What was your “experience” of this experiential learning process? What did you learn in this game about the connections between learning, creativity and play?
The session was fun and rather engaging, as we received many "creative aids" that helped our brainstorming session by allow us to see things in different ways. This session has reinforced to me the notion that creativity can be nurtured, and that it is through play that we nurture it. Play is enjoyable, so it allows us to remember the experience and thus learn from it.
How different is this process from “conventional” learning methods. Can it be applied to all subjects? What is the connection between experience and learning?
This is a step away from conventional teaching that works better because it gives us experience by making us do what is taught and then seeing the results that unfold. Experience has always been a better teacher than mere words, pictures and derived conclusions, simply because it gives us a "feel" of the entire process and thus makes us remember. It also helps us learn the small nuances of processes that cannot, or are too insignificant, to put in words.
Experiential learning cannot be applied to all subjects because it requires the creation of a scenario that is designed to give a certain experience without too many instructions (or it'll become nothing more than a lecture with hands-on). The lack of instructions is essential, because looking for a solution to problems is an essential part of every experience. Not everything can be learnt through experience simply because some things require you to have the technical know-how first before you get your hands dirty.
Reflect on the process of using games as research. What were the ideas, techniques and methods you learned from this process?
Using games as research allows us to grasp how certain mechanics will work without seeing them actually in action. It also made me realise that the best ideas aren't the ones that suddenly appear, but the ones that are tailored to fix a specific problem that specific scenario we're in faces.
Explain your first model of the creativity/learning process you created through this game. Include a flow-diagram of the game’s processes. What are the similarities and differences in the creative process for game-creation and other (creative) activities? Explain.
What other insights do you have about the psychology of learning, creativity, play and gaming?
Learning and creativity are linked. Creativity is a result of us looking for solutions to problems or questions through tapping onto past experience.
Play is linked to learning, because play presents us with obstacles that we will use our undivided attention (through play's immersiveness) to solve.
Gaming is an extension of play that makes the experience all the more immersive for us.
How else can you refine your creativity model? What are the gaps in your model? As you start to conceive your creativity model/game assignment, what’s the next step you need to take?
It is difficult to put down in words something as abstract as how to improve a creativity model, because how creativity is applied is relative to the problem one is facing. Creativity is finding new ways to solve problems, and having a creativity model will more often than not restrict a person's creativity because it is a certain set of rules one must adhere to.
That said, there are definitely ways to improve my creative thinking skills. By exposing myself more to things I haven't been exposed to, like places I haven't been to or games I haven't played, I will definitely be better equipped for creative thinking. A large part of creativity is drawing from the past for a solution that is not only new, but also best made to solve the problem at hand.
What are the implications of using games in this way? List some of the issues, pros and cons of doing games research in this manner. How reliable is this method of research?
Coming soon.
Think of some other psychological/social areas in which games can be used as tools of research.
Games can be used to research social interactions between people and human emotions, since 2 of the main reasons people play games are as follows: to experience something extraordinary, and to interact with people.
Bonus Question: As you imagine the possibilities of expanding the creativity process through new methods and techniques, media and technology, think up of an imaginary possibility (or two) of such a creative experience.
The ultimate experience of creativity would be one that throws us into a make-believe world completely and puts us on the seat of the omnipotency. In a position where we can do anything and everything imaginable, many possibilities that we initially did not see will be seen with more clarity and direction. Then, all that's left for us would be to refine these possibilities into something that is feasible in our three-dimensional world.
Compare your group’s brainstorming process with that of the game you created. What similarities and differences are there? What would this mean for a general theory of creativity, and for you to consider when you implement a creativity game?
"Anything goes."
