Control por Anton Corbijn (2007)

Control es la biografía de Ian Curtis, vocalista de Joy Division desde 1973, cuando aún era un adolescente que estaba en el colegio, hasta la víspera del arranque del primer tour americano del grupo en 1980. Durante estos años, asistimos a la evolución de Curtis, que parte de su admiración adolescente de David Bowie, a un punk inspirado en la obra de los Sex Pistols, hasta llegar a convertirse en una estrella dentro del rock New Wave, movimiento musical derivado del punk rock, surgido a finales de los 70 en Inglaterra. 

La película, basada en la biografía de su ex-mujer Touching From A Distance, hace un repaso por todos los acontecimientos que marcaron la vida de Ian: epilepsia, fracaso matrimonial, su amante, su grupo. Corbijn utiliza estos hechos en un intento por explicar que fue lo que le llevó a ahorcarse, con tan sólo 23 años. 

Ken Robinson et al. Unlocking Creativity, A Strategy for Development

Belfast: Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure. DCAL. (2002)

Open publication - Free publishing

Why Creativity Necessitates Eclecticism: Nick Cave’s Influences

by Maria Popova

What Dostoevsky has to do with the hunchback of Notre Dame, Muhammad Ali, and dandelions.

As a firm believer in combinatorial creativity, I’m always interested in theecosystem of influences and how we honor those who inspire us. Reader Will Shaw points me to this handwritten note by music icon Nick Cave entitled “More Things to Remember…,” courtesy of Melbourne’s Arts Centre, in which Cave lists some of his influences. Will writes:

It is clear that Nick Cave was only able to reach his significant artistic heights through appropriating idea’s and aesthetics from his heroes and influences and melding them into something uniquely powerful.

 

I agree, and am delighted to see such a diverse tapas bar of influences spanning multiple disciplines, genres, and eras, including Brain Pickings staples likeAlfred Hitchcock, Vladimir Nabokov, Orson Welles, Muhammad Ali, and Moby-Dick, sprinkled with such wildcards as Saint Theresa of Avila, Popeye, dandelions, and baboons.

No doubt designer Paula Scher, author William Gibson, and artist Austin Kleoncan all relate to this eclecticism implicit to and, they might argue, necessary for creativity. I certainly do.

La danza ayuda a comprender las funciones neuronales

La danza ayuda a comprender las funciones neuronales

Tendencias21- 15/03/2012.

El conocimiento del cerebro, especialmente a partir de lesiones y neuroimágenes, permitiría dar un vuelco a la educación, en su forma y contenido, para construir una sociedad más solidaria y empática. 

Existe una profunda relación entre las expresiones artísticas y las funciones neuronales, pues la corteza insular del cerebro no solo da cabida a los sentimientos de conciencia, sino que también proporciona la experiencia subjetiva emocional y su representación en el cuerpo de los seres humanos. 

Entender el funcionamiento del cerebro a partir del arte podría ser la clave para acercar al individuo a sus propios sentimientos y, por otra parte, podría acercar la subjetividad a la objetividad. Pero esto requiere un profundo análisis de las funciones cerebrales. Para ello, la danza es bastante útil como herramienta, al representar la conjunción de otras artes. 

La danza y el cerebro 

Desde el punto de vista de las neurociencias, se estima que la danza representa el pensamiento convertido en acción y que puede abarcar diferentes corrientes artísticas dentro de sí. Así lo afirma el doctor Roberto Amador, docente de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia: “La danza como expresión humana es utilizada para pintar, para la música, para hablar, es decir: forma parte de todas las formas de lenguaje, unas más evidentes que otras; pero la interiorización del movimiento es la base evolutiva del pensamiento”. 

Con el fin de comprender la estrecha relación entre danza, movimiento y cerebro, el grupo Fundación Festival Art de Colombia (conformado por niñas de siete a diez años), se presentó en la cuarta sesión de la Cátedra Arte y Cerebro, celebrada en Bogotá y organizada por la Universidad Nacional de Colombia. 

