The Storm of Creativity

211 Pages·2015·2.564 MB·English

by  Kyna Leski, John Maeda

THE STORM OF CREATIVITY
SIMPLICITY: DESIGN, TECHNOLOGY, BUSINESS, LIFE
John Maeda, Editor
The Laws of Simplicity, John Maeda, 2006
The Plenitude: Creativity, Innovation, and Making Stuff, Rich Gold, 2007
Simulation and Its Discontents, Sherry Turkle, 2009
Redesigning Leadership, John Maeda, 2011
I’ll Have What She’s Having, Alex Bentley, Mark Earls, and Michael J. O’Brien,
2011
The Storm of Creativity, Kyna Leski, 2015
THE STORM OF CREATIVITY
KYNA LESKI
FOREWORD BY JOHN MAEDA
The MIT Press
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, England
© 2015 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any
electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or informa-
tion storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher.
This book was set in Scala and Scala Sans by the MIT Press. Printed and bound in
the United States of America.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Leski, Kyna, author. | Maeda, John, writer of foreword.
Title: The storm of creativity / Kyna Leski ; foreword by John Maeda.
Description: Cambridge, MA : The MIT Press, 2016. | Series: Simplicity :
design, technology, business, life | Includes bibliographical references
and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015037746 | ISBN 9780262029940 (hardcover : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Creative ability.
Classification: LCC BF408 .L47 2016 | DDC 153.3/5--dc23 LC record available at
http://lccn.loc.gov/2015037746
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CONTENTS
Foreword by John Maeda xi
Acknowledgments xv
Introduction xix
1 CREATIVITY AS STORM 1
Storm 1
Noumena and Phenomena in Creativity 6
2 UNLEARNING 11
Abolishing the Preconceptions of Brainstorming 13
Uncertainty 16
Attentiveness 25
3 PROBLEM MAKING 35
Defining a Problem 39
Framing a Problem 40
Problem Limits 43
Crafting Problems 45
Successful Problem Making 46
4 GATHERING AND TRACKING 49
Gathered Objects 52
Intelligence 56
Tracking 61
5 PROPELLING 71
Syntax 75
Material as Language 76
Propelled to Perception and Conception 80
6 PERCEIVING AND CONCEIVING 83
“Come to Your Senses” 84
An Example from Medicine 91
The Other Way Around 94
The Roots of Discovery and Invention 95
Investing in What Doesn’t Yet Exist 97
7 SEEING AHEAD 103
Glyphs 108
Insight Plans 109
A Lesson from Klee 114
Reiterative Cycles 116
More on Imagining and Imagination 116
8 CONNECTING 121
Darwin as a Connector 123
Connecting across Silos 126
Constructed Connections 128
Analogies: Connections Found through Associative Logic 130
Connecting Driven by Calling 133
Synchronicity: Meaningful Connections Not (Yet) Understood 135
9 PAUSING 143
10 CONTINUING 151
Beginnings 153
Beginning Again, or Rebeginning 154
Rebeginning out of Forgetting and from “Failure” 157
The Beginner’s Mind and Nonattachment 160
Giving Up Completely 163
Part of a Continuum 164
Notes 167
Bibliography 173
Image Credits 179
Index 183