[I replaced this post with a series on creativity. Click here to view that series, where you’ll get more value than reading just this post.] The next few posts will be on creativity, mainly exploring counterproductive mainstream myths about it. I used to view the topic as vague, but a few sources dramatically and convincingly changed my perspective. One was a class at Columbia Business School called Systematic Creativity in[…] Keep reading →

If you accept mainstream ideas of creativity, then your understanding of creativity is holding you back from creating things and being creative. Mainstream views on creativity sell books, movies, magazines, and so forth. They sell over-romanticized myths that, while entertaining, undermine your ability to create things and solve problems. Let’s start with two contradictions to lay bare the counterproductivity in mainstream views. First, mainstream views value creative, original, so-called outside-the-box[…] Keep reading →

The Parsons Class I’m co-teaching this semester has a blog. So far it just has a few pictures from the zoetropes a few students did. The results from that first assignment were incredible — tremendous variety of solutions to the various challenges of physical animation devices and animations: materials, sizes, quality versus quick and dirty, colors, contrast, motion, repetition, etc. I can’t wait to see the results of the later[…] Keep reading →

Joshua Spodek EDUCATION 2006 MBA, Columbia Business School New York 1999 PhD, Astrophysics, Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences New York 1993-94 MA, Physics (Completed at Columbia), University of Pennsylvania School of Arts and Sciences Philadelphia 1993 BA, Physics, Columbia College New York 1991 L’Institut Brittanique, University of London Paris EXHIBITIONS 2017 The Museum of Math, Dance New York 2011-12 District 36, Elements New York 2011 Union Square Subway[…] Keep reading →

First, here is MTA Arts for Transit Page on Bryant Park in Motion (EDIT: Arts for Transit changed the page to one on Union Square in Motion) — created by me and four students and NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program:  Molly Schwartz, Igal Nassima, Brett Murphy, and Eyal Ohana. Below is an overview of the piece, starting from Bryant Park at the corner of 42nd and 6th, then entering the station[…] Keep reading →

My first big public art piece is up: Bryant Park in Motion, co-created with four students — Brett Murphy, Igal Nassima, Eyal Ohana, and Molly Schwartz — at the NYU Tisch School of the Arts Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP), supported by MTA Arts for Transit and Submedia. The piece was created at no cost to the MTA. BPIM will be on display March 2010 at the base of the northeast[…] Keep reading →

On a scorching August day, running along the Hudson I passed a sign: “Runners: Free T-shirt for Interview.” I stopped and agreed to be interviewed. A sports apparel company was interviewing runners for a commercial. They had constructed a small plywood hut with the cameras inside that was air-conditioned. They had me wear a shirt over the one I had been running in to cover their competitor’s logo. The interviewer[…] Keep reading →