Smoking Kills....

Smoking is a common habit of every other person we meet, I personally don't have anything against smokers but the habit of smoking itself.
 But we are not here to talk about what I like and dislike no we are not.
   A cleverer solution to stop smoking was supposed to be done by us creatively, using the juxtaposition(yes, again I know, but it's so interesting) but here we are given the random word association
    Drum-roll please.....
        It's a traffic light!!

We are supposed to come up with an idea to stop smoking by taking the characteristics of a traffic light.
   Amazing right?
      As usual my brain went numb.
         So I peeped into mainstream.
             And found....
           
           A commonly associated sign to no smoking:

                                                                 Source: qcenter.com


         
          Resolving to never do that again I start with the most prominent characteristics of  a traffic light

                1)Colour: it's perfect red is the colour people associate to stop... but then I remembered that people hate being told what to do, so the next colour was orange.
                    What if the cigarette was orange and red instead of  orange and white,colours have always had a way of psychologically affecting us. This combination would hurt nobody.
                     Also having a green highlight on the bottom of the box saying "smoking kills the environment"
                       attracting their attention, but giving a positive message instead.

               2) Metal: well this is kind of obvious for a signal, but to apply it to smoking was challenging. Never the less I managed to come up with something decent.
                     A metal frame above the cigarette box with the word's smoking kill's written on it.
                            Forcing the user to peel back the metal layer and read the words at the same time.

                                                          Source:wallpaperbackgrounds.com

               3)Sign- well a signal is a sign in all terms, but in relation to smoking dangerous signs showing damaged lungs or dead people would  be a step forward.

                                                           
                                                         Source:xiaotaiyang.deviantart.com
Hope you liked this post
   And  remember,
        Think out of the box

The Juxtaposition Again.(the poetic edition)

Well here we have the juxtaposition reintroduced, however this approach is different from the previous one, in order to clarify the content we were asked to make a poem with the words "mortar and pestle" used as a metaphor for man and women.

 Poems not being my thing made this quite challenging. However after racking my brains, I managed to get this:

                                                     MORTAL AND PESTLE

                                                        They say they were perfectly fine off without us,
                                                             They say they have had it bad all the time,
                                                                    She even told me a million ways,
                                                                        In which we were mean,        
                                                              But the one which stuck in my head was,
                                                                        The metaphor she did use,
                                                    Saying women were the mortars in a of the two(Genders),          
                                                            That men were the pestle pounding eternally,
                                                     In that brief moment I thought what a hypocrite she was,
                                                                                     But nay,
                                                                             I do not dare say it,
                                                                For fear of life flashing before my eyes,
                                                                   So I keep this plain truth Shroud,
                                                                   Doing the chores she assigned me,
                                                                         Trying not to be so loud,
                                                                      (Oh come on I'm not a poet)

Hope you liked this post more coming soon.


   
                                                   
                                                     
                                                         

The Juxtaposition

This time in class I nearly fell asleep, because we were taken to auditorium with just the right amount of light and air-conditioning(the interesting topic was the only thing keeping me up), to study on a topic called the Juxtaposition(pretty weird name ,yeah I know..),quite interesting actually.It refers to the abstract placing of two objects together to create something completely different and new.

Insanely difficult definition?
 -problem?,don't worry.

     -I had no idea either.

      

                                                             Source:weknowmemes.com                              

 It is basically done to generate Ideas and make sure we achieve the result we want purposefully and not through fluke and also to avoid half assed work.Making sure we know the difference between a bad and good idea.

                                                                     Source: diylol.com

  Keep in mind we can use this technique anywhere even in photography,planning a photo before it is taken,and by this I don't mean running around with a DSLR and thinking of pictures on the go,it involves some real hardcore thinking and planning before the shooting actually begins.So that we are sure of what we do before we actually do.

                                                               Source:ps3.mmgn.com

 We were given this exercise to help understand what it really is.Feel free to try

it yourselves.