That was the thought we had when we started on conceptualising the creativity game. We did not want to be limited by rules and procedures, and were only guided by one general objective: the game had to inspire creativity. While the game that came out wasn't exactly "anything goes", it was a game where you had to think on your feet; and while the game had rules and procedures, they were light and simple. What, I think, came out of that session was like a child of the creative processes that went through our heads--smaller in scope, but nonetheless effective.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Marshall McLuhan and Media
Reflect on McLuhan’s ideas as you read through his works (The Medium is the Massage, for one), and do some research on his ideas and methods. Create a visual representation inspired, or based on, two of McLuhan’ written probes. But DO NOT not just interprete the probe literally, but illustrate the meaning of the probe as much as you can, even if the interpretation is an abstract visual representation.
The image above is my visual representation of several of McLuhan's probes relating to media. It is supposed to convey the idea of the degree of influence that the media has on our perception of things. The media influences how we act, how we dress, and even our values. The image also conveys the idea that our technology; our media, is like an iconic representation of humanity. We are technology.
The two probes that the image above best convey would be:
9) The most human thing about us is our technology.
11) The media work us over completely. They are so pervasive in their personal, political, economic, aesthetic, psychological, moral, ethical, and social consequences that they leave no part of us untouched, unaffected, unaltered. The medium is the massage.
Try out McLuhan’s Tetrad on two technologies/media. Sketch out the chain of effects as you apply the Tetrad (don't just stop at one—try three cycles). Try applying the Tetrad for game design, either in the form of the game, or in relation to objects/technologies/ideas within the game worlds you are creating. How could the Tetrad be used as a brainstorming/ ideation tool? Write down your thoughts on using the Tetrad in this capacity.
We don't need to "make" the tetrads an ideation tool, because just by using the tetrads already helps with ideation, as the tetrads makes us break down the subject at hand into simpler things. The tetrads helps us to see the components of a subject more clearly, helping us to draw more links between the subject itself and other relevant objects. It also helps get our minds churning when we form our tetrads, which is an aid in ideation by itself.
One way to interprete McLuhan’s ideas is that he considers technology as a language, and hence there is a pattern or grammar to technological expression. If gaming is considered a language, then what are its parts and the patterns that connect, and what form does this language create (metaphorically at the very least)? What is the game's equivalent of a word, sentence, paragraph, chapter, leading up to the complete work? In this light, could you consider McLuhan a structuralist? Discuss the implications of this interpretation of McLuhan's world-view.
It is impossible for me to draw an in-depth comparison between gaming and language, as I do not know much about the science behind language. What I do know about language, is that it has a certain structure to it, regardless of what language it is. The difference between languages mostly lie only in their syntax and vocabulary.
Gaming, like language, has a certain structure to it. A game concept is comprised of two things, the game mechanics and its context. While different, the game's mechanics and context come together to form a complete game. The game's mechanics is akin to the language's grammar or syntax, while the context is like the vocabulary. The game's mechanics is like a basic structure that enables the game to work, while the context gives meaning to the game itself.
The similarity that I can draw between a language and a game ends here. I don't think it is particularly useful to represent the parts of gaming metaphorically with the parts of language. Gaming and language are intrinsically different. They serve different purposes, thus their inner parts are vastly different from each other. To try and make a metaphor out of these parts will leave these metaphors with little meaning, as the whole point of a metaphor is to portray an intrinsic similarity between two objects. When the similarities between an item and its metaphorical representation is not resonant, then the metaphor becomes pointless.
I consider McLuhan a structuralist, as he uses a very "mechanical" way of interpreting technology. Like gears in clockwork, he believes that technology has patterns and trends--that the parts of technology are linked together.
His structuralist thinking means that his world view has the same implications as those of a structuralist. Seeing everything as a "gear" in clockwork is a great creator of ideas, in my opinion. I believe that there is a certain order that exists within our universe, and being able to spot patterns allows us to better uncover this elegant order that works in the universe, allowing us to see more things. Care must be taken though, as trying too hard to spot patterns may yield reverse results, causing us to fault as we try too hard to find non-existant patterns.
Create a “Mythic-metaphor” representing a current problem or issue in the world.
