Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Drawing, Doodling & Writing On Paper Builds Creative Thinking Skills



All kinds of makers & children instinctively know this to be true: there is something satisfying about putting pen to paper and making marks.
Drawing, doodling and writing can be a joyful meditative exercise in letting the mind roam. A way to be mindful and slow down. Connect. It's also a cornerstone to what John Debes termed in 1969 as visual literacy, an important 21st century skill kids need.

Therefore I wasn't surprised when I read this article about how "in a digital chapter, paper notebooks are as relevant as ever."A few interesting facts I discovered:
"The Italian company that makes Moleskines — all 500 versions — is red hot, consistently recording double-digit sales growth. Oddly enough, the analog company's success has grown in tandem with the digital revolution. In fact, when conducting market research, the company detected something even more perplexing: a direct correlation between sales of its little black notebooks and proximity to an Apple store."
 In a recent study:
"The students who used paper scored significantly higher than those who used laptops. Mueller attributes this unexpected finding — published in the journal, Psychological Science — to the fact that the "analog" note takers were forced to synthesize rather than merely transcribe. It's a phenomenon known as "desirable difficulty."
"Desirable difficulty is some small roadblock that is in your path that actually improves your understanding of a topic."
Drawing actually builds creative design thinking skills we need to solve the world's problems. Just ask a working artist, architect, designer or engineer how important drawing is to their work.

But the great thing about drawing is you don't have to be  professional to enjoy it! A box of crayons and sheet of paper will do the trick. I recently read the smell of crayons can reduce stress.  I haven't see any science to back it up, but I don't think it really matters to my niece.

How has drawing made your life richer?

RELATED LINKS

Here's a link to the paper: The Pen Is Mightier Than the Keyboard by Pam A Mueller & Daniel M. Oppenheimer.
The Big Draw, The World's Biggest Drawing Festival, UK (RAD!)
Draw Yourself Happy: Drawing, Creativity + Your Brain
This is Your Brain On Writing, The New York Times 
Artistic Creativity & The Brain, Essays On Science & Society
How Arts Develop The Young Brain


I hope you enjoyed my notes.
Join me on twitter: @cynthiajabar

Saturday, June 13, 2015

Mary Oliver On Writing Poetry & Listening To The World

A wonderfully inspiring interview.
"What is is you plan to do with your one wild and precious life. - Mary Oliver

"Often quoted, but rarely interviewed, Mary Oliver is one of our greatest and most beloved poets. At 79, she honors us with an intimate conversation on the wisdom of the world, the salvation of poetry, and the life behind her writing." - On Being with Krista Tippett



Wild Geese

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
-Mary Oliver

From: 
Dream Work

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Amy Jo Kim: The Co-op Revolution, 5 Tips For Designing Collaboration

With a background in neuroscience, computer science & psychology, Amy Jo Kim, part game designer part web community architect, shares her experience designing for collaboration.
  1. Compete with the System
  2.  Shared Resource, Outcomes & Goals
  3. Inter - dependent Roles
  4. Cooperative Social Gestures
  5. Non-Zero Stats & Spotlights
She sees designing for collaboration as an emerging trend & "relevant to anyone designing digital experiences of any kind."
MFW15 - Amy Jo Kim from iMMovator on Vimeo.

Disruption and user generated content #UGC is everywhere - she brings up some great questions & considerations we can ask ourselves before creating experiences for people formerly known as the audience- no matter what industry we work in.

Thanks for reading my notebook. Say hello twitter: @cynthiajabar