Novelty, Creativity, Innovation & Invention...

We learned pretty much alot of things this week on creativity and innovation as well as novelty.
Normally people usually perceive creativity as something that is unusual and unique. That much is true, but it also has to appeal to the public in order for it to be trully called a creative work. An idea or a product is only creative if it is generally accepted by the public and society or in a way holds something of value for the society.

Innovation on the other hand is introducing something new. To me, innovation is more of upgrading, or perhaps to selectively change or improve parts of something in order for the object to be fully appreciated as a whole and to improve the lifestyle of the people.

Novelty is something more unheard of or less known. In fact, I too was only aware of this term and the meaning of it from this week's lecture. Novelty is an idea or something that is produced that is able to change or create changes in culture. For example, tha paper clip. Although most of us might not consider it to be a creative product now, the paper clip IS a novelty as it had create changes to culture.

The lecture was pretty interesting this week, and I hope next week would be as interesting as well! =)

Week 2 creative image!

Our assignment for week 2 is to capture a creative image of our friend. So here is a picture that I have taken of my friend Hon Jia Hui.


It kind of looks like she's jumping down the stairs, but I assure you she did not nor did she break any bones in the process of the making of this. hahaha =P

So here is my creative photograph! Until next week! bye!

"Blood, sweat and tears = creativity" - by Mr Mustafa

Hello again! This week, Mr. Mustafa explained more in depth to us about creativity and how creativity is all about effort and hard work. So,for this week, I would like to share a few paintings created by great artists from the 20^th century. These paintings that I would like to share are all based on the main theme of optical illusion and it is interesting to look and observe the hidden meaning/objects in these paintings. These artists must have spent a great deal of effort and research to come up with these paintings. Here I have some paintings from the great surrealist artist, Salvador Dali and also paintings from Mexican artist, Octavio Ocampo. Can you spot all the hidden elements in the painting?

First up is ‘Swans reflecting Elephants’ by Salvador Dali

Title is self-explanatory. You can see the reflection of the swans forming the elephants


Octavio Ocampa: Metamorphosis Art Woman and Horses

The horses and the birds form the image of a woman


Octavio Ocampa: The General's Family

This painting contains all the hidden family members of the general's family. Can you find them all? There is 9 all together.

What is Creativity?

In relation to this week’s class discussion regarding “the ability to tell something in a different way or to tell something new”, I thought it would be only proper for me to post something about creativity and what exactly is creativity. What is it that differentiates a creative person to the rest of us? Are successful creative people naturally born with the gift of creativity or is their creative success developed through hard work and learned through observations?

“Creativity is the process of bringing something new into being...creativity requires passion and commitment. Out of the creative act is born symbols and myths. It brings to our awareness what was previously hidden and points to new life." — Rollo May, The Courage to Create

Creativity is being able to execute an idea and bringing whatever dreams and imagination into life. Ideas that are not executed or created remains only as a thought or an underdeveloped idea. Creativity is also very subjective and how do we actually determine whether something is creative? Van Gogh was only considered as a great artist after his death and it is only then his works were considered to be artistic and creative whereas when he was alive, he barely sold any of his paintings. To me, I think creativity can be defined as the process of executing an idea by making it a reality but it also has to appeal to the public. I think society plays a crucial part in determining what is creative and what is not. This can be clearly seen during Van Gogh’s time as an artist when the public was not ready to accept his ideas and it is only after his death that his ideas were able to reach out to the society. Hence, I think it is fair to say that creativity not necessarily means being able to think out of the box, but the idea that we think of has to have the marketability. The idea has to be able to interest and audience. All this is just my opinion, although I may be wrong.

I think creative success comes hand in hand with hard work and also talent. I believe that one need not have to be a natural born artist to be able to succeed, but rather I think that a person who has the capability and talent along with hard work can make it too. I personally would like to believe that each and everyone of us are born with the capability of being creative but it is through hard work that one is able to become successful as quoted by Thomas Alva Edison, “Genius is one percent inspiration and 99 perspiration” This is only my opinion anyhow. I guess that much is all from me this week.


Here is something I would like to share.... my favourite mcdonald moment!!! I think this is creativity don't you think? ;)


Info Source: http://www.creativityatwork.com/articlesContent/whatis.htm

Creative Studies assignment

Hello everyone! First and foremost, this is a blog set up for my Creative Studies assignment. Here I will be posting up about lessons and discussions that were held in class as well as any other interesting facts and noteworthy issues. Also, for the most part of the blog, will definitely include my ramblings and banters on related issues about art and creativity… please bear with me.

Well, for my first post, I would like to ramble on a little about why am I here in MMU FCM and about my creative journey here, a topic suggested by my lecturer. hmm.. art has always been my first love so I guess it is safe to say that that is the reason why I am here in FCM. To pursue my dreams and to do what I love doing the most. Choosing art as my future career has not been an easy choice for me as I did not exactly gain full support from my family. Many have questioned me on my future career path in arts when most of them think I could definitely do better in engineering or medicine based on my results. But the only thing I was ever interested in was arts and then when I had to choose between my family expectations and my dreams, I chose art because I don’t want to regret in future knowing that I never had the guts to try to pursue my dreams.

Well, my creative journey here in FCM has been a challenging one. Competition is high and sometimes you can’t help but wonder if you are actually creative enough. It seems so easy for some people, like they are born with this creative talent and you start wondering how can you achieve better than them when the only skills you have is hard work and some creativity? It really makes you wonder if the only people who are able to succeed in this field are the ones naturally born with this creative talent or can normal people achieve the same success with hard work and learned creativity (not inborn talent)? Because sometimes it seems that no matter how hard you try, it is never enough. Depressing really…

Anyway, I still believe (or rather I want to believe) that everyone has a shot in being successful and creative with hard work and perseverance and while people who are naturally gifted may have the upper hand in terms of creativity I believe that hard work pays even if you are not naturally gifted.(although I maybe in a state of denial) Stepping in to Beta year has piled up more pressure on us. The sheer fact of whether we are creative enough have left most us doubting ourselves. Questions like ‘how do I know whether I am creative enough?’ or ‘how do I know if I can cope with the rest and not get left behind if I choose X course?’ are always in our mind. However, I think it is important not to succumb to such pressure. I believe that we must not be afraid and be willing to take the risk. Whether we are good enough is another question as skills can be honed and hard work will pay. But what I think is essential is to be able to take the first step.

Oops..got carried away...pretty long for a first post. Anyway, this is just my few cents worth of thought. Thats all for now. Oh and here I would like to share my very first 3d snowman!! haha xD