Fresh Takes on Innovation

Children do it. If they want to see how something works, they touch it, move it, turn it around. But as we grow older we seem to distance ourselves from haptic understanding. Designers nowadays will happily work solely with computer models to learn about interaction in the real world. At Adobe however, things are changing, as G. Pascal Zachary reports in The New York Times.

Bringing human hands back into the world of digital designers may have profound long-term consequences. Designs could become safer, more user-friendly and even more durable. At the very least, the process of creating things could become a happier one. While working in simulated computer worlds has undeniable appeal, Mr Tulley (crafts trainer for Adobe) says, “the physical act of making things helps the whole person.

At BrainStore we believe that haptic stimulation is vital to trigger unusual inspirations. We will engage the participants of our creative workshops in 3D modeling with play-do, painting with water colors, assembling collages – the creative interaction causing ideas to be conceived and expressed in a completely unexpected way.

Did you know which bizarre conditions could affect your brain?

“The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat” (1985) is an absolute must read for everyone interested in the human brain.
In his clinical tales Dr. Oliver Sacks, respected neurologist and author, describes patients afflicted with different neurological conditions. For example you’ll find a young lady suffering from loss of propioception, e.g. this woman will not be able to perceive the spatial position of her limbs. Or there’s the title tale, where a husband wants to put his wife on his head. Or you’ll smirk over the essay where Sacks describes an aphasic person watching the president speak on TV; and although she doesn’t understand a single word, she can’t believe what he’s saying, simply by observing his non-verbal communication. Hilarious and so true to life!
If you have a minute, buy the book, read it and enjoy it. By the way, the title essay “The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat” was adapted as a one-act chamber opera by Michael Nyman, an English composer of minimalist music.
I’m really looking forward to reading Dr. Sacks revised “Musicophilia – Tales of Music and the Brain” which will be available as of September 23, 2008.

It wouldn’t be conceivable to take this amount of drugs while at work, would it? Sportsmen and sportswomen – still considered by many youngsters as role models – totally lose focus and fill themselves up to their necks with whatever they deem necessary to beat their competitors. Whether they want their muscles to grow faster, or to shorten recovery time, feel less pain or increase the level of awareness.

Imagine a sports world where doping were legal… instead of athletes’ names we would be talking about the producers of the substances or the so called doctors prescribing them. On track one: 5α-androst-1-en-3β,17β-diol, on track two: Erythropoietin, on track three: outsider Diamorphine. It could be a fascinating competition though; maybe some of the research efforts would even contribute curing real medical problems.

But as far as I remember the whole idea behind the Olympic Games was fair play and respect towards the opponents; and the audience’s respect and admiration for the athletes’ achievements. Maybe nowadays we are rather asked to revere chemists and researchers than training and discipline.

Well, obviously «citius, altius, fortius» can be interpreted in different ways. The momentary trend seems to be, rather than pushing human achievement (or animal – look at the horses) to its limits, to transcend it: go ever faster, higher and stronger than humanly possible.

If you want to succeed in life you have to be emotionally literate. The new formula to success is the Emotional Intelligence Quotient, rather than the traditional Intelligence Quotient, according to Daniel Goleman, clinical psychologist and founder of the business consulting agency Emotional Intelligence Services (EIS).

Rationality – or keeping your cool – is not the only guarantee to professional and private success. It’s your emotional competences. The EQ measures the intelligence manifested in our understanding and our handling of human emotions – dividing it into a complex scale ranging from fear to anger, love to aggression, doubt and joy. Goleman bases his theses on various clinical cognitive research and the latest findings in brain science.

In his latest work, he supports the following claim: without an intact emotional life, even the best intellect remains useless. There is a profound and complex interaction between the emotional and rational side, opening up completely new perspectives and possibilities in life to each human being.

BrainStore has long recognized the importance of the Emotional Intelligence Quotient, having experienced in many workshops that creating emotional experiences will be a trigger for surprising ideas – and can favorably complement traditional cognitive methods.

New offices, new products, new Brains and projects around the world; an exciting, fast-paced year slows down during our yearly summer break. It’s time to take a deep breath, lean back and sum up last year’s happenings before the IdeaMachine will take up speed again on August 6th.

Closing my eyes…

…we produced ideas in Munich, Mainz, Dusseldorf, Geneva, Addis Abeba, Perth, Orlando
…we transformed factories and meeting rooms into vibrant ideahubs
…we hired new Brains and trained them to skilled idea technicians
…we opened an office in Long Beach, California
…we helped our clients to install and run their own IdeaMachines…

Sounds exciting? Well yes, it was. Soon we’ll share more of the exciting first-hand details with you. During the next weeks, we will post snapshots and impressions of recent events. Enjoy!

Creativity Central – a blog about creative thinking, innovation, ideas, and brainstorming – recently interviewed our Co-founder and IdeaDirector Markus Mettler. Here you can read the full interview.