Ideation

In this [phase] you make absolutely no effort of a direct nature. You drop the whole subject, and put the problem out of your mind as completely as you can. It is important to realize that this is just as definite and just as necessary a [phase] in the process as [phase 1]. What you have to do this time, apparently, is to turn the problem over to your unconscious mind, and let it work while you sleep. James Webb Young

Many other creatives agree with James Webb Young explained here (from his book A Technique for Producing Ideas), that said, we're on a deadline and don't really have the luxury of waiting for inspiration to strike. Though he doesn't offer much more advice for this phase of the creative process, he does mention that when "you reach this [phase], drop the problem completely, and turn to whatever stimulates your imagination and emotions. Listen to music, go to the theatre or movies, read poetry or a detective story. In [phase 1] you have gathered your food [...] and masticated it well. Now the digestive process is on. Let it alone--but stimulate the flow of gastric juices." Below are other more direct ways we might stimulate the flow of ideas.

Boredom

Ideas seem to spark when we least expect it, such as while walking the dog or brushing our teeth. That's the default mode at work; when our body is at rest, or doing a menial task, our mind is at its busiest. By building our capacity for boredom, instead of trying to escape it, we can give brilliance an opportunity to flash more often (with the addd perk of getting the laundry done) Manoush Zomorodi

As counter intuitive as it sounds, creating opportunities for boredom can in fact be a very fruitful part of the creative process. Where Young might suggest going to a theatre or movie that interests you, I might suggest the opposite: go watch a long play or movie you find absolutely boring. Without the constrains these environments impose (please silence your phones, please wait for intermission to get up, etc) boredom can be hard to find. It's all too easy for our attention to be hijacked by the notifications and streams on our devices which rob us of nearly every opportunity for boredom. For more on this topic consider reading the introduction to Bored and Brilliant: How spacing Out Can Unlock Your Most Productive and Creative Self by the technology journalist Manoush Zomorodi, you might also consider watching her TED talk.

I can not stress enough how important it is to "doing nothing" these days, amidst the "attention economy", even beyond the important role it plays in the creative process. As artist and writer Jenny Odell writes in the introduction of her book How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy, "I don't mean this to be a weekend retreat or a mere treatise on creativity. The point of doing nothing, as i define it, isn't to return to work refreshed and ready to be more productive, but rather to question what we currently perceive as productive. My argument is obviously anticapitalist, especially concerning technologies that encourage a capitalist perception of time, place, self, and community. It is also environmental and historical: I propose that rerouting and deepening one's attention to place will likely lead to awareness of one's participation in history and in a more-than-human community. From either a social or ecological perspective, the ultimate goal of 'doing nothing' is to wrest our focus from the attention economy and replant it in the public, physical realm." I highly encourage you to watch her eyeo talk (or read her transcribed blog post).

Brainstorming

Brainstorming often brings to mind sticky notes and whiteboards. While it can be a structured process, the key is to create the right conditions for ideas to grow through collaboration. The best ideas usually emerge from diverse perspectives coming together. Historically, spaces like Renaissance cafés, Enlightenment coffeehouses, and Parisian salons fostered innovation by encouraging people to share, debate, and build on each other's insights. This culture of casually and playfully sharing and connecting ideas often leads to breakthroughs that individuals might not achieve alone.

Today, not everyone has access to an Enlightenment-era café down the street, but as UChicago students you are uniquely positioned to access spaces that foster collaboration and idea-sharing. Take advantage of spaces like the Reg, the MADD Center, campus cafe's or even your dorm common rooms to recreate these environments. There are also tools and techniques that can help us recreate the benefits of those collaborative environments in more direct ways. For example, IDEO's brainstorming worksheet provides a structured format for collaborative idea generation, helping teams organize thoughts while still allowing spontaneity. Tools like card games can also facilitate creative thinking; Mary Flanagan's Grow a Game helps groups brainstorm game ideas with social impact, while The Oracle for Transfeminist Technologies guides participants in imagining inclusive and ethical tech futures. These resources are designed to spark creativity through conversation and, importantly, help us see problems from perspectives we may not have considered. The point here is to surround yourself with opportunities to bounce ideas off others.

Creative Misuse

Experimentation and play are crucial when working with different media or technologies. Experiments can guide your inquiry, spark new ideas, and lead to unexpected discoveries. By trying new tools, pushing the boundaries of a medium, and engaging in playful exploration, you can uncover opportunities and approaches you hadn't previously considered. Embracing curiosity allows your work to evolve naturally, driven by the process rather than a fixed outcome.

One form of playful experimentation is "creative misuse," which involves using existing tools in unconventional ways to discover new possibilities. Circuit bending, for example, is a practice that emerged in the 1960s and involves modifying electronic toys to create unexpected, often chaotic, sounds. Similarly, early hip-hop DJs like Grandmaster Flash and DJ Kool Herc experimented with turntables, inventing techniques like scratching by creatively misusing the technology at hand. These examples highlight how experimentation through creative misuse can inspire entirely new art forms and help cultivate an individual style. Letting these discoveries happen naturally, rather than forcing them, allows for organic artistic growth.

We tried to make all the mistakes we could [...] the mistake is nothing wrong, the computer keeps working. Something wrong still works, there's nothing wrong with something wrong. jodi.org (from this mini-doc)

Randomness

The history of art and design is full of examples of creatives centering chance and randomness in their practice. Dada artists in the early 20th century saw randomness as a way of making "irrational" art, as a direct response to the "sterile functionality of rationality and empiricism wrought by the Industrial Age and as a deliberate reaction against World War I." They developed techniques for embracing randomness like the "cut-up" method, where artists would cut all the words out of news paper headlines, then write poems by pulling the words out at random from a bag. This technique was later borrowed and expanded on by artists in the middle of the 20th century, like the writer William Burroughs. These artists where interested in randomness less as a reaction to the industrialized age and more as a means of breaking free from creative conventions and the artist's bias. Experimental composers like John Cage created their own techniques for doing the same to the writing of music.

Those involved with the composition of experimental music find ways and means to remove themselves from the activities of the sounds they make. Some employ chance operations, derived from sources as ancient as the Chinese Book of Changes, or as modern as the tables of random numbers used also by physicists in research. John Cage

You might not be interested in removing your bias from the creative process or making a conceptual response to industrialization, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't embrace randomness. Like copying, randomness doesn't have to be at the center of your work, instead it can be one of many tools used along the way. A common use case is simply getting over a creative block. The same cut-up method used by dada poets like Tristan Tzara and experimental writers like William Burroughs was also used by Tom Yorke (of the band Radiohead) to write the lyrics for "Kid A" (1999) in order to get around "writers block" he was experiencing at the time.

The musician Brian Eno and artist Peter Schmidt created a deck of cards called "Oblique Strategies" for the deliberate purpose of overcoming creative blocks. You can purchase the deck on Brian Eno's shop, or download them from the class resources and print your own. There's also this online version you can use. The inventor and "maker" Simone Giertz with designer Laura Kampf created another project for getting over creative blocks called Build Dice. A set of metal dice which can be rolled to generate a random prompt for something to "build".