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21

Mar

Creative Inspiration from 365 Superheroes

by Meredith Mullins on March 21, 2013

Mulch, overgrown and green, serves as creative inspiration for one of 365 superheroes.

Superhero #68, Mulch, takes on the world.
© Everett Downing

Getting Inspired . . . The Superhero Way

When I was eight, I thought I could fly. Turns out I couldn’t. (One of the more brutal “Oh, I see” Moments of my life.)

I jumped joyously from the top railing of our porch steps, waiting for my arms to become wings. But soon after liftoff, I found myself in a crumpled heap at the bottom of my launch pad.

I had been so sure. So sure I could fly. After all, I had role models like Superman, Peter Pan and Wendy, Captain Marvel, the Flying Nun, and Dumbo.

The creative inspiration was there. But, regrettably, superpowers don’t come easily.

Limelight, neon green flying superhero, serves as creative inspiration for 365 superheroes

Limelight—Superhero #162

Superpowers and Superheroes

We all wish for superpowers. Flight. Invisibility. X-Ray Vision. Extraordinary Strength. Mind Control. Ability to Time Travel. Healing Prowess.

And sometimes we just wish for superheroes to come along and save the day.

Maybe the key is this:

If we need them, they will come.

Civil Liberty—female superhero in red, white, and blue—serves as creative inspiration for 365 superheroes

Civil Liberty, Superhero #79, fights for justice.
© Everett Downing

Imagining the Supers

Superpowers and superheroes give us hope, especially in the face of overwhelming odds or even just the everyday problems of living life.

For Pixar Story Artist Everett Downing, the supers were the creative inspiration he needed.

He was ready for an artistic self-kick in the pants. He felt he was in a rut and needed to shake things up a bit.

So, he made a New Year’s Resolution to draw a superhero every day—a way to set his right brain free. 365 supers. He would let creativity and imagination (and his childhood love of weird and wild heroes) take over.

His only guideline was not to overthink. The drawing could not take more than an hour.

Whipper/Snapper, lobster claws and whips, creative inspiration for 365 superheroes

Partners Whipper and Snapper, Superheroes #132 and 133
© Everett Downing

He found it easiest sometimes to be inspired by the name—one he had thought of or an offer from friends, fans, or family. A cool name like Vibe or Apex or a pun or word play like Arm and Hammer, Alpha Romeo, Giga-bite, Red Cross and Blue Shield.

Sometimes an origin story came first, like Pandorceress, and the character grew from the story he wove. (She found Pandora’s box and opened it. Then paid with her eyesight but was given dark wisdom in return.)

Think Tank, a tank with a brain, creative inspiration for 365 superheroes

Think Tank, Superhero #282—brute force and brain power.
© Everett Downing

From Impulse to LOL—Just Have Fun

Creating the whole cast of characters took him a bit longer than he expected, but he stayed with it. He just finished #365 last week, with his blog fans (365 Supers) and Facebook friends cheering him across the finish line.

“I won’t say it wasn’t tough,” he says. “I wanted to quit plenty of times. But getting encouragement from people can be extremely powerful.”  When he got stuck, his supercommunity would give him a gentle push and remind him to “just have fun.”

Everett Downing, artist who drew 365 superheroes for creative inspiration

Everett Downing keeps his resolution—
365 superheroes . . . done!
© Michael B. Johnson

From Howler to Cacophony to Emoticon to Morph Fiend—these supers can do everything from “creating crushing decibles at will” to “morphing into whatever form suits the moment.”

Sometimes they are partners (Shock and Awesome, Ball and Chain, Whipper/Snapper), sometimes dread enemies, and sometimes even adversaries and lovers (Deal Breaker and Heart Breaker).

Auntie Matter, pink and black female superhero, creative inspiration for 365 superheroes

Auntie Matter, Superhero #95
© Everett Downing

Oh, I See

These heroes (and villains) are full of power and creative inspiration. “Everyone wants to believe that we can be larger than life,” Everett says of the superhero phenomenon, “and that one person can make a big difference.”

