In thinking about my creativity in everyday experience I am struck by how much of it involves other people. Indeed, I guess a good use of one's own creativity is to help someone else be creative. My work with chalk mountain is very much like this. A few months ago I came up with a business idea which we called storyshare. The idea is that storyshare will enable people to create a real or imaginary story involving themselves and other people who are important and special in their life and bring it to life through pictures, sound or animations that are created by freelance artists working for chalk mountain.
The product offer includes
1) Short story in words and pictures printed in colour
2) Cartoon strip poster (could also be printed on a T-shirt)
3) On-line digital story and pictures with or without spoken narrative and sound effects
4) On-line animation
To demonstrate the idea I wrote a short story called adventure on chalk mountain and included some photos for context. Then I commissioned an artist to have a go at interpreting the story. Ed created a small sound booth in our studio and we recorded a soundtrack and he added some great sound effects. He then set about creating a website. I got a bit frustrated waiting for the illustrations but eventually they came. Some of them didnt fit the story too well but with a bit of feedback and a bit of doctoring by Ed using photoshop we eventually had the images we wanted and Ed put them into a digital story book together with the narrative and sound effects. Take a look and see what you think.
Chalk Mountain Adventure - example digital story with narrative, illustrations and sound effects
When I reflect on the set of experiences I think it involved a lot of creativity. It involved generating an idea which I think was quite novel. An idea that could only have been born in the context of our Chalk Mountain enterprise. It was probably driven by the need to create new ideas for business that were consistent with our mission to enable organisations and people to share their knowledge and values. Then together we brought the idea into existence. Each of us making our own contribution and these were combined by Ed, using technology, in a way that achieved what we had imagined. My role was to create the conditions which enabled it to happen (idea, example story, capable people, relationships, resources and interactions).
But who is to say its creative? Well the example story was a true(ish) story and I wrote it for my grandson's 5th birthday. I sent the link to his mum and they read it together several times. He loved it and I know he did because he told me the story in exquisite detail. So it made me feel good that our efforts had been worthwhile and it made me realise how much my own creativity can be enhanced by combining my ideas and products with the talents of other people. But then I have always known this.
The product offer includes
1) Short story in words and pictures printed in colour
2) Cartoon strip poster (could also be printed on a T-shirt)
3) On-line digital story and pictures with or without spoken narrative and sound effects
4) On-line animation
To demonstrate the idea I wrote a short story called adventure on chalk mountain and included some photos for context. Then I commissioned an artist to have a go at interpreting the story. Ed created a small sound booth in our studio and we recorded a soundtrack and he added some great sound effects. He then set about creating a website. I got a bit frustrated waiting for the illustrations but eventually they came. Some of them didnt fit the story too well but with a bit of feedback and a bit of doctoring by Ed using photoshop we eventually had the images we wanted and Ed put them into a digital story book together with the narrative and sound effects. Take a look and see what you think.
Chalk Mountain Adventure - example digital story with narrative, illustrations and sound effects
When I reflect on the set of experiences I think it involved a lot of creativity. It involved generating an idea which I think was quite novel. An idea that could only have been born in the context of our Chalk Mountain enterprise. It was probably driven by the need to create new ideas for business that were consistent with our mission to enable organisations and people to share their knowledge and values. Then together we brought the idea into existence. Each of us making our own contribution and these were combined by Ed, using technology, in a way that achieved what we had imagined. My role was to create the conditions which enabled it to happen (idea, example story, capable people, relationships, resources and interactions).
But who is to say its creative? Well the example story was a true(ish) story and I wrote it for my grandson's 5th birthday. I sent the link to his mum and they read it together several times. He loved it and I know he did because he told me the story in exquisite detail. So it made me feel good that our efforts had been worthwhile and it made me realise how much my own creativity can be enhanced by combining my ideas and products with the talents of other people. But then I have always known this.
| adventure_on_chalk_mountain_example_story.pdf |
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