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How to write creative non-fiction history

Discovering an old photo album from the 1920s, celebrated author and adjunct professor Paul Ashton embarked on a journey to turn historical research into engaging creative non-fiction, blending meticulous evidence with captivating storytelling. Here he shares he insights on the fascinating process. One afternoon my elderly father and niece came to my home for lunch. On their way they had seen something on a council clean up. ‘We thought you might be interested in this,’ said my father handing me a small, brown photo album. I was. The album contained around 100 undated black and white photographs. It became apparent quickly that this was the record of a road trip done in the 1920s or 1930s. A boy, two women and a man had gone on a trip from Sydney up through New England, to Tamworth then to Brisbane and back to Sydney. Shadows in some of the images indicate that they were taken by the man and at least one of the women. The album provided the basis for my first children’s book, Palmer’s Mystery Hikes. One photograph stood out for me. Hundreds of people were gathered somewhere in the bush. In the far left-hand corner in the background was an elevated table covered with a large white tablecloth. With a magnifying glass I could just make out ‘Palmers [something] Hike’. In 1932 Palmer’s men and boys’ department store, in Park Street in Sydney, had established a hiking club to promote the sale of hiking apparel. You bought a ‘mystery’ ticket from New South Wales Railways with which Palmer had an arrangement; turned up at Central Station on Sunday morning; and were taken to a mystery destination. From there you did a ten-mile hike to another station and were then trained back to Sydney. There were five hikes. The third one to the Hawkesbury River attracted over 8,000 people. Turning historical research into believable fiction or creative non-fiction has certain demands. How do you strike a balance between historical research and evidence and the narrative form? This is a big question and will ultimately depend on many things, including the availability of primary and secondary sources and the nature of the particular narrative. But perhaps the most important question is: how do writers use the past to give their work historical dimensions and insights? For me, the most critical element is context. And it’s the thing most missing in much historically based fictional literature. Evoking people, places and periods involves understandings of things such as continuity and change over time, historical process – like colonisation and suburbanisation – ideologies and superstitions. Where appropriate, these should form subtle backgrounds to the narrative. Fiction and creative non-fiction as historical modes of presenting history should also show – not tell. My edited collection, If It’s not True It Should Be (Halstead Press), explores writing history using fictional techniques. As Peter Stanley has written in that book, ‘those who seek to illuminate the past through the imaginative recreation of historical fiction … [are] motivated by the fundamental conviction that what links the fidelity of the historian and the imagination of the historical novelist is that the work of both should be offered and read as if it were true.’ ABOUT THE AUTHOR Paul Ashton is adjunct professor and co-founder of the Australian Centre for Public History at the University of Technology Sydney and adjunct professor at the University of Canberra and Macquarie University. He has authored, co-authored, edited and co-edited over 40 books and is editor of the journal Public History Review. His series of creative non-fiction children’s histories – Accidental Histories – is being published by Halstead Press. Images: Supplied

Books

“Entitled as”: Tesla driver mocked for creative parking

A Tesla driver's parking skills has sparked an online debate after pictures of the vehicle parked across two parking spots was posted on Facebook. The black Tesla Model Y was parked at the Orion Springfield shopping centre in Queensland, and most online commenters condemned the driver's actions. “Of course, it’s a Tesla owner. Entitled as mentality,” one wrote. “They should find somewhere else to charge it or go home," another commented. However, some commenters pointed out that the charging station could be the problem, and with an increase in drivers choosing electric vehicles, it sparked a few questions on the accessibility of the charging stations across the country. “Maybe that was the only way to reach the plug? EV owners should be allowed to fuel up just as we do," one commenter wrote. “The one at fault … is the silver car parked in the charging spot not on charge, so I guess they [the Tesla owner] had to park like that to charge up," another said. In another incident last April, another Tesla driver was criticised for parking their Model 3 – with an attached trailer – over the kerb next to the charging bay. However, the photo also highlighted the accessibility issues as current charging stations for EV's do not accomodate to oversized vehicles, so drivers may have to come up with other ways to charge. A spokesperson for Standards Australia said that a charger reform is currently being discussed by all relevant regulators. "There's a lot of work going on right now as our vehicle fleet becomes more electric. This includes consideration of charging infrastructure, its placement, and matters of safety and amenity," the spokesperson told Drive. "Standards Australia is working with governments, industry and the community to identify what standards are needed for charging infrastructure and how they can be embedded in our communities." Image: Drive/ Facebook

Legal

6 creative ways to make money

If you’re planning for retirement or have already retired, it’s quite likely you’re conscious about sources of income to support your lifestyle change. Leaving the nine-to-five workforce doesn’t have to mean you will need to start to rely solely on your nest egg and investments for money. Here are a few ways you mightn’t have thought of to keep the money coming in; Sell old stuff – Look around you at home. You may find an Aladdin’s cave of treasures, some of which are no longer any use to you. These can be a valuable source of pocket money – as long as your kids and grandkids don’t have eyes for them! There are an increasing number of ways to find potential customers hungry for your bargains. Sites like eBay, craigslist and Gumtree are the most popular if you’re digitally inclined, however don’t forget the old faithful garage sale – it’s also a great way to build your social connections with the local community. Rent a room or car – This is another big growth industry as people and businesses look at their assets and clever ways to create two-way benefits by making them available to rent – users get an affordable and convenient resource and you get the hip-pocket benefit for something often under-utilised. There’s the obvious ideas such as renting out spare rooms to boarders, but also consider unused car parking spaces, a car that you may not often drive, even your house for location shoots for films and commercials. Consulting or teaching – If you’ve left that 20-year corporate career but are still interested in options for work, there’s no shortage of ways to reinvent yourself. Think of how you can bridge your career experience and skills with part-time, consulting or tutoring roles. New work – You can also try something completely different such as being a film or television commercial extra (there are lots of roles for more mature characters), mystery shopper, dog walker, pet or child minder, tour guide or part time gardener. Online gigs – Online outsourcing and working remotely is more popular than ever, and there’s a broad range of work you can now find online and undertake from the convenience of your desktop. Look at market research, blogging, paid surveys and reviews as a few options. Websites like Airtasker offer everything from jobs you can do from home such as copywriting, data input and logo design through to trade jobs such as lawn mowing or deliveries. Home business – You might consider finally starting up your own business from home, whether it’s catering or cooking goodies for the local markets, making furniture, becoming the next Van Gough or writing thrillers. It’s a great way to realise a new or unexploited talent or skill and make some extra cash along the way. Another way of consolidating housing costs while supplementing income might be setting up a B&B or taking a role as an onsite property manager.

Money & Banking

How an inspired moment led to a creative new path after retirement

Seventy-year-old Bruce Blomfield is an inspirational character who decided to pursue his passion for yoga when he retired. Here 54-year-old yoga instructor, Tracy Adshead, interviews Bruce about his story and why he thinks that yoga offers something for everyone. Tracy: How did it all start? Bruce: When I decided to retire in 2014, I joined a yoga group on a trip to Nepal, where we assisted with resource development in a remote village and also practiced yoga with the spectacular Himalayas as a backdrop. Our yoga teacher on the trip was very enthusiastic about the success she was having with her chair yoga classes for seniors in her Australian hometown. This got me thinking – maybe this was something I could work toward as a retirement pursuit and offer as a service to other seniors in my community. Tracy: As someone over 60 were there any particular challenges to completing the teacher training? Bruce: I had a ‘mid-life crisis’ about 20 years ago and changed career direction, this entailed quite a bit of academic study which I thrived on. However, when I launched into the academic content of the yoga teacher training, along with the physical and emotional challenges, the brain took some ‘serious encouragement’ to take up the challenge; bit of a wake-up call. My brain believed it had been pensioned off! Anything worthwhile requires effort and the teacher-training programme certainly endorsed this! Squatting on the floor for long periods with my old bones was interesting and it quickly forced my brain and body out of retirement mode. Physical, mental/academic and emotional challenges meant I had to dig deep but the rewards have been enriching in every way – new friendships, a renewed personal commitment and confidence. What I experienced was an ongoing ‘tension’ between challenging myself with new mental, emotional and physical tasks whilst at the same time needing to offer myself, and my body forgiveness, along with a lot of self-love, when some parts were out of reach! Tracy: Have your experiences of teaching or practicing yoga changed your view of ageing at all? Bruce: I took up yoga about 14 years ago largely due to injuries from a 30+ year farming career – including a hip replacement. As I age and my yoga journey progresses, I gain great confidence and solace from the physical and mental benefits that yoga provides me with. Yoga offers something for everyone – there is no need to vegetate due to restricted mobility, or some form of physical incapacitation. I believe now that ageing does require you to maintain a certain non-judgemental demeanour about yourself as you stumble through. Tracy: What advice would you offer anyone approaching retirement about pursuing a new venture? Bruce: Probably for the first time in your life you can really ‘go with the flow’ – if you have a passion for something - give it a shot. Whether it works or not the experience is a huge growth curve – you learn so much about yourself. Maintain self-love it will bring you contentment, as I mentioned - anything worthwhile requires effort! Take a deep breath and give it a go. Tracy: What are you up to when you're not teaching yoga? Bruce: My wife and I have three children and six grandchildren who are a big part of our lives. We like to travel each year and spend time with friends. I also read, swim and have a gym routine which I practice on a regular basis. And of course now I’m very involved in my community teaching Chair Yoga at our local retirement village. I’m not sure who motivates who – but we have a blast during these classes! Images: Getty

