4 Ways to Crowdsource Creativity

Making space to boost your learning capacity amongst the day-to-day routine of working and living in the Bay Area can seem a daunting prospect. This new weekly series will explore ways to rethink your approach to creativity, design, work, and play. If you want to delve more deeply into these concepts, join us at The Sum.

When faced with problems and obstacles, we usually think, “I wish someone would come up with a solution to that.” The issues can be as banal as noticing that your local grocery shop isn’t open late enough in the evenings, or as huge as wondering why there is such disparity between rich and poor. So why isn’t the default setting for us to come up with answers each time we stumble upon one of these problems? Candy Chang is an artist, who is renowned for her interactive public installations. She proactively addresses large and small issues through a process of creative questioning and by inviting collective involvement. Her archive of projects is a fantastic testament to the power of participation and a jumping off point for thinking about the ingredients that lead to thoughtful problem solving. Here are a few examples of her work and suggestions for ways you can encourage group-thinking:

Hidden in plain sight

In the previous post for this series, I highlighted the importance of collaboration and communication. But there are occasions when the ability to remain invisible enables us to be more truthful. The success of projects like PostSecret and Found comes from the freedom associated with anonymity. Chang’s "Before I Die" project similarly hinges on participants being able to comment without being identified. After the death of a loved one, Chang turned an abandoned building in her New Orleans neighborhood into a giant chalkboard and asked passersby to complete a sentence that began “Before I die I want to…” The responses ranged from funny (“Before I die I want to hug a sloth”) to tender (“Before I die I want to teach my grandkids to garden”) to heart-wrenchingly moving (“Before I die I want to hold her one more time”). Death is a somewhat no-go topic but Chang’s wall asked people to consciously engage with the concept and think long and hard about their aspirations, whilst being cushioned by anonymity. Interestingly, an installation that seemingly addressed death became an opportunity to reflect on how we want to live our lives. Is there a project you are working on that would benefit from anonymous and honest input?

Make it IRL

Sure, you can create a website and ask people to contribute their ideas or you can stand on a street corner and talk to people directly but is there a way that you can generate creativity right in the place where it is needed most? "I Wish This Was" was a 2011 project instigated by Chang in New Orleans. Chang was aware that there were many vacant storefronts throughout the city and she wanted to draw attention to this. She devised simple stickers that began with the prompt “I wish this was…” and distributed them to businesses throughout the area. The simple yet effective quality of this project was that people could choose the location they felt strongly about, fill in the blank part of the sticker, and then actually place it somewhere on that building. So the venues themselves became the record of the participation and told the story of what their community wanted. Are there ways in your own work that you can couple digital or online participation with live interaction between people and places?

Everyone’s a Winner

In 2010, Chang contributed to an issue of GOOD magazine that was dedicated to the concept of neighborhoods. She wanted to enable people to borrow and lend items amongst their neighbors without feeling like they were invading each others’ privacy. Her idea, "Neighbor Doorknob Hanger," was a cardboard tag that residents could hang from their door handle, which specified the precise items that they needed or could offer, the best way to contact them, and the hours when they were available. People could take part in the project and they could also directly benefit from their involvement. This is a powerful idea. Could you devise a model that both generates ideas and data, but also provides some sort of social, material, or emotional capital to the participants?

Plain and Simple

Chang was commissioned to create a public art project near the University of Turku in Finland. "Career Path" was devised for a popular pedestrian and bike path that joined the university’s halls of residence to the academic buildings. The idea was simple: a series of stencilled boxes on the tarmac that asked what people wanted to be when they were little and what they wanted to be now they were grown up. Installation of the project required just a bunch of stencils and some spray chalk paint. Equipment for participation was limited to a few pieces of chalk. And the only requirement for involvement was a few minutes of time. This – and many of Chang’s other projects – is distinctly low-tech in nature and easy to create and replicate. Yet, as with so many of her installations, the responses and outcomes were meaningful and thought-provoking. So many creative endeavors are paralyzed by huge budgets or the need for technological resources and hardware. Remove these barriers, pare back the need for expensive or cumbersome equipment, and suddenly the simplicity of a project can be a valuable facet. Are there ways that you can rethink resource-heavy approaches to become more nimble? Could this actually open up your idea to more participation and feedback?

Candy Chang will be the keynote speaker at our upcoming creative conference. Hear more from her and many other awesome designers, artists and thinkers at The Sum, Nov 6-7.

Photo by Kristina Kassem