a take away sheet that outlines the activity so they have a way to remember. And put that info online for downloading too.

What to do with Your Leftover Post-It Notes...

Thought you might enjoy this Post-It Animation on YouTube.

The post-its would be a good material for kids to play with.

DEADLINE post-it stop motion

Directed by Bang-yao Liu
Music by Röyksopp (http://royksopp.com)
Sound design by Ian Vargo, Shaun Burdick
Actor: Chun-yao Huang

This is my senior project at Savannah College of Art and Design. Where my idea comes from is that every time when I am busy, I feel that I am not fighting with my works, I am fighting with those post-it notes and deadline. I manipulating the post-it notes to do pixel-like stop motion and there are some interactions between real actor and post-its.

And if you are wondering how they did it, and how much time it took..

DEADLINE the making of

Calling for the Innovation Station... All aboard!

The innovation bug bit me yesterday, so I sat down to bang out a website for the Innovation study.

http://web.me.com/rooftopart/ArtIsInnovation/Welcome.html

I was inspired by the innovative pairings that have taken shape.
I added Rube Goldberg and IDEO in... They are a nice local pairing with the same playful spirit.
And there was a need to consider the representation of the school community, and the muralists were a natural and on Lilli’s list.
There is an inherent study structure to look at how artists play with ideas through time with art and learn from those who came before them.

Let me know what you think. If anyone has specific content that they want included in the website, I can easily copy and paste in from an e-mail.

WALT DISNEY >>> PIXAR
(FILM & ANIMATION & beyond, if you consider Steven Jobs role & Walt’s vision of EPCOT)

LOUIS ARMSTRONG >>> MARCUS SHELBY
(MUSIC LEADING TO SOCIAL CHANGE)

RUTH ASAWA @ Black Mountain College >>> MAYA LIN’s “What Is Missing” @ CAS
(EXPLORATION OF MATERIALS & FORM IN VISUAL ART)

MAURICE SENDAK On SENDAK @ CJM >>> LEMONY SNICKET
(LITERARY ARTS LEADING TO WORK IN OTHER ART FORMS)

SAN FRANCISCO OPERA >>> THE ADLER FELLOWS
(PERFORMING ARTS - COLLABORATIVE)

LOS TRES GRANDES: SIQUEIROS, OROZCO, RIVERA >>> JOSEF NORRIS
(COMMUNITY-BASED ART)

RUBE GOLDBERG >>> IDEO
(FLIGHTS OF FANCY LEADING TO INDUSTRIAL DESIGN & SOCIAL INNOVATION)

By studying these artistic pairings at different points in the timeline, we can see how ideas get passed on and played with across the long-line of time.
Through these pairings, we are once again looking at the Past, Present & Future (the kids).

But while the focus of last year’s “Art Is... Memory” study was about remembering the past through the lens of the present,
the focus this year’s “Art Is... Innovation” study is about imagining the future through the lens of today.

We’ve determined that the artist really never knows if he or she is truly innovating while doing.
The artist gives shape to the idea, does the work, and steps back and let others judge.
With art, humanity has a way to look back. Experiments and ideas are given shape, and change can be recorded.
Art gives humanity a way to record growth, Art is evidence of innovation.

THE STUDY OF MEDIA, TECHNOLOGY, ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN IS ALSO WRAPPED WITHIN ALL OF THESE IDEAS... AND TIME is a huge concept of the study.

On the resources section of the website, I’ve put up your brainstormed list of innovators in an Excel file on Innovators that can be downloaded in pdf form. This could be done with website links, books, etc.

Anyone want to take on the task to start an Excel file of books, emails, etc. with a sorting code that references the different works. Or everyone can agree on the format, and we can provide a template that you can add to and merge the date. Maybe Tamra & Rittenell could help too.
The file could start out small and be updated add as people contribute their ideas. Same with the innovator sheet.
If we could ID the downloadable lesson plans, and nail who will be responsible, it can be done pretty quickly.

****************

It is interesting to look at the family history of the some of artists that have been selected.
As children, their families endured great hardship, and their courses were set with extreme events.
Slavery and Jim Crow laws, WWI, poverty, bankruptcy, WWII, Internment camps, the Holocaust, the Mexican Revolution and the Cultural Revolution.

AND Because I’m totally obsessed with the parallels between now and then...
Here are some of facts that I discovered about 1923, prepare to be amazed!

On March 20, 1923, the Parent-Teachers Association was organized at Twin Peaks School.
On July 30, the San Francisco Board of Education voted that a kindergarten would be opened at Twin Peaks School.

