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