Yesterday I attended an event at the Selfridges 'Festival of Imagination' which is a programme of 'interactive lectures, debates and workshops' held in a specially designed space called the Imaginarium at Selfridges Oxford St store. Award-winning architect Rem Koolhaas created a space full of mirrors and possibilities with a central feature amphitheatre.
The event I attended was 'Eureka! Moments' with Cathy Haynes from the 'School of Life' and was about exploring ways of boosting your creative confidence. The time was short, only 90 minutes, but she managed to pack a lot in.
Haynes discribes a 'Eureka! moment' as being a moment when 'something we couldn't think comes thinkable' or when the 'impossible becomes possible'. She also talks about combination and connection and things not just coming out of the blue. We should use and expand what we have. As an example of this she cites the creative process of the poet WB Yeats in relation to his poem the 'Lake Isle of Innisfree'. You can hear him describe this in his own words and read his poem here. This is a poem I am extremely familiar with, because as well as being in our poetry book at school, we had to sing it!
I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree, And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made: Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee; And live alone in the bee-loud glade. And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow, Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings; There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow, And evening full of the linnet's wings. I will arise and go now, for always night and day I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore; While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey, I hear it in the deep heart's core.
- See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15529#sthash.Sc4xr08G.dpuf
“The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not ‘Eureka!’ (I found it) but ‘That’s funny ‘ ....”
The session was broken up by discussions and exercises to get us thinking. One of these was design your own muse, where you thought of real or fictional figures who have / represent qualities or attitudes you would like to develop and then put them together in a kind of 'mix and match' approach. I'm still working on mine but it's an intriguing concept!
Well done to Selfridges for putting on the Festival of Imagination! I was very impressed when I left, to notice all the shop windows had an imaginative theme like these maraca toothbrushes and punk taps, rather than being stuffed full of things for sale .
I especially loved this plant watering umbrella!
See you next time and happy imagining!