mario a. spinthiras

Sometimes I tend to enjoy listening to the liberated views of individuals that believe that something is irrevocably wrong with the world , society , technology or any other hot topic (excluding politics because I honestly have nothing to do with) that oppose the general public opinion. Now as much as we would like to have rebellious thoughts and paint a better world across the blue skies of our lovely planet , I avoid listening to views that come from slow lanes or wrong directions. I had such a chance , to listen to the mind-widening views of a friend on Saturday afternoon which I left upstairs , in my head to bake for a few days before letting the keystrokes flow. These are my thoughts , my findings and my views on how creativity and stale ideas are in the biggest battle against the very makers of stale ideas and the desired creativity to make the blue skies smile more…

This friend that I mentioned having a chat with is a graphic designer. This guy likes liberated views on graphical representation to mankind , unique marketing and an all round *swoosh* opinion on things. One thing which he introduced to me where the views on marketing and graphics with regard to television ads.

Stale advertising

I’m sure you have all seen the television ad where the woman has a big stain on her child’s school shirt or on her husband’s sweater. Guess what happens next? The woman is approached by some “dude” which gives her the best most wonderful super duper cleaning powder to stick into her washing machine to fix the bad stain that would never ever clean with the normal stuff. Then comes the “impressive part”. You can see a first person view going through the clothes at a microscopic level and swooshing through the threads watching the super duper power killing off the dirty crap that her husband was such a clumsy fella managing to dirty in the first place. Then back to a normal view you can see the woman smiling as if she is “off the hook” from a violent husband! WOW! Thats amazing!

Ive probably seen this ad since I was knee high. The people and product might be different but I am sure the same stale idea is there to torment everyone with the lack of originality or creativity? Thats not entirely true ; it’s not the lack , perhaps the restriction if such , but you cannot be sure.

People sit in a board room and discuss their next ad. Marketing departments have manager(s) which will eventually have the final call and in all probability you will not have creativity as an implementational requirement on your job description but more of a “I filled in the blank job description” to create an empty spot at a company. Where did the “lets sit down and brainstorm” go ? A marketing department or marketing company , graphic design company or even graphic design department should not be under two different roofs and should not be even tagged marketing or design. How does “creativity company or creativity department” sound to you ? Thats more like it. The name alone gives you the emphasis required to know that such a department would deal with the aspects of a business that your usual suit and tie would not. That is of course , to give birth to new ideas , to brainstorm in a team , to make things happen in ways that people need to see and not just see the same thing over and over again. Thats what advertisement should look like nowadays. Stale ideas are everywhere , any billboard , every channel… but a creativity department or creativity company could change all that. The de-factos right now simply don’t cut it.

The “keep walking” Johnny Walker ad. The cyborg idea was phenomenal. Surely you all know this ad from TV. Things to note about this ad are the fact that you cannot see a bottle of whiskey anywhere and the fact that they were creative on a philosophical plane instead of simply putting alcohol in front of your eyes saying “Drink this and be the party center!”. Now that is a truly creative way to sell a product.

Stale sex

It is in a human being’s natural way of life to multiply. Humorously enough motive has been given to us in the form of lust , desire and so forth. Yes I am talking about sex. Sex might be rather awkward discussing on a blog post especially when associates , colleagues , family and friends read , but never the less it remains off the blog-taboo list for me (and it should for you either - it isn’t that bad talking about it ).

So where was I? Ah yes , sex. Human beings have a sexual nature within them. Knowing people in my generation , talking to people and observing the generalized picture drawn by society today , I find it highly unlikely that a couple married for a billion years (marriage years are multiplied by 50,000,000) will find the missionary position “the best thing that ever happened to them” half way through the marriage. The reason creativity is lacked here is simply because of the intimacy restraints , the fear of messing it up big time and the lack of conversation about sex (yes it’s a healthy thing to discuss with your partner). Though you might or might not have the required creativity to improve that aspect of your life , you will avoid using it to avoid the complication if it goes sour at any given point.

Let us not forget how people treat taboo topics. I am not going to go deep into this issue since I feel I’m touching limits already only surface breezing it (sex) but taboo can be somewhat the fine line between what is acceptable to a partner and what not. This can cause problems yet taboo has a direct relation to creativity ; which sexually is described as a fantasy.

