Part 24
September 1998
See with Artist's Eyes
This may integrate brain circuitry and develop
visual detail skills comparable to the intelligence-building effects of
Image-Streaming. It was first encountered as an artist's developmental
technique, but for most educational purposes the level of artistic skills
both before and after matter not. It has also been used as a creative
problem-solving technique, both as an "incubation process" and as a way to
develop and work with metaphor.
To make friends with a tree or
bush.....Once you've selected the tree or bush you are going to make close
friends with---
A. Make a quick 2-minute sketch of that
tree or bush, overall.
B. Ask yourself the first of the following
questions, then answer it by quickly sketching three different ways to
represent what you see at that point--
1. How do the trunk and main branches
run?
2. What is the bark like? (For example,
cross-hatched; smudge within an outline with lines tracing through it; a
tangle of striations, etc.etc.)
3. How does the trunk come out of the
ground?
4. What do the leaves, the foliage, look
like?
5. What is the tree's main strategy for
getting light (--if that tee is closely surrounded by other comparable
trees, that is, how does it get its share of the light and does it
repeat that strategy at different points?)
6. What is the space this tree occupies
and/or in what way or manner does it occupy this
space?
C. Then an overall picture of your
tree.
Similarly, in drawing a person you could
ask yourself--and tri-sketch answer--"How does the neck come out of the
shoulders," "or how does the nose relate to the eyes," etc. etc. --up to
maybe 10 questions to tri-sketch answer, on anything you attempt to draw
sketch or paint. At least six such questions, three sketches answering
each, seem to be needed to kick in the desired effects. Those desired
effects probably will show some marked artistic improvement in the final
picture as the effects of all those diverse sketches will inform your
rendering. But you will be seeing far more about not only the object
sketched but about everything, and with 80% of the brain involved with
vision, this should be significant as regards "intelligence" by whatever
definition. We'd love to see someone come up with a measurement study 2
months following a time when the experimental subjects so sketched 2-3
diverse such objects per week for 6-8 weeks.
--AS AN IDEA-GENERATING DEVICE IN CREATIVE
PROBLEM-SOLVING:
The problems which solve by means of review
of what we know about them, nearly all have already been solved. The ones
which are left to us are the ones which don't solve that way. There, what
we "know" has become the problem by standing between us and the fresh
perceptions needed wherein to find good answer. Moreover, by mulling over
and over what we "know" about the problem, we've engendered neuronal
habituation - i.e., put most of our intelligence to sleep in context of
the problem. The successful CPS programs around the world are those which
somehow move us beyond what we "know" and into fresh perceptions about the
problem. So--
Generally, it seems to be a very good idea
to move from mulling over what we know about the problem, to some sort of
perception or perceiving in relation to the problem.
If the sketching of your tree or bush or
whatever did not bring up ideas by "incubation" (unconscious ideas
becoming conscious for you while your inner noise levels were down amidst
some pleasant arts-related activity), start off doing your next sketch of
some object by saying, "This problem is like this bush (or object), or
this bush is like the problem, in that....." If your tree were that
problem, who or what would be the trunk? Who or what the roots? Who or
what the folliage?" etc. etc.etc. Then put consideration of the problem
aside and start those tri-answer sketches. See if somewhere along the way,
ideas aren't kicked loose for you. Keep a notepad or tape recorder handy
close by for when the ideas do start coming up.
Another Way to Kick Loose Ideas via 'Going
Perceptual' on the Problem:
Whatever that problem is, somehow make a
quick overall sketch of it. Whether literal and specific, "abstract," or
in lieu of anything else somehow depicting your feelings about that
problem. (Some literal, sketchable portrayal is preferred but not
required. (2-5 minutes. Keep close by a notepad nto which you can jot
ideas in words if and as these occur to you.)
Find 4-8 detail questions you can ask
yourself about the problem, questions whose answer somehow, one way or
another, can be sketched. In answer to each of those questions, find three
different but quick ways to depict your answer to that question. Then,
Sketch a fresh picture of the problem and of what has since occurred to
you in relation to it. --Including anything which might be a possible idea
toward its solution....
[If this activity were done in a group,
present your sketch and all the things, whether 'relevant' or no, which
came into your awareness during this process....
Conclusion: Image-Streaming,
Over-the-Wall, Quick Q/A and High Thinktank methods from Project
Renaissance, and many of the "Visionizing" techniques set forth by Dr. Sid
Parnes in his book of that title, among modern versions of Einsteinian
Discovery Technique, probably are far more immediate and effective for
discovering your best answer to most issues and problems, but the
"Artist's Eyes" approach can be a good back-up when needed, once learned,
and its practice is probably another good builder of intelligence.
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