AND

Warren G. Harding, the President of the United States dies in San Francisco, in the Palace Hotel.
Houdini escapes before 30,000 people, hanging upside down 100 feet up from the side of the Hearst Building at 3rd & Market.
San Francisco Opera has its first performance, La Bohème at the Civic Center.
The Steinhardt Aquarium opens its doors, and thousands come "viewing with evident awe the strange collection of water life gathered from all corners of the world."
Lombard Street is opened, designed so cars could manage the 27 degree hill slope.
The Crystal Palace, a San Francisco supermarket is opened.
The Whitney brothers, the founders of Playland, create a fast-photo finishing process that allow people to take their pictures once rather than having to wait for days.
The State Legislature passes the Golden Gate Bridge and Highway District Act of California into law, and Hetch Hetchy is built.
Walt & Roy Disney found The Disney Brothers Studios.
The Equal Rights Amendment is introduced in Congress.
The property of Black Mountain College is developed as a summer camp and inn in North Carolina.
Louis Armstrong is recorded in Chicago for the first time.
The concept of Planned Obsolescence is hatched.
Siqueiros helped found the Syndicate of Revolutionary Mexican Painters, Sculptors and Engravers, publishing a paper on the necessity of a “collective” art.
Laszlo Moholy-Nagy is appointed to the Bauhaus and introduces the ideas leading to the importance of typography in corporate identity in graphic design.
Hitler is arrested and charged with treason.
King Tut’s Burial Chamber is opened.

I whisper to you all, eyes wide in my best Sixth Sense voice... “I see connections...”

For #4-How is the ability to empathize and use multiple...

Since I can't seem to edit in green on JT's actual blog entry, I will put my suggestion in this post.

For # 4 , from the Getty Museum, a whole curriculum for all ages on "Historical Witness,

Social Messaging". It starts out with...

Over the course of history, powerful works of art have depicted examples of social injustice, utilized propagandistic techniques to exert power and sway public opinion, and communicated aspects of current events during times of war, slavery, racial and gender bias, and unfair labor practices.

This curriculum explores the many ways that art can provoke dialogue about the costs and consequences of significant events in U.S. and world history while simultaneously effecting social change and increasing awareness among individuals and governments.

There are lesson plans, an image bank and it's a great resource.

http://www.getty.edu/education/for_teachers/curricula/historical_witness/?cid=gtu031

For guiding question #6 ("fostering an atmosphere that encourages creativity and innovation") there is this advocacy article for the power of music by Ted Barone,

principal at Albany High School. I think he was my kids social studies teacher at AP Giannini!

It starts out:

The budget straits the state of California is facing are forcing our leaders to make a series of pernicious choices with legacy implications. One such choice is whether to fund music programming or refocus our funding priorities to the "core academics" (which happen to be those subjects tested in the statewide testing system).

I propose that we really don't have a choice. We must fund music.

From the rhythm of our breathing as infants...

This is a good question to pose to our children as well. They are constantly bombarded with preparing for the "test", and the underlying premise that the "core" academic subjects are the ones to value. How does this focus help our students think outside the box?

http://tinyurl.com/m86kja

7 guiding questions RD of activities - add to it!

Started a rough draft activity list. Feel free to add in green. If you're viewing this blog, then:

1. Log on
2. click on the e icon at the left top of the blog
3. go to the 'Innovation' blog', 'edit post'
4. select this one (7 guiding questions...)
5. add your changes
6. publish post

Hope the directions work! This is blogging as a communal process!

If THE BIG IDEA is: INNOVATION is a creative and collaborative response to a problem worth solving.

THEN: The study should allow for exploration of “worth” - this idea of value.

“ART IS INNOVATION” LINE OF INQUIRY:

How do artists explore diverse perspectives and processes to work on problems worth solving?

Guiding Question #1:

How do artists observe and identify problems worth solving?

What were the problems Pixar artists identifying in Wall-E?.

Guiding Question #2:

How do both play and hard work foster innovative thinking?

• Explore improvisation with exercises that involve theater improv, call & response, scatting, visual mindmapping, mirror dancing & drawing.

Guiding Question #3:

How can we grow by challenging ourselves and working through failure?

• -look at examples of struggle and success on the blog
• watch the video about Nick Vujucic

Keep on Keeping On! Thoughts on the Benefit of Failure

• look at / read about Disney's 1st clips, how his idea was stolen, but he went on to create another cartoon icon and other innovations.

Guiding Question #4:

How is the ability to empathize and use multiple perspectives important to effective problem solving?