        First we were asked to choose three numbers between 00-99,where 00 and 99 were included,so I got these three:

          1)01

          2)19

          3)55

         

       Then we were told to jot this down:

               

               1)Flower              0)Head

               2)Lightning           1)Rain

               3)Ice                    2)Wood

               4)Light                 3)Tree

               5)Fire                  4)Spider      

               6)Duck                5)Root

               7)Dog                  6)Mountain

               8)Oil                    7)Wind

               9)Leave               8)Rock

               0)Fly                    9)Water

         Well it got obvious at this point, so he told us to take the number and word together,so I got this:

                1)Head Flower (0 being head and 1 being flower)

                2)Flower Water (1 being flower and 9 being water)

                3)Fire Root ( 5 being fire and 5 being root)

        Next we were told make a simple simple sentence on each of the objects,making sure that the sentence was constructed in the same order as the word,which at that point of time took us by surprise(so go easy on my sentences) :

   

     1)On the head of Ghiath,there is a flower.

     2)The flower has water in it.(yeah I know...)

     3)Fire is spreading all over that root(*heh heh*,Starting to wonder why I did not change these sentences.)

       We were then told to illustrate these on a piece of paper(again,don't judge me we only had five minutes)

    anyway here are mine:

          

                                                       Head Flower

                           

                                                      Flower Water

                     

                                                          Fire Root

        

 The important thing to remember in these pictures is that when we draw them we have to make sure that it is seen in the way it would be read.,for example when we look at the flower we should see it as flower water not water flower and so on..

  
 This interesting exercise shows us the way in which we can plan ahead of our work,think before we create something and not hope that luck would lead us all the time.

 This is only one of the many exercises we can do to help us apply the juxtaposition in real life.More coming soon..   

    Think Smart,
     Stay Sharp,
      Break boundaries,
     Because,
       Out Of The Box Thinking,
            That's how we think,

An Influential Lesson.

 Today while shifting forth between memories like a lunatic in a nuclear factory,which is to say my thoughts were bouncing in my head and at times exploding into a shower of fireworks.I came across something that sparked my interest on Google search(yes,from my head to the browser to Google that's how my brain works),I found that I was a fan of French revolution art;be it music ,sculpting ,painting,architecture or engraving I simply loved it.It is not for the fact that the work is invaluable or that it was from the French revolution,but more on the lines of the creativity,courage and imagination that these artist's had in order to get where they did and make a few bucks worth of paper and paint or stone  extremely valuable in today's world.

 For example:

                                                   Jacques-Louis David

                                                                    

                                                              Source: en.wikipedia.org

   Apart from being an ardent supporter of the French Revolution, he was also a dictator of the arts under the French Republic.He also had a large number of pupils making him the strongest influence in French art in the early 19 Th century  

Some of his work :

                                                       Le Serment De Horaces

                                                        Source: http://en.wikipedia.org

                                    

                                                            The Painting of Napoleon        

                                                     Source: http://en.wikipedia.org

    Heavily criticized mostly after his death,he was considered to be cold and lacking warmth.He was responsible for many people being sent to the guillotine,personally signing the death warrants of King Louis XVI  and Marie Antoinette .

  As you can see he was a pretty influential guy,and also considered to be one of the leading painters in France.Through all his all his criticism he stood his ground,playing out of the rigid styles and dynamically influencing many changes.Many of his students were honoured by the restored Bourbons following the French Revolution. 
   
  A valuable lesson to be learned by this famous painter's past is to try to change the rigid thinking we grow in,and never back down when we stumble or fall be it once twice or a million times,but instead to get up and get moving with what we feel is right.

  For we think like
          Out Of The Box Thinking

Invention Innovation And Failure...

Well I had an interesting discussion with myself(yes myself,because sometimes you see I need an expert opinion) after coming across the question 'Do all inventions and innovations turn out successful?'.This question struck me after reading an article based on the Japanese Gadgets that failed,which I find to be a parody of their current state.None the less there was a time when Japanese gadgets failed,because companies at that time were more adventurous known for their audacity in the market lead to some of these wonderful yet impractical machines.
                                                       

                                                      The Walking Toaster 

                                                    source: angusdeionallandsundry.blogspot.com

                                                                      

                                                          The Double Fan  

                                                                Source:phys.org

                                                

               

                            And many others...