Acompañadas de las palabras del psicólogo Rafael Pardo y de la bailarina y coreógrafa Adriana Echavarría, las niñas explicaron la grandeza de la danza clásica e integraron el abanico de propuestas del movimiento, mediante posturas, giros, variaciones y manejo del espacio. 

La estética del movimiento es el propio pensamiento, pero con sentimiento; y la experiencia estética de la danza se produce gracias a la secuencia del movimiento y a su predicción. “El cuerpo necesita de una organización alrededor de sus propios componentes (ya sea el torso, los miembros superiores, la mirada, la cabeza o las extremidades inferiores), y todos relacionados con el espacio personal. La coreografía no es solo inventar movimientos: es evaluar los efectos perceptuales y emocionales de un movimiento en particular o de una configuración espacial”, explicó el profesor Amador. 

Para el maestro Carlos Jacanamijoy, pintor invitado a la cátedra, el movimiento de los ojos al hacer un barrido y la posterior emulación de la realidad que hace el cerebro permite que esa información sea recordada y aplicada para prever el futuro. 

El arte tiene la capacidad de transformarse para transmitir diferentes sentimientos. Por esta razón, Jacanamijoy cambió su tradicional lienzo plano por el cuerpo de las niñas, para así explicar, a través de su obra, “la belleza del cuerpo, del trazo, del gesto, de la coreografía cerebral, del origen del arte y la estética y cómo una obra pictórica, considerada plástica, también tiene temporalidad, pues al colgarla en la pared desaparece”, en términos del profesor Amador. 

Finalmente, el movimiento es la expresión primaria del arte. Y, a través de la danza, se configuran diferentes artes que permiten sensibilizar y cambiar la visión de quien la realiza o de quien la explora. 

El Demonio y Daniel Johnston - Online español

El Demonio y Daniel Johnston

La fascinante y terrible historia del cantautor norteamericano Daniel Johnston, que se hizo conocido en circuitos independientes a partir de una camiseta con un dibujo suyo que vistió el líder de Nirvana, Kurt Kobain. Un genio, compositor, cantante y artista maniaco depresivo a quien las drogas y la enfermedad mental llevan a imaginarios encuentros con el Diablo.

Desde muy pequeño Daniel mostró rasgos de su genialidad y creatividad artística a través de sus cómics y grabaciones en Súper 8. El documental sigue al personaje y muestra también cómo se transforma en objeto de culto apoyándose en las grabaciones del propio Daniel Johnston...

Link directo online / descarga.
Nota: en algunos casos instalar DivX Plus Web Player para Windows o Mac; disponibles en link directo (bajo la pantalla).

Ken Robinson: las escuelas matan la creatividad

Sir Ken Robinson plantea de manera entretenida y conmovedora la necesidad de crear un sistema educativo que nutra (en vez de socavar) la creatividad

The Psychology of Architecture.

• By Jonah Lehrer. Wired. April 14, 2011.