But the real “Oh, I see” moment is that we don’t need to be a superhero to do right and might. We mortals may not be able to fly or have x-ray vision, but we can heal and help, find extraordinary strength, and champion causes with dogged determination (like Dober-Man and the Pincher) when we need to.

And we can give ourselves creative challenges (and meet them!) just to keep life interesting. That’s a superpower of the best kind.

Thank you, Everett Downing, for the creative inspiration . . . and a whole new world of superheroes.

Silent Knight, creative inspiration for 365 superheroes

Silent Knight, Superhero #284
© Everett Downing

 

Stay tuned for Everett’s next projects on Mr. Scribbles’ Sketchblog. We just might see a reunion of this awe-inspiring cast of characters.

VIA National Public Radio and Wired Magazine

Comment on this post below, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.

 

The World's Art & Design

14

Mar

Creative Expression Glows In a Crowdsourced Sunset

by Sheron Long on March 14, 2013

Sunset, seen in a photographer's creative expression and contributed to the crowdsourced Virtual Sunset project

The day says adieu in this sunset over the Pacific Ocean in Cambria, California.
© Sheron Long

Shared Creativity

A few years back, standing with friends on the edge of the western world, I caught a glorious sunset in my lens. It was a moment of creative expression as we laughed at pelicans diving for dinner against the glow.

We were about to dive for dinner too, but first we each had to create a tasty dish. Then we feasted on our shared creativity, a kind of friend-sourced dinner.

At work this week, I collaborated on creating our free ebook—50 Dos and DON’Ts for Living and Laughing.  The team lived through the arguments during photo selection (by applying some of the advice in the book), and we laughed a lot. When it was over, there was some of each of us in this team-sourced book.

Shared creativity has been a theme of my life, a great way to stay connected with others. So, when I heard about the Virtual Sunset, created by Studio Tobias Klein, I was intrigued.

Here was an opportunity to create and connect on a bigger scale, really big—like the size of our planet.

The Crowdsourced Sunset

In a three-year project, Tobias Klein is creating the first crowd-sourced choreographed global sunset. It relies on the compilation of sunset images uploaded to his site by people around the world.

Visit Virtual Sunset to see the sunset sites in the collection thus far (and add your own). Click on a pin to see the sunset itself. There’s the one I took in Cambria, California!

World map showing sunsets crowdsourced for the Virtual Sunset project from the creative expression of global photographers

Pins on the world map locate the sunsets crowdsourced for the Virtual Sunset project.
map image © 2013 NASA, TerraMetrics courtesy of Studio Tobias Klein

Klein digitally stores these sunset images, geolocated by time and place. For the installation, he hangs three kilometers of silicone translucent tubing in strips from a rig on the ceiling. He then projects the images in real time onto the tubing. The result? Shared creativity in a three-dimensional artwork that captures the transient nature of a sunset.

Virtual Sunset projecting sunset images crowdsourced from the creative expression of photographers around the world

Translucent tubing hangs in the Virtual Sunset installation, Industry Gallery, Washington DC
photo by Brandon Webster courtesy of Studio Tobias Klein

The installation first appeared at London’s Victoria & Albert Museum. It is now on display at the Industry Gallery in Washington, DC, ending on March 20, 2013, the day of the vernal equinox.

At the Industry Gallery, projections from one side of the room show the actual sunset from Washington, DC, while those from the other side show a composite of the crowd-sourced images from the global collection in real time. For example, the sunset taken in Nice, France, at 7:00 pm shows up in the projection at 1:00 pm in DC.

Each future installation will vary based on its physical location and the sunset images that continue to populate the collection.

Strolling Through Creative Expression

Meandering through the tubing in the Virtual Sunset can be meditative, a tangible way to experience collective sunsets as time elapses around the world.

Virtual Sunset projecting sunset images crowdsourced from the creative expression of photographers around the world

Moving through the Virtual Sunset installation at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London
photo by Miyukii Yamanaka courtesy of Studio Tobias Klein

But the experience also invites you to sense the power of creative collaboration—the mix of Tobias Klein’s creative genius in conceiving the project and the creative expression of all those who contributed their sunsets for the global show.