Retirement Life

Creative ways to use leftover eggshells

Eggshells are surprisingly versatile, so you may want to keep them around. There are various ways you can use the shells around your home and garden! <h3 dir="ltr" role="presentation">1. Fertilise plants</h3> There are plenty of natural sources you can use, like compost and manure, but you can also use eggshells! Crushed eggshells are a great source of calcium, which is needed for healthy plant growth. Rinse out the eggshells, let them dry, then crush them into small pieces and sprinkle them in the garden soil. They will break down over time, providing an excellent source of calcium for your plants. <h3 dir="ltr">2. Feed the birds</h3> Just like plants, and us, birds rely on calcium for strength, and if you’re a bird fan, then this is a sure way to keep them coming back. They’re a great addition to a bird’s diet, especially during nesting season. Rinse out the eggshells and let them dry, then crush them into small pieces and sprinkle them around the garden for birds to find. <h3 dir="ltr">3. Make a scouring powder</h3> You can use eggshells to make your own scouring powder to clean pots and pans. Rinse out the shells and let them dry, then crush or grind them. Mix the crushed eggshells with baking soda to create a natural powder strong enough to remove tough stains and grime. Don’t egg-nor the power of eggshells! Image credit: Shutterstock

Home & Garden

Creative ways to store more in your tiny bathroom

Having a small bathroom doesn’t necessarily have to mean you don’t have enough space, you just have to think outside the box! Getting creative with storage can make the smallest of bathrooms look stylish. 1. Towel racks Using vertical space will help to clear out storage spaces built into your bathroom. Invest in a wall-mounted rack for towels, using bright-coloured towels can add a pop of colour to the room as well. 2. Basket Shelves Mount a set of baskets on your bathroom wall, you can keep cosmetics here or some candles and an indoor plant for decoration. 3. Adhesive hooks Make use of the space behind your bathroom door. Attach adhesive hooks to the inside of the door to store hair dryers, brushes and accessories. 4. Roll-away cart If you’ve got a really cluttered bathroom, use a wheeled cart to store your soaps, lotions, shampoo and conditioner. It saves a cluttered sink and you can roll it in and out for convenience. 5. Dual purpose mirror A two-in-one mirror can be a lifesaver for small spaces. Store your cosmetics, health care products and toothbrushes behind a stylish mirror. Don't think you can't have it all in a tiny space! With a creative mindset, you can fit all of your goodies into your bathroom. Image credit: Shutterstock

Home Hints & Tips

ChatGPT, DALL-E 2 and the collapse of the creative process

In 2022, OpenAI – one of the world’s leading artificial intelligence research laboratories – released the text generator <a href="https://chat.openai.com/chat">ChatGPT</a> and the image generator <a href="https://openai.com/dall-e-2/">DALL-E 2</a>. While both programs represent monumental leaps in natural language processing and image generation, they’ve also been met with apprehension. Some critics have <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2022/12/chatgpt-ai-writing-college-student-essays/672371/">eulogized the college essay</a>, while others have even <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/02/technology/ai-artificial-intelligence-artists.html">proclaimed the death of art</a>. But to what extent does this technology really interfere with creativity? After all, for the technology to generate an image or essay, a human still has to describe the task to be completed. The better that description – the more accurate, the more detailed – the better the results. After a result is generated, some further human tweaking and feedback may be needed – touching up the art, editing the text or asking the technology to create a new draft in response to revised specifications. Even the DALL-E 2 art piece that recently won first prize in the Colorado State Fair’s digital arts competition <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/artificial-intelligence-art-wins-colorado-state-fair-180980703/">required a great deal of human “help”</a> – approximately 80 hours’ worth of tweaking and refining the descriptive task needed to produce the desired result. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> Today's moody <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AIart?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#AIart</a> style is... 🖤 deep blacks ↘️ angular light 🧼 clean lines 🌅 long shadows More in thread, full prompts in [ALT] text! <a href="https://t.co/tUV0ZfQyYb">pic.twitter.com/tUV0ZfQyYb</a> — Guy Parsons (@GuyP) <a href="https://twitter.com/GuyP/status/1612539185214234624?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 9, 2023</a></blockquote> It could be argued that by being freed from the tedious execution of our ideas – by focusing on just having ideas and describing them well to a machine – people can let the technology do the dirty work and can spend more time inventing. But in our work as philosophers at <a href="https://www.umb.edu/ethics">the Applied Ethics Center at University of Massachusetts Boston</a>, we have written about <a href="https://doi.org/10.1515/mopp-2021-0026">the effects of AI on our everyday decision-making</a>, <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780429470325-28/owning-future-work-alec-stubbs">the future of work</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s43681-022-00245-6">worker attitudes toward automation</a>. Leaving aside the very real ramifications of <a href="https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2022-12-21/artificial-intelligence-artists-stability-ai-digital-images">robots displacing artists who are already underpaid</a>, we believe that AI art devalues the act of artistic creation for both the artist and the public. <h2>Skill and practice become superfluous</h2> In our view, the desire to close the gap between ideation and execution is a chimera: There’s no separating ideas and execution. It is the work of making something real and working through its details that carries value, not simply that moment of imagining it. Artistic works are lauded not merely for the finished product, but for the struggle, the playful interaction and the skillful engagement with the artistic task, all of which carry the artist from the moment of inception to the end result. The focus on the idea and the framing of the artistic task amounts to <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-paul-mccartneys-the-lyrics-can-teach-us-about-harnessing-our-creativity-170987">the fetishization of the creative moment</a>. Novelists write and rewrite the chapters of their manuscripts. Comedians “write on stage” in response to the laughs and groans of their audience. Musicians tweak their work in response to a discordant melody as they compose a piece. In fact, the process of execution is a gift, allowing artists to become fully immersed in a task and a practice. It allows them to enter <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/flow-mihaly-csikszentmihalyi?variant=32118048686114">what some psychologists call the “flow” state</a>, where they are wholly attuned to something that they are doing, unaware of the passage of time and momentarily freed from the boredom or anxieties of everyday life. This playful state is something that would be a shame to miss out on. <a href="https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/?id=p073182">Play tends to be understood as an autotelic activity</a> – a term derived from the Greek words auto, meaning “self,” and telos meaning “goal” or “end.” As an autotelic activity, play is done for itself – it is self-contained and requires no external validation. For the artist, the process of artistic creation is an integral part, maybe even the greatest part, of their vocation. But there is no flow state, no playfulness, without engaging in skill and practice. And the point of ChatGPT and DALL-E is to make this stage superfluous. <h2>A cheapened experience for the viewer</h2> But what about the perspective of those experiencing the art? Does it really matter how the art is produced if the finished product elicits delight? We think that it does matter, particularly because the process of creation adds to the value of art for the people experiencing it as much as it does for the artists themselves. Part of the experience of art is knowing that human effort and labor has gone into the work. Flow states and playfulness notwithstanding, art is the result of skillful and rigorous expression of human capabilities. Recall <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUOlnvGpcbs">the famous scene</a> from the 1997 film “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119177/">Gattaca</a>,” in which a pianist plays a haunting piece. At the conclusion of his performance, he throws his gloves into the admiring audience, which sees that the pianist has 12 fingers. They now understand that he was genetically engineered to play the transcendent piece they just heard – and that he could not play it with the 10 fingers of a mere mortal. Does that realization retroactively change the experience of listening? Does it take away any of the awe? <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2004/04/the-case-against-perfection/302927/">As the philosopher Michael Sandel notes</a>: Part of what gives art and athletic achievement its power is the process of witnessing natural gifts playing out. People enjoy and celebrate this talent because, in a fundamental way, it represents the paragon of human achievement – the amalgam of talent and work, human gifts and human sweat. <h2>Is it all doom and gloom?</h2> Might ChatGPT and DALL-E be worth keeping around? Perhaps. These technologies could serve as catalysts for creativity. It’s possible that the link between ideation and execution can be sustained if these AI applications are simply viewed as mechanisms for creative imagining – <a href="https://openai.com/blog/dall-e-2-extending-creativity/">what OpenAI calls</a> “extending creativity.” They can generate stimuli that allow artists to engage in more imaginative thinking about their own process of conceiving an art piece. Put differently, if ChatGPT and DALL-E are the end results of the artistic process, something meaningful will be lost. But if they are merely tools for fomenting creative thinking, this might be less of a concern. For example, a game designer could ask DALL-E to provide some images about what a Renaissance town with a steampunk twist might look like. A writer might ask about descriptors that capture how a restrained, shy person expresses surprise. Both creators could then incorporate these suggestions into their work. But in order for what they are doing to still count as art – in order for it to feel like art to the artists and to those taking in what they have made – the artists would still have to do the bulk of the artistic work themselves. Art requires makers to keep making. <h2>The warped incentives of the internet</h2> Even if AI systems are used as catalysts for creative imaging, we believe that people should be skeptical of what these systems are drawing from. It’s important to pay close attention to the incentives that underpin and reward artistic creation, particularly online. Consider the generation of AI art. These works draw on images and video that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/nov/12/when-ai-can-make-art-what-does-it-mean-for-creativity-dall-e-midjourney">already exist</a> online. But the AI is not sophisticated enough – nor is it incentivized – to consider whether works evoke a sense of wonder, sadness, anxiety and so on. They are not capable of factoring in aesthetic considerations of novelty and cross-cultural influence. Rather, training ChatGPT and DALL-E on preexisting measurements of artistic success online will tend to replicate the dominant incentives of the internet’s largest platforms: <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/josp.12489">grabbing and retaining attention</a> for the sake of data collection and user engagement. The catalyst for creative imagining therefore can easily become subject to an addictiveness and attention-seeking imperative rather than more transcendent artistic values. It’s possible that artificial intelligence is at a precipice, one that evokes a sense of “<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2004/04/the-case-against-perfection/302927/">moral vertigo</a>” – the uneasy dizziness people feel when scientific and technological developments outpace moral understanding. Such vertigo can lead to apathy and detachment from creative expression. If human labor is removed from the process, what value does creative expression hold? Or perhaps, having opened Pandora’s box, this is an indispensable opportunity for humanity to reassert the value of art – and to push back against a technology that may prevent many real human artists from thriving. Image credits: Getty Images This article originally appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/chatgpt-dall-e-2-and-the-collapse-of-the-creative-process-196461" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>.

