University of Toronto has two interesting institutes: Martin Prosperity Institute and Best Institute. The former is an academic place for the global-scale prosperity and inequality. Its research papers discuss the creative classes and cities (Richard Florida), the integrative thinking and strategies (Roger Martin), and the global crowdsourcing for problem solving (Don Tapscott). The latter is a relatively practical space where the start-up companies focusing on health-care products and services run their offices.
While visiting them, I found there are two different ways to play with words. At the Martin Prosperity Institute, a visual art piece hangs on the wall saying PROSPERITY. At the Best Institute, a verbal notice posts on the door saying “Come to the Dark Side. We have cookies.” I find these two pieces are very creative but in different ways: the former changes the visual aspect of the word, whereas the latter changes the verbal (meaning) aspect of the word.
At the Korean Cognitive Science conference on May 25, 2013, Soren Petersen and I ran a workshop called “Design Tasty Dessert: The Art of Firing All The Five Senses!” In this workshop, we wanted to go beyond presenting our research projects; instead, we wanted to have some fun and creative experience with participants. Therefore, we asked participants to come up with as many creative dessert ideas as they could and then chose one to present. In order to help them to enjoy the workshop as well as to enjoy their own creativity, we provided them with a piece of chocolate, a piece of brown cake, a strawberry, a mandarin, and a cubic of cheese in the beginning of the workshop.
