As noted previously, this year I am the inaugural ‘Ambassador of Creativity’ to Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. I’m going there later this month, for a week, to engage in a number of activities.
The most prominent thing is my public lecture on Tuesday 22 November, entitled BEING CREATIVE.
I thought I’d try to make some new kind of thing for it … which turned out to be a diagram, which started life on an A4 pad, on my lap on a busy train … and then I did a bigger version, in a spare 10 minutes at work, with colour pens.
And so then I stood on a chair in my office and took a photo of it on my phone . . . which then becomes, after a bit of cleanup and editing – as seen above – the basis of my Prezi, and therefore the basis of my talk.
The following is of no interest if you don’t live in or near Wellington, New Zealand, but if you do, here are some of the places I am to be found in that week:
Tuesday 22 November:
12:45-14:45: Lego Workshop PGSA Symposium
17:30-18:00: Reception
18:00-19:30: ‘Being Creative‘, public lecture and Q&A (Lecture Theatre 1, Law School, Government Buildings, Lambton Quay)
Wednesday 23 November:
12.30-14.30: Lunch and discussion of creativity at the residence of the British High Commissioner, Jonathan Sinclair
18:45-22:00: Gala dinner
Thursday 24 November:
12.00-13.30: Making Futures: Meeting and discussion with staff and students at the School of Design.
14.00-15.30: Interdisciplinary creativity: Taking in work that spans engineering, computer science, electronic music, design and sociology, a discussion about how interdisciplinarity works best and how we can support it, at Te Kōkī New Zealand School of Music.
Friday 25 November:
11.00-13.00: Meeting and working with the team at Capital E, a non-profit organisation which “ignites the creative spark in young people, through digital workshops, live performance and events”. With them I will be looking at ways we can ‘break down the walls’ between their different streams of activity to support creativity.
I’m really looking forward to it. If you’re in Wellington and reading this and would like to meet or say hi, do contact me.
Hi David.
As a man of your generation if half a decade earlier I have been delighted and enlightened to listen to your ideas. Much of what I am trying to achieve at a primary school level swims relentlessly against the flow of ‘Ministry’ policy… but one of the things we do is challenge evenings for kids and parents to build things. I always walk away at the end of the evening feeling something extraordinary has taken place and was never quite able to eloquently explain it. Now I feel I can because the students and their parents have shared a creative experience that they were invited to and they have experienced a sense of pride in the performance of what they made and shared.
The same feeling of a ‘high’ was also observed when the choir I led performed at the local music festival after months of practice.
These are fundamental platforms that enable richer growth for students.
Thank you
I shall continue to follow your work and add to my own ideas with greater confidence.
BTW my brother was a creative director at Lego although he is now part of the team developing the new buildings in Billund – Small world:)