{"id":479,"date":"2012-11-26T06:06:32","date_gmt":"2012-11-26T06:06:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rosarioconsulting.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/?p=479"},"modified":"2012-11-26T06:09:21","modified_gmt":"2012-11-26T06:09:21","slug":"critical-review-of-seth-godins-essay-on-art-and-science-and-making-things","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/critical-review-of-seth-godins-essay-on-art-and-science-and-making-things\/","title":{"rendered":"Critical review of Seth Godin&#8217;s essay on &#8220;Art and Science and Making Things&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<!-- Facebook Like Button v1.9.6 BEGIN [http:\/\/blog.bottomlessinc.com] -->\n<iframe src=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Finspiredtoeducate.net%2Finspiredtoeducate%2Fcritical-review-of-seth-godins-essay-on-art-and-science-and-making-things%2F&amp;layout=standard&amp;show_faces=false&amp;width=450&amp;action=like&amp;colorscheme=light\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowTransparency=\"true\" style=\"border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px; height: 30px; align: left; margin: 2px 0px 2px 0px\"><\/iframe>\n<!-- Facebook Like Button END -->\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/rosarioconsulting.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/CRI_151051.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-480\" title=\"Salvador Dali\" src=\"http:\/\/rosarioconsulting.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/CRI_151051.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"364\" srcset=\"http:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/CRI_151051.jpg 500w, http:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/CRI_151051-300x218.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><em>\u201cCreativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn&#8217;t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That&#8217;s because they were able to connect experiences they&#8217;ve had and synthesize new things.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><em>Steve Jobs<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I have played violin since the age of five.\u00a0\u00a0 In my youth, music helped build up my sense of worth, helped me enjoy making art with others, and encouraged me to appreciate making.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I have to confess that I hated the discipline of practicing and found it a chore.<\/p>\n<p>As an adult, I reflect upon this time of my life with appreciation for my parents.\u00a0\u00a0 I cherish my talent as a musician.\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s a source of creative thinking for my craft of writing software and leading teams.\u00a0\u00a0 When I learn a hard piece of music, I look at the page of dots and start to break the pieces of music into digestible phrases.\u00a0\u00a0 I attempt to slowly master each phrase of the music and incrementally integrate the parts into a total expressive form.\u00a0\u00a0 This same creative process occurs during software design.\u00a0 In music and software, one breaks the experience into parts, masters each element, and puts the parts together.<\/p>\n<p>As a musician and a technologist, I tend to pay attention to media discussing the intersection of art, technology and creativity.\u00a0\u00a0 Seth Godin recently gave an amazing and inspiring talk at the 2012 World Maker Faire.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 His lecture challenged us to recognize how creative thinking and \u201cmaking\u201d are under attack by industrialization.\u00a0 As a culture, why do we not value art and creativity?<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/OZ01MH9BQqk\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I appreciated many aspects of Seth\u2019s talk:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Just start and share:<\/strong>\u00a0 Seth challenges us to start creating.\u00a0\u00a0 In many cases, our culture has taught us to seek and create perfection. \u00a0\u00a0Many feel that we will never become perfect at making and creating.\u00a0\u00a0 So, why should we start?\u00a0 Mr. Godin loudly challenges us to just start creating and share your work.\u00a0 As Jon Acuff would say, \u201cMurder perfection.\u201d<\/li>\n<li><strong>Where do we teach experimentation and continuous improvement?<\/strong> \u00a0In school or the work place, how do we encourage innovation and creative thinking?\u00a0\u00a0 How do we create space for experimentation and the inevitable failed trials and experiments?<\/li>\n<li><strong>The internet is the platform to connect:<\/strong>\u00a0 Mr. Godin argues that we are attracted to other makers and creative people.\u00a0\u00a0 The internet is a huge opportunity for people to connect with other creative people and inspire each other.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I do have a few challenges with Seth Godin\u2019s talk though.<\/p>\n<p>1)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <strong>There is no science lab that actually teaches science:<\/strong> During his talk, he claims that we do not really teach science in labs in schools.\u00a0\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Students are not discovering new knowledge.\u00a0\u00a0 They are just reproducing results and following scripted processes.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I would argue that the discipline of teaching science labs through scripted procedures is important.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Any new scientific discovery must be peer reviewed and reproduced by peers in the community.<\/li>\n<li>In music, learning scales, theory, and imitating classics is important to learning the techniques of music making.\u00a0\u00a0 Likewise, scientists need the opportunity to pass along their craft of knowledge discovery to the next generation by teaching tools, processes, techniques and concepts.<\/li>\n<li>In the world of art, apprentices often learn the craft of their masters through imitation and modeling the behavior of a master.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>2)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <strong>Industrialization stands in conflict with creative and independent thinking:<\/strong> Mr. Godin defines industrialization as the craft of incrementally making stuff better by a small degree.\u00a0\u00a0 In Mr. Godin\u2019s view, true art favors the radical introduction of new ideas and expression.\u00a0\u00a0 I felt that Seth Godin put industrialization and art in stark opposition to each other.\u00a0\u00a0 Can the world use more art and creativity? Yes.\u00a0 I, however, do not believe that every act of making should be an artistic experience.\u00a0\u00a0 Makers define the balance between the radical exploration of ideas (art) and incremental innovation. (industrialization)\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Makers define themselves by the purpose of their creative act.\u00a0 Does the piece exist to say something?\u00a0 Does the piece exist for a functional reason? Perhaps the true conflict in our culture is pragmatism versus the opportunity for pure expression.<\/p>\n<p>I value Seth Godin\u2019s challenge to create space for true innovation and creative thinking. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0This style of thinking needs a place in our educational system.\u00a0\u00a0 If we do not teach our students to be creative, how do we expect humanity to survive in a future filled with largely unknown challenges!?<\/p>\n<p>How would you foster creativity in your classes or places of work?<\/p>\n\n<!-- Facebook Like Button v1.9.6 BEGIN [http:\/\/blog.bottomlessinc.com] -->\n<iframe src=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Finspiredtoeducate.net%2Finspiredtoeducate%2Fcritical-review-of-seth-godins-essay-on-art-and-science-and-making-things%2F&amp;layout=standard&amp;show_faces=false&amp;width=450&amp;action=like&amp;colorscheme=light\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowTransparency=\"true\" style=\"border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px; height: 30px; align: left; margin: 2px 0px 2px 0px\"><\/iframe>\n<!-- Facebook Like Button END -->\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cCreativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn&#8217;t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That&#8217;s because they were able to connect experiences they&#8217;ve had and synthesize new [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,19,18,3,8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":483,"href":"http:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479\/revisions\/483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}