  But we are not here to talk about the gadgets,no we are not,let us instead focus on the innovation done to these gadgets.Simply stated they were not practical enough,the companies though extremely innovative were not astute,leading to the downfall of their product eventually.However with every failed product they gained some invaluable knowledge,eventually leading to their success.Now when we speak of companies like Sony,Fuji electronics,Panasonic we know these are names of companies people aspire to work in,by failing in the start they have eventually risen to become giants in the industry.However in recent years it was found that these companies are now playing safe maximizing their 'profitability' by taking less 'risk', inadvertently not progressing as fast as they could have.



I think the lesson that we learn here is not just that failure is a stepping stone to success or invention and innovation come at a price that we should be willing to accept i.e failure but also not all inventions bring innovation,sometimes it's just junk.Failure is not the worst thing a person could do but instead to stop trying is.Making the best of a situation and moving on to new projects with renewed determination is is the attitude required for us to become successful in what we do.

So to conclude I would like to quote "Never back down never give up" from my favourite movie  never back down

 Also feel free to check this Blog out www.teenagewriterchronicles.blogspot.com ,its made by an aspiring writer.Quite interesting actually.

What Creates A Creative Mind?

For our second assignment we were asked to view another article : 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20071644.

  The article was on the various Australian inventions for example our most dearest Wi-Fi,The infamous black box flight recorders,The commonly used hills clothes hoists,The useful cochlear implants,Dual flush toilets,Mountbatten Braillers,Super Sopper Rollers,Ultrasound,Disposable syringes and plastic banknotes.

 After reading this article I was astounded,begging the question what makes the people who invented or innovated these things so creative,was it the environment that they grew up in? or was it some other factor that influenced them to be this creative?.

 Sometimes like the invention of Wi-Fi,new inventions are created by making mistakes,sometimes like ultrasound  the manner of which it could be used was not thought of yet. 

 But more often than not sometimes ideas lay dormant in the back of our head,waiting just for the right time to pop out.These ideas could be there for months and months all together and we wouldn't know unless a situation provokes our brain to push it out giving us a eureka moment,bringing everything that we had thought of earlier together.
 What are these moments that push our ideas forward,you ask? 
     The answer is no one knows,it could be at any time and any place taking us by surprise. that is why we      have to be ready for it at all times.

 The environmental factors like society and culture play a key factor in these types of inventions,if the society is supportive of these inventions then only they come into bloom and only then would they be innovated 
upon. 

 As mentioned earlier in my post about how schools kill creativity.Schools also play a key factor,their encouragement and support is required to help give birth to creative minds.

  To answer my initial question I think that it's a combination of all these factors put together that create an   inventive,innovative and creative mind.because breaking out of boundaries that's how we do.

 I hope I have given you something to gnaw,prod and itch your brain for, because out of the box thinking,that's how we think. 

Invention and Innovation....

 We were asked to view this article in class,without even thinking I pull out my phone unlock it open the browser and type in the link :

http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/tech/article/the-pc-is-dead-long-live-the-tablet/ 

 Turns out it's an article about tablets and personal computers(surprise! surprise!)to be more specific it was about Tablets VS Personal Computers.

Source:techweekeurope.co.uk

 According to this site and a report the sale of tablets will account for 70% of the gadgets sold  by the year 2013,it also says People at work places would probably be bringing their own devices as the technology in the company is inferior to the technology used at homes which would not be true 15 years ago.

 Tablets have not only just come into our lives to make them more convenient,as time flies we find that tablets have become an important part of our life helping keep track of things on the go,making themselves an intricate part of our lives.The process of innovation here startles me completely the fact that more and more features of a regular sized PC keep turning up in the tablets we use now-a-days.The late Steve Jobs Co-founder of apple may not have invented the tablet(in fact the first tablet was patented in 1888 by Elisha Gray)but he did innovate on it giving it new features that no one thought it could have,many may argue that Apple's products do tend to be expensive but the innovation of it's late Co-founder is undeniable.

