Author: Haya Arabi-Katbi

Haya & Nia: For our final project we decided to create a magazine that encompasses almost all aspects of Berlin and what we all as NYUAD students have experienced throughout the week. Happy reading and hope you enjoy it as much as we did! (P.S. You can find what work we have done under the pdf).

• Incorporate class making projects
  • Haya Horoscope (complete horoscope for all zodiacs) DONE
  • Recipe page and include Bruna’s recipe DONE
    • Add our chicken stroganoff & pesto recipe & Bruna’s recipe DONE
  • Ice cream and man (kid’s section coloring)- Ahsen DONE
  • Use sara’s sentence monster- crossword DONE
  • Nia’s map as a map of Berlin DONE
  • Menu for dreams (ad page) DONE
  • Ahsen Ice cream eating kids corner DONE
  • Late pass DONE
• Tell people what a J-term is and what it entails to DONE
• Guest features- Interview professor and 3 students from class
• The Craft Circle- how to crochet DONE
• Happening in Berlin- add Kollage Kollectiv DONE
• Artist profile page for Ming Poon DONE
• Graffiti page- add doner DONE
• Add an about the authors page DONE

All of the work done was done together collaboratively.

• reminded me of Field’s work
• huge lens with projector
• AI sculpting
• deletes pixels to make the same shape

Unleashing the Creative Spark: Exploring Self, Berlin, and the Power of Creation

            “Creating, what’s that course about?”, those were the first words I uttered when I saw this course. Ironically during our J-term orientation, those are the same words the NYU Berlin director said. On my first day of the course, I had no idea what the course entailed or what I was getting myself into. Would it be a strict form of art that was to be made every day, or did I have the freedom to do whatever popped into my mind? Approaching the end of my J-term, I find that this course has allowed me to explore myself, my creativity, and Berlin all at once. Often throughout the course, I’d stop and think “What am I doing here, I’m not a creative person, I’m an economics major!”, but little did I realize that everyone is a creative person and everyone is born with creativity in them.

            Our various interactions with individuals from visual artists to choreographers have allowed me to view all the different types of creativity that one explores throughout their life. Some, such as Markus Popp, like to pummel through life with a fixed goal in mind and a means to an end; on the other hand, artists such as Ming Poon never know the outcome of their projects or events and just create as they go on. Personally, I really enjoyed Poon’s visit although I found some of his works bizarre. It showed me that creativity just finds you along the way and ignites new ideas in you. From having “Triumphant Moments” to collecting scrap in landfills and streets, everyone creates something every day that keeps them going. Honestly, who would’ve thought you’d see someone create a spaceship from old tents, billboard nylon, and joysticks? Not me. But that’s the thing, with creativity, you never know what to expect.

            In relation to this, our making assignments allowed me to find a creative side in me that I didn’t know existed when in reality it existed all along. I believe that my creativity existed all along in my subconscious, especially during our open making assignment which was inspired by my dreams. That truly showed me that I can make whatever I wanted and find a connection to my life or really anything in a sense. Sometimes art doesn’t make sense because it doesn’t have to, or, in Nia’s words, “It just makes sense”. Sometimes I began assignments with a million ideas or no thoughts, eventually, I’d have an epiphany where I decided to go along a path and see where it would take me, especially towards the end of the making assignments. It reminded me of Robert Seidel when he said he was never done creating, as he would always want to change small details that mattered to him. Creativity is never ending and develops as we change over time.

            Our readings provided me with different ways to spark my creativity through different tactics. My favorite technique that stuck with me was the “Why” questioning process. I’d see things and say but why does it have to be this way. For instance, as I am writing this essay, it is the first time in a very long time that I haven’t justified the paragraphs. There’s no reason to justify them, it’s purely because I believe it’s nicer to look at, but if I ask myself why and lead myself down a trail of answers, there’s no reason, so it’s all aligned to the left now. The readings from “Lateral Thinking” and “Art & Fear” allowed me to change the way I think and instead of saying “Why am I doing this?”, I now say “Why not, do it for the plot!” It can be the plot of creativity or the plot of life really, it’s my story and I want to create it in the most random way to discover the outcome or “end goal” as I go.

            Overall, this course has greatly affected me, as it changed the way I think, inspired by the many individuals I have met over the past three weeks, things we’ve seen, and sentences read in books. I believe that even in a short amount of time, I have grown in the field of creativity and as a person overall. Lateral thinking has allowed me to expand my mind and release, as my friends and family say, my “stubbornness”. All of the elements of the course have seeped into my mind and allowed me to change almost minuscule things about myself that make me feel better. Creating is the fuel that ignites the spark of innovation, unlocking the limitless potential within us and transforming imagination into reality.

-Paths of Liberation (pp 20-22)

The control of consciousness plays a vital role in determining the quality of life we experience. It is through the liberation of our consciousness that we can break free from the dominance of impulses and social controls. One notable attempt at achieving this liberation was psychoanalysis, which aimed to uncover and understand the deeper layers of the mind.

Across the world, various disciplines have sought to emancipate consciousness, offering different methods and practices. For instance, the example of a yogi illustrates the pursuit of freeing the inner life from the threats of chaos and the rigid conditioning of biological urges. The ultimate goal is to gain independence from social controls that shape our thoughts and actions.

However, even though the path to freedom of consciousness exists, it is not a straightforward journey. The wisdom necessary for emancipating consciousness is not cumulative; it is not something we automatically inherit or acquire. Instead, it must be continuously reformulated and adapted to the ever-changing cultural context.