Stale movies

The passed week or so I’ve seen quite a few movies. They are all based around the same stories time and time again. The cop’s partner gets shot in the head , he ignores his wife and child to seek revenge and eventually he kills the bad guy. But guess what? This is 2008! The good guy also has a side kick which joins along , and dies along the way simply to make the movie more of a bad ass flick instead of a “feeling lucky punk?” Eastwood movie or even a Chuck Norris “I’m going to kill you all and then I’m going to beat the Kangaroo to pieces ” approach.

I agree that some movies from the passed are supreme and there will be nothing like it . Such a movie was Godfather (which is 3 movies , 1 story though) and I honestly can’t say I’ve seen another drama-action movie that is enriched with meaning much like it.

I can’t understand why people avoid cinematic experimentation. Obviously the first thought would be the fact that they have an investment and need to have a ROI on the movie. Thats understandable. How about one of you go and ask Darren Aronosfky about experimentation? How does Requiem For A Dream sound to you? Or Pi ? They where original , rather interesting and on the dot stories. How about asking the Wachowski brothers (now one of them is a sister) about The Matrix ? That was a mind blowing concept for a movie and it made tons of money! Extremely experimental concepts for a movie but look at the result. People love it!!! Note: Aronosfky did flunk on some movies. So did Quentin Tarantino to be honest but they are true innovators.In terms of TV channels I think Discovery Science and MTV need a round of applause since both are something you glue yourself to the screen when you watch.

What I am trying to say here is that the stale same old love story , action movie and whatnot is the same story , different faces , perhaps more bullets but strip the movie from it’s bells and whistles and you have one more movie to match thousands the same. Shame!

Stale Music

“I will always love you“. Thats a lyric you want to hit with a bat and kick till it just goes away. The only song I enjoyed that had that lyric in was from The Cure’s Lovesong . Then came along Whitney Huston and so many other Celine Dion-like singers and cried about how they will always love him. Will they now? So how comes you have divorces to talk about and all the hatred songs that are ever so popular nowadays.

Music is changing drastically. I can see this from what the generations before me heard (which is superb music) and from the youngsters after me. Music is changing to be more adaptable to the trends in society , youngsters , public places where people simply have fun. Such a change was dance music which swifted into Trance and more up-beat music. Other types of music remain more or less intact but the goal has changed. It’s not about what we want to write down and sing but more on how singers are looking into the big buck. This is one more reason why I appreciate Anathema for example , that write music. They don’t do the Britney Spears Barbie act , they like what they do. One singer doing really well is James Blunt , which recently had a concert in Limassol , Cyprus but unfortunately I didn’t get round to going. James seems to be giving a new rhythm and lyric wrap for the pop culture and well done to him.

Don’t get me wrong here. I’m sure everyone agrees that singers go through a lot to do what they do , and they get rewarded from it (since Napster they had to do a few more concerts to maintain the same salary) but do they have to follow trends so much? Look at Prodigy , Gorillaz and a Infected Mushroom for example. Or even take a look at Juno Reactor or a rather non-heard one which is HYPE (can be found on Jamendo.com) , they go by feel and not by buck. They experiment , take risk , and make damn good music that people like. As far as Cyprus radio stations are concerned, the only station that really likes playing “good stuff” on that people DON’T hear all the time is Mix FM (102.3) which I listen to in the car a lot. Mix likes to play stuff others don’t , they like to experiment with the music they are putting out and most of all they listen to feedback and introduce better tunes according to that feedback. I know one of the guys at MIX reads my blog so don’t turn red when you see this Good work!!!

Stale People

Here we go. The convenient friend , the boring wife or husband and on and on and on and on. Surely you have been through a situation where your sitting down with someone you know or even just met and you can realize this repetition going on and on within their words. Well thats what you call stale people. People tend to pick what suits them up to a point and they follow that path onwards to ensure the interoperability of their functions within every day life , interacting with people safely. Then again you find the people that do absolutely crazy things that we wouldn’t’ do ever and we call them fruitcakes. Ever seen someone stand in the middle of those two stances? If you have then well done , everybody needs a few more reasonable fruitcakes in their life but then again the restrictive social and ethical forces that act upon each one of us to fear a new next step makes it all so boring sometimes.

Stale Electronic Entertainment

The tetris days are so over for some people. I recently had a chance to try World of Warcraft. Obviously you have heard of it before. It’s a MMORPG type game where millions play inside a “fantasy” world where they interact with each other. I don’t like it but I can appreciate and enjoy the fact that it is a true innovative approach to online gaming. When I was working for SpiderNet I wrote an article on online gaming in their quarterly released SpiderMag which was given to all their subscribers. It explained how online gaming developed and the whole idea of inter-person interaction empowering it. WoW simply took any online game off the scale and did their own thing.

