Its the Cake Essay -- Creative Creativity Essays

It's the Cake The title above comes from a comment made by author Jerry Hirschberg. "Creative activity [isn't] the icing on the cake. Human creativity is the cake." Getting a bite of this cake is what proves to be frustrating for some people. Simply put, there isn't one sure-fire method to achieve creative success. However, there are certainly underlying attitudes and patterns that one can perceive in creative people, (and in this most humble of papers), I will attempt to show to you through texts such as Hirschberg's The Creative Priority and my own forays with Madame Creatividad that experiencing creativity is simply a matter of opening yourself up to the world around you. It always seems to me that any measure of creativity starts through something that I have opted to call creative flux, both because I am nerdy and that it happens to fit the concept extremely well. In a nutshell, all creative flux means is that you has to be willing to be open to the surrounding environment, allowing ideas from all possible angles and points to flow into you. Hirschberg illustrates this rather well. A car designer by trade, he started his career at GM, "the supreme icon of power and success for America." He tells us that GM eventually reached a point of stagnation, from lack of competition and from shutting the doors tight on ideas coming from the outside world. GM car design reached a monotone complacency, and it is at this point, Hirschberg says, he began feeling a little bit useless, as his work environment had turned into, "a blinding illusion of security and imperviousness to failure." Hirschberg then makes a transition: he switches jobs to a place of unregulated creative flux. He attributes his later success t... ...hberg calls this process `stepping back from the canvas.' And a gloriously effective technique it turns out to be, "...ideas again started flowing, knotty problem areas unraveled, and the design began to lead the designers, a sure sign that a strong concept was emerging." Something similar to this happened to me in the process of writing this essay, as I acquired a major case of writer's block. Thankfully, I took Hirschberg's advice to heart: I `stood back from the canvas' and succeeded in opening the floodgates of creative flux anew. So is creative flux the path to taking a bite out of the all elusive cake of creativity? Although it is not the only way to approach creative problems, it is the phenomenal openness that creative flux provides that makes for such an exciting tool in one's quest for achieving creative goals. So go ahead, open up and take a bite.

