Recycling, storytelling and music thinking

Very inspiring story about a small town in Paraguay that is surrounded by a landfill.  They found a way to make the best of their situation. Scraps of trash have been recycled into instruments that children in the village learn to play beautifully. They are collectively known as the Recycled Orchestra and are preparing for a world tour.

On kickstarter they founded in 47 days more than $ 214.000 to realise their world tour.

 

Join them on Facebook:

Selected TED Talks on Music Thinking

Here is a selection of different TED talks. All of them use Music and Music Thinking in one or the other way. From psychology, to emotion, to technique – get inspired by this amount of musical presentations.

Schizophrenic violin lesson

Robert Gupta, violinist with the LA Philharmonic, talks about a violin lesson he once gave to a brilliant, schizophrenic musician — and what he learned.

Making Mistakes and Prototyping

What is a mistake? By talking through examples with his improvisational Jazz quartet, Stefon Harris walks us to a profound truth: many actions are perceived as mistakes only because we don’t react to them appropriately.

Imagination, Emotion and New Experiences

Benjamin Zander has two infectious passions: classical music, and helping us all realize our untapped love for it — and by extension, our untapped love for all new possibilities, new experiences, new connections. With a great exercise on Imagination and Emotion with Chopin.

Music Psychology and Soundscapes

Playing sound effects both pleasant and awful, Julian Treasure shows how sound affects us in four significant ways. Listen carefully for a shocking fact about noisy open-plan offices.

Research on the Brain and Music

Musician and researcher Charles Limb wondered how the brain works during musical improvisation — so he put jazz musicians and rappers in an fMRI to find out. What he and his team found has deep implications for our understanding of creativity of all kinds.

Trust and Examples from the World

Conductor Charles Hazlewood talks about the role of trust in musical leadership — then shows how it works, as he conducts the Scottish Ensemble onstage. He also shares clips from two musical projects: the opera “U-Carmen eKhayelitsha” and the ParaOrchestra.

Music and emotion through time

The composer Michael Tilson Thomas  traces the development of classical music through the score, the record, and the remix.

Live Looping, Improvisation, ‘gestural” Sound Design

Musician and inventor Onyx Ashanti demonstrates “beatjazz” — his music created with two handheld controllers, an iPhone and a mouthpiece, and played with the entire body. At TED’s Full Spectrum Auditions, after locking in his beats and loops, he plays a 3-minute song that shares his vision for the future of music.

The is another one I can’t embed: José Bowen: Beethoven the businessman. José Bowen outlines how new printing technology and an improved piano gave rise to the first music industry and influenced a generation of composers. Note: you should also read the comments.

On the TED website you can find more examples when you search for the Tag music (there is no music thinking tag yet!).

Wishing you many Epiphanies in 2012

6th of january is epiphany day – the 12th and last day of christmas. The holiday is over and we can focus on the coming year. A good moment to wish you all the best for 2012 and hope that you will have many epiphanies!

What exactly is epiphany, here is a collection:

• EPIPHANY is the sudden realization or comprehension of the (larger) essence or meaning of something.
• PHILOSOPHICAL meaning: having  found the last piece of the puzzle and suddenly seeing the whole picture.
• ARCHIMEDES Eureka! I found it!
• EINSTEIN was struck as a young child by being given a compass, and realizing that some unseen force in space was making it move.
• DARWIN An example of a flash of holistic understanding in a prepared mind was Charles Darwin’s “hunch” (about natural selection) during The Voyage of the Beagle.
• JAMES JOYCE Referring to those times in his life when something became manifest, a deep realization, he would then attempt to write this epiphanic realization in a fragment. Joyce also used epiphany as a literary device within each short story of his collection Dubliners (1914) as his protagonists came to sudden recognitions that changed their view of themselves or their social condition and often sparking a reversal or change of heart.
• In RELIGION it is used when a person realizes their faith or when they are convinced that a event or happening was really caused by a deity or being of their faith.
• WESTERN CHRISTIAN Religion:  The adoration of the magi, represented as kings, having found Jesus by following a star 12 days after christmas.
• HINDUISM epiphany might refer to the realization of Arjuna that Krishna (a God serving as his charioteer in the “Bhagavad Gita”) is indeed representing the universe.
• In ZEN kensho describes the moment, referring to the feeling attendant on realizing the answer to a koan.
• BUDDHISM Buddha finally realizing the nature of the universe, and thus attaining nirvana.
• WILLIAM BURROUGHS is talking about a drug-influenced state, a frozen moment when everyone sees what is at the end of the fork (naked lunch).
• EPIPHANIES is the thirteenth episode of the second season of the reimagined Battlestar Galactica television series.
• EPIPHANY is a web browser for the GNOME graphical computing desktop.
• HIERONYMUS BOSCH painted the adoration of the magi around 1495.
• HOMER SIMPSON has an epiphany, after visiting a strange Inuit shaman, and realizes he has to save the town from Russ Cargill’s plans to destroy Springfield.
• The last page of THE WIRE magazine with surprising sonic stories about music is called EPIPHANIES.
• Interesting: if you search for Epiphanies or Epiphany on TWITTER many people talk about that they (just) had an epiphany, but don’t exactly say what it was.