  Innovation has come to such an extent that we ourselves have what would be considered expensive technology at an affordable price,in fact it's so affordable we have so much of it that we consider the technology in our offices,schools,universities to be obsolete.Some of us even bring our own devices due to the frustration caused by using the technology in these places.

 Hence speaking out for everyone with this kind of frustration invention is important i.e. creating something new with a new idea ,however keeping ourselves updated is even more important,with various innovations people expect more from their devices.

So to conclude I would say keeping invention and innovation interlocked is how we progress and make sure we are up to date on what we do.

                                 

Creativity - Part 2 (words not associated)

Thinking of five words that we do not associate to creativity is quite difficult especially for me(with me being such an optimist and all).However deep down we all know what we don't think creativity is,so here are a few words on that topic:

Words Not Associated To Creativity:

                                         1) Mainstream Thinking

                                                         

                                                        

                                                           Source: janetpoole.com

  Honestly I find the idea of replicating the same thing again and again to be quite repulsive.Don't get me wrong mainstream thinking is necessary in order to innovate,but using the same topic over and over again,the same state of mind continuously over and over until we die is quite sad.If we did this we would seize to shine fading into the background,becoming irrelevant like a shadow in a dark room.I believe that every job requires us to break mainstream thinking,even a manager would have to do this,adapting himself to the situation at hand.Mainstream thinking can be avoided by bringing new options to the table and breaking out of the box,bringing us a step closer to becoming a creative person.

  I have realized that coming up with words not associated to creativity was quite difficult for me, so I have decided to release these words in parts.hope you enjoyed this post and keep updated many more are to come.
                                                           

                                                       

Do Schools Kill Creativity?

 We recently watched a video of Sir Ken Robinson where he talks about the fact that schools kill creativity

                                                                     Sir Ken Robinson
                                                               Source: discoverthegift.com

 The link is mentioned below:
Sir Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity?

  I found this particular video extremely interesting because of the path he takes while addressing this situation speaking of how the education system tries to force us to use only part of ourselves and makes us fear making mistakes by treating mistakes as the worst thing that could be done in school.I also agree when he says that all children are talented but we raise them in such a way that we squander their talent,because their minds are not saddled with basic facts,they tend to say what they want in the way they understand it and not in the way society does.he also quotes Picasso saying "Every child is an artist.The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up".Another fact to which I agree upon is that the education system all over the world is similar,placing their subjects in hierarchical order the first being science (like engineering,medicine etc.) the second being commerce (management,economics etc.) and the last being arts ( music,arts,dance etc.),where even in arts there is a hierarchy with music and art being the first which was then followed by dance etc..I feel that schools need to realize the fact that all types of education is important some people who love to dance may get discouraged because of this system,many talented children are forced to quit doing what they love in arts because the result is always decided career wise, parents saying "Oh,you will never become a painter/musician/dancer" has led to the disappearance of an artist and an arrival of a scientist.I am not saying that science is not important but that all subjects should be treated equally.Giving children an option to choose is very important preparing them for life and enabling them do what they want.

  I do realize that this post may be a little out of topic in this blog but I strongly feel that this matter does need addressing,I was lucky enough to have a family that supports me but how many children are there that do not.like Sir Kent Robinson I agree that we have to educate for children for the rest of their lives but how can we do that when we have no idea what the world would be like in five years.I hoped this post has made an impact on viewers of  this blog and given you all something think about.

Creativity- Part 1(words associated to creativity)

 As usual like almost everything else in this blog (maybe in life too?but let's not get distracted.)  it all started with a question.Our lecturer asked us to write down ten words,five of which were words we thought were associated to creativity and five which were not.This question took us time and made us think (well most of us, some of us got it instantly).Talking my own sweet time I tried to think of the words that I thought were associated to creativity,and needless to say I came up with a few:

Words Associated To Creativity:

 

                                                 1)INNOVATION

                                                                 

                                                                 Source:bu.edu

 Basically what it implies is the improvement of ideas that have been thought of.I think it's an important part of our creativity because all ideas that are brilliant cannot always be new(With seven billion people on planet earth what are the chances of our idea being unique anyway).I believe that ideas that people have already come up with can be improved upon in such a way that it becomes completely different and revolutionary.

