Other Media + Quiz

DUE Thursday, Feb 09 – 5 points
(Friday NOON deadline)

  • [Spark]Spark (PDF, 32MB)
    Spark is a workbook providing a methodology and techniques for solving creative problems. The tips and exercises help you stretch your thinking and create great ideas. We will be referencing this methodology through the course as you work on your final projects, but it could also be useful for you in throughout your time here in the university and beyond. The whole workbook is valuable, but the quiz questions will come from sections 5-33 (1.1-4.3).

  • Reigniting Your Creative Spark
    This article by Denise Jacobs provides some practical methods (along with some neuroscience and metaphorical thinking) to help inspire creativity for those times when it eludes you. (It builds upon her article from yesterday’s reading on banishing your critic.)

All questions should be prefaced with an understood, “According to the author …”:

  1. T/F? The first step in Spark’s 7-step process is to Investigate the problem.
  2. T/F? An outline or a creative brief can help you better Define the problem.
  3. T/F? Librarians get annoyed when you bother them, so do not ask them any questions as you Investigate the problem.
  4. T/F? An ethnographic research study takes place in a lab, with the research asking the subjects questions from a script.
  5. T/F? As you Explore solutions to the problem, only write down solutions that appear achievable and relevant at first glance.
  6. T/F? One of the tools as you Explore solutions to the problem is to state the problem in 100 different ways.
  7. T/F? Brainstorming works best when done alone.
  8. T/F? The exercise known as “mind mapping” involves writing one word in a circle, followed by related words in connected circles.
  9. T/F? Exercising or eating at a new restaurant can help you Recharge after you have Explored the problem.
  10. T/F? As you work on the problem, you must always stay serious and keep your mind focused.
  11. T/F? Denise Jacobs tells a fable of a web creative visiting a soothsayer who reads tea leaves.
  12. T/F? Humans, on a neuro-biological level, prefer challenge and productivity to boredom and dissipation.
  13. T/F? All stress is bad and stifles creativity.
  14. T/F? Playing games can be hard but satisfying work, and it has been described as “more fun than fun.”
  15. T/F? Denise Jacobs references the original three Greek muses: Memory, Voice, and Practice.
  16. T/F? The Romans thought of genius as something outside of you, an attendant’s spirit.
  17. T/F? Denise Jacobs strongly recommends a DIY (“Do It Yourself”) approach to creativity.
  18. T/F? Stephen Johnson suggests that ideas come to you in an “aha” moment, a singular, unheralded event.
  19. T/F? “Plussing” is an improv technique invented by John Lasseter of Pixar.
  20. T/F? Peter Sims maintains that your ideas should be refined until they are nearly perfect before sharing them with a larger audience.

DUE Thursday, Feb 09 – 5 points
(Friday NOON deadline)