To me the idea of using your environment and obstacles to surmount the problem you are addressing is very exciting. In order to be able to do this well, you must be prepared or in the right frame of mind.
Michael Dila and Matthew Milan are doing some very interesting work with a concept they call “Innovation Parkour” – a framework for teaching individuals and teams how to create a prepared mind for innovation, a super-charged scavenger hunt for innovation. There is a workshop Wednesday, June 10th from 10 to 12 at Net Change Week in Toronto. I attended their earlier presentation at the IA Summit in Memphis in which they did not a workshop but presentation.
In New York City this week I was at the International Center of Photography and came across the description of a class on page 44 “The Five Obstructions” by Corinne May Botz, on the Film by the same name by Lars Von Trier, which I think speaks to the this element of “obstacles” and how they help us innovate.
THE FIVE OBSTRUCTIONS
09SFTGS10 | Corinne May Botz
Apr 17–May 29 | Fri 10:00 am–1:30 pm
In the film The Five Obstructions, Lars Von Trier challenges filmmaker Jørgen Leth to remake one of his films five different ways, each with a different “obstruction.” Similarly, in this class students choose a particular subject matter to explore in five different ways. Students are challenged to view their subject through particular lenses, including: anthropological, voyeuristic, spiritualistic, psychoanalytic, and criminological. Accompanying lectures, readings, and discussions provide students with an understanding of photography’s relationship to these fields, and contemporary artists who appropriate and question these methods. Students hone their aesthetic and conceptual abilities and deepen their understanding of their subject matter.
Tags: innovation, innovation parkour, obstructions, problems
Did I mention in the debrief (after our Innovation Parkour session at Net Change in Toronto) that one of the prizes that I wanted to get but couldn’t find was Von Triers film, the Five Obstructions? It is an all-time favorite of mine and is a beautiful illustration not only of productive friction and the positive power of constraints, but also of the incredible diversity that slight inflections can give rise to when working with the same raw ingredients.