Creativity to access creativity Busking-Painting-Earrings (BPE) FLOW OF CREATIVITY BY RACHEL MUEHLENBERG & CARSEN MACHIN

Creativity to Access Creativity - The process of applying topics and tactics of accessing creativity learned in class towards a creative project - 1 creative idea to raise money - Money raised would be used to purchase supplies for 2 nd creative act - Money raised from 2nd creative act would be used to purchase supplies for 3 rd creative act

CREATIVE IDEA #1 Our first creative idea involves music Decided to busk to raise money Rachel has a background in playing guitar therefore we went downtown on the weekend near the wharf and Rachel played guitar for a little bit We used a guitar case to collect any money that was raised We decided on a musically creative act because we felt that it would be the easiest and cheapest way to raise money (Rachel owns and plays guitar) With the money that was raised we purchased some paints and used old canvas’ to create a painting

BUSKING

Together, we painted a canvas of a surfer at sunset and sold it to Rachels brother who's an avid surfer He had asked us for a painting We had to consider our targeted audience and constructed a work that would appeal to him enough to help fund our next act CREATIVE ACT #2

Decided on making earrings Rachel has experience in making earrings therefore with our money raised from our painting, we purchased some supplies to create a couple pairs of earrings The final product was created for ourselves as a reward for our work in raising money with creativity CREATIVE ACT #3

OUR CREATIVE ACTS

WHY? What made us choose these creative acts? First  busking is a form of performance art Second  our painting was a way for us to express something through art. Although we had a specific target in mind, there was creativity surrounding the whole project. Third  the earrings are something that is unique and has a lot of character. Each earring is individual, no 2 earrings are the exact same. It’s a way for something to be unique and you are able to be creative in what you create.

Readings: 1. Robert Epstein's 4 competencies (capturing, challenging, broadening, surrounding) 2. Mel Rhode's 4 P's: Process, Person, Place Product (considered the process, the target audience, where to do it, and final product - earrings) 3. Darwinian Theory of constant productivity (every creative act raised more money than the next) 4. Edward De Bono's 6 Thinking Hats Lectures: 1. Ian Timberlake (took risks to acquire resources - in his case, information for a new story; in our case - busked without a busking license to make money) 2. Alex Henderson (considers a target audience to make money; painting was designed specifically for Rachel's brother for a price) CONCEPTS FROM CLASS USED IN CREATIVE PROJECT

ROBERT EPSTEIN’S FOUR COMPETENCIES In our project we incorporated Epstein’s Four Competencies i.Capturing  The process of preserving new ideas The earrings are our “capturing” We used materials that are native to the West Coast and the earrings we created are a new, different style of hand crafted earrings ii.Challenging  The process of engaging with challenges and positively dealing with failure Our challenging aspect was busking. Busking can be hard to earn money, therefore we looked at the fact that we made some money as a key positive feature, but we were able to understand that it is an act that can be hard to make money (failure) iii.Broadening  The process of increasing our knowledge and abilities For Rachel, playing guitar wasn’t new, but in the process of practicing guitar, Rachel taught Carsen how to play some cords therefore Carsen increased her knowledge and ability Rachel also increased her ability, because she practiced more for her street performance iv.Surrounding  The process of seeking and actively creating physical change in your environment When we went to purchase our supplies, we looked at going to a new store that neither of us had been too When we were creating our painting and earrings, we also chose to work outside therefore we felt that we could use the environment to inspire us. This was new because we were both used to working/studying inside

EDWARD DE BONO’S 6 THINKING HATS While working on this project we also applied the 6 thinking hats i.White Hat – Data & Information We looked at the facts of where would probably be the most popular and high traffic area for busking. We also took into consideration that hand crafted jewelry is very popular right now, so it was something that was a trend ii.Red Hat – Feeling We both agreed that this was a good decision to do for our project. Both of us had good feelings about our ideas iii.Black Hat – Caution Our only issue with caution was if we ran into lots of other buskers, we may have some competition. We also felt that lots of people might think that we were homeless just trying to make money and not realize that it was for an art project iv.Yellow Hat – Optimism We thought that our ideas would work well off of each other. We needed to somehow raise money in order to support our art ideas and creations. It was a safe way of making money and didn’t need us to spend lots of our own v.Green Hat – Growth After completing our project, we thought of ways to make it better. Next time, we may dress up more while playing music therefore people might be further intrigued to stay and watch. We also may try to set up a table downtown or at UVIC to try and sell our earrings and for our painting, we can try to do a much larger one and incorporate some new techniques to it vi.Blue Hat – Overview Our priorities for this project were to find ways to express our creativity. Rachel has a good sense of creativity already, and she was able to help Carsen express her creativity better