I don’t know Blizzard’s (the maker of WoW) internal politics or methods of management but to make a game so detailed and successful you would have to have had a group of mind blowing brainstormers , relieve them from all restrictive forces and simply let them think and then DO. Well done to Blizzard then!!!! Let us note that I don’t enjoy playing WoW but never the less I still feel they have done something very nice.

Just a last word regarding gaming. Warcraft III Frozen Throne is a game I play every now and then with friends. It’s an RPG much as a top-level view more non-online interactive version of WoW. People still play it though it’s quite old. Never the less people are losing the point of it all. The graphics are surely meant to be better but the gameplay meaning is changing and it lets games that have true potential be restricted to a game-time of roughly six months instead of a long time classic fit much like a Super Mario game if you like.

Stale Politics

I’m not going to say much here. The only thing I see thats “oh so new” is the fact that there is a new promise each week. I’m not a political person nor do I have the orientation towards politics and that would also include the relevant amount of know-how to handle political statements bundled with the word “stale” together. I’m one of the people that honestly believe that politics won’t be solving humanity’s serious problems any day soon. But who knows.. something might change after a consecutive amount of time where things haven’t been solved…

Stale Desktop Computing

I know that most of the people that read this sorry excuse of a blog know that I’m not very fond of the Microsoft product range including the Windows Operating System. I’m sure thats fine with most people including Microsoft. I do use Vista occasionally and thats fine too (it only has to be fine with me really). My main operating system during my time at CableNet was Mac OS 10.5 (also known as leopard) which I was quite fond of too. I mainly use Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron to due all my computer related tasks today including the writing of this article. I’m also a big fan of free software (free in the sense that is made to you when you think “free candy”) and I’m very supportive of the Ubuntu philosophy. I’m not trying to be the rebel of all commercial operating systems here. Ubuntu and it’s backend philosophy don’t work that way. Mark Shuttleworth is a recent idol to me. I like what he is doing with Linux , I like how he is trying to change the Operating System model in today’s end user market. He also supports the free of charge cause and strangely (at first) enough he believes that the nature of commercial operating systems is going to die off quite soon. This is something I like. Many of you have thought of an online operating system and how Google might be related to it. This could whats coming next! All I do know is that Ubuntu is morphing into a great Desktop OS and they are here to stay for quite a while.

What you might find innovative about Ubuntu is the brown theme. During 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon and prior to the 8.04 release of Ubuntu people were wondering if there would be a change in the theme. There was not. I was greatly disappointed with this originally but then I had a chance to go over Shuttleworth’s blog where he spoke his thoughts on the brown and how they wanted a different warm feel (more human) to Ubuntu. That only convinced me half the way. What really made me realize that everybody has been doing it all wrong all these years is his statement on the Ubuntu theme regarding OSX. I am quoting Mark’s statement below in full (not just the OSX part).

Yes, that’s rather unusual in a world where most desktops are blue or green, and the MacOSX has gone kitchenware . Partly, we like the fact that Ubuntu is different, warmer. The computer is not a device any more, it’s an extension of your mind, your gateway to other people (by email, voip, irc, and over the web). We wanted a feel that was unique, striking, comforting, and above all, human. We chose brown. That’s quite a high risk choice, because to render brown your screen has to render subtle shades of blue, and green, and red. Even slight variations from the norm can shift the “brown” substantially. But monitors and LCD screens these days are increasingly of a standard that we felt the risk was acceptable. In Hoary and Breezy we have gone with a richer, redder brown, based on feedback from lower-end laptop and LCD screen users.

The kitchenware part made me laugh. He is absolutely right though. How could he not be? I know every GUI has HCI guidelines to which you must follow but Shuttleworth seems so reasonable about what he is saying as if it was some sort of Tech-Philosophy we have never noticed. I think thats quite enough for your mind to think about when considering your next OS. I switched from Fedora to Ubuntu (I’m a long time RedHat fan) and never looked back at anything since not because I despise the other options but I am content with the fact that Ubuntu gives me something new every time , and it works out of the box. It’s motto , linux for human beings seems to fit so nicely for the OS , and the OS fits me. Does this mean I am a human being in all senses?