The deep doodle above is my mythic-metaphor, representing the problem of terrorism in the world. It shows an angelic figure battling against a devilish figure--a representation of the symbolic "good versus evil" scenario that is often presented in olden myths and contemporary media. It is an accurate depiction, seeing as how terrorists in our world today seem to have an unquenchable fixation on destroying things while the rest of the world are trying their hardest to stop these terrorists. The terrorists play the side of evil, hell-bent on destroying existence, while we play the side of good, trying to save existence.
One notable quirk about the image is how the angel is portrayed as masculine and more aggressive than the devil, despite it being the ambassador of peace. It underlines a basic flaw in our perception of good and evil. In the media, the main character is always portrayed as the saviour, the one who redeems people from the darkness and saves the world from it. At the same time, he is also the one who vanquishes the antagonist, who often is portrayed as the embodiment of evil. The irony of it all is that the act of vanquishing the antagonist sinks him down to the antagonist's level by making him the killer, yet people are perfectly fine with it. In the real world, society labels the people who are "good", and the people who are "evil", and it deems itself worthy of vanquishing those who are "evil". What gives society the right to determine who is beyond hope of saving? Are the people who are labelled "evil" in society made by society's prosecution? Perhaps good and evil isn't that simple after all.
The image above is my visual representation of several of McLuhan's probes relating to media. It is supposed to convey the idea of the degree of influence that the media has on our perception of things. The media influences how we act, how we dress, and even our values. The image also conveys the idea that our technology; our media, is like an iconic representation of humanity. We are technology.
The two probes that the image above best convey would be:
9) The most human thing about us is our technology.
11) The media work us over completely. They are so pervasive in their personal, political, economic, aesthetic, psychological, moral, ethical, and social consequences that they leave no part of us untouched, unaffected, unaltered. The medium is the massage.
Try out McLuhan’s Tetrad on two technologies/media. Sketch out the chain of effects as you apply the Tetrad (don't just stop at one—try three cycles). Try applying the Tetrad for game design, either in the form of the game, or in relation to objects/technologies/ideas within the game worlds you are creating. How could the Tetrad be used as a brainstorming/ ideation tool? Write down your thoughts on using the Tetrad in this capacity.
We don't need to "make" the tetrads an ideation tool, because just by using the tetrads already helps with ideation, as the tetrads makes us break down the subject at hand into simpler things. The tetrads helps us to see the components of a subject more clearly, helping us to draw more links between the subject itself and other relevant objects. It also helps get our minds churning when we form our tetrads, which is an aid in ideation by itself.
One way to interprete McLuhan’s ideas is that he considers technology as a language, and hence there is a pattern or grammar to technological expression. If gaming is considered a language, then what are its parts and the patterns that connect, and what form does this language create (metaphorically at the very least)? What is the game's equivalent of a word, sentence, paragraph, chapter, leading up to the complete work? In this light, could you consider McLuhan a structuralist? Discuss the implications of this interpretation of McLuhan's world-view.
It is impossible for me to draw an in-depth comparison between gaming and language, as I do not know much about the science behind language. What I do know about language, is that it has a certain structure to it, regardless of what language it is. The difference between languages mostly lie only in their syntax and vocabulary.
Gaming, like language, has a certain structure to it. A game concept is comprised of two things, the game mechanics and its context. While different, the game's mechanics and context come together to form a complete game. The game's mechanics is akin to the language's grammar or syntax, while the context is like the vocabulary. The game's mechanics is like a basic structure that enables the game to work, while the context gives meaning to the game itself.
The similarity that I can draw between a language and a game ends here. I don't think it is particularly useful to represent the parts of gaming metaphorically with the parts of language. Gaming and language are intrinsically different. They serve different purposes, thus their inner parts are vastly different from each other. To try and make a metaphor out of these parts will leave these metaphors with little meaning, as the whole point of a metaphor is to portray an intrinsic similarity between two objects. When the similarities between an item and its metaphorical representation is not resonant, then the metaphor becomes pointless.
