Community as Contributing to the Social Playground

By Eileen K. Boisseau

Creativity + Social Change

University of Connecticut

 

I imagine my community as shared space where people can gather. We an use this playground in lots of various ways.

Thinking about community from my 7-year-old self perspective, my community includes my friends and me out on the playground having fun. We share in playing lots of different games, but one of our favorites is softball. We each get a chance to get up at bat and sometimes we hit a home run, or just a single, and may not get a hit at all, but we cheer each other on nonetheless. And we have fun! When we play in the outfield, each of our positions is different and we see the game being played from different perspectives. We chatter it up out on the field cheering each other on. To play the best game, we communicate our intentions and goals. Every once in awhile the coach advises us on a better strategy, and we brainstorm our ideas as well. We are a team and share in contributing our best efforts, and celebrating each others individual styles which all come together in creating a productive, happy softball community. But even if we are on the playground and not playing a team sport, there is still a lot of social interaction, and a lot of spontaneity and energy abounding.

This idea of community is all-inclusive and celebrates diversity. Through allowing and encouraging a friend or team member or a member of our social community to pitch in their ideas from whatever angle their perspective derives from just adds to the colorful mix of creating new ideas.

What I have learned is that reserving judgment about one’s style can serve to complement the group. So no matter what the social arena is the idea of community matters in providing the space for the germination of ideas and sharing in the fertilizing and the shaping of something with more robust and colorful results.

If we adopted the idea of equal playing time and equitable contribution in the community playground at hand – whether it be social policy changes such as affordable access to healthcare and housing, or coming together to help restore a neighbor’s house, or spending time creating a mural, the more voices that are heard and the more diverse the hands that shape it, the more of an impact we can make in enhancing our communities. The best part of all is that I think the social playground would be a lot more fun.

Artist Lily Yeh on Using Art to Transform and Build Community

This week for the Fall 2011 Creativity + Social Change class, we read "Warrior Angel: The Work of Lily Yeh" by Bill Moskin and Jill Jackson, a paper on hartist/activist/educator Lily Yeh's methodology of using art to transform and build community. Below is a presentation by Lily Yeh at the Bioneers conference, where she spoke about and shared examples and pictures of her work. She has a new book out, as well, called Awakening Creativity: Dandelion School Blossoms, which documents her methodology as implemented at the Dandelion School in Beijing, China, a school for the children of migrant workers. I am honored to be interviewing Lily on Creativity in Play at 12 p.m. EDT on Thursday, November 10. Listen live or download the podcast after it airs.

Video streaming by Ustream

From Collage to What Next

Patterns, images, metaphors and connections from the Fall 2011 Creativity + Social Change class, responding to the collective collage they created in response to "What if we ...?" and "Wouldn't it be nice if ...?" questions about how to link their personal creativity beyond themselves to the community and society. We used the collage as a planning process tool a few weeks ago. The following Wordle was created from ideas they shared as they talked about the images they contributed to the collage.

InterPlay Warm Up - Phil Porter

InterPlay Warm Up with Phil Porter:

Gretchen Wagner on InterPlay Forms

Find more information about InterPlay.

One Hand Dance: In this video, Gretchen Wegner facilitates Dorothy Finnigin in doing a hand dance, one of the basic forms of InterPlay. 



Hand to Hand Dance: In this video Dorothy Finnigan and Gretchen Wagner demonstrate how to do a hand to hand dance Interplay-style.


Babbling: Gretchen describes the InterPlay form of babbling.


Find more information about InterPlay.

Creativity in Pi(-ku)

March 14 (3/14) was Pi Day (3.14). (March 14 is also Albert Einstein's birthday!) Some celebrate by writing pi-ku -- that, is haiku (17 syllables) about pi and/or a haiku-style poem inspired by pi (3.14, or a three-syllable line, a one-syllable line and a four-syllable line). In my "Creativity + Social Change" course at the University of Connecticut, we begin class each week with a creative thinking warm-up activity. This week, we wrote pi-ku about creativity. Below are the creative outcomes from that experience.

This exercise, of capturing a key idea about creativity in just a few words, is an excellent example of the creative ability of "highlighting the essence," as described by creativity researcher E. Paul Torrance. Highlighting the essence is about identifying what is important or essential.

What's YOUR creativity in pi-ku? Share yours in the comments below!

You and I
merge
image and thoughts.
- Laurie Lukasavage

Let me see
your
creative mind.
- Laurie Lukasavage

Pam and Willy
like
to get silly.
- Chris Filek

Wandering
through
creative minds.
- Chris Filek

Free your Mind
Think
And Then Be Free
- Derek Pettinelli

If You See
Then
You Can Believe
- Derek Pettinelli

Take a Look
See
Outside the Norm
- Derek Pettinelli

From nothing
Flash -
Beauty is there.
- Robert Sireno

Something needed -
What?
Ah-ha it's there.
- Robert Sireno

Apple Pi
Tastes
Most Delicious
Hot
- Ralph Famiglietti

Pi Day is
so
cool. March 14.
- Joan Terry

Creative
work
innovation.
- April Belanger

Love and laugh
Like
Community.
- April Belanger

What is fun?
Fun!
Nothing but fun!
- Shavon Roscoe

An artist
paints
creative waves
- Shavon Roscoe

A picture
drawn
yes, from my mind
- Shavon Roscoe

creating
pie
mix, roll, bake, eat
- Catherine Capuano

Creative
me,
what next for us?
- Steven Dahlberg

Judging much?
STOP!
Yes, and ... Yes, and ...
- Steven Dahlberg

Imagine ...
Why,
what if, what else?
- Steven Dahlberg

Openness.
Think.
Imagine now.
- Steven Dahlberg

Imagine
and
connect, engage.
- Steven Dahlberg

Celebrate Pi Day With Your Own 'Pi-Ku'

