Saturday's SXSW Interactive panel The Imagination Challenge: Points of Departure for Design in the Knowledge Age with Alexander Manu of the Ontario College of Art & Design was entertaining and thought provoking. Basically it was a call for designers to challenge themselves to be more playful in their ideation process and their general practice. Manu spent much of the lecture talking about the difference between an Adult that distinguishes the difference between work / play and a Grown-Up, which is really just a grown up child that does not distinguish any difference between work / play. This was yet another panel that emphasized the importance of experimentation and play in the design process, something that I certainly need to get back to. Full notes after the jump.
tell stories
good design is like a magic tricks or sleight of hand
give meaning to technology
Dick Fosbury invented the backwards high jump
what was it that triggered him to do it?
Foam Rubber understands that it has different properties
what is the foam in my business? in my practice?
one must understand the nature of the field, the environment, the tools
dig deep
it's human nature to not take ourselves seriously
post-industrial design
microsoft research how much is dedicated to gaming?
play ecology - an ecology of imagination
being a grown-up not an adult
Julia Piaget - What makes the wind?
work and play have been defined as a dichotomy
manufactured and maintained by the system (society?)
Tiger Woods' social value comes from the ability to do what we can't do
witout play imagination dies
creativity dies
"don't play with your food"
corporations need imagination for business concepts that insure their continued integration into the social & economic stream
play
challenging imagintaoin are the keys to creativity
Free, Seperate, uncertain, unproductive, governed by its own rules, never a task
Play is never a task
play means knowledge & mastery of the present
in
order to plan the future
work - things one can learn
play -things one can master
tactical execution with imagination
mental faculty
creativity is an application
imagination is its prerequisite
what could be possible
human centered approach
Free, Seperate, uncertain, unproductive, governed by its own rules, never a task
Trickster - A medium into the possibilites
Chief Possibilties Officer
the ecology of possibility
what are the tools?
Discover, Define, Design
the best way to predict the future is to invent it - Alan Kay
strategic innovation in parralel with tactical creativity/imagination
examples:
Lego is going bankrupt, needs a new story, comes out with bionicle
creation of new and innovative pathways
innovation < imagination (imagination guides and pushes innovation to new place)
design as strategic creativity
exploration of possibility
reminders
ARTHUR C. CLARKE'S "Technology/Magic" quote
Biomimicry
disruptions
how do we create products & services in the new context
what are the questions?
if everything could speak, what would they say to each other?
What does a place want to know?
Rilke "Future enters into us..."
What could be possible?
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