What I'm Seeing, Thinking and Doing.

A blog to document 'The Idea Age', a designed fictional future.

[melissa-holly]

Submitting to Tongal

Throughout this project, I have been frequently reminded of two particular things and I feel this final prototype of the Imagination Factory fulfils both. The first, is to take the project ‘as serious as possible’. This was referring to the work created by the children, the approach towards the project and the details within it. These all contributed to the second point, ‘make it real’. By creating documents like spreadsheets and business plans, researching creativity enhancing foods and prototyping as many aspects of the business plan as possible, the project becomes further away from being a fiction and more towards a proposal.

The final prototype was for the Imagination Factory. I set up a workshop with an 11 and 14 year old, to complete a brief for Tongal, the Uber of creative work. The brief was to design a 140 character idea for online retailer Zulily, targeting women and Mums. The aim is to make the women want to enter the site when viewing the advert.

During the workshop, the children discussed how their Mum’s remember and perform so many tasks a day and how they had ‘super powers’. This led to the boy drawing a super hero. They decided on the ad and below shows the description and submission to Tongal.

This submission illustrates one of the key issues situated within the project; ownership of ideas. The idea was theirs, however the submission is under the Imagination Factory. The idea was drawn on to paper stating that ‘All Ideas Belong to the Imagination Factory’. Money was also exchanged for the time they spent producing the idea. However, if the idea is successful it will have generated $500.  

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IDEA AGE TIMELINE

Whist writing the narrative within my Viva, I thought I needed to create something that illustrated how the fictional future had arose. Using both fact and fiction I designed a timeline from the early 1800s to 2025, the year the project is situated in.

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Imagination Factory Map

This illustration shows the layout of the factory and the paths from each department. 

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FACTORY ENVIRONMENTS

After prototyping the factory in various settings I wanted to see how it might look in a bigger, more futuristic and clinical environment. This photoshop illustrates how the factory could look.

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HIERARCHY OF WORKERS

Using the spreadsheet of the Imagination Factory, I continued to make the business real by making a hierarchy of workers.

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Three Stages of the Den

Since an early workshop in which I asked children to draw their dream den, it has been the plan to create 3D prints out of them. The final prints are above.

The image above illustrates the dens in the digital form. The image below shows the original drawings done by the children at the workshop.

[melissa-holly]

Prototyping the Imagination Factory

In order to fully prototype the Imagination Factory, I felt I needed to get as close to the concept as possible. Three of the main processes include designing, making and eating with the full focus on ideas and creativity.

The image above shows the Imagination Factory worker focused and using machinery to create a design, whilst wearing the uniform of the factory.

The image below shows the worker writing notes of how to make his design, on Imagination Factory note paper (which has the ‘if’ symbol, encouragement to be creative, a disclaimer that all ideas on the paper is owned by the factory and archive details on the back).

The final image shows the worker sampling the food at the factory.

[melissa-holly]

Creativity Enhancing Cooking

Similarly to the previous time I experimented with creativity enhancing cookery, I chose a variety of ingredients, thought about them in terms of mains, snacks and puddings and then put together a menu. What did differ this time is that I filmed and photographed the cooking process, which could be made in to a video recipe archive for the Imagination Factory.

The first course was the main, Beef and broccoli, with ribbons of carrots and a spinach puree.

For desert, Darkest dark chocolate slab with a variety of fruits and nuts. Due to the questionable desert I previously made (see the Creative Diet post) I made another desert of Homemade Blueberry Ice Cream with Fresh Blueberries and Cucumber garnish.

I also made a snack, which could be eaten as a booster during the creative process. Homemade Kale Powder Popcorn.

[melissa-holly]

Testing the Curriculum

After collating the data from the Imaginarium workshop in which I asked the children to design a lesson to make adults more creative (more details in Workshop Planning post) I tested some of the lessons suggested. I set up three scenarios for one child and three adults to act in. I told the child (aged five) that he was in charge (the stick in his hand was needed to reinforce the power). The adults had no control over the situation. 

In the scene above I stacked up chairs and the adults, one by one, took a chair and sat side by side. The child then stood in front of them and took charge. I told him to play a game with them, to which he quickly designed a game in which he told them to swap chairs, jump up and down and stand in the corner if they did not obey. The exercise was to reinforce his authority and force the adults to let go and just do what they are told.

In the second scene, the child was told to make them do some form of exercise, a popular suggestion from the curriculum workshop. The adults were made to run, jump and stay still on demand, depending on how the stick was positioned. They obeyed, totally out of control of the situation. 

The image below shows another lesson suggested at the curriculum workshop. The children were keen for the adults to imagine, convert their minds by reminiscing and thinking back to happy experiences as a child. 

During the testing process, I asked the child to tell the adults a story. I told him to make he story up and make them think about when they were children. He proceeded to tell them a story based on the games he played with his friends.

[melissa-holly]

Prototyping

During the workshop, all of the tasks were completed by around 20 children. Some of the children responded better than others, as expected. The Imagination Factory tasks were received well by the majority of the children as they enjoyed playing with Lego. However, some children claimed they hated Lego. Those children were very difficult to get a response from and tended to draw things they enjoyed to draw.

This research suggests that an initial interest in a product is important. I have thought about separating the children based on age, gender or ability, but the amount of interest could also be a method of separation to increase the quality of ideas.

