U1 · Introduction to Creativity and Its Importance
Pilot📋 Table of Contents
- Cover — what this unit is about
- 🎯 Learning objectives
- B1 · Analysis (this lives in the lesson, not only on slides)
- B2 · Lab (Portfolio)
- B3 · Workshop (Deliverable) — start D1
- References
“Name your variables as if you were baptising stars.” — Tao of Development
Cover — what this unit is about
Official CONTENIDOS: Unidad 1. Introducción a la creatividad y su importancia.
In one line: creativity is paced craft under a brief. You open many options, then you choose what fits. It is not a mysterious gift you either have or lack.
In-class deck: U1 student slideshow
Every ordinary class: Analysis → Masterclass → Lab (Portfolio) → Workshop (Deliverable). Lab ≠ Workshop. See How to Pass.
Grades this unit feeds: presentation evidence (40% path) via Lab traces and D1 prep; knowledge tests (60%) via D5 later. Official weights stay as in the guía.
🎯 Learning objectives
By the end of this unit, you should be able to:
- Pace work as open-then-close under a brief (not “wait for inspiration”).
- Name four trainable skills: fluency, flexibility, originality, elaboration.
- Analyse a piece with three labels — language / medium / support — then say where meaning travels when someone else sees it.
- Start your portfolio index with Lab traces that will later hold D1–D3.
- Say clearly what this unit does not prove: it does not claim one classroom technique is “best” from a finished comparative study.
B1 · Analysis (this lives in the lesson, not only on slides)
Analysis opens the class. Read this section before you watch the deck.
When it happens
| Sessions | What happens |
|---|---|
| 1–2 | The professor models analysis on a shared piece (live, with the deck). |
| From session 3 | You start the session: two students × about 15 minutes each defend their D1 analysis. |
How to analyse (method you will reuse all term)
Before you call something “creative,” answer these in order:
- Language — which code or system makes meaning here? (visual grammar, verbal pitch, pattern language, UI conventions…)
- Medium — which channel or genre carries it? (campaign, lookbook, classroom critique, exhibition, feed…)
- Support — what material or file holds the signs? (print, garment, screen file, installation…)
Then ask circulation: when the piece moves to another place, what changes in how it is recognised?
Debate prompt: If the same sketch is praised in class and ignored in a client review, where did meaning fail — in making, in the channel, or in recognition? Name language, medium, and support before you answer.
Masterclass ideas (plain wording)
These six ideas are the Masterclass core. Short quotes are from the books we checked page-by-page; the rest of each bullet is the course paraphrase for studio use.
1 · Open, then close
You invent many options (divergent). Then you select what fits the needs of the brief (convergent). One creative job often needs both.
“The same creative act may involve both divergent and convergent thinking.”
— (Craft 2003, 43)
2 · Four skills you can train
Guilford’s four abilities (as summarised by Chen on the same page) give you a shared vocabulary:
- Fluency — produce many ideas quickly
- Flexibility — try several angles at once
- Originality — make links most people miss
- Elaboration — work the details and carry the idea through
“Fluency - the ability to produce a large number of ideas or solutions to a problem rapidly.”
— (Chen 2012, 41)
Csikszentmihalyi names a close triad for divergent work:
“It involves fluency, or the ability to generate a great quantity of ideas; flexibility, or the ability to switch from one perspective to another; and originality in picking unusual associations of ideas.”
— (Csikszentmihalyi 2007, 8)
3 · A test score is not the whole designer
Scoring high on “how many uses for a brick / paper clip” is not the same as judgement inside a real brief or another art.
“After all, the ability of divergent thinking with a paper clip may tell us little about an individual’s talent in music.”
— (Chen 2012, 41)
4 · Name the unclear problem first (studio stance)
Before you pick a creativity technique, say what is fuzzy in the brief. Tools help after the problem is framed. (Primary page cite still open — treat as course hypothesis.)
5 · Techniques are tools, not scripts (studio stance)
A method helps you talk with the situation; it does not replace your judgement. (Primary page cite still open.)
6 · “Design thinking” talk is debated (studio stance)
Use tools that help. Also ask when managerial buzzwords empty out craft. (Primary page cite still open — for debate, not as settled fact.)
What the sources support — and what they do not. Craft and Chen support open-then-close work and the four-skill vocabulary; Chen also supports the warning against treating alternate-uses scores as talent in every domain. Csikszentmihalyi supports fluency, flexibility, and originality as divergent-thinking dimensions. None of these pages proves that this unit’s Lab sequence is the only valid classroom path.
B2 · Lab (Portfolio)
Announced by a geometrical slide first: one debate and three exercises follow; everything you produce in Lab goes into your portfolio index.
Debate — language, medium, support & circulation
Pick one work (yours or from class). In small groups:
- Name language, medium, and support.
- Argue where meaning would break if the same piece moved venue — in making, in the channel, or in recognition.
Portfolio trace: triad notes + one circulation sentence from the debate.
Exercise 1 — Research Marcel Duchamp
Find three facts about Duchamp linked to this unit (readymades, identity play, context shifting meaning). Use the student deck images as a starting point if helpful.
Portfolio trace: three bullet points with sources.
Exercise 2 — Research the Dada movement
What did Dada question about art, authorship, and institutions? Link one Dada tactic to a creativity technique you might use in studio.
Portfolio trace: short paragraph + one studio link.
Exercise 3 — Explore the course directory
Browse the Directory. Pick two entries where you could see yourself after your studies (prize, studio, journal, figure, organisation). Say why each fits you.
Portfolio trace: two directory links + two sentences on your path.
B3 · Workshop (Deliverable) — start D1
Workshop opener (geometrical): protected time on the next graded deliverable.
Reminder — from session 3 you start the session. Two students open the class with a 15-minute analysis defence each. Your support is a slideshow. Intra-rubric: presentation 70% · deliverable support 20% · peer debate 10%.
Done enough for this week if you have:
- Piece ID for your D1 object
- Draft slide outline (not a polished deck yet)
- One sentence naming language / medium / support
- Portfolio index file created (even if thin)
Not this week: D2 transposition, D3 Atrium tech script, D5 exam.
References
- Chen, Chaomei. 2012. Turning Points: The Nature of Creativity. Berlin: Springer. ISBN 9783642191602.
- Craft, Anna. 2003. Creativity Across the Primary Curriculum. London: Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9780203457283.
- Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly. 2007. Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 9780061844034.
Open procurement (not cited in the body until extracts resolve): Buchanan on wicked problems in design thinking; Schön on reflective practice; Kimbell on design-thinking discourse. Do not treat those titles as page-verified for this unit yet.