Art

How a sense of purpose can link creativity to happiness

There are plenty of famous artists who have produced highly creative work while they were deeply unhappy or suffering from poor mental health. In 1931, the poet T.S. Eliot <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/615958">wrote a letter</a> to a friend describing his “considerable mental agony” and how he felt “on the verge of insanity”. Vincent Van Gogh eventually took his own lifet, <a href="https://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1176/appi.ajp.159.4.519">having written</a> of “horrible fits of anxiety” and “feelings of emptiness and fatigue”. So how are creativity and happiness linked? Does happiness make us more creative or does creativity make us happy? Most of the research so far seems to indicate that a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S074959780800054X">positive mood enhances creativity</a>. But others have <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10400419.2003.9651405">challenged this argument</a>, suggesting a more complex relationship. For example, a <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23063328">large study</a> in Sweden found that authors were more likely to suffer from psychiatric disorders compared to people from non-creative professions. Even in the corporate world, it has been suggested that negative emotions can <a href="https://www.london.edu/lbsr/why-negative-emotions-can-spark-creativity">spark creativity</a> and that “anxiety can focus the mind”, resulting in improved creative output. Meanwhile, the psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi conducted <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Creativity-Psychology-Discovery-Mihaly-Csikszentmihaly/dp/0062283251/ref=asc_df_0062283251/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=310973726618&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=8230695318472149356&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1006567&hvtargid=pla-435435502203&psc=1&th=1&psc=1">extensive research</a> on creative individuals across many disciplines, which found a common sense among all the people he interviewed: that they loved what they did, and that “designing or discovering something new” was one of their most enjoyable experiences. It seems, then, that research to date supports a variety of different views, and I believe one of the reasons for this relates to time scale. A key factor that affects creativity is attention. In the short term, you can get people to pay attention using external rewards (such as money) or by creating pressure to meet urgent deadlines. But it is much harder to sustain creativity over longer periods using these approaches – so the role of happiness becomes increasingly important. My <a href="https://20twentybusinessgrowth.com/">experience of working</a> with a large number of commercial organisations in Wales (and my own career in the public and private sectors) is that creativity is often not sustained within an organisation, even when it is encouraged (or demanded) by senior management. Typical reasons for this lack of sustained creativity are pressures and stresses at work, the fear of judgement, the fear of failure, or employee apathy. One way to tackle this might be to aspire to psychologist Paul Dolan’s <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Happiness-Design-Finding-Pleasure-Everyday/dp/0141977531/ref=asc_df_0141977531/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=310805565966&hvpos=1o2&hvnetw=g&hvrand=3028055397477065849&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1006567&hvtargid=pla-453838269765&psc=1&th=1&psc=1">definition of happiness</a>as the “experiences of pleasure and purpose over time”. He describes purpose as relating to “fulfilment, meaning and worthwhileness” and believes we are at our happiest with a “balance between pleasure and purpose”. Therefore, if your work is meaningful, fulfilling and worthwhile it helps in supporting your happiness. It also has the added advantage of making you want to engage and pay attention (rather than having to). Bringing <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xegfNVFgxBs">purpose and creativity together</a> helps provide the intrinsic motivation for undertaking creativity, what has been called the “<a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/11946306_Self-Determination_Theory_and_the_Facilitation_of_Intrinsic_Motivation_Social_Development_and_Well-Being">energy for action</a>”, and enables creativity to be sustained. So, if you want to be creative in the long term, the key questions to ask yourself are whether you are doing work that is interesting and enjoyable for you, and is that work of value to you? Or, as the American academic Teresa Amabile <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Progress-Principle-Ignite-Engagement-Creativity/dp/142219857X/ref=sr_1_1?adgrpid=52852474973&gclid=CjwKCAjw7anqBRALEiwAgvGgm7iZtdMahFJqhgxsC2Vr0P4aDxPC5aF1N6xhibIux1kR4TIfVxrnbRoCIE0QAvD_BwE&hvadid=259142341871&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9045373&hvnetw=g&hvpos=1t1&hvqmt=e&hvrand=4572506516620655268&hvtargid=aud-613328383159%3Akwd-300577486763&hydadcr=11464_1788015&keywords=the+progress+principle&qid=1565170905&s=gateway&sr=8-1">puts it</a>, do you “perceive your work as contributing value to something or someone who matters”. <h2>Performance anxiety</h2> Another question to ask yourself is: are you helping others gain that “energy for action”, whether you are a manager in a company or a teacher in a school. In situations where creative work has not been associated with happiness, such as the example of some prominent artists and authors, it might well be that their creative work was still driven by a sense of purpose and that other factors made them unhappy. Another common element affecting the happiness of many creative people is the pressure they put on themselves to be creative, something I have often <a href="https://repository.cardiffmet.ac.uk/handle/10369/10281?locale-attribute=cy">seen with my own students</a>. This kind of pressure and stress can result in creative blocks and consequently perpetuate the problem. So maybe the solution in these situations is to seek pleasure rather than purpose, as a positive mood does seem to enhance creativity, or to encourage people to be more playful. For those creative people who suffer from mental health problems, it is a much more complicated picture. But perhaps the act of undertaking creative activity can at least help in the healing process. Image credits: Getty Images This article originally appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-a-sense-of-purpose-can-link-creativity-to-happiness-115335" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>.

Art

Have you fallen for the myth of ‘I can’t draw’? Do it anyway – and reap the reward