Embers Essay

In the play â€Å"Embers† Campion Decent gives the audience the opportunity to simultaneously react to the plays events intellectually, and to experience the characters emotional connection between themselves and the community. â€Å"Embersâ€Å" demonstrates how a community can support each other in the aftermath of a natural disaster. This is clearly shown through verbatim stories of different characters such as Keith, the RC ladies and at the end different characters coming together as one and retelling their stories. To a large extent the representation of community is shown through a range of techniques used throughout the play. In addition it’s supported by quotes directly from audio recordings of Campion Decent himself. In the play the importance of community involvement is demonstrated when Keith breaks down under the pressure of fighting fires. Keith reacts by being stubborn about the situation when a young CFA worker lost his cool during the fires. The use of idiom â€Å"lost it† and the imperative form repetition of â€Å"hose the prick down† (page 77-78) is used as Keith gives a sense of authority and urgency in a brutal and direct order giving the kid no concessions because he is young. Keith is adamant that he will not go home as he repeats â€Å"I won’t leave because it my area, it’s my fire and I won’t leave† and the repetition of personal pronouns reinforces that he is in charge when he says â€Å"That’s my area. They vote me in as captain. My responsibility to stay†¦Ã¢â‚¬  This shows that he is captain and under the pressure of controlling the fires in his area. The strong connection between the community and individuals is reinforced when Keith shows that he doesn’t want to let him community down, yet it is his community members can see that he has ‘lost it’ and needs a rest. The irony is that he cannot see that the members of the community are trying to help him by sending a priest and counsellor. This emphasises that belonging to a community provides him support, solace and assistance in times of hardship. In the audio recordings of Campion Decent, it mentions that Campion interviewed a volunteer fire fighter of about forty years experience. Decent states that â€Å"†¦tears began to roll down his face (referring to the experienced fire fighter)†¦ he had been quite jovial†¦ the tears began†¦Ã¢â‚¬  That interview, as well as Keith’s story reinforces that the community is connected by individuals who sacrificed so much to preserve the community’s existence. Throughout the play an importance is placed on how great it is to be Australian and how Australians come together in times of need. In the last scene people talk about their impressions and experiences, of what they saw, felt and how they dealt with the fire as a community. Noel Hodda in the ABC interview states â€Å"what it does this play†¦ it draws all the strings of different lives and community together and it shows how we as Australians in a large community and a small community are always ready to step up and give each other a hand†. This imagery reinforces the positives about being an Australian, which means being there for someone in need and coming together as one and helping each other, further showing the connection between individual and community. A technique used in this scene is when the D/farmer uses the idiom â€Å"light at the end of the tunnel†. This symbolism is used to show that when they went through the difficult stage of dealing with the fire that there is sign of hope in the future. Graham also states that at the end of the day â€Å"you can be knocked down, kicked around, and everything run over the top of ya†. This supports the idea that there is always someone there that will give you a hand, which reinforces the importance of the interconnection between individuals and their community. Another representation of community is shown through the individuality of the RC ladies who come together as one and help assist the community by providing meals for the workers. This is seen in the quote â€Å"RC Lady 1 â€Å"And we were told to feed CFA but –â€Å" RC Lady 2 â€Å"We fed ‘em all† †¦ RC Lady 3 â€Å"We were told by them they were professionals† †. The short sentence dialogue, spoken by the RC ladies, reinforces that there is a lot of individual opinions in the group. However they all have the one idea and come together as a community in supporting and assisting everyone who needs help. This is further reinforced by the repetition of the reference to the community group as â€Å"we†. The sense of irony in the quote â€Å"and we had complaints that they were putting on weight† brings in a sense of humour and shows how well the RC ladies have banded together to fed the workers. Campion Decent states in the recordings â€Å"For me it’s about the human experience and how people navigate themselves through an event of such extreme nature†. This reinforces to the audience that through the hard times every person experienced the extreme nature of the fires together as a community and survived. Throughout the play, â€Å"Embers†, a powerful connection between the community and its individuals is successfully conveyed. This is shown through an exploration of how belonging to a community provides support, solace and assistance in times of hardship, how Australian individuals come together to assist others in times of need. This supported through the use of various techniques throughout the play also by the quotes directly from audio recordings of Campion Decent.

What Happens When A Healthy Sleep Pattern Affects An...

There has been an increased concern with the concept of a â€Å"good† or â€Å"healthy† night sleep in modern society, which has led to a large increase in the amount of epidemiological research, focusing on how a healthy sleep pattern can influence an individual’s cognitive functioning; during their normal day to day lives. There is no question that sleep is a fundamental behaviour and a key aspect of human life, Not only does it â€Å"allow us to recharge our run-down bodies and recover from physical and mental fatigue† Hess, (1965), but also is vital for â€Å"Normal cognitive and brain function† Benke (2009) in adults and children. However, what happens when a healthy sleep pattern is disrupted due to individual differences? There have been many researchers who have touched upon this area of research, mentioning that individual differences can make an individual more susceptible to sleep disruption. As more research has looked into this area it has become more apparent on the affect they have on a healthy sleep pattern, which in turn, has an effect on day to day cognitive functioning. It is a common misconception that a healthy adult sleep pattern requires around 8 hours of sleep a night for normal cognitive function. Contradictory to this, Monk et. Al (2001) found evidence which disproved this claim as in fact Ferrara, De Gennaro stated â€Å"that the basic amount of sleep is only around 6 hours per night† (2001:155). If an adult’s sleep pattern is restricted from this basic amount of sleep,Show MoreRelatedSymptoms And Progression Of Alzheimer s Disease Essay2254 Words   |  10 Pagesdelirium that might explain the deficit: aphasia, apraxia, agnosia, or a disturbance in executive functioning (the ability to think abstractly and to plan, initiate, sequence, monitor, and stop complex behavior). 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