• We spend our lives inside buildings, our thoughts shaped by their walls. Nevertheless, there’s surprisingly little research on the psychological implications of architecture. How do different spaces influence cognition? Is there an ideal kind of architectural structure for different kinds of thinking?
  At the moment, I think we’re only beginning to grasp the relevant variables of design. Christian Jarrett, for instance, highlights a new study on curved versus rectilinear furniture. The study itself was simple: subjects viewed a series of rooms filled with different kinds of couches and lounge chairs. The results were bad for fans of high modernism – furniture defined by straight edges was rated as far less appealing and approachable. Sorry, Corbusier.
  Or consider this 2009 experiment, published in Science. The psychologists, at the University of British Columbia, were interested in looking at how the color of interior walls influence the imagination. They recruited six hundred subjects, most of them undergraduates, and had them perform a variety of basic cognitive tests displayed against red, blue or neutral colored backgrounds.
  The differences were striking. When people took tests in the red condition – they were surrounded by walls the color of a stop sign – they were much better at skills that required accuracy and attention to detail, such as catching spelling mistakes or keeping random numbers in short-term memory.  According to the scientists, this is because people automatically associate red with danger, which makes them more alert and aware.
  The color blue, however, carried a completely different set of psychological benefits. While people in the blue group performed worse on short-term memory tasks, they did far better on those requiring some imagination, such as coming up with creative uses for a brick or designing a children’s toy out of simple geometric shapes.  In fact, subjects in the blue condition generated twice as many “creative outputs” as subjects in the red condition. That’s right: the color of a wall doubled our imaginative power.
  What accounts for this effect? According to the scientists, the color blue automatically triggers 
  associations with the sky and ocean. We think about expansive horizons and diffuse light, sandy beaches and lazy summer days. This sort of mental relaxation makes it easier for us daydream and think in terms of tangential associations; we’re less focused on what’s right in front of us and more aware of the possibilities simmering in our imagination.
  Lastly, the psychologist Joan Meyers-Levy, at the Carlson School of Management, conducted an interesting experiment that examined the relationship between ceiling height and thinking style. She demonstrated that, when people are in a low-ceilinged room, they are much quicker at solving anagrams involving confinement, such as “bound,” “restrained” and “restricted.” In contrast, people in high-ceilinged rooms excel at puzzles in which the answer touches on the theme of freedom, such as “liberated” and “unlimited.” According to Levy, this is because airy spaces prime us to feel free.
  Furthermore, Levy found that rooms with lofty ceilings also lead people to engage in more abstract styles of thinking. Instead of focusing on the particulars of things, they’re better able to zoom out and see what those things have in common.  (It’s the difference between “item-specific” versus “relational” processing.) Sometimes, of course, we want to focus on the details of an object or problem, in which case a claustrophobic basement is probably ideal. However, when we need to come up with a creative solution, then we should probably seek out a more expansive space. Especially if it has blue walls.
  Needless to say, we’re only beginning to grasp how the insides of buildings influence the inside of the mind. For now, it’s safe to say that tasks involving accuracy and focus – say, copyediting a manuscript, or doing some algebra – are best suited for short spaces with red walls. In contrast, tasks that require a little bit of creativity and abstract thinking benefit from high ceilings, lots of windows and bright blue walls that match the sky. The point is that architecture has real cognitive consequences, even if we’re just beginning to learn what they are.

FictionCity, llega la red social orientada para artistas

Genbeta.com 14/07/2011.
Hoy en Barcelona se ha presentado la red social FictionCity, una solución orientada a artistas de determinadas ramas donde tener un lugar común para que cualquier persona pueda 

encontrarrecursos, otras personas e instituciones que estén interesadas en el artista. La red se ha estado desarrollando durante dos años de la mano de antiguos responsables del portal financiero Patagon.

Con FictionCity, un artista (pongamos por ejemplo alguien que toca el saxofón) puede crearse un perfil en la red. Al mismo tiempo, una institución o persona interesada puede estar buscando a alguien que toque el saxofón. La idea es que con FictionCity el interesado sepa siempre dónde está ese artista, encontrarlo aunque la localización sea la de un trabajo puntual por parte del artista y generar una relación entre ese interesado y el saxofonista. Para ello, el artista podrá colgar su currículum y mostrarlo a todos los interesados que quiera.

FictionCity es completamente gratuito, está traducido a 12 idiomas y por lo tanto se enfoca a cubrir todo el planeta con su servicio. Se monetizará usando publicidad al estilo Google Ads dentro de dos años, y a medida que pasen las semanas se lanzarán diferentes plataformas que se unirán a la plataforma inicial y se enfocarán a un tipo de arte en concreto (televisión, radio, películas…), para después expandirse hacia venta de entradas y generar un mercado entre los usuarios. Si eres alguien con algún talento escondido, quizás te interese crearte un perfil.

