Exploring Your Creative Genius: Episode 116
My guest for last week’s show was John Swansey.
I was struck by the physical nature of his creative journey, starting when John, as a boy, told his father he was bored so his dad directed him to head downstairs to the basement filled with tools and materials. He stated building boats and planes that he carved from wood and later built a boat he could drive on the lake.
Later, when teaching a design class, John brought in old mannequins and wig stands so that his students weren’t designing wearable technology products on paper, but on a physical representation of their use.
There are really important and powerful creative energies that are engaged when you use your hands, touching and gripping and turning and holding.
One research project found that when you physically interact with an object — holding a pencil, for example — you will generate more and more diverse uses for the object than if you simply stare at it.
Why? The tactile engagement activates your sensorimotor brain regions which feeds back into your various associative networks, generating unconventional connections in your brain, sparking fresh creative thinking.
Another found that if you are sketching or doodling your ideas during creative idea generation efforts—brainstorming with others or on your own — you enjoy a significant improvement in your Divergent Thinking, meaning you will generate more solutions to a problem or ideas for an opportunity.
Why? The motor act of drawing engages your metaphorical thinking and your spatial reasoning, inviting non-linear thinking.
I have the habit of almost always having a pencil or pen in my hand—typing this for you is one of the few exceptions — and I play with it while I consider one thing or another.
If you want to read more, John recommends two books.
“Exploring Your Creative Genius” takes an expansive view on what it means to be creative and entrepreneurial in an ongoing conversation led by Carl Nordgren — entrepreneur, novelist, and lifelong student with decades of experience growing his own creative capacity and assisting others to do the same in exciting new ways!
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