                                                  2)NEW IDEAS

                                                                     
                                                         Source: realizedworth.com
                                                                   
                                                               

   Even with innovation being really important I also know that creating new ideas is what keeps the brain moving and creative.I believe a creative mind can make new ideas, a new idea would mean something different for everyone,something new to do,something to innovate on.This in turn keeps the brain working and creative juices flowing.

                                                        3)BOLDNESS

                                                                               
                                                                   
                                                              Source:motivationalmemo.com
                                                             
 By boldness I mean the lack of fear of judgement by people and the ability to show proudly what we have created. In terms of association to creativity I feel that boldness is mandatory for a creative person.With only new ideas and innovation and no boldness how is one supposed to speak for one's self,defend one's work and show it off to the world.

             

                                                     4)PASSION

                                                                 

                                                              Source:yourstory.in

    Passion one of the most important words associated to creativity.Without passion the things we do everyday become dull and boring turning them from what they are to mandatory tasks.People find their passion in different places some with music,some with art,some with numbers,some with writing and so on...the list is too numerous to count.It need not always have to be a job but if a person has passion,he has the ability to think creatively on about it.driving us forward and making us succeed with passion we will never be bored in what we do.

                                     5)OUT OF THE BOX THINKING 

                                                               
                                                                                     
                                                                    Source:123rf.com

   As a fervent believer of out of the box thinking it makes it an absolute necessity for me to mention this point.Out of the box thinking is a new way of looking at things obtaining not one but many new perspectives and alternatives,nothing is impossible with out of the box thinking.Creativity thrives in this mindset it's how everything comes together,how everything makes sense.It's how we test ourselves,expand our minds,break theories apart and compile them together again.

  I hope this was entertaining as well as informative.Everyone has their own version of what they think creativity is...some may agree and other may disagree with the points that I have put forward but this is my version of what I think creativity is.

How do we "Think"?

 So there I was starring into space lost in thought,bored to death when suddenly something said in class previously came to me,not to be mistaken  for a light bulb getting turned on in my head but more of a  fade in memory.Our lecturer posed this question to us "Does our brain really do the thinking?" we were quick at answering replying "yes","yep" and "yeah" were some of the answers I believe,not really much of question you would think..well neither did we until he showed us an experiment by making a friend of mine touch an object with his eyes closed and then posed the question to him "What is it that you were touching?" to which he replied "a wallet" ,turns out he was wrong it was a card holder."keeping this in mind,for you to recognise this as a card holder you would have to think with your eyes" he said.

                                                   source: brainbrilliance.org

So with that mindset I started thinking about the various ways we think with our senses,needless to say I came up with a few:

                                                    1)Hearing

Source: keyboardlessons.com

  "Ever tried sketching while listening to music and without?have you noticed the difference between the two"  asked my friend Ghiath Abu Rakty who also happens to be quite an amazing pianist, well I did actually because I have tried it a few times,interestingly my work seemed much more amazing it was also influenced by the type of music I was listening to,it seemed like my ears were doing the drawing for me "Thinking" for me in a way I always assumed my brain did.

                                                         2)Sight

                                                        Source: theobloby.blogspot.com

  As I said earlier my friend was asked to try to guess what a card holder was by touching it,so when this train of thought occurred to me I went home closed my eyes spun countless times rolled on the floor at least ten times and tried feel around using only my brain to think.I managed to walk for what felt like a kilometre when it turns out I was just walking in circles,I mistook my bed for my cupboard further proving the point of me Thinking with my senses.

                                                      3)Touch

                                                      

                                                       Source: health.howstuffworks.com

 Another sense too important to ignore,we all use the sense of touch in our lives daily so much so that we take it for granted,taking my sense of touch away was one of the experiments conducted by me using my brain to "Think" on what the object was,taking a chart paper and tracing paper both yellow in colour placed on a dark surface with not much light I tried to tell the difference with just my brain,turns out it was quite impossible to distinguish the two.