More info:
read the article on Wikipedia or just try the Twitter search for realtime results on Epiphany.

CREATIVE COMPANION on Twitter: @christofzuern

Some Music Thinking on Branding and Miles Davis

Although the music industry may use the term branding for marketing a product or band it is not used in the context of music itself. Though it could be interesting from a brand point of view to see how co-creation works in music. In many genres there are examples of co-creation from jazz to pop and rock.

But where rock bands would co-create in the studio and later just reproduce the outcome in gigantic tours without changing a single note, the jazz approach is different.

Recording sessions in the studio were rather an interruption of playing in clubs or being on a tour. So things that where tried out and tested on stage could be easily brought into the studio and studio experiments could easily be tested life with the experience of the direct response of the audience.

It is legitimate to call Miles Davis a strong brand that managed to develop, innovate and co-create new musical styles and genres over several decades starting from the 40s to the 90s. When you listen to albums like Birth of the Cool, Kind of Blue, Bitches Brew or Tutu we encounter many different sounds, styles, genres and musicians but in all of the songs we hear and feel the ‘musical essence’ based on directions from the charismatic personality of Miles Davis. Although the essence is not explicit or defined by words we could see this as the brand itself that was co-created by Miles and his musicians.

In other words Miles the person is the brand ideology (mission, vision, values) and together with his musicians they were branding together.

Some aspects in his way of working:

Young musicians

An important role in the changes of musical innovation was the recruitment of young musicians that where willing to go where Miles wanted to be, or already had chosen a direction where Miles wanted to go. Miles did recruiting based on his vision and was actively looking for change of his own brand through co-creation.

Start with a sketch
Miles Davis self did not compose in the way that he came to a recording session with a fully written-out score. Most of the time either Miles or one of the band members came up with an idea or rough sketch that then was developed further.

In Louis Malle’s film Ascenseur pur l’echafaud e.g. he let the band react directly to parts of the film that were shown in the recording studio via a big screen. Based on small instructions from Miles the band collectively reacted to actions and emotions.

The musicians did not always understand what he was doing, or what he wanted, but they trusted and respected him to make something outstanding. It was like: start with a sketch, learn together, build consensus for change and innovation.

Listen and play
Most of the musicians were talking about Miles as the ‘best listener who ever led a band’, he heard what everybody else was playing and with his voice and the ability to show new possibilities he was the glue to make it sound like a whole band. His instructions were famous in being vague, showing the right direction and also leaving enough freedom for own interpretation:  Don’t bang just play! You listen and you play!

Brand influence and the creation of new brands
“Everyone who played with Miles, feels a bond with each other” Herbie Hancock. Playing together with Miles was special and also inspiring to go on with musicians that had the Miles-experience in working together.

Bringing yourself in a co-creation with a big brand can also have a very positive effect on your own brand or personality. Nearly all of the musicians that played with Miles became later famous musicians and bandleaders themselves and created their own sound. Especially the ‘In a silent way’ players were dominating the jazz and rock development of the 70s and beyond.

The music of Miles Davis and the music thinking that is inspired by him can be a learning and inspiration for branding, communication, co-creation, new thinking about design and design of organizations and creative processes. Christof Zürn

Want more Music Thinking inspiration?
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Music Thinking Weekly – #Musicthinking @Musicthinking

Want more info on co-creation, innovation an branding?

I had the chance to read an early version of the new book of Nicholas Ind and to co-create and share with him some thoughts about co-creation, innovation and branding. I am looking forward to an interesting read! Brand Together: How Co-Creation Generates Innovation and Re-energizes Brands

What is your formula for now?

There is a fantastic book by curator Hans Ulrich Obrist with a lot of answers to the simple question: what is your formula for now?

In elegant simplicity you find the crystallization of a potentially complex idea into a single equation. You can use it a s a source for formulating your basic principles, your secret recipe, use it just as a briefing for your next project or just take it for your inspiration.
The book is dedicated to composer Karlheinz Stockhausen and artist Julius Koller both died 2007. The one page formula of Stockhausen’s 29 hour-opera LICHT:

The secret formula on how to become a genius by Marina Abramovic:

1 tablespoon of talent
5 drops of popularity
1 drop of luck
10 kilograms of discipline
6 glasses of self-sacrifice
3 grams of spirituality

Here some more examples by Stewart Brand, Fischli + Weiss, Simryn Gill, Albert Hofmann (LSD).

Link to amazon.com: Hans Ulrich Obrist: Formulas For Now

Many epiphanies in 2011

6th of january is epiphany day – the 12th and last day of christmas. The holiday is over and we can focus on the coming year. A good moment to wish you all the best for 2011 and hope that you will have many epiphanies!

