molly.com

Tuesday 17 October 2006

Creativity Jam Session: Find the Flaw

Here’s a creativity game, so let’s have some fun.

Here’s what you do:

  1. If you are sighted, close your eyes
  2. Turn away from your computer in any direction
  3. Open your eyes
  4. Look at or touch what’s in front of you
  5. Find a flaw
  6. Describe the flaw
  7. Now describe how the flaw could be made into art
  8. If you have the time, make something creative out of it

Here’s mine: The pristine, recently painted wall has been marred by some pencil strokes. I’m seeing it as if it were in macro view, it makes quite an unusual textured, abstract image. I could take photos of it, which I’ll do in a bit I think, and turn the flaw into something creative.

Now it’s your turn – find the flaw!

Filed under:   general
Posted by:   Molly | 12:06 | Comments (42)

Comments (42)

  1. Nat says Tuesday 17 October 2006 at 12:46

    LOL after spinning around over 20 times (the damn chair wouldn’t stop!) I ended up touching my Dell laptop.

    The only flaw I can think of is that because I’m a bass player the callouses on my fingertips sometimes get stuck under the keys and nearly rip the keys off … so to turn that flaw into art, I propose:

    The modern laptop … with an old typewriter style keyboard!

  2. Nate K says Tuesday 17 October 2006 at 14:25

    RE: Nat
    It’s a Dell laptop – there are plenty of flaws with it. hehe. Just kidding.

    Im going to have to try this at home, my office is actually pretty bare – with the exception of pictures of my wife (and she has no flaws 😉 ), and my papers with my projects – which are all being turned into something better with each new day.

    I REALLY like this idea, however, so I will be trying it later this evening at my home office…

    Look forward to seeing your pictures…

  4. Rob kirton says Tuesday 17 October 2006 at 15:48

    OK

    I found the single piece of paper, with tatty looking mad scribbles on it. I flattened out the paper, and made a fairly pristine looking paper aeroplane with it; which has flown in a beautiful way right out of the window.

    Now then, where is the spec for that job I am currently doing?

  5. Nate K says Tuesday 17 October 2006 at 16:12

    RE: Rob K
    I literally laughed out loud when I read your response. Excellent.

  6. Dave Vogt says Tuesday 17 October 2006 at 17:52

    Stuff like this is what keeps me coming back. I love reading your stuff, and this is a real high point.

  7. Mik says Tuesday 17 October 2006 at 19:37

    Molly,

    I turned round and round and saw a painting I had started a few months ago hanging on the wall. I realized it’s flaw was that I’d never turned it in to anything better than it was. I picked it up and went to scan it for you guys when I remembered that my lousy parallel scanner is not working right now. I thought of taking a picture of it and remembered the darn mavica camera from 2000 doesn’t hold a charge for more than 30 seconds… and where’s the battery … and …
    instead of turning, I was now spinning. Reeling around in the technical difficulty rerun syndicated nightmare of broken, breaking and to-be-breaking that is my life.
    I realized the flaw was ME.

    See, I turned it into a little story.

  8. Molly says Tuesday 17 October 2006 at 21:07

    Look how creative you guys are! See? LOL. And keeping me laughing in the process, a good thing.

    Here’s a link to the photo I took of the marks on the wall: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mollyeh11/272461421/

    Keep ’em coming my friends! Fun stuff 🙂

  9. Birgit says Tuesday 17 October 2006 at 22:52

    Nice idea 🙂

    I have a no-turn chair so I shook my head and opened my eyes after I’d bent my neck in a strange position.

    What I saw first was the plant next to my desk, and it has a rather interesting flaw: some wilted leaves.

    It kinda looks like an “organic grunge design” 🙂

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/bz_icehorse/272568628/
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/bz_icehorse/272568629/

    Hey Molly, I have just caught up with my bloglines recently, and I read your post from mid June yesterday. Just wanted to tell you that you’re a big hero for me, and I’m glad that you’re fine!

    Greetings from Germany 🙂

  10. Bill M. says Tuesday 17 October 2006 at 23:16

    I turned to the right, facing my Yamaha keyboard. The music on the rack was a Bach piece I don’t play very well.So I started practicing. I’m playing it a bit better now, and we had live music in the air for a while.
    Thank you!

  11. Dave Vogt says Wednesday 18 October 2006 at 00:24

    I turned, and there was rancid air blowing in my face. Apparently something died in our furnace. Maintainence will be out tomorrow.

    Thanks Molly!

  12. Ben Buchanan says Wednesday 18 October 2006 at 02:49

    Heheheh, turned around…. and I found myself looking at co-workers. Not sure that touching them and then turning their flaws into art would be the greatest idea for office harmony 😉

    My next thought was taking macro photos of the electrical ducts going up the column next to me. Somehow I don’t feel especially original here, Molly! 😉

    Then I thought: my desk still has no shelving on it. I need to bring in a power drill (with a screwdriver bit) so I can take one from a vacant desk. I would have to resist walking up to the front door and attacking it a la Office Space… Then I could announce to co-workers that The Web Is Not A Power Drill! and proceed to dismantle the furniture.