Drawing is a powerful tool of communication. It helps build self-understanding and can <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0276237420923290">boost</a> mental health. But our current focus on productivity, outcomes and “talent” has us thinking about it the wrong way. Too many believe the <a href="http://www.visuallanguagelab.com/P/NC_drawingdevelopment.pdf">myth</a>of “I can’t draw”, when in fact it’s a skill built through practice. Dedicated practice is hard, however, if you’re constantly asking yourself: “What’s the point of drawing?” As I argue in a new <a href="https://www.closure.uni-kiel.de/closure8/fisher">paper</a> in <a href="https://www.closure.uni-kiel.de/start_en">Closure E-Journal for Comic Studies</a>, we need to reframe our concept of what it means to draw, and why we should do it – especially if you think you can’t. Devoting a little time to drawing each day may make you happier, more employable and sustainably productive. <h2>The many benefits of drawing</h2> I’m a keen doodler who turned a hobby into a PhD and then a career. I’ve taught all ages at universities, in library workshops and online. In that time, I’ve noticed many people do not recognise their own potential as a visual artist; self-imposed limitations are common. That’s partly because, over time, drawing as a skill set has been devalued. <a href="https://mili.eu/insights/sunday-times-essential-workers-poll-response">A 2020 poll</a> ranked artist as the top non-essential job. But new jobs are emerging all the time for visual thinkers who can translate complex information into easily understood visuals. Big companies <a href="https://inkfactorystudio.com/">hire</a> comic creators to document corporate meetings visually, so participants can track the flow of ideas in real time. Cartoonists are paid to draft <a href="https://australiacouncil.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Graphic-Storytellers-at-Work-GSAW-Report-Case-Study-One.pdf">innovative, visual contracts</a> for law firms. Perhaps you were told as a child to stop doodling and get back to work. While drawing is often quiet and introspective, it’s certainly not a “waste of time”. On the contrary, it has significant mental health benefits and should be cultivated in children and adults alike. How we feel influences <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/261661107_An_Introduction_to_the_Diagnostic_Drawing_Series_A_Standardized_Tool_for_Diagnostic_and_Clinical_Use">how we draw</a>. Likewise, engaging with drawing affects how we feel; it can help us understand and process our inner world. Art-making can <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0276237420923290">reduce anxiety</a>, <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ722383">elevate mood</a>, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6124538/">improve quality of life</a> and <a href="https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8bq69315">promote general creativity</a>. Art therapy has even been <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16288447/">linked to</a> reduced symptoms of distress and higher quality of life for cancer patients. And it can help you enter a “flow state”, where self-consciousness disappears, focus sharpens, work comes easily to you and mental blockages seem to evaporate. <h2>Cultivating a drawing habit</h2> Cultivating a drawing habit means letting go of biases against drawing and against copying others to learn technique. Resisting the urge to critically compare your work to others’ is also important. Most children don’t care about what’s considered “essential” to a functioning society. They draw instinctively and freely. Part of the reason drawing rates are thought to be <a href="http://mtoku.yourweb.csuchico.edu/vc/Articles/toku/Toku_what%20is%20manga_.html">higher in Japan</a>is their immersion in Manga (Japanese comics), a broadly popular and culturally important medium. Another is an emphasis on diligent practice. Children copy and practise the Manga style, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/20716077">providing a critical stepping stone</a> from free scribbling to controlled representation. Copying is not seen as a no-no; it’s integral to building skill. As researcher and artist Neil Cohn <a href="http://www.visuallanguagelab.com/P/NC_drawingdevelopment.pdf">argues</a>, learning to draw is similar to (and as crucial as) learning language, a skill built through exposure and practice, "Yet, unlike language, we consider it normal for people not to learn to draw, and consider those who do to be exceptional […] Without sufficient practice and exposure to an external system, a basic system persists despite arguably impoverished developmental conditions." So choose an art style you love and copy it. Encourage children to while away hours drawing. Don’t worry about how it turns out. Prioritise the conscious experience of drawing over the result. With regular practice, you may find yourself occasionally melting into states of “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology)">flow</a>”, becoming wholly absorbed. A small, regular pocket of time to temporarily escape the busy world and enter a flow state via drawing may help you in other parts of your life. <h2>How to get started</h2> Use simple tools that you’re comfortable with, whether it’s a ballpoint pen on post-it notes, pencil on paper, a dirty window, or a foggy mirror. Times you’d typically be aimlessly scrolling on your phone are prime candidates for a quick sketch. Doodle when you’re on the phone, watching a movie, bored in a waiting room. Together with mindful doodling, drawing from observation and memory form a holy trinity of sustainable proficiency. Drawing from life strengthens your understanding of space and form. Copying other styles gives you a shortcut to new “visual libraries”. Drawing from memory merges the free play of doodling with the mental libraries developed through observation, bringing imagined worlds to life. With time and persistence, you may find yourself producing drawings you’re proud of. At that point, you can ask yourself: what other self-limiting beliefs are holding me back? Image credits: Getty Images This article originally appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/have-you-fallen-for-the-myth-of-i-cant-draw-do-it-anyway-and-reap-the-rewards-172623" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>.

Art

Shoppers stunned by hilarious labelling mistake

Shoppers in the meat section of an Adelaide supermarket didn’t know quite what to think when they noticed an unfortunate typo on a packet of gourmet sausages. <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Daily Mail reports</a> the ‘fresh from the farm’ sausages were spotted by a woman doing her groceries in her local Foodland in Valley View, and she couldn’t miss the opportunity to take a photo and upload the unfortunate typo on social media. <iframe style="border: none; overflow: hidden;" src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2F3awbreakfast%2Fphotos%2Fa.132102302792.112368.116765482792%2F10155324010522793%2F%3Ftype%3D3&width=500" width="500" height="516" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe> The image has since been picked up by 3AW Breakfast and is now starting to do the rounds on social media, with many commenters poking fun at the labelling error. “I suspect that’s an honest listing of ingredients,” one person wrote. “At least we know where our food comes from,” said another. “They’re not bunnings, but sound exotic ... No wastage there!” one optimistic person said. What are your thoughts? Have you ever seen a funny labelling mistake? Image: Facebook

Food & Wine

Give this AI a few words of description and it produces a stunning image – but is it art?