I consider McLuhan a structuralist, as he uses a very "mechanical" way of interpreting technology. Like gears in clockwork, he believes that technology has patterns and trends--that the parts of technology are linked together.
His structuralist thinking means that his world view has the same implications as those of a structuralist. Seeing everything as a "gear" in clockwork is a great creator of ideas, in my opinion. I believe that there is a certain order that exists within our universe, and being able to spot patterns allows us to better uncover this elegant order that works in the universe, allowing us to see more things. Care must be taken though, as trying too hard to spot patterns may yield reverse results, causing us to fault as we try too hard to find non-existant patterns.
Create a “Mythic-metaphor” representing a current problem or issue in the world.
The deep doodle above is my mythic-metaphor, representing the problem of terrorism in the world. It shows an angelic figure battling against a devilish figure--a representation of the symbolic "good versus evil" scenario that is often presented in olden myths and contemporary media. It is an accurate depiction, seeing as how terrorists in our world today seem to have an unquenchable fixation on destroying things while the rest of the world are trying their hardest to stop these terrorists. The terrorists play the side of evil, hell-bent on destroying existence, while we play the side of good, trying to save existence.
One notable quirk about the image is how the angel is portrayed as masculine and more aggressive than the devil, despite it being the ambassador of peace. It underlines a basic flaw in our perception of good and evil. In the media, the main character is always portrayed as the saviour, the one who redeems people from the darkness and saves the world from it. At the same time, he is also the one who vanquishes the antagonist, who often is portrayed as the embodiment of evil. The irony of it all is that the act of vanquishing the antagonist sinks him down to the antagonist's level by making him the killer, yet people are perfectly fine with it. In the real world, society labels the people who are "good", and the people who are "evil", and it deems itself worthy of vanquishing those who are "evil". What gives society the right to determine who is beyond hope of saving? Are the people who are labelled "evil" in society made by society's prosecution? Perhaps good and evil isn't that simple after all.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Memes and Branding Archetypes
Consider the meme (the idea as replicator/virus). Do you agree with Daniel Denett’s notion of the meme in his TED talk? What are the implications of thinking of ideas in these terms? Consider Susan Blackmore’s extension of the meme—the teme, in your reflections in your blog. What happens if you “extend” (in a McLuhanesque fashion) this idea to its logical extreme?
I agree with Daniel Denett’s notion of the meme that says how memes are replicating packets of information, though I disagree with his negative portrayal of memes—as harmful “viruses”; things that compromise our welfare and survival without giving anything in return.
Memes are very much like genes. They’re two sides of the same coin—polar opposites. While genes are responsible for the survival and the passing on of tangible and physical, memes are responsible for the passing on of the ideological and metaphorical. Just as genes try to replicate themselves, memes very much do too. It is true that memes have the capability to override our natural instinct of ensuring our own survival and reproduction, but that doesn’t make them “harmful viruses” that compromise our best interests in survival. Like genes, memes are subject to natural selection. Bad memes are eliminated simply because they aren’t good enough. Take communism for example—it fell because it was the weaker meme out of itself and capitalism.
While genes govern survival as a singular organism, memes govern survival as a species. If communism were to have gone global after the Cold War, the world would be in a less good state than it is now—more people would’ve died due to poverty and oppression, and there wouldn’t be as many humans as there are now.
Understanding ideas as memes gives us a wider perspective on the world of ideas—a “God’s mode” view on things. Memes show us the world of ideas and its intrinsic operations in its most basic form. It gives more scope to our ideas by allowing us to see things from an “origin point”.