What exactly is epiphany, here is a collection:

• EPIPHANY is the sudden realization or comprehension of the (larger) essence or meaning of something.
• PHILOSOPHICAL meaning: having  found the last piece of the puzzle and suddenly seeing the whole picture.
• ARCHIMEDES Eureka! I found it!
• EINSTEIN was struck as a young child by being given a compass, and realizing that some unseen force in space was making it move.
• DARWIN An example of a flash of holistic understanding in a prepared mind was Charles Darwin’s “hunch” (about natural selection) during The Voyage of the Beagle.
• JAMES JOYCE Referring to those times in his life when something became manifest, a deep realization, he would then attempt to write this epiphanic realization in a fragment. Joyce also used epiphany as a literary device within each short story of his collection Dubliners (1914) as his protagonists came to sudden recognitions that changed their view of themselves or their social condition and often sparking a reversal or change of heart.
• In RELIGION it is used when a person realizes their faith or when they are convinced that a event or happening was really caused by a deity or being of their faith.
• WESTERN CHRISTIAN Religion:  The adoration of the magi, represented as kings, having found Jesus by following a star 12 days after christmas.
• HINDUISM epiphany might refer to the realization of Arjuna that Krishna (a God serving as his charioteer in the “Bhagavad Gita”) is indeed representing the universe.
• In ZEN kensho describes the moment, referring to the feeling attendant on realizing the answer to a koan.
• BUDDHISM Buddha finally realizing the nature of the universe, and thus attaining nirvana.
• WILLIAM BURROUGHS is talking about a drug-influenced state, a frozen moment when everyone sees what is at the end of the fork (naked lunch).
• EPIPHANIES is the thirteenth episode of the second season of the reimagined Battlestar Galactica television series.
• EPIPHANY is a web browser for the GNOME graphical computing desktop.
• HIERONYMUS BOSCH painted the adoration of the magi around 1495.
• HOMER SIMPSON has an epiphany, after visiting a strange Inuit shaman, and realizes he has to save the town from Russ Cargill’s plans to destroy Springfield.
• The last page of THE WIRE magazine with surprising sonic stories about music is called EPIPHANIES.
• Interesting: if you search for Epiphanies or Epiphany on TWITTER many people talk about that they (just) had an epiphany, but don’t exactly say what it was.

More info:
read the article on Wikipedia or just try the Twitter search for realtime results on Epiphany.

CREATIVE COMPANION on Twitter: @christofzuern

Music thinking is the radical little brother of design thinking

When talking about services and service design I am convinced that music thinking can add an extra layer to the discussion of what design thinking means and especially how we can bring it to life in branding, communication and design.

“Music thinking is the radical little brother of design thinking”
Christof Zürn

When thinking about design there is the assumption, that at the very end after lot’s of prototyping, testing, etc. there is a final product, that maybe can get some updates later but is ‘ready to use’. When thinking about music (classical, jazz, pop) at the very end there will be a piece of work that has to be performed before the crowd. And after the performance what remains is the recall of an experience. If it is good you want it again, buy a CD, T-shirt or spread the word. If it is bad maybe you will ‘boo’, just turn away or tell it to your friends.
For me music thinking reflects the dynamics of daily business, working together with different experts, have to perform every day on a high expectation level in different performance venues for a changing audience. Music thinking also knows ‘radical change’ in style, technical innovation and behaviour of the crowd, customer, consumer, user, downloader. Music thinking is the behavioural side of design thinking:

In the project approach that I am using for CREATIVE COMPANION, I am thinking about the project approach more as a dance, or dance steps. There is a certain order, there is a certain style, in this case, it is a Tango. You don’t dance the tango alone you do it together and you have to rehearse, ‘prototype’ and iterate many times the dance steps together to make it a real experience.

Download the
CREATIVE-COMPANION factsheet and project approach (PDF)

Business design tools

all contents by Roberta Tassi

There are a lot of possibilities, tools and methodologies while working on your business model, online strategy, service design or ideation project. Here are some nice tools and online platforms for inspiration or to help you get started:

• Business Design tools:  www.businessdesigntools.com The design of a business is divided in 6 Phases where Designers, Clients and Customers should collaborate together in order to develop product/services that really address customers needs. The 6 Phases are: frame, explore, ideate, strategy, co-design, delivery.
• The Company Real Score  is a collection of business tools and instruments to map and visualize your brand. It is a collection of core elements for orchestrating and conducting ‘brand minded and people centered’ innovations.
  Before you start with Customer journey mapping or Business Model Generation it is helpful to map your identity, the critical success factors and the paradoxes or wicked problems. This will give you more focus what best suits to your brand and inspires innovation and creativity. More info and the download of the poster: here!
• Business Model Generation:  www.businessmodelgeneration.com This is also a fantastic book and an iPad app is in development. In the meantime you can use the PDF download of the canvas and a nice presentation with the basic items to make a start.
• Service Design Tools:  www.servicedesigntools.org This website is the result of the research activity done by Roberta Tassi during her graduation thesis. Service Design Tools is conceived as an open platform of knowledge, to be shared with the design research community.
• Persona Core Poster Companies have a growing number of data and research material from different sources that gives detailed information about what a consumer thinks, does or wants. But teams need a simple instrument to make better, integrated and quicker decisions based on the valuable data.
  If you want to innovate and create viable and relevant value propositions, you should start to ‘look with your customers eyes’. More info and download of the poster: here!
  

Christof Zürn
CREATIVE COMPANION
www.creative-companion.com

Download:   CREATIVE COMPANION Fact sheet