A picture may be worth a thousand words, but thanks to an artificial intelligence program called <a href="https://fortune.com/2022/04/06/openai-dall-e-2-photorealistic-images-from-text-descriptions/">DALL-E 2</a>, you can have a professional-looking image with far fewer. DALL-E 2 is <a href="http://adityaramesh.com/posts/dalle2/dalle2.html">a new neural network</a> algorithm that creates a picture from a short phrase or sentence that you provide. <a href="https://openai.com/dall-e-2/">The program</a>, which was announced by the artificial intelligence research laboratory OpenAI in April 2022, hasn’t been released to the public. But a small and growing number of people – myself included – have been given access to experiment with it. <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ZcWO2AEAAAAJ&hl=en">As a researcher studying the nexus of technology and art</a>, I was keen to see how well the program worked. After hours of experimentation, it’s clear that DALL-E – while not without shortcomings – is leaps and bounds ahead of existing image generation technology. It raises immediate questions about how these technologies will change how art is made and consumed. It also raises questions about what it means to be creative when DALL-E 2 seems to automate so much of the creative process itself. <h2>A staggering range of style and subjects</h2> OpenAI researchers built DALL-E 2 <a href="https://github.com/openai/dalle-2-preview/blob/main/system-card.md#model">from an enormous collection of images</a> with captions. They gathered some of the images online and licensed others. Using DALL-E 2 looks a lot like searching for an image on the web: you type in a short phrase into a text box, and it gives back six images. But instead of being culled from the web, the program creates six brand-new images, each of which reflect some version of the entered phrase. (Until recently, the program produced 10 images per prompt.) For example, when some friends and I gave DALL-E 2 the text prompt “cats in devo hats,” <a href="https://twitter.com/AaronHertzmann/status/1534947118053355522">it produced 10 images</a> that came in different styles. Nearly all of them could plausibly pass for professional photographs or drawings. While the algorithm did not quite grasp “Devo hat” – <a href="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/5761baff746fb9f420bb3ffc/1495765600043-HHVOESOJR2LLK7B820SS/?content-type=image%2Fjpeg">the strange helmets</a> worn by the New Wave band Devo – the headgear in the images it produced came close. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> "cats in devo hats" <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/dalle?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#dalle</a> <a href="https://t.co/kkFaKF0zUJ">pic.twitter.com/kkFaKF0zUJ</a> — Aaron Hertzmann (@AaronHertzmann) <a href="https://twitter.com/AaronHertzmann/status/1534947118053355522?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 9, 2022</a></blockquote> Over the past few years, a small community of artists have been using neural network algorithms to produce art. Many of these artworks have distinctive qualities that almost look like real images, <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-ai-art-has-artists-collaborators-wondering-who-gets-the-credit-112661">but with odd distortions of space</a> – a sort of cyberpunk Cubism. The most recent text-to-image systems <a href="https://www.rightclicksave.com/article/clip-art-and-the-new-aesthetics-of-ai">often produce dreamy, fantastical imagery</a> that can be delightful but rarely looks real. DALL-E 2 offers a significant leap in the quality and realism of the images. It can also mimic specific styles with remarkable accuracy. If you want images that look like actual photographs, it’ll produce six life-like images. If you want prehistoric cave paintings of Shrek, it’ll generate six pictures of Shrek as if they’d been drawn by a prehistoric artist. It’s staggering that an algorithm can do this. Each set of images takes less than a minute to generate. Not all of the images will look pleasing to the eye, nor do they necessarily reflect what you had in mind. But, even with the need to sift through many outputs or try different text prompts, there’s no other existing way to pump out so many great results so quickly – not even by hiring an artist. And, sometimes, the unexpected results are the best. In principle, <a href="http://adityaramesh.com/posts/dalle2/dalle2.html">anyone with enough resources and expertise can make a system like this</a>. Google Research <a href="https://imagen.research.google/">recently announced an impressive, similar text-to-image system</a>, and one independent developer is publicly developing their own version that <a href="https://huggingface.co/spaces/dalle-mini/dalle-mini">anyone can try right now on the web</a>, although it’s not yet as good as DALL-E or Google’s system. It’s easy to imagine these tools transforming the way people make images and communicate, whether via memes, greeting cards, advertising – and, yes, art. <h2>Where’s the art in that?</h2> I had a moment early on while using DALL-E 2 to generate different kinds of paintings, in all different styles – like “<a href="https://www.odilon-redon.org/">Odilon Redon</a> painting of Seattle” – when it hit me that this was better than any painting algorithm I’ve ever developed. Then I realized that it is, in a way, a better painter than I am. In fact, no human can do what DALL-E 2 does: create such a high-quality, varied range of images in mere seconds. If someone told you that a person made all these images, of course you’d say they were creative. But <a href="https://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2020/5/244330-computers-do-not-make-art-people-do/fulltext">this does not make DALL-E 2 an artist</a>. Even though it sometimes feels like magic, under the hood it is still a computer algorithm, rigidly following instructions from the algorithm’s authors at OpenAI. If these images succeed as art, they are products of how the algorithm was designed, the images it was trained on, and – most importantly – how artists use it. You might be inclined to say there’s little artistic merit in an image produced by a few keystrokes. But in my view, this line of thinking echoes <a href="https://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2020/5/244330-computers-do-not-make-art-people-do/fulltext">the classic take</a> that photography cannot be art because a machine did all the work. Today the human authorship and craft involved in artistic photography are recognized, and critics understand that the best photography involves much more than just pushing a button. Even so, we often discuss works of art as if they directly came from the artist’s intent. The artist intended to show a thing, or express an emotion, and so they made this image. DALL-E 2 does seem to shortcut this process entirely: you have an idea and type it in, and you’re done. But when I paint the old-fashioned way, I’ve found that my paintings come from the exploratory process, not just from executing my initial goals. And this is true for many artists. Take Paul McCartney, who came up with the track “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUvZA5AYhB4&t=35s">Get Back</a>” during a jam session. He didn’t start with a plan for the song; he just started fiddling and experimenting <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Get_Back#Early_protest_lyrics">and the band developed it from there</a>. Picasso <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=dZyPAAAAQBAJ&lpg=PA2&ots=xYVek5tbjg&dq=%22I%20don%27t%20know%20in%20advance%20what%20I%20am%20going%20to%20put%20on%20canvas%20any%20more%20than%20I%20decide%20beforehand%20what%20colors%20I%20am%20going%20to%20use&pg=PA2#v=onepage&q&f=false">described his process similarly</a>: “I don’t know in advance what I am going to put on canvas any more than I decide beforehand what colors I am going to use … Each time I undertake to paint a picture I have a sensation of leaping into space.” In <a href="https://www.instagram.com/aaronhertzmann_aiart/">my own explorations with DALL-E 2</a>, one idea would lead to another which led to another, and eventually I’d find myself in a completely unexpected, magical new terrain, very far from where I’d started. <h2>Prompting as art</h2> I would argue that the art, in using a system like DALL-E 2, comes not just from the final text prompt, but in the entire creative process that led to that prompt. Different artists will follow different processes and end up with different results that reflect their own approaches, skills and obsessions. I began to see my experiments as a set of series, each a consistent dive into a single theme, rather than a set of independent wacky images. Ideas for these images and series came from all around, often linked by a set of <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-15524-1">stepping stones</a>. At one point, while making images based on contemporary artists’ work, I wanted to generate an image of site-specific installation art in the style of the contemporary Japanese artist <a href="http://yayoi-kusama.jp/e/biography/index.html">Yayoi Kusama</a>. After trying a few unsatisfactory locations, I hit on the idea of placing it in <a href="https://mezquita-catedraldecordoba.es/en/">La Mezquita</a>, a former mosque and church in Córdoba, Spain. I sent <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CehcE4DvN1d/">the picture</a> to an architect colleague, Manuel Ladron de Guevara, who is from Córdoba, and we began riffing on other architectural ideas together. This became a series on imaginary new buildings in different architects’ styles. So I’ve started to consider what I do with DALL-E 2 to be both a form of exploration as well as a form of art, even if it’s often amateur art like the drawings I make on my iPad. Indeed some artists, like <a href="https://twitter.com/advadnoun">Ryan Murdoch</a>, have advocated for prompt-based image-making to be recognized as art. He points to the <a href="https://twitter.com/NeuralBricolage">experienced AI artist Helena Sarin</a> as an example. “When I look at most stuff from <a href="https://www.midjourney.com/">Midjourney</a>” – another popular text-to-image system – “a lot of it will be interesting or fun,” Murdoch told me in an interview. “But with [Sarin’s] work, there’s a through line. It’s easy to see that she has put a lot of thought into it, and has worked at the craft, because the output is more visually appealing and interesting, and follows her style in a continuous way.” Working with DALL-E 2, or any of the new text-to-image systems, means learning its quirks and developing strategies for avoiding common pitfalls. It’s also important to know about <a href="https://github.com/openai/dalle-2-preview/blob/main/system-card.md#probes-and-evaluations">its potential harms</a>, such as its reliance on stereotypes, and potential uses for disinformation. Using DALL-E 2, you’ll also discover surprising correlations, like the way everything becomes old-timey when you use an old painter, filmmaker or photographer’s style. When I have something very specific I want to make, DALL-E 2 often can’t do it. The results would require a lot of difficult manual editing afterward. It’s when my goals are vague that the process is most delightful, offering up surprises that lead to new ideas that themselves lead to more ideas and so on. <h2>Crafting new realities</h2> These text-to-image systems can help users imagine new possibilities as well. <a href="https://daniellebaskin.com/">Artist-activist Danielle Baskin</a> told me that she always works “to show alternative realities by ‘real’ example: either by setting scenarios up in the physical world or doing meticulous work in Photoshop.” DALL-E 2, however, “is an amazing shortcut because it’s so good at realism. And that’s key to helping others bring possible futures to life – whether its satire, dreams or beauty.” She has used it to imagine <a href="https://twitter.com/djbaskin/status/1519050225297461249">an alternative transportation system</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/djbaskin_images/status/1533970922146648064">plumbing that transports noodles instead of water</a>, both of which reflect <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathonkeats/2021/02/11/is-twitter-really-offering-verified-badges-for-san-francisco-homes-an-artists-satire-nearly-starts-a-civil-war">her artist-provocateur sensibility</a>. Similarly, artist Mario Klingemann’s <a href="https://twitter.com/quasimondo/status/1533877178496163840">architectural renderings with the tents of homeless people</a> could be taken as a rejoinder to <a href="https://twitter.com/AaronHertzmann/status/1526710430751522817">my architectural renderings of fancy dream homes</a>. It’s too early to judge the significance of this art form. I keep thinking of a phrase from the excellent book “<a href="https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1662-art-in-the-after-culture">Art in the After-Culture</a>” – “The dominant AI aesthetic is novelty.” Surely this would be true, to some extent, for any new technology used for art. The first films by the <a href="https://iphf.org/inductees/auguste-louis-lumiere/">Lumière brothers</a> in 1890s were novelties, not cinematic masterpieces; it amazed people to see images moving at all. AI art software develops so quickly that there’s continual technical and artistic novelty. It seems as if, each year, there’s an opportunity to explore an exciting new technology – each more powerful than the last, and each seemingly poised to transform art and society. Image credits: Shutterstock This article originally appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/give-this-ai-a-few-words-of-description-and-it-produces-a-stunning-image-but-is-it-art-184363" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>. <div style="caret-color: #000000; color: #000000; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; --tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-color: rgba(51,168,204,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"> <div style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-color: rgba(51,168,204,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; caret-color: #000000; color: #000000; font-family: 'Libre Baskerville', Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none;"> <div style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-color: rgba(51,168,204,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </div> </div> </div> <p style="caret-color: #000000; color: #000000; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; --tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-color: rgba(51,168,204,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">

