A long time ago I head a quote from a unique visionary named Jacque Fresco who is the creator of the Venus Project. He said, “Creativity is taking known elements and putting them together in unique ways”. This quote resonated with me for a long time. It made me think that if everything we create in our minds is made up of already known elements we had previously experienced, how could we as artists or designers create ideas and visions outside the realm of known elements? How can we think so far outside the box that we can come up with new concepts from scratch? I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about this and finally came up with ideas to get a fundamental understanding for creating experimental ideas and visions that are purely original. The fundamental understanding for conceptualizing new ideas is to examine form. Form is shapes, outlines, and variations of tone, texture, and visual elements in which may or may not be given perceptual understanding in our own minds. Imagine looking at a photo and not understanding what an object is in the background. This is a good way to allow the imagination to create narratives and ideas for what a form can be defined. I’ll talk more about forms later on. The next step after interpreting a form is to assign a function to it. The functionality of it can be from an element we understand in our world or it can be undefined or unique. For it to be undefined or unique, it may even be a good idea to remove it from any initial logic and creating a sense of abstraction. Imagine a bathtub is no longer a bathtub but is a floating fortress; imagine a ball is a death star; or imagine a staff as a gun. The variety of seemingly abstract mixes and combinations can be used to create a unique or undefined piece. Now imagine going deeper in a realm where nothing makes sense: A crescent shape with a hook is a planet; a flat plain is a vehicle, a clock is a mountain. Going further into abstraction, illogical combinations, and forms that are not familiar or unmolded into perceptive can be the fundamental start to further conceptualization and iteration. Here is a story to further familiarize with this idea of the use of forms. Imagine you suddenly existed into the world without any mother, familiarity, or understanding of existence, life, or nature. You were the only person on the planet. Your ideology may soon be shaped to where you see something in the distance and as you get closer to it, you think it gets bigger in size. You have no understanding of distance and perspective. You weren’t taught it. You can use this as a way to create, redefine, or refine forms as if seeing it for the first time. Perhaps another way to examine forms is by looking at clouds, strange silhouette, shadows, or even objects that have strange shapes. Your mind can mold them into objects, creatures, landscapes, and scenery. With the use of Jacque’s quote, you’re feeding new and seemingly undefined forms and information into your mind to which you can use, iterate, and ultimately build upon. Another way to increase the use of forms or subject perspective and even story is the use of dreams. Dreams can be a good tool for new ideas as the brain hold a library of past experiences and information. Although when sleeping, the brain is clearing out useless information, using blood to cleanse itself, and relaxing the muscles, the use of dreams, do to these activities, can create even more abstract experiences, narratives, and feelings. If we can remember what we dream, we can use it for art, story, and design. The best method of retaining memories from dreams and to experience more dreams is to wake up at least once in the middle of the night when REM is most active and to go back to sleep to reactivate it. Mystery is also another tool for collecting or redefining forms. Imagine a plastic bag, it can take on a shape of almost any form. Imagine asking what’s in the bag? This sense of mystery with a bag’s shape can give us a sense of how a plastic bag perhaps can be used to create a form in which to design a use to create narrative. When you’ve finished with a form, you aren’t quite sure what it is, you can then think up ideas of functionality, reason, narrative, and iterate until it may become something purely unique or completely original. Shigeo Fukuda states, “I believe that in design, 30 percent dignity, 20 percent beauty and 50 percent absurdity are necessary,”. This quote can be relevant when creating a unique and seemingly original design or narrative. Things that are absurd stand out. I believe combining absurdity with unique forms and narratives can create unique pieces that cater to your own perspective on experimental ideas and concepts. The application of new forms can also be applied to stories and narratives where with the addition of feeling can also be used to create original story telling. For example: Being in the mindset of being a person on a planet by yourself without any knowledge what so every learning everything for the first time can introduce ways to tell stories using the sense of having a blank canvas with the ability to start with a basic premise, introduce conflict or vision, and to iterate until an original idea comes out, even if it’s not fully developed to the standard of quality seen in mainstream mediums. An easy solution for story and narrative building is to start with a simple idea. For example: man becomes a hero; woman discovers truth; creature becomes something important; a child discovers purpose; a servant becomes ruler; a slave becomes God. Starting with the fundamentals and iterating more with detail much like art can be the start to creating new facets of experimental story design to which can become original. Moreover I believe with the use of forms and creating illogical or experimental ideas demands a certain level of practice to see what sticks with an audience. Perhaps it demands a certain level of crazy if one sees a level of abstraction and logical fallacy. In conclusion, examining and rediscovering forms and using fundamentals can be useful approaches to creating original concepts, designs, narratives, and ideas.
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