ST201903

THINK (^) | CREATIVITY
Sensory collecting
As well as collecting visual
information, it can be interesting to
exercise your other senses. You’ll
need to find alternative ways to
store these sensory experiences as
there are no devices (yet) that can
keep a visual record of how we
perceive smell, taste, touch and
sound. The exercises below can be
used in an interchangeable way
between the senses.
O Take a walk on your own, clear your
mind and listen to the sounds around
you. Take note of the more
overwhelming sound first then focus
on the less obvious sounds. Create a
sort of sound collage in your mind like
a long piece of music made up of the
different sounds and notice which
ones you enjoy.
O Make a scent diary where you note
down at least three scents or smells
per day which have piqued your
interest over a week. Make a list of ten
smells you recall from childhood.
O Collect a selection of smells that
have a reminiscent quality for you.
Collect smells that have definite
contrasts, eg, lemon peel and pencil
shavings. Notice if colour, shape or
texture start to drift into your
consciousness or take over the space.
O Taste isn’t an easy sense to isolate.
To connect with the taste experience
make a collection of ten different
foodstuffs – a combination of sweet
and savoury, things you like and
don’t like. Take at least a minute with
each piece to really try to discover
the taste, making notes about its
aroma, texture and sound before
concentrating on the actual taste.
O Aim to touch at least ten different
textures in a week – things you
wouldn’t normally go out of your way
to touch, eg, flaky wall paint, a tree
trunk, somebody’s coat. Make a
collection of things that feel different
from each other and try to identify
textures that you can’t find a word
for. Wear a blindfold to explore the
different textures using your fingers
as your eyes.
Letting time pass
Whether you enjoy being totally
immersed in what you’re doing
without interruption or tend to be
more time-specific, allowing
yourself periods that are free from
the constructs of time is important
for letting creativity f low. It can
feel luxurious to lose yourself and
engage in a solitary activity, but
these time slips are something to
be encouraged and they always
leave you with a sense of pride.
Exercises for clock-watchers
O Buy a small potted plant (not a
cactus). Watch it and take notice of it
at some point every day. Water the
plant and care for it, observe what
happens to it over a period of time. If
it dies, acknowledge how quickly or
slowly that happened and whether
you know why that happened.
O Watch an ice cube melt in silence
on your own.
O Empty your cutlery drawer
completely. Wash and dry it all by
hand and then put it back.
O Complete a 500+ piece jigsaw.