Art

10 proven ways to boost creative thinking

Keep your desk a little messy In a study recently published in the journal Psychological Science, students met in either a messy or an organised room, and had to come up with a new use for ping pong balls (a standard test of creativity). Judges rated the ideas, without knowing which rooms the groups were in. The result? Solutions from the messy room were gauged to be more interesting and innovative than those from the neat one. Work at a coffee shop There’s a reason Starbucks is always filled; it has the ideal decibel level for brainstorming, according to the New York Times. Researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign asked study participants to think of ideas for new products with various levels of background noise, and found the best ideas were generated with ambient noise of around 70 decibels, or that of a coffee shop. Moderate noise levels help you think outside the box, study author Ravi Mehta, an assistant professor of business administration, told the paper. Extreme quiet (around 50 decibels, typical of many offices) is good for projects requiring sharp focus – say, crunching numbers – but not abstract thinking, while a too-loud 85 decibels (think: garbage disposal) is too distracting. Drink up Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago recruited Craigslist posters who described themselves as social drinkers. Some panellists were served vodka cranberry drinks until they had a blood alcohol level of 0.075; others did not drink. All participants then performed a cognitive exercise requiring creative problem-solving. The researchers found that the intoxicated subjects solved more of the problems – and, more quickly – than the sober people. However: Alcohol may tamp down working memory, which is crucial for analytical thinking, and may hinder “out of the box” illumination, Psychology Today reported. Hang with a mixed gang In 1999, Martin Ruef, then at Stanford and now at Duke, did a survey of Stanford Business School alumni who went on to start their own businesses. He found that the most creative entrepreneurs spent the most time networking with a diverse group outside of their typical business colleagues. “Weak ties – of acquaintanceship, of colleagues who are not friends – provide non-redundant information and contribute to innovation because they tend to serve as bridges between disconnected social groups,” he said in a press release. “Weak ties allow for more experimentation in combining ideas from disparate sources and impose fewer demands for social conformity than do strong ties.” Colour yourself blue Blue is the hue for creative thinking, a series of experiments from the University of British Columbia found. More than 600 participants did cognitive tasks that demanded either creative or detail-oriented thinking. The tests were performed on computers that had either a blue, red, or white background screen. The blue screens encouraged participants to produce twice as many solutions during brainstorming tasks as other screen colours. (Conversely, red screens improved performance on tasks like proofreading and memory recall by as much as 31 per cent, compared to blue.) “Through associations with the sky, the ocean, and water, most people associate blue with openness, peace and tranquility,” study author Juliet Zhu told ScienceDaily.com. This makes people feel safe about being creative and exploratory, she said. Dim the lights Turning the lights down “elicits a feeling of freedom, self-determination, and reduced inhibition,” which is key to imaginative thinking, according to German authors of a study recently published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology. The researchers assigned a group of 114 students to work on a series of problem-solving tasks that require creative thinking. Those in a dimly lit room (150 lux) solved significantly more problems than those in a brightly lit room (1,500 lux). (Typical office light is about 500 lux.) Work when you’re tired It sounds counterintuitive, but night owls may actually be more creative first thing in the morning, and early birds may do more innovative thinking late at night, according to a study from researchers at Michigan State University and Albion College. The researchers believe that you use more creative thinking when you’re less inhibited, which happens when brain fog compromises your attention span. So early-bird students, for example, may do well to save art and creative writing projects for later in the evening. Budget it in While many a-ha! moments happen spontaneously in the shower or while you’re doing something random, it also pays to slot in time to focus on creative projects outside of your day job or schoolwork – or else you won’t commit to really doing it. This strategy has been made famous by companies like Google and 3M, Business Insider reports. The technology giant allows its engineers to spend up to 20 per cent of their work time on creative projects, which, as it happens, is how Gmail was created. 3M gave its workers “15 per cent” time, which one scientist used to create Post It notes back in 1974. Step into new surroundings Studies have found that students who spend time studying abroad are more creative problem solvers than those who don’t, perhaps because a more expansive worldview allows for more open-minded thinking. Scientific American reports that even thinking of a faraway place can spur ingenuity. In one study, for example, participants who were told that the questions they had to answer were developed by researchers in California (3000 kilometres away) solved more problems than those who were told that the questions were developed by local researchers three kilometres away. The next time you need a creative jolt, try a new environment – or even just imagine or draw on memories of a faraway place. Change up your routine Psychology Today reported that Dutch study participants who prepared their breakfast sandwiches in reverse order had a more productive brainstorm than those who made them their usual way. “If you want to get into a creative mindset, do your normal routine in a completely different way,” cognitive psychologist Dr Scott Barry Kaufman said after analysing the research for PT. “Write with your other hand. Moonwalk backwards on your way to work. Eat something new for lunch. Smile at strangers. Be weird. With your brain re-shuffled, you’ll be in a better position to be creative.” Written by Lauren Gelman. This article first appeared in <a href="https://www.readersdigest.com.au/healthsmart/10-proven-ways-to-boost-creative-thinking" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Reader’s Digest</a>. For more of what you love from the world’s best-loved magazine, <a href="http://readersdigest.innovations.com.au/c/readersdigestemailsubscribe?utm_source=over60&utm_medium=articles&utm_campaign=RDSUB&keycode=WRA87V" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here’s our best subscription offer.</a> Image: Getty Images

Mind

Is AI-generated art really creative? It depends on the presentation

<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/apr/04/mind-blowing-ai-da-becomes-first-robot-to-paint-like-an-artist">Ai-Da</a> sits behind a desk, paintbrush in hand. She looks up at the person posing for her, and then back down as she dabs another blob of paint onto the canvas. A lifelike portrait is taking shape. If you didn’t know a robot produced it, this portrait could pass as the work of a human artist. Ai-Da is touted as the “first robot to paint like an artist”, and an exhibition of her work called <a href="https://www.ai-darobot.com/exhibition">Leaping into the Metaverse</a> opened at the Venice Biennale. Ai-Da produces portraits of sitting subjects using a robotic hand attached to her lifelike feminine figure. She’s also able to talk, giving detailed answers to questions about her artistic process and attitudes towards technology. She even gave a TEDx talk about “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaZJG7jiRak">The Intersection of Art and AI</a>” (artificial intelligence) in Oxford a few years ago. While the words she speaks are programmed, Ai-Da’s creators have also been experimenting with having her write and perform her own poetry. But how are we to interpret Ai-Da’s output? Should we consider her paintings and poetry original or creative? Are these works actually art? <h2>Art is subjective</h2> What discussions about AI and creativity often overlook is the fact that creativity is not an absolute quality that can be defined, measured and reproduced objectively. When we describe an object – for instance, a child’s drawing – as being creative, we project our own assumptions about culture onto it. Indeed, art never exists in isolation. It always needs someone to give it “art” status. And the criteria for whether you think something is art is informed by both your individual expectations and broader cultural conceptions. If we extend this line of thinking to AI, it follows that no AI application or robot can objectively be “creative”. It is always us – humans – who decide if what AI has created is art. In our <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/14614448221077278?journalCode=nmsa">recent research</a>, we propose the concept of the “Lovelace effect” to refer to when and how machines such as robots and AI are seen as original and creative. The Lovelace effect – named after the 19th century mathematician often called the first computer programmer, Ada Lovelace – shifts the focus from the technological capabilities of machines to the reactions and perceptions of those machines by humans. The programmer of an AI application or the designer of a robot does not just use technical means to make the public see their machine as creative. This also happens through presentation: how, where and why we interact with a technology; how we talk about that technology; and where we feel that technology fits in our personal and cultural contexts. <h2>In the eye of the beholder</h2> Our reception of Ai-Da is, in fact, informed by various cues that suggest her “human” and “artist” status. For example, Ai-Da’s robotic figure looks much like a human – she’s even called a “she”, with a feminine-sounding name that not-so-subtly suggests an Ada Lovelace influence. This femininity is further asserted by the blunt bob that frames her face (although she has sported some other funky hairstyles in the past), perfectly preened eyebrows and painted lips. Indeed, Ai-Da looks much like the quirky title character of the 2001 film Amélie. This is a woman we have seen before, either in film or our everyday lives. Ai-Da also wears conventionally “artsy” clothing, including overalls, mixed fabric patterns and eccentric cuts. In these outfits, she produces paintings that look like a human could have made them, and which are sometimes framed and displayed among human work. We also talk about her as we would a human artist. An article in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/apr/04/mind-blowing-ai-da-becomes-first-robot-to-paint-like-an-artist">the Guardian</a>, for example, gives a shout-out to “the world premier of her solo exhibition at the 2022 Venice Biennale”. If we didn’t know that Ai-Da was a robot, we could easily be led to appreciate her work as we would that of any other artist. Some may see robot-produced paintings as coming from creative computers, while others may be more skeptical, given the fact that robots act on clear human instructions. In any case, attributions of creativity never depend on technical configurations alone – no computer is objectively creative. Rather, attributions of computational creativity are largely inspired by contexts of reception. In other words, beauty really is in the eye of the beholder. As the Lovelace effect shows, through particular social cues, audiences are prompted to think about output as art, systems as artists, and computers as creative. Just like the frames around Ai-Da’s paintings, the frames we use to talk about AI output indicate whether or not what we are looking at can be called art. But, as with any piece of art, your appreciation of AI output ultimately depends on your own interpretation. Image credits: Getty Images This article originally appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-ai-generated-art-really-creative-it-depends-on-the-presentation-181663" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>.

Art

Model Sofia Jirau makes history

24-year-old Sofia Jirau has made history after becoming the first model with Down syndrome to pose for Victoria’s Secret. Coming from Puerto Rico, she joins the fashion giant's roster as part of its inclusion campaign, the Love Cloud collection. "One day I dreamed it, I worked for it and today it's a dream come true. I can finally tell you my big secret,” an English translation of Sofia's post to her almost 200,000 Instagram followers said. “I am Victoria Secret's first model with Down syndrome.” The model and activist shared a snippet of the campaign video to her social media with an inspiring message. “We are 18 women who know no boundaries,” she wrote. “Thank you for seeing me as a model and making me part of the Love Cloud Collection inclusion campaign,” she wrote. “This is just the beginning, now it’s formed. Inside and out there are no limited.” The brand's Love Cloud Collection includes women of different sizes and backgrounds. It marks a major departure for the brand best known for its supermodel "Angels" and fashion show. In the show's 24-year history it has seen the likes of Heidi Klum, Naomi Campbell, Helena Christensen, Tyra Banks, Kendall Jenner, Gigi and Bella Hadid walk the runway as Angels and models. Miranda Kerr, Georgia Fowler and Shanina Shaik were among the Aussies who also walked the pink runway. Yet, after scrapping the iconic runway show in 2019, Victoria's Secret has progressed with a revamp of its image. "Love Cloud Collection is a major moment in the brand's evolution," Victoria's Secret head creative director Raúl Martinez said in a statement. "From the cast of incredible women that bring the collection to life, to the incredible inclusive spirit on set, this campaign is an important part of the new Victoria's Secret standard we are creating." Image: Instagram

