“This manual is intended as a practical tool for artists who work in collaboration with labour/community members. The examples of projects, strategies, work plans and exercises represent a wide range of disciplines, issues and methodologies. Labour arts is a practice of activism. Whether we work on a call to action and protest, an affirmation of workers’ dignity, identity and achievements, or simply a celebration of our lives, labour arts is constantly evolving. At the centre of arts and labour collaboration are shared struggles, common goals and a spirit of solidarity. The compilation of examples in this ‘kit’ is not intended to function as a list of ‘models’ or ‘best practices.’ The projects simply offer a few ideas and tools, and confirm that creative collaboration is mutually educational, rewarding and empowering.”
The best thing for enhancing your creative potential is creative practice. Learn some new skill: writing, photography, cooking, dancing, computer programming, chess… you name it! But while you are learning, pay attention to HOW you are learning…
…Experiment. Explore. Break the rules. See what happens if you do the opposite of what you are supposed to do. Make mistakes on purpose to see if something interesting happens. Make up your own rules. By playing such games, learn what strategies work for you. And then apply your own successful strategies in other parts of your life and work. As long as you keep trying to make and invent, you build creative muscle.
— (Almost) Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Creativity | The Creativity PostThe Honourable Glen Murray is having a difficult time as Minister of Training, Colleges, and Universities for Ontario. In the past month alone, he has had to deal with two anonymous policy leaks that have derailed possible implementation plans for radical changes to the college and university sectors…
… Three Cubed outlines a plan to shift at least one-third college and university courses online, force all institutions to offer three semesters worth of courses, shrink all undergraduate degrees to three years, and penalize institutions that don’t comply with the above policies with a three per cent budget cut…
…The Minister also needs to stop imagining the private sector as the saviour of college and university funding. The private sector pays nothing toward the operating costs of colleges and universities and students and staff have good reason to be wary of private sector funding. Corporate tax revenues are the best way to achieve greater funding of the private sector for post-secondary…
To enhance creativity, we must develop and maintain an attitude of creative questioning. We must become competent in the art of “asking dumb questions,” the first of which might be: “What is a dumb question?” While this question may sound naive, after all everyone knows what a dumb question is, the answer to this dumb question, like all answers to dumb questions, is not as straight forward as we might imagine.
Dumb questions, the kind children ask but most adults know better than to ask, are born out of a desire to understand, out of curiosity not expectation. They stem from our imagination and are designed to engage us in thought. Dumb questions are simple questions that probe the obvious, and simultaneously challenge and direct our thinking.
Dumb questions are not accusatory or argumentative statements in disguise. Nor are they formulated with preconceived answers in mind. Rather, they are probing yet open. Used effectively, dumb questions lead to a deeper sense of reality, truth or purpose. They expand our capacity to see more clearly and inspire us to explore possibilities we would otherwise ignore. Above all they are interesting enough to encourage finding an answer.
— The Art of the Dumb Question | The Creativity Post5 Freewriting Tips
1. Try Easy. “Start scribbling, then remind yourself that you’re simply looking to put some decent words and ideas down on the page: you’re not trying to produce deathless prose and world-beating ideas in the course of a single night’s writing.” That recalls my own advice to “trivialize the task.”
2. Work the Way You Think. “Use kitchen language. Coined by Ken Macrorie, it’s a phrase that describes the language you use around the house when you’re lounging in knock-around clothes. It’s good strong language, but not the kind you’d normally use to get your point across in most settings.”
3. Learn to Love Lying. Freewrite about fantastic scenarios and you may find your mind unclogged. “If an element in your situation is small, think of it as tiny or jumbo.” For a fascinating example of this, see the giant puppet girl.
4. Getting a Hundred Ideas Is Easier Than Getting One. When you seek the one great idea, your perfectionism gets in the way of creativity. When you set out to amass lots of ideas, you won’t stop at the first halfway decent one.
5. Build an Inventory of Thoughts. Make good use of your freewriting pages by grabbing and sorting keepable ideas into a set of files (or a writer’s notebook).
— 5 Freewriting Secrets for Being a “Genius” | The Creativity Post
