Creativity Moves Nashville (and Alphachimp!)

/

 

Perrin Ireland graphically records Creativity Moves Nashville; Credit: Matthew Freise, NossiAlphachimps love the lure of the open road- we’ll willingly pack our markers and paper, load up the old roller luggage, and travel around the world to graphically capture an event.

But the events we attend at home, here in Nashville, are a sweet relief. What could be better than going to an action-packed event full of inspiring speakers who all live within a stones throw of us, and then getting home in time for dinner?

Needless to say we were thrilled to be invited to scribe a recent local event, Creativity Moves Nashville. Organized by Jacob Weiss, this half-day conference, held on May 24th, was devoted to connecting artists with causes and entrepreneurs.

Weiss exemplifies a compelling method for artists to lead creative lives full of meaning and success. The solution is simple: make your art relevant, and purposeful, by connecting with a nonprofit or an entrepreneur with a cause, and create impact in your community.

Read More

NPR : RADIOLAB : ANIMAL MINDS

/

Credit: Photo by Kelly CarmodyWhat do animals think? Feel? Believe? Why do we care? Well, most of us do. We really do.

WNYC - Radiolab: Animal Minds (April 02, 2010):

ANIMAL MINDS When we gaze into the eyes of our beloved pets, can we ever really know what they might be thinking? Is it naive to assume they're experiencing something close to human emotions? Or, on the contrary, is it ridiculous to assume that they AREN'T feeling something like that? In this hour of Radiolab, we explore what science can say about what goes on in the minds of animals.

 

/ /
,
, ,

peterdurand

Peter Durand is an artist, educator & visual facilitator based in Houston, Texas.

He is the founder of Alphachimp LLC, a visual facilitation company that helps clients understand and communicate complex systems visually. He is a leader in graphic facilitation and a professor at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law.

GOOD, Wooster Collective & Blu's Sketchbook

/

GOOD Magazine and Wooster Collective have teamed up to bring glimpses of art for the masses, aka. graffiti. Really, it represents the mash-up of public spaces and any form of open source media: wall art, installations, ad "fixing", and eclectic personal projects taken to the streets.

Above is a video page-through of a sketchbook produced by the artist Blu. It is amazing on two levels: (1) the surreal images executed in clean, crisp lines and (2) the fact that this is just one of the hundreds of weekly sketchbooks Blu produces each year!

/ /
,
, ,

peterdurand

Peter Durand is an artist, educator & visual facilitator based in Houston, Texas.

He is the founder of Alphachimp LLC, a visual facilitation company that helps clients understand and communicate complex systems visually. He is a leader in graphic facilitation and a professor at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law.

NPR - Why Some Comics Work... and Some Don't

/

(via http://twitter.com/IFVP)

Jimmy Corrigan, The Smartest Kid On Earthis an example of a comic where the art is doing its job.(Random House)

Glen Weldon posts on NPR Arts correspondent Lynn Neary's piece on All Things Considered about the new graphic novel adaptation of Ray Bradbury's classic Fahrenheit 451. He breaks down what's right and what stinks about the last generation of graphic novels, and how the masters of the form make it work.

Read More

One Million Monkeys Typing

/

monkeys_typing

From Pop!Tech Blog:

The Theory: Given enough time, a hypothetical chimpanzee typing at random would, as part of its output, almost surely produce one of Shakespeare's plays (or any other text).lya Kreymerman and Nina Zito, creators of One Million Monkeys Typing, think so, too. On their new community story-telling site, members collaborate on writing a story (perhaps even a novel), without the pressure or obligation of ever completing the story by themselves.

Founded on the simple premise “read, write, publish”, the project encourages members to create new segments for “story trees”. Before beginning a new story, you must first contribute to a few existing stories. Once you’ve become part of the writing community, you receive permission (or in One Million Monkey terms, a “seed”) to start your own story tree.

The idea of one million monkeys typing is derived from the infinite monkey theorem. Community members are considered “monkeys,” with a designated number indicating the order in which they joined the site.

/ /
,
, ,

peterdurand

Peter Durand is an artist, educator & visual facilitator based in Houston, Texas.

He is the founder of Alphachimp LLC, a visual facilitation company that helps clients understand and communicate complex systems visually. He is a leader in graphic facilitation and a professor at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law.

Storytelling and the Collective Mind

/

Storytelling is a human universal, and common themes appear in tales throughout history and all over the the world. These characteristics of stories, and our natural affinity toward them, reveal clues about our evolutionary history and the roots of emotion and empathy in the mind. By studying narrative’s power to influence beliefs, researchers are discovering how we analyze information and accept new ideas. More at SciAm.com
/ /
,

peterdurand

Peter Durand is an artist, educator & visual facilitator based in Houston, Texas.

He is the founder of Alphachimp LLC, a visual facilitation company that helps clients understand and communicate complex systems visually. He is a leader in graphic facilitation and a professor at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law.