miuzayee

[miuzayee]

INDEX

Concept Note

Podcast - Episode 1 ~

What is Creativity?

Mind Mapping

Brainstorming

Kick Cards / Combining Ideas

Podcast - Episode 2 ~

Kipling Method

Scamper

Podcast - Episode 3 ~

Miu & Zaye

Story Telling Methods

More ways of Segregating Ideas

Learning Diary Process + Credits

[miuzayee]

CONCEPT NOTE~

I’ve always been intrigued by the strange. Consuming media with plots driven by thrills, crime, quests, supernatural activities, dark humour, surreal descriptions, a bit of wholesomeness and occasionally dystopian has poured inspiration in many of my works. Controlled story telling with a conclusion that's open for interpretation, a piece of art that’s thought provoking yet has no desire to prove anything, with interesting characters and complications is satisfying, and an amazing outcome of creativity. I don’t claim to be familiar with all the classics and mind bending tales in the mentioned genres, but most of the ones I’ve seen or read have stuck out to me. 

Podcast is a rather new venture for me. The first podcast I listened to was Morbid, a true crime podcast. The hosts narrate stories of gruesome crimes in the form of discussion, along with a speck of comedy, unlike the traditional scripted style. 

I soon checked out new podcast of various genres and ended up gravitating towards the ones which narrated peculiar tales of mystery, crime or supernatural. Soon I realized that just because I have certain opinions or beliefs about something, it doesn’t mean I shouldn’t acknowledge the possibilities out there. 

Thought & language being instruments of art - many of the sensory perceptions, as taste, touch and smell primarily don’t exist in audio media; visuals being somewhat an exception. This limitation makes it easier for its interpretation to be manipulated or influenced among the mass. The diversity in opinions, I feel, translates how effective the absurdity of something has been as I often don’t feel comfortable with fixed rules and direct consequence in a story. Thus, it instills creativity and imagination among the listeners in an attempt to decipher the meaning or relate it to themselves. 

The story that’s presented in my podcast episodes for the learning diary is also influenced by my recent read - Radio Silence by Alice Oseman & two of my favorite podcasts - Radio Rental and  Welcome to Night Vale. Radio Silence deals with themes and has an amazing cast that I resonate with heavily, while the other two podcasts, no surprise, deal with bizarre events to say the least. 

A bit of the world building in my podcast, as well as the aesthetic I went for, is somewhat similar to Cowboy Bebop, one of my favorite animes and a genre-bending masterpiece . Everything from the story and visuals to the soundtrack immediately hooked me. There is a phrase that passes around film circles: “every frame a painting,” meaning that if someone were to pause your show at any point - what would be left there could be regarded as art, in the sense that everything in it is purposeful.

In the story, there is an interplanetary police agency known as the I.S.S.P, but bounty hunters, also known as cowboys, are the ones who handle the most dangerous fugitives. Cowboy Bebop follows two bounty hunters, Jet and Spike, on their various pursuits. 

A similar pursuit is shown through the audios for the learning diary, except they are depicted as if the events are being heard from a radio, and one episode is from the point of a troop officer who’s in midst of conveying orders to his team.

Working on these podcast episodes, as well as the visuals, has been quite liberating and unlike anything I had done before. This was an attempt at creating something that I myself get excited for if I come across something similar. 

Thank you:)

[miuzayee]

_news broadcast

A suspicious hinderance in the radio signal to convey a cryptic message to the citizens of a peculiar town, District 73, that the Citadel was speculated to not reveal at all. Listeners are meant to be part of this (fictional) community, listening to the radio and coming in terms with the absurdities that are normalized in this town. The mysterious host of this program seems to be delivering the news of current events as well as town's community life in a rather unconventional way, thus, grabbing the attention of the town’s citizens.

[miuzayee]

Creativity is an outcome of unleashing imagination and new ideas, an urge to invent and innovate. It is a tendency to recognize purpose, patterns, alternatives and plausible solutions. Since it is driven by curiosity, creative folks generally aren’t fulfilled with the first answer they come across for a problem, and try to dig out more for a clearer perspective; in process avoiding assumptions or ultimatums.

Being creative is often deemed as contrary to the status quo, due to its unexpected nuances. Exploring possibilities makes one come across thousands of perspectives, and creativity doesn’t involve denying their unlikeness. Human creativity is distinctive because of the adaptive and open-ended manner in which change accumulates, as we are always creating new inventions which were deemed to be impossible in the past. Faith in the future, passion in the present and knowledge from the past is what fuels creativity.

[miuzayee]

MINDMAP

A mind map is a diagram used to visually organize information. It is a structured hierarchical depiction of relationships among pieces of the whole. It steams out, providing words with  new and related themes and ideas which radiate out from the centre. 

Here’s an example of a mind map we made for CTS group project^

Mind mapping has always been an effective way for me to note down my ideas, collect knowledge and remember for a better understanding of my thoughts.

