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Every project we want to make or do starts with an idea, an impulse that is often inspired by a subject or question we are interested in exploring. But how can we make that initial idea the best it can be? This course will expose participants to a number of different strategies for research, development, and refinement of an idea while creating visual tools to track their ideation process.

This 5 week course is for curators, artists, designers, and anyone in the cultural fields wishing to make the creative process of developing concepts more effective and to arrive at ideas that would take their projects to the next level. The course’s expanded length of time will allow for participants to get deeper into their creative thinking process.

Following the course, participants will learn a range of creative thinking and research techniques, including practical and unorthodox research methods as well as visual tools to track their creative process. Participants will be able to apply these techniques to any number of project ideas, leading to the creation of each participant’s unique method that is suited to their specific practice and the needs of the project.

Video conferences every Tuesday at 7pm Central European Time. Recordings available in case you miss a live session!

Week 1: How to be a creative sponge

Introductions: who are we?

Idea brainstorming techniques

Mind mapping & other train of consciousness techniques

How/where to gather & keep this information

Look at types of visual logs

In-class activity: Re-invent

Weekly activity: Collect collect collect!


Week 2: Organizing the chaos

Practical & unorthodox research strategies

Filter and archive all that is gathered

Organizational strategies for the collections

Continue visual logs: Perception

In-class collaborative activity: Re-imagine

Weekly activity: Think big!


Week 3: Finding the needle in the haystack

Make new connections

Find hidden threads

Look at examples of artistic & curatorial processes

Continue visual logs: Experience

In-class activity: Re-write

Weekly activity: Bringing big down to earth


Week 4: How can this be better?

Critique strategies

Critical thinking & analysis strategies

Taking risks with idea development

Continue visual logs: Experiment

In-class activity: Re-wind

Weekly activity: Obstructions


Week 5: Putting the pieces together

Assess initial results

Group critique five obstructions

Pick one idea to further develop & refine

Know when to keep looping back through the process

Continue visual logs: Investigate

In-class activity: Re-visit

Weekly activity: Refine

Examples of post-production analysis

Cultivate a creative attitude & atmosphere

How to apply these strategies to a number of different tasks

How to identify & develop your own individual practice

Analysis of visual logs

Group critique of individual work

Final Q & A

System requirements for the live video conferences: Mac OS x 10.9 or higher or Windows 7 or higher.

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