Oh, I see. Shared creativity is people glue.

—It binds friendships over dinner.

—It gives common cause at work.

—Even when you don’t know the other people with whom you share your creative expression, you’re connected to them in the moment.

Together with the Virtual Sunset team and galleries, those of us who participated in this project made something bigger than ourselves. Those of us who walked through the glow of the Virtual Sunset got to share real sunsets experienced by others all over the world.

Now that’s collaboration!

Find the thrill of shared creativity in one of these crowdsourcing projects: 

 

For another article on crowdsourcing, read “Creative Ideas: Dishes Feed a Community Art Project.”

Comment on this post below, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.

 

The World's Art & Design/The World's Photography

11

Mar

What Seeds Vertical Farms? Creative Problem Solving!

by Janine Boylan on March 11, 2013

Growing plants, illustrating creative problem solving at The Plant Chicago

Vegetables growing in water at The Plant, Chicago
© Plant Chicago, NFP/Rachel Swenie

How “The Plant” in Chicago Inspired Me

You may have heard that “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” Headed by John Edel, the team at The Plant in Chicago is putting this concept to work—in farming. Their creative problem solving is directed at achieving truly sustainable food production.

Housed in a former meatpacking plant building, The Plant is an indoor vertical farm with a closed-loop production model. How does it work?

Aquaponics

First, there is an aquaponics system which occupies one-third of the former factory. Fresh-water tilapia fish are raised in large tanks. The fish produce waste, which becomes watery fertilizer for the vegetable plants growing nearby in hydroponic beds. In absorbing the fertilizer, the plants clean the water, which is then returned to the fish tanks. The fish help the plants; the plants help the fish.

fish, illustrating healthy relationships at The Plant Chicago

Tilapia thrive in water cleaned by the vegetable plants.
© Plant Chicago, NFP/Rachel Swenie

Tea, Mushrooms, Beer

But aquaponics is just part of the system, which also connects food productions in other sustainable ways. For example:

Garden and factory, illustrating healthy relationships

Outdoor garden and factory building at The Plant Chicago
© Plant Chicago, NFP/Rachel Swenie

  • The Plant brews kombucha, a fermented tea. The staff plans to connect the growing room to the fermenting room so that the air can circulate between them. The brewing process absorbs oxygen produced by the vegetable plants, and it gives back carbon dioxide that the plants need. Some estimates show that this carbon dioxide will improve plant growth up to 20%.
  • Mushrooms were selected for production because they are natural decomposers that thrive on the waste from the fish and the plants.
  • Eventually beer brewing will be added to the system. The grains left over from brewing are a waste product that can be used for fish food and mushroom bedding.

Not all the waste is currently being used. And that’s where the Digester comes in.

The Digester

An anaerobic digester is being installed to “consume” excess food, human, and fish waste. It will produce methane gas which will be converted to energy to run the growing lights and fish filters, as well as to provide heat and electricity.

In all the digester will keep 10,000 tons of waste a year out of landfills.

Oh, and one more part of the creative problem solving: All of The Plant’s food products provide healthy meals, cooked and served by small food businesses in other parts of the building.

Jim Parks of Today’s Green Minute summarizes in this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMBxJTQqnRI

If video does not display, watch it here.

Closing Loops At Home

My OIC moment from The Plant? It is inspiring to see an urban, zero-waste model of food production, but it also inspired me to recognize several examples of “closed-loop” problem solving in my own life:

  • Donating construction materials I don’t need to the waste management site; obtaining wood chips from them to put in my yard.
  • Giving moving boxes to a friend who needs them; receiving things like craft paper and yarn that she doesn’t want to move.
  • Feeding food scraps to the worms in my worm bin; harvesting the fertilizer they produce and using it to grow more fruits and vegetables.

Just as plants grow 20% better because of the input of the kombucha, our communities grow stronger and stay cleaner when we practice this closed-loop problem solving!

Comment on this post below, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.

 

Clever Ideas/Innovations

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