It is interesting to note that Susan Blackmore’s idea about the “teme” is actually a subset of Marshall McLuhan’s idea about how media and technology are extensions of Man. “Temes” are extensions of memes—memes that are spread and sustained by machinery rather than Man himself. It might seem farfetched and right out of an epic sci-fi at first sight, but the idea of the “teme” actually tallies with one of McLuhan’s ideas about machines—that over-reliance on technology creates something called psychic stress, which causes us to lose consciousness over certain aspects of our life because technology takes care of them for us. An example of this is how taking television for granted may shorten our attention spans, as it causes us to take entertainment for granted.
If we “extend” the idea of “temes” to a point of extreme using McLuhan’s logic of media, the ever-increasing presence and power of technology will eventually cause “temes” to replace memes—machines will replace Man in determining what values and ideas are spread by influencing us from within, and we will be completely unaware of their influence over us. This isn’t just because reliance on them renders us unconscious to their effects on us, but also because technology is getting everywhere—even inside our bodies. We will become mechanical beings without our own awareness; and our decisions will be influenced by machines in ways so subtle that we will not be aware of their power over us.
Create a metaphor of an idea – but do not make use of the clichéd naked lightbulb concept, but come up with an original interpretation of the idea metaphor. Next, extend the logical conclusions of this metaphor till you get a image system (or ecology) of ideas relating to it. Starting out with a deep doodle, create a visual representation of this metaphor, with written notes explaining the idea.
I agree with Daniel Denett’s notion of the meme that says how memes are replicating packets of information, though I disagree with his negative portrayal of memes—as harmful “viruses”; things that compromise our welfare and survival without giving anything in return.
Memes are very much like genes. They’re two sides of the same coin—polar opposites. While genes are responsible for the survival and the passing on of tangible and physical, memes are responsible for the passing on of the ideological and metaphorical. Just as genes try to replicate themselves, memes very much do too. It is true that memes have the capability to override our natural instinct of ensuring our own survival and reproduction, but that doesn’t make them “harmful viruses” that compromise our best interests in survival. Like genes, memes are subject to natural selection. Bad memes are eliminated simply because they aren’t good enough. Take communism for example—it fell because it was the weaker meme out of itself and capitalism.
While genes govern survival as a singular organism, memes govern survival as a species. If communism were to have gone global after the Cold War, the world would be in a less good state than it is now—more people would’ve died due to poverty and oppression, and there wouldn’t be as many humans as there are now.
Understanding ideas as memes gives us a wider perspective on the world of ideas—a “God’s mode” view on things. Memes show us the world of ideas and its intrinsic operations in its most basic form. It gives more scope to our ideas by allowing us to see things from an “origin point”.
It is interesting to note that Susan Blackmore’s idea about the “teme” is actually a subset of Marshall McLuhan’s idea about how media and technology are extensions of Man. “Temes” are extensions of memes—memes that are spread and sustained by machinery rather than Man himself. It might seem farfetched and right out of an epic sci-fi at first sight, but the idea of the “teme” actually tallies with one of McLuhan’s ideas about machines—that over-reliance on technology creates something called psychic stress, which causes us to lose consciousness over certain aspects of our life because technology takes care of them for us. An example of this is how taking television for granted may shorten our attention spans, as it causes us to take entertainment for granted.
If we “extend” the idea of “temes” to a point of extreme using McLuhan’s logic of media, the ever-increasing presence and power of technology will eventually cause “temes” to replace memes—machines will replace Man in determining what values and ideas are spread by influencing us from within, and we will be completely unaware of their influence over us. This isn’t just because reliance on them renders us unconscious to their effects on us, but also because technology is getting everywhere—even inside our bodies. We will become mechanical beings without our own awareness; and our decisions will be influenced by machines in ways so subtle that we will not be aware of their power over us.
Create a metaphor of an idea – but do not make use of the clichéd naked lightbulb concept, but come up with an original interpretation of the idea metaphor. Next, extend the logical conclusions of this metaphor till you get a image system (or ecology) of ideas relating to it. Starting out with a deep doodle, create a visual representation of this metaphor, with written notes explaining the idea.
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