The chaos and failure that drive creativity towards innovation
[Music]
hello
my name is yella and this is me
in the summer of 1984 on one of the
beaches near rome
i was three years old and my life was
all about
building sandcastles sandcastles
that could withstand the devastating
tides of the mediterranean sea
that tried to destroy our castle perhaps
you also remember the first time you
built a sandcastle
and that’s important because it was at
that time
at that age that you were at the peak of
your creativity
or that is what i learned from the most
inspiring ted talk i ever saw brought
by ken robinson talking about how to
change
education and the influence of
creativity
so he says we’re all born creative
and our imagination is running wild
as we are in our childhood but then we
grow up
in a system and a structure that learns
us
to follow the rules and to find
or rather replicate the right answers to
questions
that are already answered and can be
found
in the back of your book so we learn to
avoid chaos
because it makes us uncertain and
therefore afraid
it’s much more comfortable to focus on
clear rules
and structures that make us feel safe so
also in most schools
we create these very clean and safe
but sometimes artificial environments
that actually differ from what is
happening in real life situations
because chaos is part of life and
therefore most people struggle
when an unexpected event happens
and what is which is beyond their
control
and they go into this crisis mode while
creative people see opportunities they
embrace this change
that is continuous and inevitable
so when i started my career as a
professor
in the education program of industrial
design
i ask myself how can i do
things differently how can i take the
lessons
from ken robinson and maybe find a
recipe
that can work for my students for my
researches for my
colleagues and i found a recipe
i call it building sandcastles and it’s
quite simple you only
need four basic ingredients
it starts with the environment
and i like to call it the sandbox
a name that’s also commonly used in
software design
for a place with lots of tools a very
open play
mindset that invites you to dive in and
to start building prototypes to start
building
castles so in our education
the sandbox is mainly a very big fab lab
that exists
of different machines tools such as 3d
printers
laser cutters arduinos that allow us
to rapidly materialize any id
but also you give
a safe environment so it’s okay if the
prototypes don’t work
it’s even okay if they break down the
prototypes are the castles
they’re not meant to last they’re meant
to learn
and they’re meant
to get your hands dirty
in our research lab we for example add
eeg sensors virtual reality glasses
and motion capture tools but it’s of
course up to you
to think how your sandbox in your
environment should look like
the second ingredient is creating the
right attitude
tapping into your childhood memories
bringing you back
to kindergarten learn to fail
and learn from this failure
in our education program this works best
when we create this atmosphere that
focuses on enjoyment
and fun therefore we often let student
work
start with teams and with team building
activities
as this is also recommended in the work
atmosphere but we also allow moments of
stress and failure
in the education in order to learn
how to cope with them hit a wall
maybe cry but don’t give up learn from
it
and start over so you’re better prepared
the third ingredient is the
inspirational process
in which we stimulate students
researchers
to observe to create and to share
so we get inspiration from observation
we use this to create something new
something of your own
and we then share these creations with
others in order to inspire them
a good example is the makey makey
make you make is a very creative tool
that got my attention
through a very inspirational video
in the video you can see how
the tool is used to control
a computer using any object that
conducts
electricity electricity so you can use
bananas
you can use play-doh you can use the
graphite in your pencil
or even water bottles to
play games on the computer everything
around you can be turned into an
interface
[Music]
and this tool then also inspired us
to do a workshop with students from
physiotherapy
the students were looking for a solution
to motivate children
that have balance problems and have to
do repetitively
repetitively therapy
the tool allowed them to build their own
prototypes in just a few hours
and already test them their cells
by adding simple tools like cardboard
aluminium foil
they could even test with their patients
and see
what was working and what not
this feedback was further used to create
the first prototypes
of an interactive gaming mat where we
use tools like arduino
to then construct a full-blown product
that we named mati
again we tested with different users and
finally
we created a spin-off company with the
students that is now selling this
as a product to physiotherapists
so in addition to this process
all good creative projects need the
fourth ingredient which is a mission
a clear goal to guide the creative
makers
through the chaos and offer a structure
deadlines to eventually
become successful and
it’s these combinations that has led
to many inspiring projects at our
research group at our education program
for example we saw a video from disney
research
that inspired us to build an
installation in the gizlam museum in
ghent where people now can talk to
plants
we used our vr research that inspired us
to create a virtual viewer that enables
children
to get information about events
workshops
in their local library
or we created this new device
that will help to tackle loneliness for
elderly
we also invented a helmet that adds
extra safety
via sound and lights that will empower
people
with mental disorders to safely
take the bike to school
all these things fit perfectly in our
general mission
to empower people in this ever
digitizing society
and we do this by this recipe focusing
on playful environments creative
attitude
inspiring process and a future mission
so i hope i also inspired you
to think how you could apply this
to your own environment to your own
school
to your own workplace so you can also
start building
sandcastles thank you