• What perspectives is Maya Lin using in her latest memorial? What is she empathizing with?
• 6 blind men and the elephant story. Blind feel. Group participants in 4s. Give each member a different piece of an object in a bag to feel only. They have to describe their piece to other members and try to figure out the object.
• 3 blind mice and the elephant story. (different version of the 6 blind men.)
• A perspective story (video). Uses seasons as the different parts 4 sons see.
• 
  

Guiding Question #5:

How do artists use materials and experiment with artistic forms?

• Disney clips
• Maya Lin study
• Ruth Asawa study
• Marcus Shelby study
• Joseph Norris study

Guiding Question #6:

How can we foster an atmosphere that encourages creativity and innovation?

• article Conditions for Creating an Innovation Friendly Environment in K-12 Schools

Guiding Question #7:

How have artists used their creativity and art to help others?

• Fundred Bill
• Burma project
• Playing for Change
• Creativity Explored
• Study of our artists in residence or from past studies (Ruth, Shannon, Marcus, Josef,
• The Concert for Bangledesh
• SF Mime Troup and politics
• Marcus Shelby and Port Chicago work, the civil rights movement on the west coast
• Bono & other stars and their charitable work

or

How does creative thinking push us to imagine new possibilities in solving problems?

AC 7-22-09 notes 7 Guiding ?s

If THE BIG IDEA is: INNOVATION is a creative and collaborative response to a problem worth solving.

THEN: The study should allow for exploration of “worth” - this idea of value.

“ART IS INNOVATION” LINE OF INQUIRY:

How do artists explore diverse perspectives and processes to work on problems worth solving?

Guiding Question #1:

How do artists observe and identify problems worth solving?

Guiding Question #2:

How do both play and hard work foster innovative thinking?

Guiding Question #3:

How can we grow by challenging ourselves and working through failure?

Guiding Question #4:

How is the ability to empathize and use multiple perspectives important to effective problem solving?

Guiding Question #5:

How do artists use materials and experiment with artistic forms?

Guiding Question #6:

How can we foster an atmosphere that encourages creativity and innovation?

Guiding Question #7:

How have artists used their creativity and art to help others?

or

How does creative thinking push us to imagine new possibilities in solving problems?

Harness that Incredible, Generative, Capacity

Here is an article that shows how we have plenty of company on board with our theme of Innovation and creative habits of thinking. Obama sees the importance of recapturing the
"spirit of innovation" to build a stronger foundation for our country's future.
And the future is our children-right!


Obama: 'Spirit of innovation' key to the future August 01, 2009 9:33 AM EDT WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama, citing fresh evidence the recession is winding down, says the country's future economic prosperity depends on building a new, stronger foundation and recapturing the "spirit of innovation." "Innovation has been essential to our prosperity in the past, and it will be essential to our prosperity in the future," Obama said Saturday in his weekly radio and Internet address. The president cited Friday's Commerce Department report showing that in the last few months the economy overall has done "measurably better than expected." He credited his $787 billion economic stimulus program for much of that progress. "This and the other difficult but important steps that we have taken over the last six months have helped put the brakes on this recession," Obama said. He mentioned his administration's efforts to limit home foreclosures and unlock frozen credit markets to encourage lending to people and businesses, along with the mixture of tax cuts and spending included in the stimulus program. Obama reminded the nation that full recovery will not happen overnight, but rather will take many more months. "Even as we rescue this economy, we must work to rebuild it stronger than before," he said. "We've got to build a new foundation strong enough to withstand future economic storms and support lasting prosperity." That means having the best-educated, highest-skilled workers in the world, a health care system that fosters innovation by holding the line on costs, building a clean energy economy and investing in research and development, Obama said. "It is only by building a new foundation that we will once again harness that incredible generative capacity of the American people," the president said. "All it takes are the policies to tap that potential - to ignite that spark of creativity and ingenuity - which has always been at the heart of who we are and how we succeed." Obama said he will discuss the foundation he wants when he makes a second visit to Elkhart, Ind., on Wednesday. Layoffs in the recreational vehicle industry account for much of the job loss in northern Indiana, which is struggling with an unemployment rate near 17 percent. "For communities like Elkhart to thrive, we need to recapture that spirit of innovation that has always moved America forward," he said. Senior administration officials, including Vice President Joe Biden, are likely to discuss those issues during meetings Saturday to assess administration progress at the six-month mark and plot a course ahead. Obama was headed to Camp David for the weekend, and was not expected to participate in the sessions.