Someone told me once that Calgary isn't a city booming with creative ideas, similar to Vancouver or Toronto. "It's an oil and gas town." they said, "people are more concerned with going to work and making money, than the world around them." I though about what this person had said for a while and decided, they're wrong. Everywhere I look in Calgary I see inspired individuals demonstrating their creativity. I believe that to be creative doesn't mean you have to be an artist or musician. There are hardworking university students who bake in the short amount of spare time they have, and make amazing (and tasty) creations that no one will ever see or taste, because they aren't meant to stand out, they're expressive of that individual. Or those who want to play a pick-up game of soccer with their friends but due to a lack of nets, they're forced to use their shoes as goal posts. Creativity isn't dead in Calgary, it's all about perception and how you define creativity. All around us people are thinking of creative initiatives to solve problems, or distinct ways to express themselves. Sure, arts and culture are great, but what about the thousands of other Calgarians who demonstrate their personalized creativity in other ways? Creative people and ideas are all around us here in Calgary, it is up to us to open our eyes and our minds to the broad spectrum the is creativity.
Much like a flower shooting through the sidewalk blocks, art is everywhere, you just have to look. In the alley between 11th and 12th ave downtown you will find a small parking lot, it couldn't hold more than 10 cars, and yet it has the most crazy graffiti. We don't know who does it or why, but it makes the best backdrop.Stepping into market collective is like stepping into a different planet. Those who say that Calgary is just black and white haven't been here. Held at the Chinese Cultural centre, Market Collective speaks to everyone any anyone willing to come in and experience the wild array of cultures and products. The first thing that hits you is the music, its an inviting pop that makes you smile, second is the huge variety of things that local artisans and crafts people. Soap, candles, pants and chairs; nothing is off limits. Lastly the food! From grilled cheese to macaroons and birthday cake ice cream there was no sense to the things offered.... and yet there didn't need to be. It was a great representation of Calgary's growing multiculturalism.
Global Game Jam is a weekend game conference where individuals get together to create a video or board game within a 48 hour time period.
When I first walked into Global Game Jam I felt very fortunate that my team members where there for moral support. I felt very out of my comfort zone as other jammers started asking me questions about what gaming platforms I used and my coding experience. For the most part, I was just worried that I would not be able to contribute anything useful to my group. I was very wrong. Game Jam is a great place for creative people to get together and use their varied and unique strengths to create something amazing! I was very fortunate to be part of a team of people who all specialized in different areas. One member of the team, Julie is a very talented artist who created all of the background images. Ryan and Henry who worked long hard hours to get all the coding to work together. Avery who put together amazing sound effects and music, which played a huge role in setting the tone for the game. Steven, Dylan and Stephanie who worked on the game's storyline and acted out the voices for the game's characters. Which leads to me, I acted as team manager so that our large team could ensure to finish the game within the 48 hour time period. In the end, our game turned out amazing. I still play it often and it never gets old. It was so amazing to see how a group of 10 people who had never met before were able to pool all their creative ideas together to create something so spectacular. Im so proud of my team and proud to call these people my friends now. We accomplished something which at one point seemed almost impossible. One of my favourite creative activities is writing. I love stories. I love words. I love imagination. I love when I hear a story and it teaches me and touches my heart in some profound way. After all, isn’t life one big story full of a collection of different ones?
I think the first step to creating is giving yourself permission to be free. We live in a society that continually labels experiences into boxes. We truly live in a world that comes with old belief systems that encourage people to live in a grey world we have to all survive in. It’s sometimes hard for us to accept the new colours we create because they may be way too different from the old molds in front of us. So I start off with an intention, like staying to the universe, “hey, I’m ready to write.” Then I just write whatever I can for about five to ten minutes. I think words are energy so once I get to a place where I feel like I have what I need to clear out of my head in that time I start brainstorming ideas about whatever comes. I have a pretty open mind at this point, so I just go with what comes and I this usually produces at least two projects that I will bounce between. I even have a blank document for cool words or ideas opened for anything else that I feel doesn’t fit into the other pieces. I really believe that beauty is in the eye of the beholder as someone once said, but beauty can mean so many so many different people. So I try to look for what I find beautiful in these thoughts that I write and I try to make sense of how they might fit together. Then I continue on. If I hit a wall, I try to take a breath or listen to music that I enjoy. Inspiration can come from anywhere and even at night right before bed I can get some really neat ideas. I think our job is to be more aware of all that can inspire us and then make a point in our mind because we are all creators by nature and life is one big creative journey. By: DeAnna Kweens, inspiring author and MRU student I started this project with a last-minute entry to Global Game Jam this January. This was a great starting point for determining a larger focus. The Global Game Jam (GGJ) was not a familiar or comfortable place for me. I have never been particularly interested in gaming and had very little knowledge of game development. After the weekend was complete, I was inspired. What inspired me about GGJ was the creative community we built in a matter of hours. Having just met these people, I was nervous to be a source of frustration for my teammates. Instead, I made friends and learned numerous things about game development (artwork, puzzle writing, coding, and more). Some GGJ participants wandered through the workrooms, offering support to other teams as we all continued to grow our ideas together. It was an encouraging, imaginative place. After GGJ, my team had to come up with a larger focus for our project. We determined that encouraging random acts of creativity in Calgary (#RACYYC) would be a good starting point. Next, we began locating people in Calgary who were being experimental and expressive. Through this blog platform, my team and I will share stories and provide readers with impulsion to become more innovative.
Claire Samulak |
AuthorsWe are public relations students at Mount Royal University. Our current project focuses on spurring creativity and inducing innovation in our community. ArchivesCategories |