Theo Jansen creates new creatures

Theo Jansen creates new creatures

Theo Jansen's Strandbeest

Artist Theo Jansen demonstrates the amazingly lifelike kinetic sculptures he builds from plastic tubes and lemonade bottles. His creatures are designed to move -- and even survive -- on their own.

By TED: Ideas worth spreading.

About Theo Jansen

Theo Jansen is a Dutch artist who builds walking kinetic sculptures that he calls a new form of life. His "Strandbeests" walk the coastline of Holland, feeding on wind and fleeing from water.

Transcript

I would like to tell you about a project which I started about 16 years ago, and it's about making new forms of life. And these are made of this kind of tube -- electricity tube, we call it in Holland -- and we can start a film about that and we can see a little bit backwards in time.

Narrator: Eventually these beasts are going to live in herds on the beaches. Theo Jansen is working hard on this evolution.

Theo Jansen: I want to put these forms of life on the beaches. And they should survive over there,on their own, in the future. Learning to live on their own, and it'll take couple of more years to let them walk on their own.

Narrator: The mechanical beasts will not get their energy from food, but from the wind. The wind will move feathers on their back, which will drive their feet. The beast walks sideways on the wet sand of the beach, with its nose pointed into the wind. As soon as it walks into either the rolling surf or the dry sand, it stops, and walks in the opposite direction.

Evolution has generated many species. This is the Animaris Currens Ventosa. (Applause)

Jansen: This is a herd, and it is built according genetical codes, and it is a sort of race, and each and every animal is different, and the winning codes will multiply.

This is the wave, going from left to right, you can see this one. And now it goes from -- yes, now it goes from left to 

right. This is a new generation, a new family, which is able to store the winds. So the wings pump up air in lemonade bottles which are on top of that -- and they can use that energy in case the wind falls away, and the tide is coming up, and there is still a little bit of energy to reach the dunes and save their lives, because they are drowned very easily. (Laughter)

I could show you this animal. (Applause) Thank you. So the proportion of the tubes in this animal is very important for the walking. There are 11 numbers, which I call the 11 holy numbers. These are the distances of the tubes which makes it walk that way. In fact it's a new invention of the wheel. It works the same as a wheel. The axis of a wheel is staying on the same level, and this hip is staying on the same level as well. In fact, this is better than a wheel, because when you try to drive with your bicycle on the beach, you will notice it's very hard to do. And the feet just step over the sand, and the wheel has to touch every piece of the ground in between. So 5,000 years after the invention of the wheel, we have a new wheel. And I will show you in the next video -- can you start it, please? -- that very heavy loads can be moved. There's a guy pushing there behind, but can also walk on the wind very well. It's 3.2 tons.

And this is working on the stored winds in the bottles. It has a feeler where it can feel obstacles and turn around. And that stuff, you see, is going to it the other way.

Can I have the feeler here? OK. Good. So, they have to survive all the dangers of the beach, and one of the big dangers is the sea. This is the sea.And it must feel the water of the sea. And this is the water feeler. And what's very important is this tube. It sucks in air normally, but when it swallows water it feels the resistance of it. So imagine that the animal is walking towards the sea. As soon as it touches the water you should hear a sort of sound of running air. Yes! So if it doesn't feel, it will be drowned, OK?

Here we have the brain of the animal. In fact, it is a step-counter, and it counts the steps. It's a binary step-counter. So as

 soon it has been to the sea, it changes the pattern of zeroes and ones here, and it knows always where it is on the beach. So it's very simple brain. It says, well there's the sea, there are dunes, and I'm here. So it's a sort of imagination of the simple world of the beach animal. Thank you.

One of the biggest enemies are the storms. This is a part of the nose of the Animaris Percipiere,and when the nose is fixed of the animal, the whole animal is fixed. So when the storm is coming up, it drives a pin into the ground. (Laughter) And the nose is fixed, the whole animal is fixed. The wind may turn, but the animal will turn always its nose into the wind. Now another couple of years, and these animals will survive on their own. I still have to help them a lot.

Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen.(Applause).