The systems and approaches that were once effective in emancipating consciousness may no longer serve us in our present society. As societies develop and evolve, new challenges and complexities arise that demand fresh perspectives and approaches. It is important to recognize that the pursuit of freedom of consciousness is an ongoing and dynamic process.

 – The Conditions of Flow (pp 71-77)

The author delves into the concept of flow, which is a state of complete immersion and focused engagement in an activity. Being “in the zone” benefits our well-being and productivity. The key conditions to experience this flow are:

1. Clear goals and feedback: the activity provides immediate feedback to adjust accordingly.
2. Balance between skill & challenge: flow is more likely to occur when the challenges presented by the activity match our skills
3. Total concentration and absorption: when fully engaged, we are completely absorbed in the task and lose track of time.
4. Loss of self-consciousness: our sense of time, worries, ad self-doubt diminish, allowing us to fully devote ourselves to the task
5. Enjoyment and intrinsic motivation: The activity itself becomes enjoyable and the motivation to continue arises from within, rather than external factors.

When discussing the first point, I believe that clear goals and feedback are not entirely necessary to get into a flow. In my opinion, to get into a flow, you must have a rough sketch or idea of how to begin which you can then mold into what becomes through your creativity. By setting a specific endpoint, you increase your self-doubt and worry about the final product without enjoying or focusing on the creative project of the task at hand.

• I found the use of water as a medium interesting
• The concept of talking/screaming into another person’s mouth (eating voices) is weird, and I did not like the idea
• She was very invested in prepared piano
• As a previous pianist, the concept of damaging the strings, keys, and more hurt me 🙁
• The use of nylon as a medium was also interesting
• The way her mind works is very interesting but also scary

Chapter 4 discusses the insecurities and concerns artists face when referring to judgment and living up to expectations. The main idea talks about how fear of judgment from others can hinder the creative process, growth, and expression.

One of the most relatable aspects discussed is the fear of being misunderstood or misinterpreted. When you create something, we hope that others can connect with it, whether they find it interesting, funny, or relatable. But as we create, we fear others’ judgment of it and it prevents us from releasing our full potential. Personally, when I make something new, I always think of what other people are going to think of it. This is a bad habit that people and artists tend to have, as it can work against them.

Additionally, the authors encourage artists to detach their self-worth from external judgments and focus instead on their personal growth and development.

Artists also find themselves comparing their work and competing with others, this can stifle originality. It adds the question of, can I be better? Why does my work look like this? And again, what will others think of mine in comparison to that? The authors, David and Orland, remind us that there will always be someone more talented or successful, but that our own artistic voice is valuable and deserving of exploration.

By: Haya & Nia

For our final presentation/exhibition, we have decided to create a magazine called “A Dummies Guide to J-term in Berlin”. In our magazine, we are going to include our events in Berlin, for instance, pictures we have taken around to showcase our full experience. Berlin is a very lively city and we wanted to show our experience as students and what we have seen around.

Additionally, we intend to show our different making assignments along with our classmate’s assignments (if possible). I (Haya) thought it would be nice if we could include a few of everyone’s assignments and developments over the past 3 weeks, but we are still in the process of developing the ideas in the magazine and figuring out what works before settling on a specific notion to go forward with the magazine. It would be nice for our magazine to revolve around the whole notion of creating and try to incorporate a sense of the creativity that we can find in the exhibition. While doing so, we are going to show our development with creativity and different ideas to spark it such as lateral thinking and more.

We are thinking of including different sections such as: “Creating”, day in the Life, artwork, graffiti, etc. We would like to develop our magazine and create an almost real-life magazine but include our own unique touch to it. Additionally, we may add more sections to the magazine as we go along and see what sparks our creativity.

Furthermore, regarding materials, we have decided to print out one physical copy of our magazine and create a link or QR code with the website version. We can have this QR code set on our table/booth and print out pictures with the code for people to scan and read the magazine as they take a break or roam around the exhibition.

Lastly, regarding who did what, we are both working together most of the time to brainstorm ideas and jot them down to create rough ideas and drafts. We haven’t really split up the work and are figuring most of it out together.

• I enjoyed this class visit a lot as it was different than the others we have had so far
• I initially thought we were going to see Ming Poon’s different projects in choreography, but his work was so much deeper than just dance and studios
• All of his different types of work include audience interaction and he relies on it greatly
• Some of his interactive works such as “Slow Dance with Me” is designed in a specific way to allow the audience to interact and essentially create his own show
• He found it important to interpret political events in his work such as “June 4^th”
• “This is the first time I have not been seen as an object, but a person”
• His show with a colleague where they allowed the audience to change and interpret the scene into whatever way they liked was very intriguing to me
• He is overall a very open-minded and down to earth person that enjoys interaction

For this make assignment, I ended up with the words: prediction & publish. I immediately thought of creating a newspaper or magazine in which I could predict people’s lives tomorrow. The newspaper could have tomorrow’s news instead of yesterday’s. Additionally, when I thought of this, I also thought of creating a horoscope.

So, I created a newspaper that had horoscopes for the coming week in June (5th-11th).

Side note: I was initially going to do all 12 zodiac signs and incorporate them into my newspaper, but there were too many, so I picked my favorites :).

• Space ship
  • Upcycling trash into art
  • Collaborative
  • Work in an open environment without restrictions
  • Joystick
  • Festival w 70,000 people
  • Utilize materials they can find in landfills, thrifts, along the side of the street, etc.