I remember a few years back where Sun came out with this big release on Project Looking Glass. They went all out on a huge conference on it , demonstration in the most swift and perfect way and it just stayed as “Project” Looking Glass. The project was with regard to a 3D-like desktop environment which experiment much with the way we conceive desktops. If you ask the people tomorrow what desktop computing was like in the passed , they will tell you that it was something that belongs in a museum today. Some may consider this the normality of the progress of time , natural evolution and the angle of view towards what was and what currently is. This is something that Sun wanted to change. They experimented with 3d desktop environments , new ways of interacting with your desktop and so on. It was an amazing project and you could even download it (you still can) to try it over your current desktop. Unfortunately as I mentioned above , it flunked simply for the reason that people where far from being ready from leading the static 2d desktop environment. Sad as it may sound , you are not ready to leave what is and make it what once was. Ubuntu somehow comes and changes this with a new concept of desktop computing. It has nothing to do with the UI but more to do with the generalized concepts of what must an operating system cost , function as and offer. This was what had to happen prior to the change that Sun wanted with PLG.

Innovation seems to be happening thanks to people like Shuttleworth and the Ubuntu community (which I am trying to find time to help with). Let us hope that this is the beginning of something extraordinary to the desktop user and to how far we can push the limits of desktop computing. One day your kids might not laugh at the desktop you used as a youngster after all!

Creativity and whatnot

To make you familiar with something fairly new to mankind and possibly to remain only a surface touch , here’s a definition for you…

Creativity (or “creativeness”) is a mental process involving the generation of new ideas or concepts , or new associations of the creative mind between existing ideas or concepts. From a scientific point of view, the products of creative thought (sometimes referred to as divergent thought ) are usually considered to have both originality and appropriateness. An alternative, more everyday conception of creativity is that it is simply the act of making something new.

Here’s one for “stale” too…

stale 1  (stl)
adj. stal·er, stal·est
1. Having lost freshness, effervescence, or palatability: stale bread; stale air.
2. Lacking originality or spontaneity: a stale joke.
3. Impaired in efficacy, vigor, or spirit, as from inactivity or boredom.

So Tom , which one sounds a lot like the topics I discussed and how far they’ve gone today in our world?

If your answer is creativity then I am very sorry to have taken your time by misleading you with this article.

If you answer was “well…” or “hmm…” then you must read on!

Reasons why I think creativity is still not getting the best out of people

• Fear. Losing your job? Your wife , family kids , money, time , a smile?
• Risk. Associated to fear.
• Embarrassment. There is nothing embarrassing about liking Tarantino movies taking about intimate issues (I do neither though).
• Restrictive leadership (Whatever the boss says).
• Lack of brainstorming
• Belief in the idea that we’ve done it a million times and it worked is the savior plan.
• Lack of team spirits
• Commercialization. Profit seems so much better than the risk of having something less profitable in the short run with a possible hope that turnover might negate that.
• People are sometimes reluctant to the change that might occur due to an innovative idea. This is usually the birth of a “good idea that went bad”

I know that the sound of creativity departments or creativity companies sounds rather useless to some but imagine if you could put a bunch of people related to what your company does and keep them in a room all day , with laptops , Internet access , a latte and a positive environment with no stress whatsoever and just let them talk. Be there and watch what happens. Only by sharing opinion with a smile will give you the benefit of laughter which is closely standing next to positivity. Have you heard about the recent mellow guy in a marketing department that thought of a great ad? I haven’t. Thats because you can’t think of the good stuff when your feeling down now can you ? So back to the whole creativity department thing. You give people a couch , a quiet room , perhaps some music , a topic to talk about and let the flow go. Can you imagine the phenomenally superb ideas that will build from such a scenario? The members of such a department would wander around the company picking up views , thoughts and details to build upon the final idea. They could also travel to inspire themselves into getting more out of their idea. This is not something from a sci-fi movie. People with creativity do need inspiration to produce work just like artists do. I know this might sound a far fetched concept but it is one that could make a company prosper beyond their “suit and tie” statistical predictions. This is just one way someone can advance creativity instead of retarding it as we are currently doing.

I’ve been working on this post for quite a few days now trying to leave the toughts in my head mature before rolling out keystrokes. It seems as though the end of these keystrokes has come , not because the well has no more water in it but mostly because I can smell the food in the kitchen from my veranda and the administrative distance (routing joke) between my blog and myself and my blog and the kitchen differ by many hops.

I wish these words can be taken into consideration to anyone reading them that might feel such changes are needed. If you are one of those people I would love to see the inspiration of more to come and if you feel like sharing please comment or send me an email. The whole article is based on the fact that stale seems to be taking an active role in everything while as innovative and creative is something poor and forgotten. Have a great evening…