The Imaginarium workshop was also well received, however did turn in to a ‘getting your own back on teachers’ type situation. Many did respond well to the labelling of children and adults and went on to describe a day in the role reversed school, which I can use to design the curriculum. 

[melissa-holly]

Catalogue Photo Shoot

The main purpose of the photograph was to communicate the Imagination Factory in a subtle way. The initial focus of the photograph is a child drawing, but then you notice the badge and then the coverall. They are subtle hints at something more than a child simply drawing.

[melissa-holly]

Workshop Planning

The aim of the workshop is to prototype the process of the Imagination Factory and begin to design the curriculum at the Imaginarium. It will be held at the same school as the den workshop and will be children ranging from the ages 9 to 11. 

The task will be for the Imagination Factory. The brief, taken from creative brief outsourcer, Tongal, is for Lego. The brief is to generate ideas to create an advert for Lego, targeting children around the age of 12 and show audiences that Lego is not just a toy. I have split the workshop up in to sections;

Task 1; 

Think about Lego, what words do you think of?

Do you play with Lego? 

If not, what would make you want to play with Lego? 

Task 2;

You have just been given Lego as a gift, (give three options). Write a story, or draw a picture of what you might make or how you might play with the Lego. 

LEGO TECHNIC: Learn engineering and mechanical principles. LEGO 

MINDSTORMS EV3: Create and command robots to walk, talk, think and do anything you can imagine! Learn about robotics and programming. LEGO 

ARCHITECTURE STUDIO: For the budding architect, a true open-ended creative toolkit of white bricks, with a 272-page book filled with design tips from leading architects! Learn about design and Architecture. 

Task 3 Storyboard / Act out scenes

The second part of the workshop will be the initial designs of the curriculum for the Imaginarium. Again, the tasks will be split up.

Task 1;

Draw an adult, label the traits of an adult, initial words you think of.

Task 2;

Draw a child, again, label the traits of a child.

Task 3;

Imagine you are the head teacher of a school. You are teaching adults (like the one from task 1) to be like the children (from task 2). Your aim is to make the adults more creative.

Write, draw or act out what a day or lesson would be like in the school.

[melissa-holly]

Factory Outfitters

After designing the Imagination Factory logo, I outsourced an embroidered badge. The plan is to attach the badge to the uniforms, to enhance the feeling of a summer camp/factory. It asks as a communication tool for me to work with.

The production of the badge is a continuation of the prototyping process for the factory. 

[melissa-holly]

Speculative Everything

Design Fiction and Social Dreaming by Dunne and Raby explains how design can be used as a tool to generate ideas and forecasting futures. It imagines how things could be ask ‘what if’ questions, intended to open debate and discuss the futures people want.

The books has aided in the development, opened up new possibilities and inspired various aspects of the project.

{Image taken from // http://www.dunneandraby.co.uk/content/books/690/0}

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Designing the Logo

During the research and design of uniforms for the factory, I wanted to design a logo that could be transferred in to an embroidered badge. I kept the grey tones of the corporate business plan, but added some blue to soften the feel. As the Imagination Factory is portrayed as a summer camp to the outside world, I felt the den should be the main focus of the logo, to emphasise the mid tone corporate fun.

[melissa-holly]

Creative Diet

One of the areas I have researched is creative food. Many websites claim that certain foods boost brain power and essentially improve your creativity levels. I took the five main ingredients that frequently came up throughout my research and devised a menu in a Masterchef style scenario (with a severely lesser stocked pantry/cupboard). 

Oily Fish, Kale, Nuts, Tomatoes and Dark Chocolate seemed to be regarded by the vast majority as the most creative foods, so my menu consisted of the following;

Sardine, Sweet Potato and Broccoli Fishcake, with a Toasted Nut Crust. Served with a Sweet Potato and Kale Mash.

Tomato Stuffed with Raisins. Dipped in Dark Chocolate.

The experiment was good for me. I needed to do some actual cooking rather than just researching and by making this first meal I could go on to perfect a perhaps more appetising meal, but by using similar techniques and ingredients.

[melissa-holly]

The Idea Age

As something I was putting off for a while, it was time to give my project a title. I decided on ‘The Idea Age’. Originally, I thought of the title as something that illustrated the project as a fictional future, with the Idea Age meaning the time in which the project is situated. However many other meanings have also arose. Some think the title is commenting on the ideal age of idea generation, the age in which your ideas are the richest. 

I feel the title sums up the project well, with room for interpretation. I have also completed the exert for the catalogue, which is currently as followed;

A fictional future. An ideas economy. Children’s minds are in high demand.

With the notion that during the 'Idea Age’, children are the source of the wealthiest ideas and ideas are the route to success, two possible responses were designed. They both possess utopian/dystopian qualities and highlight social, political, economic and historical issues of the past and future.

The Imaginarium is a role reversed school, in which children reinstate the creativity of adults, lost through the traditional education system. In the past the system has educated the creativity out of students. The aim is to get back their willingness to take risks and alternative viewpoint on the world.

The Imagination Factory is a business set up to extract ideas from children and distribute them to clients. Posing as a creative summer camp to the outside world, the factory is a fully designed business, aiming to make money from the ideas of children.