Here’s one of the mind maps I made while planning the story and course of events for the podcast episodes^

[miuzayee]

[miuzayee]

Combining ideas is a fundamental practice in creative thinking. It often involves connecting and associating seemingly unrelated things. These different associations could be either internal or external. Internal connections are those that lie in the same problem domain but may not have been used together. One way to find internal connections is by combining various form and function attributes in different ways. External connections, on the other hand, combine ideas from completely different domains and often lead to much more novel ideas. Our brain, because of its associative nature, is actually quite good at connecting unrelated ideas and combining them in a useful way.

I believe, using Kick Cards is one such method branched out of the concept of combining ideas, which in return sparks creativity.

[miuzayee]

_recorded transmission by a troop officer

In the moment of distress, the officer describes the unusual plan carried out by the irrationals to take over Ship Noah 73. As implied in Episode 1, citizens are discouraged to think for themselves or be creative. They don’t know what they are working towards or why all those mines even exist. They are stripped of any reasoning or curiosity that they might have, and made to believe in an ultimate goal. Even when the abductors of the ship, aka the Irrationals, are blowing up the ‘old mines’ in an attempt to rescue, the citizens blindly assume the ashes to be snow. This unfortunate foolishness of the citizens as well as Citadel’s ignorance, due to their belief of being omnipotent, is exploited by these Irrationals to execute a successful plan. 

[miuzayee]

KIPLING METHOD

The Kipling method let you explore your problem or extend your ideas by challenge it with the questions, What, Where, When, How, Why and Who; or in short 5W1H. 

These questions are good to use in a creative session when people dry up and run out of ideas. By asking these questions, one always challenges their current perceptions and force themself to ask new questions for deeper understanding. This method could be helpful when one needs to see the problem from different perspectives or when one would like to generate ideas or in the process of selecting an ideas for further development.

While using Kipling Method -

Do

Answer your questions. In a team, variety of answers will provide a broader perspective as well.

Be honest, instead of merely relying on assumptions. 

Challenge yourself with divergent questions.

Be critical.

Be concrete.

Don’t

Don’t avoid certain questions because you might think they have a simple answer.

Don’t lie.

Don’t focus to much on details.

I use this method whenever I need to break down a situation in a comprehensive way. While designing, it’s necessary to not sway away from the main objective - thus, this method also helps in organizing further research and keep the process in check.

[miuzayee]

SCAMPER is a method that provides a structured way of assisting creatives to think out of the box and enhance their knowledge. It an acronym and each letter stands for one thinking technique: Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to another use, Eliminate, Reverse.  To use SCAMPER, one simply goes down the list and ask questions regarding each element.

[miuzayee]

_vhs tape recorded by Miu & Zaye having a candid conversation.

Being the last episode, I attempted to construct the script by somewhat implementing the Kipling Method to explain the story, converging all three episodes, as well as elaborated my thoughts on ‘creativity’.

[miuzayee]

Miu & Zaye along with Ship Noah 73, somewhere in the outer space~

[miuzayee]

Story Telling methods

Storytelling is one of the very best ways for the human brain to process and store information. An effective execution of this method involves character-driven stories with emotional content result in a better understanding of the key points a speaker wishes to make and enable better recall of these points weeks later.

Some of the Story Telling techniques are -

Monomyth (hero faces challenges and grows) - used to entertain while enlightening, promote courage and share wisdom.

Mountain (story builds to a climatic ending) - used to illustrate challenges, offer clear conclusion and build tension.

Medias Res (Begin the story at the climax) - used to immediately grab attention, focus on important moment and keep audience engaged.

False Start (Disrupt a predictable outcome) - used to disrupt expectations, keep audience engaged and illustrate approaches.

Nested Loops (Loop stories around an important core) - used to show how wisdom was passed, explain the journey to a conclusion, utilizing multiple themed analogies.

Converging Ideas / Synthesis (Different ideas come together as one) - used to illustrate symbolic relationships, demonstrate development process and promote collaborations.

Sparklines (Contrast the ordinary with an ideal) - used to generate excitement and hope, motivate your audience and incite action.

I believe I’ve used ‘Medias Res’ and ‘Converging ideas’ in my story for the episodes.

[miuzayee]

More ways of Segregating ideas

Synthesis - combining ideas

Context Mapping -  generating techniques in which the users actively participate and in return create new ideas

PINC filter - involves listing down positives, negatives, intriguing factors and alas, concerning factors regarding an idea.

Kolko Reframing Method -  a motivated, continuous effort to understand connections (which can be among people, places and events) in order to anticipate their trajectories and act effectively.

[miuzayee]

Learning Diary Process + Credits

The podcast episodes were composed, enacted and edited by me!

Softwares / Websites used - 

Photoshop - Visual Edits

Illustrator - Create Visuals

Canva - Creating Collages

https://ezgif.com/ - to create gifs 

Audacity - to edit audio

Background music (credits) - 

Episode 1 -  Ben's death and tie fighter attack ~ lofi (feat. kawaii club) by  Closed on Sunday (on loop)

Episode 3 -  The Clones ~ lofi by Closed on Sunday (on loop)

Sound Effects in Audios used from - 

https://mixkit.co/free-sound-effects/

https://www.zapsplat.com/

https://freesound.org/

Theme used for Tumblr blog - Wanderlust by GLENTHEMES