Happy Pi Day. It's March 14 — or 3/14 if you write down the date in the m/d format. And that means it's time to celebrate that mysterious mathematical relationship between a circle's diameter and its circumference: 3.1415926535... Today is also, appropriately enough, Albert Einstein's birthday. So the science-minded among us have two good reasons to celebrate. He was born in 1879 and died in 1955. But back to Pi. Two years ago, NPR's Bryant Park Project noted Pi Day with this report. As they said, Pi Day is when "numbers geeks all over the world bake pies, write 'pi-kus' and recite pi to as many decimal points as possible." A "pi-ku", bu the way, works like this:

— First line: 3 syllables

— Second line: 1 syllable

— Third line: 4 syllables

[14 March 2010 - NPR - More; and More from CNN]

Commentary: On Making Things to Explore Identity

By Natalie Morris
Media Reviewed:

Representing Identities: February 26, 2008
A short introduction to research where we ask people to make things as part of the process; with particular focus on the Lego identity study.

I believe as an individual that every human being has the capability of making a change through the use of creativity. However, to discover our creativity one has to appreciate his or her own individuality and recognize ways in which to express it. "Representing Identities part 1" by David Guantlett uses a method by which people make things as a way of exploring one's identity or experiences. He uses visual methods, such as drawings, videos, collages, etc. to get the brain working in a different way. David feels as if at any given moment people are thinking of several things at once. He offers a creative way for how people can create a meaningful dialog or narrative picture of one specific thing. He suggests using creative methods by which people can create a meaningful response to sum up their identities.

I found it interesting that he used Legos as a way of exploring one’s individuality. The study conducted involves having participants become familiar with the idea of using Legos to create an idea of thinking and building in metaphors. Then the participants actually build their identity physically, but in a metaphoric way. I love it -- an individual can use this creative method to track patterns of behavior they want to change or behavioral pattern in others. David uses Legos so that the individual can actually sum up their life as a whole. The participants also were asked to create things that influenced them. One of the things I like best about this study is that it has people from all walks of life who participated.

Participants felt as if the experience was revealing and emotional. I shall try it myself, for I might find out something I never knew about my self. This creative method can be used to show how people really feel in a particular environment. It can be used to understand one’s life. It is very interesting and I suggest anyone also try it. You might even come up with a creative method of exploring your own identity!

Commentary: On Creativity and Food; and Movement and Play

By Suhely Sanchez
Creativity + Social Change, University of Connecticut
Media Reviewed:

Food Fight
Stefan Nadelman, based in Portland, has made this beautiful classic: Food Fight is an abridged history of American-centric war, from World War II to present day, told through the foods of the countries in conflict. Watch as traditional comestibles slug it out for world domination in this chronologically re-enacted smorgasbord of aggression.

Sia: Clap Your Hands
Kris Moyes and Sia reunite to try out a touch of puppetry in this promo for Clap Your Hands.

Commentary:
I focus here on a couple of the subjects that we have spoken about throughout this semester: food and creativity, and the topic of movement and play. Throughout this course, we have gotten the chance to learn more about food than just its nutritional value. We have considered its value and its creativity, along with its link to issues within the U.S. such as obesity (fast food vs. health food, or mass production vs. independent farmers, etc). I found two extraordinary videos that each individually address each subject in ways that are beyond any norms.

The first video, “Food Fight,” created by independent film director Stefan Nadelman, is beyond the word creative. The film is based in Portland and the director used food to act out a shortened version of the history of American war, from World War II until the present day. The story is told through the foods of the countries in conflict. The ironically gruesome battles are displayed between countries through “Food Fight” as they all strike each other for world domination.

I found the director's creativity and visual effects of this film to be beyond fascinating. Not only did the video use food to represent each nation, but it also told a story of history in not only odd, but also imaginative, ways. I find it paradoxical that in many ways we all like to think that food brings nations together, but in this film it clearly segregated every nation through its representation. I choose this film due to it’s out of the box methods of expressing a long life of war between different nations. This film took the topic of food to an entirely different level, while giving an entirely new meaning to the statement, “Food Fight.”

During this semester, we have learned that movement and play within children can help their development, all the way through adulthood. The second video I choose is a music video directed by Kris Moyes for the Australian soulful, jazz-styled pop singer and songwriter Sia. I decided to use this video to display the importance of imagination and creativity even throughout adulthood. The use of puppets and faces mended together with bright colors and music definitely took the music video scene to an entire different level. Kris’ endless amount of out of the box ideas makes his style instantly recognizable -- there are the intensely colorful animations, while a preoccupation with geometry.

Throughout this course I have learned that creativity may seem random, and completely awkward, but overall creativity is what sets us all apart from ordinary. As the famous Marilyn Monroe once said: "Imperfection is beauty, Madness is Genius, and it is better to be absolutely ridiculous, than absolutely boring." Creativity helps us express ourselves, find solutions, and open gateways for new ideas, while pushing through the walls of boundaries and barriers that at times hold us back from being able to prosper, or to even find the simplest and most obvious forms of solutions.