Beauty & Style

How creative are you? Take this test to find out

How do we know if we’re creative? While it can be a hard concept to define, and even more difficult to measure, scientists have developed a way of assessing one aspect of our creativity with a simple test. You can take the test yourself and it only takes a few minutes, but it is most accurate if you don’t know how the score is generated. Head over to the <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.datcreativity.com/" target="_blank">project page</a>, have a go, and come back to read all about it. Done? Here’s a breakdown of how your score was calculated and why it matters. How the test works The Divergent Association Task (DAT) asks participants (including you) to name ten nouns which are as far apart in meaning as possible. For example, “cat” and “pineapple” would be more different than “cat” and “dog”. A computer algorithm then measures the semantic distance - how far apart the words are in meaning and how often they are used in the same context - between the nouns the person submitted. The test aims to measure an individual’s verbal creativity and their ability to come up with diverse answers to an open-ended problem, also called divergent thinking. After analysing responses from 8,914 volunteers, the researchers found the DAT test is comparable to current methods of predicting how creative a person is. “Several theories posit that creative people are able to generate more divergent ideas,” the researchers wrote in their paper, <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.pnas.org/content/118/25/e2022340118" target="_blank">published</a> in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “If this is correct, simply naming unrelated words and then measuring the semantic distance between them, could serve as an objective measure of divergent thinking.” The newly-developed test was compared against two that are already used to measure creativity: the Alternative Uses Task - involving thinking of as many uses as possible for an object; and the Bridge-the-Associative Gap Task - where you link two words using a third word. The results found the DAT test was just as useful as the more complicated measures currently used. Additionally, the data suggests the test is effective across different demographics, making it a suitable choice for conducting large studies. Why this matters Though many of us won’t be conducting studies on creativity any time soon and only one aspect of creativity is scored here, this new test could make the difficult task of studying creativity a little more simple. “Our task measures only a sliver of one type of creativity,” said psychologist Jay Olsen from Harvard University, who is the paper’s first author. “But these findings enable creativity assessments across larger and more diverse samples with less bias, which will ultimately help us better understand this fundamental human ability.”

Mind

GPs could soon prescribe creativity to improve wellbeing

<a rel="noopener" href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1757913920911961" target="_blank">A new paper</a> exploring the effects of crochet on wellbeing has sparked a wider discussion of the benefits of getting creative can be good for our mental health. After surveying more than 8000 crocheters, Dr Pippa Burns, a medical researcher at The University of Wollongong, found that 89.5 percent of respondents felt calmer from engaging in the craft, while 82 percent felt happier. These findings didn’t really surprise Burns, who also crochets. “It’s very mindful because you’re counting stitches,” she said. “You’re not thinking about who said what at work or what you need to do tomorrow. You’re just focused on what you’re creating.” A potential treatment Though the prescription of crocheting and sewing has been slow in Australia, other countries have supported the move. In the UK and Germany, more than half of GPs refer their patients to community services - including crocheting and sewing - for a range of social, emotional, or financial issues, in a practice called social prescribing. This practice has been endorsed by both the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) and the Consumers Health Forum of Australia. According to Burns, a more targeted education campaign is needed to help GPs and the broader public understand the benefits of social prescribing and increase its uptake. “It’s about society viewing health more holistically,” Burns said. “You don’t just have to have clinical or pharmacological interventions. You can also have creative interventions that could be just as important to someone’s recovery.” The Black Dog Institute is also conducting its own study on the benefits of social prescribing. Clients of their depression clinic have been taking part in arts on prescription workshops with the Art Gallery of NSW, with preliminary results finding participants experienced significant increases in mental health, wellbeing, and feelings of social inclusion. Professor Katherine Boydell, the institute’s lead researcher, believes social prescribing could contribute to improving health outcomes of patients, and even reduce care costs. Doing something badly An eight-week program called ‘Creativity on Prescription’, devised by social enterprise Makeshift and designed in consultation with Burns, a GP, and a psychologist, allows participants to trial a new creative activity each week. From dancing and painting to gardening, these activities aim to help participants manage anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues. “People experience a different version of themselves,” said Caitlin Marshall, Makeshift’s co-founder and a social worker. “And that’s really important for personal change to happen.” However, the biggest obstacle for many is the perception they’re not artistic or creative enough. “You can go for a run and be really crappy at running and you’re still going to get the benefit of that,” Marshall countered. “Creative practices give us the same thing.”

Mind

Man's creative means of evading child support divides the internet

A man has sent the Internet into a frenzy after he revealed the bizarre plan he carried out to avoid paying child support. The husband claims he felt forced to take drastic measures after learning about his wife’s dark secret. Taking to reddit, the author shared he was happily married to his ex-wife for 12 years. Sadly the US couple’s marriage crumbled when he found out their daughter they shared was not in fact his. Despite the revelation, a court order decided that he must still pay $AUD700-a-month in child support because he had helped raise the child. However, despite the court ruling, he shared he made a plan to avoid paying child support altogether. “I was married to my ex for 12 years,” he began. “I thought we had a great relationship however that was proven to be a lie when I found out our child wasn’t actually mine. The child was a little under one year old when I found out. “The little girl was diagnosed with an inherited genetic disease that my wife nor I had, so after a genetic test I was told I wasn’t the father. “I left her almost immediately and wished her the best with her life and hoped her daughter would do well. <img style="width: 500px; height: 281.25px;" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/7839443/daily-4.jpg" alt="" data-udi="umb://media/78dce6681a1443d3840e9b6acd0c7c2b" /> Image: Shutterstock (Man with child) The man went on to share that a court case did not rule in his favour. “During the beginning of the divorce I was served with a summons for a child support case,” he said. “My lawyer told me since I acted as the father for a fair amount of time I shouldn’t be shocked if I’m ordered to pay. “Long story short, the real father wasn’t found and I was ordered to pay. She smiled pretty big after the hearing and I was upset admittedly so I told her I’d send her a check before garnishment kicked in. “I wanted to fight but I wasn’t worried. I had a good back-up plan.” He enacted his plan almost immediately. “I liquidated all my assets pretty quickly,” he explained. “Took a loss on some things but hey, I’m still young. Called my parents and they got my room ready and I moved back home in my home country. “I sent my ex a picture of me smiling back home and told her best of luck. I’ve gotten a few calls and letter regarding the support but they get blocked or tossed in the trash. “I don’t think I’m [in the wrong] here. I didn’t cheat and she’s not my child. “Some people argue about the bond, but I can’t say I had a strong one considering I was ready to walk the second I heard about what was up.” Reddit users weighed in on the matter, with some saying the father was in the wrong for abandoning the child. “I feel for the child, who is not only sick but has now lost the only father she’s ever known,” said one. “The fact that you’re able to walk away so easily probably means she’ll be better off without you. Both you and your ex are horrible people.” “I feel sorry for the child. She deserves better,” another person said. However, the author did have a few defenders who firmly believed his ex-wife was completely in the wrong. “She knew damn well the kid wasn’t yours and still had the audacity to go to court for child support,” one person wrote. “Good on you for leaving it all behind. She made her bed with her actions and lies, she can now lie in it, “You are in no way obligated to pay up for a kid that’s not yours, I doubt anyone in your position would’ve still stuck around.” Another commented: “Don’t let this person trap you for 17 years. In my opinion, you have no moral obligation to this child or the mother, law be damned.”

Legal

How creative use of technology may have helped save schooling during the pandemic

