Facebook

With the invention of the internet comes a wide open domain of communication networking and creative possibilities. While I believe that twitter.com, YouTube, Ebay, and craigslist.com are creative, I think that the website that has had to most influence on my life is the notorious college phenomenon of Facebook. The social networking site was created by Mark Zuckerberg in 2001 It was created to connect college students from the different Ivy League schools, and eventually spread to thousands of networks: campuses, high schools, regions, etc. Facebook is easy to use, and all you need is a picture and valid email address to join. The site gives users the opportunity to develop their own creativity with the web space that the site gives them. If one scrolls through the profiles of his/her friends, then one will surely find creative "interests, favorite quotations, even live status updates". The site also gives one the change to find someone who they have just met, and to communicate with them even if they do not have their cell phone number (by writing on their facebook wall). The site has surely allowed users to become more creative with what they put on their own profile, and the invention itself falls into the category to creativity in the domain of the internet.

Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar...

A while back, I recieved a birthday gift from my brother. It was the bestselling book, "Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar...". The book offers a new and unique way to understand philosophy, and the way is though jokes. Yes, the book offers a long list of jokes that help the reader understand certain philosophical theories and ideas. Here is an example of a joke from the book that illustrates the utilitarian line of reasoning:
Mrs. O'Callahan instructed the artist painting her portrait to add to it a gold bracelet on each of her wrists, a strand of pearls around her neck, ruby earrings, and a diamond tiara.
The artist pointed out that would be tantamount to lying.
Said Mrs. O'Callahan, "Look, my husband's running around with a young blonde. After I die, I want her to go crazy looking for the jewelry" (81).

According to the book this joke is told by a utilitarian protagonist, which reasons that the "moral rightness of an act is determined soley by its consequences". The consequence in this joke is the mistress wasting time searching for jewlery that doesnt exist. Overall, the book offers a new and novel way to look at the domain of philosophy, and the field of editors and publishers have agreed this book to be novel and therefore is has been a best selling creative work. If other domains would use jokes to relay knowlege to readers than more people might be able to understand seemingly difficult subjects more easily.

Sports and Creativity

Sports has an enormous impact on global society and brings about so much enthusiasm and passion for both athletes and fans. Sports teams allow people from a certain region to group together to support their team, and allows a city, state, or country to feel a sense of pride in the accomplishments of their home-town athletes. This begs the question; "Does creativity exist in Sports"?

Since different sports and athletic competitions have certain rules and regulations that must be followed, it can be considered a domain. Sports is a domain because it provides jobs, involves knowledge of the game, and is constantly being evaluated and changed. The field for professional sports is the scouts, coaches, and sports writers, for they examine the athletic talent and accomplishments and filter out the less talented. Since athletics involves primarily physical activity, the "flow" state where an athlete reaches his/her peak can easily be predicted by the age when the body is in the best physical shape. Like other creative endeavours, success in sports requires knowledge of the domain (the particular sport), motivation, hard work and practice, group collaboration, and finally improvisation. Therefore, I believe that Dr. C would agree with me on the argument that sports can be a domain for creative achievement.

A Floating CIty

I came across an interesting creative experiment while surfing the web the other day. On CNN.com, there was a story about the construction of a "floating city" that would be constructed off the San Franscisco Bay. The "big-C" innovation is the creation of members of the Seasteading Institute, and the establishment of such a place would allow a place where new forms of government can be tested on a trial and error basis. Similar to an island utopia, the city would be isolated in terms of law and governement but also monitored by the engineers whom are responsible for the city. Some of the new political ideas the group is tossing around include legalizing marijuana and making intellectual property communal -- so that everyone would take ownership in art produced on the city at sea.

This innovation will surely test the strength of community responsibily and trust, and will also give us a look to what a society in this day in age values the most, and what a civilization needs to survive. This project makes me think of the artificial dome of a city in the movie "The Truman Show", both can be studied in order to get a better understanding of government and also to the domain of social migration and behavior. Time will tell us whether this "floating city" will be the next great creation, or whether it will just be an idea that doesnt get put into action.

ADHD and Creativity

Earler in the discussion board postings, I mentioned that society tended to attribute creative qualities to the mentally ill because they wanted to shed some light on their unfortunate condition, and explain that there may be some good to come out of their madness.

I believe that people with less severe mental disorders have a greater capacity to imagine far-reaching creative possibliliites than people who strictly rationalize all the time. Take ADHD for example. There is faction of people whom wish to see the end of prescription drugs that treat ADHD because they believe that they interfere with the god-given greative genious that comes with the disorder. This is an interesting notion, but we must be careful not to generalize. I have ADHD, and I take Adderall to treat it. Some days I forget to take my adderall, and my friends can tell the difference. Does this mean that I am more creative when I do not take the drug? I certainly do not think so, but it is something interesting to study further, possibly for my inquiry project.

Creativity in my job, Kayne West's creativity

For the last two weeks at work, my internship in the Athletics Office has consisted of me gathering data for a new Millsaps Athletics Web Site. The website is new and more creative than the only website because the browser can access live game feeds from the new website. While this has been a minor "little-c" creative experiance, it still has excited me because we plan to make additions to the web site later on in the semester to make it even better/more original.

Today in class we talked about Csikszentmihalyi's "sociocultural model" of creativity, and were asked to bring in a Person-Field-Domain model. Mine was Kayne West, drawing on the awe I had experianced while watching him perform in Atlanta just months past. I identified the Field as the talent agents, managers, record company producers, Hip-Hop Magazines (Rolling Stone and Vibe) and the overall listening public. These serve as the "gatekeepers" to the Hip-Hop Domain. The "gatekeepers", as we discussed in class, are seemingly becoming extinct in the music industry because of MySpace.com, Facebook, and YouTube. The ways that one can optain music is endless, and just about anyone can get people to listen to their music though the internet.

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