tara's fostering creativity blog

Week 10 Prompt:  Choose an object or process that has been designed. Try to determine the problem or challenge for which this object might have been a solution. Explain how you came to this conclusion. This is the Ikea BEKANT standing desk. This desk has buttons that you can press to raise or lower it, and it adjusts to a wide range of heights. This object was likely designed to address the problem of lack of versatility/mental and physical stimulation while working. When you're sitting down for long periods of time, your focus can begin to go and your posture will get worse, giving aches and pains which will also take away from focus. A versatile desk like this solves these problems because you can choose whether you want to be sitting or standing at any point in the day. 

Week 9 prompt:  Describe a time that visited a place for the first time. What do you remember? What were you drawn to? Felt uncertain about? If you could visit again, what would you do while there? In May I visited the Meow Wolf exhibit in Las Vegas, and it was a very cool experience. Meow Wolf is basically a huge interactive art exhibit that brings you through a journey. There are lots of hidden doors and passageways that lead to new rooms, and each room has a new theme and art style. I was drawn to some of the smaller rooms or areas that had fewer people, because the quiet allowed me to experience the art better than some of the larger rooms that had visitors everywhere. My favorite room was one that was dark and had lasers that you could 'strum' like a guitar and they actually made music when you moved your hand in front of them. If I could visit again, I would spend more time exploring the rooms because I know there are lots of things I missed!

Week 8 prompt:  Take a few pictures of places or spaces that you find welcoming and explain the characteristics that contribute to that feeling. Two spaces I find very inviting are my living room in the evening and the Denver Botanic Gardens during the day. My living room feels welcoming because of the comfortable couch, colorful lighting, minimalist color scheme, and soothing items like the blanket and plants. The Denver Botanic Gardens feel inviting because of all of the life energy present in the plants, the warm sun, the comforting visuals from the plants as well as the architecture, and the fresh air.

Week 7 Prompt:  Being mindful of what we are grateful for can help us be more attuned to what's happening in and around lives. Capture something for which are you are grateful through a photograph, sketch, or writing. I write gratitude lists every night before bed, and something that's on my list most days is the afternoon sunlight that comes through my window every day. I am so grateful for the warmth and comfort the sun brings, and for the sunlight giving my plant some nourishment to keep it happy and healthy!

Week 6 Prompt:  Choose an object to explore. Set your timer. After 1 minute, list everything that you notice. After 2 minutes of looking, list additional observations. After 5 minutes of looking, list additional details. How did spending more time looking change your perception and/or understanding of the object? I chose to observe a glass of water, something that I use every day but don't intentionally observe often. After 1 minute, I observed the glass itself, how it reflected the light, and the other most obvious aspects of the glass like how tall it is. After 2 minutes, I observed that the glass gets skinnier towards the top and has a heavy glass bottom, and that there are 3 shadows that are formed from my overhead lights. After 5 minutes, I noticed the three beautiful light points that go from the bottom of the glass to the shadows. Observing the glass for 5 minutes helped me see it as something beautiful rather than just an everyday object.