How to use your creativity to arrive at new solutions

Kinetic Art and Your Problem Solving Skills:

ZORANA KOJIC

The Stereotypical Engineer

• Over-worked• Technical• Management• Creativity is not the

highest priority

The reason this myth persists is because most engineers believe it is true too! They seem to think that their jobs are, in fact, non-creative.

The Stereotypical Artist

Solving problems (whether technical or not) requires creativity and inspiration.

Engineering = Aesthetics + Design + Performance

“Exposure to the Liberal and the Fine Arts is important to the education of engineers, but not just to make them better members of society. Such exposure is important, because it will make them better engineers.”

- Sue Kemnitzer, the deputy division director for education in the National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Engineering Education and Centers.

SCIENCE

ENGINEERING

ART

DESIGN

PURE

FUNCTIONAL

OBJECTIVE SUBJECTIVE

Typical Student Problems•Putting together a thought for an argument in an essay or report•Debugging a computer problem •Dealing with unfriendly customers at a part-time job•Managing one’s budget until the end of the term/semester• ENDLESS HOMEWORK!!!

Good problem solving skills area important in showing a recruiter that you have RESILIENCE to handle the challenges and pressure that work and life may bring.

d/dt(Persistence ) = RESILENCE

Determination = d/dt (Resilience)

DETERMINATION = to make things happen and constantly look for better ways of doing things

CREATIVITY

How do you express an idea in terms of color, shape and texture?

How do you express the feeling of falling in mathematical terms?

How do you express your clients design criteria in terms of executable variables?

Sometimes you need a PARADIGM SHIFT

Paradigm Shift = Revolutionary Science

“ a change in the basic assumptions, or paradigms, within the ruling theory of science”

–Thomas Kuhn

PARADIGM SHIFTS = REVOLUTIONARY SCIENCE= WAVES OF INNOVATION

Paradigm Shifts and Society:Teleworking

•Dame Stephanie "Steve" Shirley

• Pioneered home working in the computer industry in the early 1960s

• Exclusively employed women in a flexible, home-based, job-sharing approach

“It’s inconceivable now but at the time I had to get my husband’s permission before I could open a bank account,” –Dame Shirley

Induction vs. Deduction

In other words…..

Art created byEngineers

Alexander Calder

Theo Jensen

Andrew Werth

“Strandbeest”

“Art is like the skin on an animatronic dinosaur and engineering gives it life.”Lorraine Lin, Computer Science student

Alexander Calder

Eagle, Olympic Sculpture Park, Seattle, WA

• maintained a sharp eye with respect to the engineering balance of the sculptures

•Studied and worked as a Mechanical Engineer for many years before moving into art and sculpture.

How we make sense of the world is directly shaped by the physical nature of our bodies

EMOBODIEMENTAndrew Werth

“Approaching Equilibrium”

Andrew Werth

PERSPECTIVE

ADDING ART TO THE EVERY DAY: PHOTOGRAPHY

ADDING ART TO THE EVERY DAY: you and your friends!

Acro Yoga!

Make funny shadows!

ADDING ART TO THE EVERY DAY: Art Museums

Baltimore Museum of Art(free admission )

THANK YOU.