It <a href="https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/unicef-executive-director-henrietta-fore-remarks-press-conference-new-updated">is estimated</a> around half the world’s students’ schools remain shut down. All told, this has been a potentially damaging disruption to the education of a generation. But one of the few positive outcomes from this experience is an opportunity to rethink how digital technologies can be used to support teaching and learning in schools. Our collective experiences of remote schooling offer a fleeting opportunity for schools to think more imaginatively about what “digital education” might look like in the future. This is not to echo the hype (currently being pushed by many education reformers and IT industry actors) that COVID will prove a <a href="https://edtechdigest.com/2020/05/13/learning-and-leadership/">tipping-point</a> after which schools will be <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/04/coronavirus-education-global-covid19-online-digital-learning/">pushed fully</a> into digital education. On the contrary, the past six months of hastily implemented <a href="https://edtechdigest.com/2020/05/13/learning-and-leadership/">emergency remote schooling</a> tell us little about how school systems might go fully virtual, or operate on a “blended” (part online, part face-to-face) basis. Any <a href="https://www.worldsofeducation.org/en/woe_homepage/woe_detail/16856/the-edtech-pandemic-shock-by-ben-williamson-anna-hogan">expectations of profiting</a> from the complete digital reform of education is well wide of the mark. Instead, the most compelling technology-related lessons to take from the pandemic involve the informal, improvised, scrappy digital practices that have helped teachers, students and parents get through school at home. Technology during the pandemic All over the world, school shutdowns have seen teachers, students and families get together to achieve great things with relatively simple technologies. This includes the surprising rise of <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-53079625">TikTok</a> as a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/aug/28/green-teen-memes-how-tiktok-could-save-the-planet-aoe">source</a> of <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/angelicaamartinez/tiktok-creators">informal learning content</a>. Previously the domain of young content creators, remote schooling saw teachers of all ages turn to the video platform to <a href="https://www.aare.edu.au/blog/?p=7656">share bite-size (up to one minute) chunks</a> of teaching, give inspirational feedback, set learning challenges or simply show students and parents how they were coping. TikTok also been used as a place for educational organisations, public figures and celebrity scientists to <a href="https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/tiktok-announces-learnontiktok-initiative-to-encourage-education-during-lo/578805/">produce bespoke learning content</a>, as well as allowing teachers to put together materials for a wider audience. Even <a href="https://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/District_Dossier/2020/07/meet_the_principals_of_tiktok_.html">principals</a> have used it to keep in contact with their school — making 60-second video addresses, motivational speeches and other alternatives to the traditional school assembly speech. Classes in some countries have been <a href="https://uxdesign.cc/a-unique-opportunity-for-whatsapp-to-take-over-classrooms-cc9048b97ca0">run through WhatsApp</a>, primarily because this was one platform most students and families had access to, and were used to using in their everyday lives. Elsewhere, teachers have set up virtual <a href="https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2020/07/30/bitmoji-classrooms-why-teachers-are-buzzing-about.html">BitMoji classrooms</a> featuring colourful backdrops and cartoon avatars of themselves. These spaces act as a friendly online version of their familiar classroom space for students to check in and find out what they should be learning, access resources and temporarily feel they were back at school. Some teachers have worked out <a href="https://www.dailyherald.com/news/20200831/teachers-in-district-220-find-creative-ways-to-teach-virtually">creative ways of Zoom-based teaching</a>. These stretch beyond the streamed lecture format and include live demonstrations, experiments, and live music and pottery workshops. Social media, apps and games have proven convenient places for teachers to <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/salvadorhernandez/kindergarten-teacher-tiktok-energy-viral">share insights</a> into their classroom practice, while students can <a href="https://m.facebook.com/abcmelbourne/videos/2778263975790515/?refsrc=https%3A%2F%2Fm.facebook.com%2Fstory.php&_rdr">quickly show</a> teachers and classmates what they have been working on. These informal uses of digital media have played an important role in boosting students, teachers and parents with a bit of human contact, and additional motivation to connect and learn. So, what now? All this will come as <a href="https://www.amazon.com.au/Good-Reception-Teachers-Mobile-Angeles/dp/0262037084/ref=sr_1_7?dchild=1&keywords=antero+garcia&qid=1600463690&s=books&sr=1-7">little surprise</a> to <a href="https://www.amazon.com.au/Beyond-Technology-Childrens-Learning-Digital/dp/0745638813">long-term</a> <a href="https://clalliance.org/publications/hanging-out-messing-around-and-geeking-out-tenth-anniversary-edition/">advocates</a> of popular forms of digital media in education. There is a sound evidence base for the educational benefits of such technology. For example, a <a href="https://clalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/CLRN_Report.pdf">decade’s worth of studies</a> has developed a <a href="https://clalliance.org/about-connected-learning/">robust framework</a> (and many examples) of how students and educators can make the most of personal digital media inside and outside the classroom. These include allowing students to participate in online fan-fiction writing communities, digital journalism, music production and podcasting. The past ten years has also seen a <a href="https://www.aare.edu.au/blog/?p=4388">rise in e-sports</a> — where teams of young people compete in video games. This stresses the interplay between digital media, learning driven by students’ interests and passions, and online communities of peers. Informal digital media can be a boon for otherwise <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/digital-youth-network">marginalised and disadvantaged youth</a> and allowing students to find supportive communities of like-minded peers regardless of their local circumstances. Australia continues to be one of the few countries in the world where <a href="https://theconversation.com/banning-mobile-phones-in-schools-beneficial-or-risky-heres-what-the-evidence-says-119456">classroom use of smartphones is banned</a> by some governments. Some of the most popular social media platforms, content creation apps, and open sites such as YouTube remain <a href="https://www.qld.gov.au/education/schools/procedures/webfiltering">filtered and blocked</a> in many schools too. At the same time, official forms of school technology are <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/2019/12/19/131155/classroom-technology-holding-students-back-edtech-kids-education/">increasingly criticised</a> for being boring, overly-standardised, and largely serving institutional imperatives, rather than pitched toward the interests of students and teachers. Concerns are growing over the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2020/06/25/new-concerns-raised-about-well-known-digital-learning-platform/">limited educational benefits</a> of personalised learning systems, as well as the <a href="https://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2020/june/1590933600/anna-krien/screens-ate-school#mtr">data and privacy implications</a> of school platforms and systems such as Google Classroom. The past six months have seen many schools forced to make the best of whatever technologies were immediately to hand. Previously reticent teachers now have first-hand experience of making use of unfamiliar technologies. Many parents are now on board with the educational potential of social media and games. Most importantly, students have been given a taste of what they can achieve with “their” own technology. With US schools now exploring the benefits of establishing official <a href="https://thehill.com/changing-america/enrichment/education/469079-the-tiktok-generation">TikTok creation clubs</a> to enhance their video-making skills, it might be time for Australian educators to follow suit. Let’s take the opportunity to re-establish schools as places where teachers, students and families can work together to creatively learn with the devices and apps most familiar to their everyday lives. Written by <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/neil-selwyn-765357">Neil Selwyn</a>, Monash University. Republished with permission of <a href="https://theconversation.com/search/result?sg=9731d812-3952-475c-9db1-cb99dba287ca&sp=1&sr=1&url=%2Fhow-creative-use-of-technology-may-have-helped-save-schooling-during-the-pandemic-146488">The Conversation</a>.

Art

ScoMosas! Scott Morrison gets creative in the kitchen

If you thought you were the only one that was cooking up a storm during quarantine, you couldn’t be more far off. Prime Minister Scott Morrison showed off his kitchen skills by making his own version of the South Asian delicacy samosas, calling them “ScoMosas”. The politician paired it with mango chutney and social media is devouring it. Sharing a photo of himself on Twitter, Morrison was shown to be holding a platter of the delicious snack. In his post on Twitter, he wrote, “A pity that my meeting with Narendra Modi this week is by video link. They’re vegetarian, I would have liked to share with him.” <blockquote class="twitter-tweet tw-align-center"> Sunday ScoMosas with mango chutney, all made from scratch - including the chutney! A pity my meeting with <a href="https://twitter.com/narendramodi?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@narendramodi</a> this week is by videolink. They’re vegetarian, I would have liked to share them with him. <a href="https://t.co/Sj7y4Migu9">pic.twitter.com/Sj7y4Migu9</a> — Scott Morrison (@ScottMorrisonMP) <a href="https://twitter.com/ScottMorrisonMP/status/1266952463464071171?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 31, 2020</a></blockquote> For those who are unfamiliar with samosas, they are a triangular-shaped fried or baked snack with a savoury filling. They can either be vegetarian or contain meat depending on the region. In response, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the samosas look delicious. "Once we achieve a decisive victory against COVID-19, we will enjoy the Samosas together," tweeted Modi. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet tw-align-center"> Connected by the Indian Ocean, united by the Indian Samosa! Looks delicious, PM <a href="https://twitter.com/ScottMorrisonMP?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ScottMorrisonMP</a>! Once we achieve a decisive victory against COVID-19, we will enjoy the Samosas together. Looking forward to our video meet on the 4th. <a href="https://t.co/vbRLbVQuL1">https://t.co/vbRLbVQuL1</a> — Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) <a href="https://twitter.com/narendramodi/status/1267006484543606786?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 31, 2020</a></blockquote> Ever since the post was shared, it has garnered close to 17,000 likes, 4,000 retweets, and has caused an influx of amusing reactions from India and Australia. Many even suggested pairing the snack with a hot cup of chai (tea) to really make it an authentic experience.

Food & Wine

Creating writing: 3 tips to start

Always wanted to write, but had no clue where to begin? It can be daunting to get started and put the first sentence on that blank page. Author and creative writing lecturer Ronnie Scott shared some tips to help you get on track to writing your first novel. Start where you are Looking for inspiration? Take notes – the best ideas might just be waiting in plain sight. Scott advised aspiring writers to carry a notebook and get into the habit of writing down what they see in their surroundings. “It gets you into the habit of thinking, thinking visually, and then translating that into words,” he said. Apart from improving your writing skills, these notes can also help spark ideas and develop the seed for your future stories. Allocate time for research Research is important to provide your story with rich details and authenticity – but it can also distract you from writing the story itself. Scott recommended separating the research stage from the creative parts of the work. “Allocate yourself an hour of research, for example,” he said. “Then for the next days of your work, you are absolutely just going to play in the document … you’re going to write down anything that comes into your head.” Challenge yourself If you have a great story idea but don’t know how to put it into writing, take on small challenges. For example, you can try creating a 200-word version of the story or allocate an hour to get as many words as possible on the page. Even if the end result isn’t satisfactory, the exercise could yield new learnings. “You [might] have something bad on the page,” Scott said. “You can come back to it tomorrow. You can read it critically, you can think, ‘Okay, what was I trying to do here? Why didn’t it work out?’ “You unfortunately have to probably go through a bit of creative discomfort to get yourself to finish something, but once you do that, there are really great things waiting on the other side.”

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Creating writing: 3 tips to start

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