                                                      4)Taste

                                                         

                                                      Source: news.sciencemag.org

 Well no experiment to be conducted for this one its been done to me so many times,I remember the countless times I have misjudged food for what it actually was not by just "thinking" with my brain.Me saying "Oh,this is going to taste good" usually lands me in the awkward position of leaving food uneaten after the first bite.

                                                        5)Smell

                                                            

                                                           Source: naturalbodyguru.com

  "Oh there seems to be a burning smell" has probably saved a few objects on planet earth both living and non-living for those quick enough to act,"Oh I think,there's a burning smell...oh well" has probably destroyed a few.Smell is probably the most favourite sense of  creatures on this planet enabling us to enjoy the good things in life."Thinking" with our brain will never be a substitute for the sense of smell.

 Just like reading this post right now we "Think" with our eyes if we tried to close our eyes and "Think" with our brain it would be impossible. Most of us may not realize this but "Thinking" with our senses is what gets us places makes us do things.

I hope this was an interesting view on how we "Think".There could of course be many facts that people can come up with to counter this post of mine but this point of view is out of the box making it possible for us to brainstorm,draw the line a little further than what it was and making us better thinkers and innovators in the end.

What can be done with ....it?

For our second assignment we were asked to think about the stuff that can be done with this uh..thing?:

it can be described as a glass cylinder object mounted on a platform also made of glass.There were a lot of suggestions going around in class "finger washer"said one and believe it or not music instrument was another, apparently by placing a finger in the cylinder and pulling out fast while pushing the sides a "pop" sound could be made, also my personal favourite was the rudeness stopper(finger pointing and what not),so for suggestions from my part:

1) An elbow rest - placing an elbow in the hole wold help avoid putting it on dirt or rough surfaces

2) A mould - it could be used as a mini cookie mould maker making it possible to create a new type of snack, however to use this particular one a bottle of detergent would have to be bought first,the tissue on the side was well used you know.

3)As a stamp- it could be a "weirdly shaped glass bottom stamp" stamp.

concluding thinking out of the box these 3 suggestions seem quite fit (I think).Maybe placing it on top of my head might give me more ideas.

Why did the titanic hit an iceberg?

All right..for our first assignment we were asked to "think why" the titanic hit the iceberg  

personally I don't think it was because the ship was stoned even with all the smoke coming from it ... the "best" answers anyone can come up with seem a little dismissive of the "why" factor,leading us to believe everything leading to the point of it's fall/break/destruction/collapse is almost irrelevant, however one can always speculate:

1) As we all know 3/4 of an iceberg is buried under water, maybe this 3/4 of the iceberg was flat to an extent thereby making it impossible to turn once the iceberg was spotted.

2) The ships wheel broke when the captain got rowdy hosting his best pal's bachelor party on the bridge and therefore the ship couldn't turn at all.

3)  The Titanic met the Kraken and in an effort to save the passengers lives the captain let the ship sail straight to the iceberg, later the passengers that survived either blacked out or were to trauma stricken to believe it was real.

4) The captain of the titanic did spot the iceberg earlier but he saw Captain America stuck in the ice and was too shocked to give an order, leading it to it's inevitable doom.

These four reasons are quite speculative but any of them could be true.

Well hats off to out of the box thinking, one step closer to leaving mainstream behind. 

Credits for the picture of an iceberg go to http://www.dreamyoga.com 

Introduction

So earlier today we were asked to make a blog for our course @MMU  it got me thinking and I was confused on what to put up on my blog..until our lecturer gave us an inspiring speech on how we had to think outside the box and go around our day like when a person asks us our name ("Hey! what's your name?" to which "I am son of ____" would be the reply).Approaching a topic through many different directions no matter how silly they may seem (but make sense of course) would help us eliminate all mainstream thinking and place our minds outside the box making us more effective in what we do, in short no matter what we do creativity is important.