Ideas of the earth

Das Lied von der Erde ("The Song of the Earth"), is a musical work by Gustav Mahler (1860-1911), a composition comprised of six songs sourced from ancient Chinese poetry rendered into German. The poetic songs reflect the vision of earthly beauty and transience. Such a vision has influenced cultural practice throughout the ages and, as a philosophical concept, can be found in, for example, the Japanese aesthetic, wabi-sabi, which holds that beauty is "imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete" in nature, and where transience itself is beautiful. And so too in contemporary design where modernity and tradition come together in an interchange of cultural learning resulting in material objects and artefacts inspired and influenced by nature, craft and technology which are all aspects of the same global whole. And more so in an age demanding sustainability, healthy ecosystems and environments. Indeed ideas of the earth.

Presenting and communicating ideas

Ideation necessarily includes presenting and communicating ideas, the "what" and "how" of ideation. Or simply put, making a presentation is a way of communicating ideas to an audience where communication is the act of transferring information, here the idea from one place, person or group to another. The transferring of the idea to an audience depends on a number of factors such as the cultural context, the medium used to communicate, emotions and location. Take the available means for communicating, for instance, which include verbal, written, visual as well as non-verbal forms (the latter when presenting in person) and the range of channels, including face-to-face, video conferencing, and social media and it becomes clear that successful ideas communication depends on the complexity of the content as well as understanding the intended audience. For example, studies show that concise text paired with visuals helps comprehension of ideas more easily. Or, to convey a complex concept based on, say technical information is easier via a text document than a spoken message. On the other hand, if interaction with the audience would be more appropriate or desirable, a conversation may be more effective than delivering a presentation

On the other hand, conveying complex, technical information is easier via a printed document than a spoken message.

Read more at: https://www.skillsyouneed.com/ips/what-is-communication.htmlssage.

d more at: https://www.skillsyouneed.com/ips/what-is-communication.html

On the other hand, conveying complex, technical information is easier via a printed document than a spoken message.

Read more at: https://www.skillsyouneed.com/ips/what-is-communication.html

On the other hand, conveying complex, technical information is easier via a printed document than a spoken message.

Read more at: https://www.skillsyouneed.com/ips/what-is-communication.html

conveying complex, technical information is easier via a printed document than a spoken message.

Read more at: https://www.skillsyouneed.com/ips/what-is-communication.html

conveying complex, technical information is easier via a printed document than a spoken message.

Read more at: https://www.skillsyouneed.com/ips/what-is-communication.html

conveying complex, technical information is easier via a printed document than a spoken message

Read more at: https://www.skillsyouneed.com/ips/what-is-communication.html

conveying complex, technical information is easier via a printed document than a spoken message

Read more at: https://www.skillsyouneed.com/ips/what-is-communication.htmlMoreover, audience feedback can be crucial for the ideator, as presenter to make sure the audience has understood the idea as intended also allowing for any confusion to be corrected. However, if the idea would be best served by interaction with the audience, a conversation is probably more appropriate and effective than delivering a presentation.

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Making a presentation is a way of communicating your thoughts and ideas to an audience

Read more at: https://www.skillsyouneed.com/present/what-is-a-presentation.html

Making a presentation is a way of communicating your thoughts and ideas to an audience

Read more at: https://www.skillsyouneed.com/present/what-is-a-presentation.html

Ideation platform

While ideation is not confined to particular physical places or spaces, the shift towards working remotely, or Out of Office triggered by the global virus pandemic in early 2020 highlighted the importance of designers being able to continue sharing ideas with colleagues online. For example, to be able to sketch first thoughts and ideas, or draw schematics when discussions around, say a flip chart or white board are not available, as was typically the case before the pandemic. That is, creating an Off Studio ideation platform that enable designers to make real-time connections providing an ideas exchange irrespective of geographical location. Also, in remote mode, when the physical studio environment is supplanted by technology, artificial intelligence and cloud computing may suggest turning ideas into "big data", a format that could further enhance creativity and innovation on a collaborative basis. Yet while adaptive and flexible working is the order of the day, including video meetings and screen sharing, most designers would agree that studio culture and creativity inevitably suffer when people work entirely remotely. Remote working, then, is hardly a long-term replacement for meeting face-to-face, particularly for very personal businesses such as design. Indeed, as a general observation, the more technology, the more people want to meet in person to bounce ideas off each other, and build trust with one another.