    It could be a bit of performance art…

  13. Stephane Deschamps says Wednesday 18 October 2006 at 10:05

    I turned and turned and almost fell,
    saw my feet and the flaw is me.

    (say, is it just me or did I almost write poetry?)

  14. Molly says Wednesday 18 October 2006 at 12:45

    Birgit: Thank you – loved the photos and most especially, your sweet thoughts.

    Bill M: Ooh, good. Now see, that’s really creative!

    Dave: Yech! That is NOT creative. But glad I could help. I think 😉

    Ben: Oh, if anyone could pull that off, it would in fact be you. Take pics.

    Stephane: Do you have funny feet?

    Now, how come at least two of you have suggested you’re the flaw? What is this, the low-self-esteem creativity jam session? I think not. You are lovely people.

  15. Stephane Deschamps says Wednesday 18 October 2006 at 15:04

    He he.

    I’ve only got one working eye so I can’t stand up properly without stumbling every now and then.

    I bump into things, am dangerous when I drive, sprained an ankle a month ago because I couldn’t see there were stairs in the staircase, break things all the time.

    I’m technically flawed but have a very high self-esteem otherwise. I think I was trying to be witty and failed.

    See! See! Flaw is written all over me!

    He he. Just kidding. I feel lucky to be alive, have a very sweet daughter, a girfriend, a job I love, etc.

    Here in the office it would look too weird if I took a pic, but I will at home. Promise.

  16. Nat says Wednesday 18 October 2006 at 15:10

    LOL, so funny I’m crying! Mik – if you backed it up one step, I think you could turn that technological failure maelstrom into art …

    Technology is overrated – it’s only because of smart people who pick up after technology that we think it actually works.

    Go and talk to someone who runs a home office who doesn’t have any IT guys to manage their system – ask them what they think of technology 🙂 I’ve seen people turn a brand new laptop into a virus/malware/spyware ridden horror that runs like a 386 within the space of 2 months. It’s scary.

    But … there’s art in there somewhere, I’m sure!

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  18. Andrew Miesem says Thursday 19 October 2006 at 14:42

    I spun around a bit, and my eyes came to rest on a cartoon I keep tacked up on the wall in my office. To anyone else, it seems morbid, as it was drawn by a friend of mine, and tells the story of a conversation he had with his wife while he was dying of lukemia. In it, he pokes fun at himself and his short attention span while discussing serious issues like his living will.

    I wanted to share the cartoon, and I know it used to be attachd to an article a journalist friend of his wrote, but alas, the newspaper didn’t archive all the images attached to it, so the cartoon is no more circulating on the internet.

    However, before I came to that conclusion, I surfed around the web a bit, trying to find mirrored copies, versions of his site at arhive.org, or any other place it might be. The end result was a journey down memory lane that reminded me of what a good friend he was, and how much my life was enriched by his presence.

    That’s a beautiful thing.

  19. Mik says Thursday 19 October 2006 at 18:23

    Party at Molly’s house!

    Nat: I’m still trying to figure out how your bass calluses get *under* keys on your keyboard!? I only have really old apple powerbooks and don’t have any trouble with my calluses (see that’s the point, tech is great but the scanner and camera are 6 years old now. Why can’t I get new stuff? That points to all the factors that keep me poor and led me to claim I was the flaw. No, money is not the value indicator I choose to go by, but my baggage puts me in a place right now where I can’t keep up with the tools of my profession…. what was my profession again?).

    Andrew: my father just died this summer, a talented painter and cartoonist, your spin-flaw-art post was very touching. If you ever scan the or find the cartoon, I for one would love to see it.

    I love these, I hope more people share.

  20. Nat says Friday 20 October 2006 at 04:53

    Mik – the curse of being able to type at over 120wpm; I guess it’s a combination of the keys not following my fingers back up, along with the sharp edges around the shallow keys. Possibly also related to heat/sweat (reckon it gets to about 40 C above my keyboard in summer … laptops!)

  21. Stephane Deschamps says Friday 20 October 2006 at 15:20

    Hey Molly,

    Here’s the story and picture: http://www.nota-bene.org/Creativity-Find-the-flaw

    See? A promise is a promise 🙂

  22. Nany says Friday 20 October 2006 at 18:38

    Great idea, we have a problem in hour house with the F@$# water, so i come here because Molly is like the place where you go when yo want to get out of the problems in reall life and I found this article, so I just search a good angle and took a picture of the problem it helps me to understand that you can find good things in bad moments 🙂
    Thank u Molly xD

    Greetings from Venezuela.

  24. Molly says Saturday 21 October 2006 at 14:47

    Stephane: Wonderful!

    Nany, oh that’s excellent – sorry for the trouble.

    Wonderful wonderful wonderful everyone 🙂

  25. Billy says Saturday 21 October 2006 at 22:22

    My little contribution.. I took your flawed little wallpaper shot and made a shining little desktop wallpaper out of it.

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/58866069@N00/275597661/

    Enjoy

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