We Are All Artists

I enjoyed listening to timmmmyboy in We Are All Artists because it cleared a lot of thougths I had about  ds106 and what it's all about. In the beginning of the interview a lot of thoughts are shared about what creativity really is and who is and who isn't, what does creativity derive from and what is a good creative piece of work?

Creativity is something we often talk about but rarely understand. Many believe that only certain people have the creative "gift", they find themselves to be unimaginative and boring. However, this is completely wrong in most cases I find. All people are creative, but most do not notice theircreativity and develop it to its full potential. To develop creativity is surprisingly easy I've come to realize in this class.

What is creativity anyway? I asked around and googled a lot and got that it's the ability to solve problems with new methods ar create new products in areas such as art or technology. Central to the concept of creativity is innovation, combining things in an unexpected way, or create completely new things with new uses. It frees itself from the old limits, sometimes by going around them, sometimes by changing the problem so that they no longer apply.

Creativity is notoriously complex to define, in part precisely because it is closely linked to what Douglas Hofstadter calls, "to jump out of the system", a creative solution to create something entirely new that did not exist or could be predicted before. It creates its own rules which also makes it difficult or impossible to set up rules for how creativity works.

I am one of those who don't think of myself as creative. I am a person that gets easily stressed if something isn't 100 percent clear, I am a perfectionist and picky with a lot of things, which I see as a good trait although it can be my downfall sometimes. This is why this Cyberspace class and ds106 has been good because it is teaching that the future is all about innovation and starting new ideas and projects and go outside the frames of what has already been done. There are no straight guidelines to be set. What calmed me down a lot when listening to timmmmyboy was when he started talking about how ds106 is a vague project. With vague, I believe he meant that no one can define it entirely or know where it's headed to or what it will end with.

Shit My Dad Says is a good example of how we create todays popular culture. It was funny that it was mentioned because it is one of the few twitter accounts I actually followed with excitement. It started off as a twitter account and the guy behind it is now famous with a book released and tv show coming up. The only bad thing with ds106 is the quality of the work put out there. Art might take a turn for the worse in terms of quality. There is less amazing art work out there because everyone is led to believe they can do something amazing which is not always true. Some good sites to start working with are Aviary, Photoshop and Brusheezy although I find Photoshop quite difficult yet, it is an amazing tool. Essentially, internet is great because it opens up to a lot of creativity although it can also be a base for a lot of rubbish.

At the end of the interview with Tim Owens, he questions what makes an assignment interesting? It might not be the big things or something amazing but it is the little things. Everyone can learn how to do these assignments but to make it stand out from the rest is the tricky part. Finally, he mentions that what is important is that ds106 offers a sense of training and habit which ultimately is one of the best things about it and I agree with that.