Quiet for ideas

 The 'Aha!' or 'Eureka' moment is a common experience of sudden discovery, inspiration, or insight. Some research describes the Aha! effect as a memory advantage, but it is difficult to know in advance under what circumstances the Aha! moment happens. Yet there are ways to prepare the ground for fertile idea generation, as part of finding or improving a problem-solving strategy. For example, gaining as much knowledge and experience as possible, both general and specific, in that "things add up" over time. That is, compounded life experience has an impact on ideation. Aha! moments, then, are not as random as they seem, and can be helped by specific conditions. For example, ideas tend to pop up when our minds are quiet and our consciousness is at rest. Silence and solitude, then, are beneficial for nurturing ideation. Moreover, internal focus often goes hand in hand with mind wandering or daydreaming—another trigger for insights. Indeed insights may happen specifically when we are not actively making an effort to choose what to do. In contrast, negative emotions or being anxious create a lot of “noise” in the brain, drowning out the space for insight. 'Brain silencing' rather than ''brainstorming', or taking a break from thinking to unravel unconsicous thought about an issue may then actually increase the chances of Aha! moments.

Ruskin inspires

"From the most insignificant circumstance, — from a bird on a railing, a wooden bridge over a stream, a broken branch, a child in a pinafore, or a waggoner in a frock, does the artist derive amusement, improvement, and speculation.", wrote John Ruskin, the Victorian polymath.(1819-1900). For Ruskin, speculation about principles depended on observation of particularities. He thought visually revelling in stringing together a potentially endless series of associations on an ‘imaginary’ thread. His art was always purposeful, integral to his thinking on all subjects. He worked out and visualised his ideas through drawing. And so Ruskin inspires designers to explore, observe, and speculate (what if?) looking for how things (material culture) can be improved. Indeed from the most insignificant circumstance design ideas spring.

Walk the idea

"We talked to each other, exchanged ideas,” says Erdal Arıkan, the information scientist whose research provided a theoretical breakthrough in 5G technology. “This is the best mode of collaboration for me. I remain independent, and they do whatever they want". At first he presented his idea to US technology firms to see if they had interest in implementing the idea. “I did prepare some slides and sent them, but none of the US companies were really interested in it,” he says. Arıkan takes the blame for failing to ignite their interest. “I was an academic who did not know how to promote an idea. Perhaps I did not believe in the idea that strongly myself." However, Chinese Huawei saw the commercial opportunity in Arıkan's idea and, with large investments, government support and engineering talent, turned it into the basic 5G technology now being rolled out around the world. Source: https://www.wired.com/story/huawei-5g-polar-codes-data-breakthrough/?utm_source=pocket-newtab-global-en-GB

Carry On Ideation

Ideas often come in bunches, like bananas, or like the old joke that you wait ages for one bus, then three come along at once. The reason is that, when waiting for a bus, the bus may run to a timetable but in heavy traffic or disparity in passenger numbers at each stop the timetable is no precise indicator. Indeed it’s this inevitable messiness that disrupts the bus scheduling. Now the scheduling is a linear process and bus operators try to regulate the service accordingly but the reality proves the bus service cannot be run like a clock, that is, delays are mathematically inevitable. And so with ideation. At an abstract level, ideation might be considered a linear process (ideation + artificial intelligence = aideation is working along such lines of inquiry). But designer experience of ideation shows that it is a non-linear, iterative process - unpredictable, even messy and full of surprises and disappointments. And because ideas are propostions, not fully fledged plans it is difficult to tell bad ideas from good ones because the proof is in its realisation, like the proof of the pudding is in the eating. So while ideas fail, this isn't necessarily because most of them began life as bad ideas. Ideation is full of banana skins: You slip, and carry on. And so the crunch is commitment to the idea while seeking and gaining support to make it happen.