Edited by Clive Hilton, Monday, 15 Mar 2010, 20:42
As part of my first OU day school for the U101 course that was run on Saturday the students were set a number of activities that called upon their creative skills. It is no exaggeration to say that they responded magnificently, producing works and thinking that were a delight to be part of.
One of the lighter-weight activities was a game we called, visual chinese whispers. Essentially, a post-it note pad with each sheet numbered sequentially had upon the first sheet a simple doodle. The brief was simple; As accurately as possible, copy the drawing on the following sheet and when you have done, keep the one you received and pass on your own to your neighbour. Repeat as necessary.
I've done this exercise many times and it never fails to amaze me how the drawing evolves, often beyond all recognition from its starting point. Generally, the greater the number of participants the more interesting the result.
Even so, it still works when one only has a few people and the pad has to be circulated several times to get a decent result, as was the case on Saturday.
The image above shows the first and last drawings in the sequence. To appreciate the evolutionary changes I created an animation that illustrates the phenomenon best:
Post-it script
As part of my first OU day school for the U101 course that was run on Saturday the students were set a number of activities that called upon their creative skills. It is no exaggeration to say that they responded magnificently, producing works and thinking that were a delight to be part of.
One of the lighter-weight activities was a game we called, visual chinese whispers. Essentially, a post-it note pad with each sheet numbered sequentially had upon the first sheet a simple doodle. The brief was simple; As accurately as possible, copy the drawing on the following sheet and when you have done, keep the one you received and pass on your own to your neighbour. Repeat as necessary.
I've done this exercise many times and it never fails to amaze me how the drawing evolves, often beyond all recognition from its starting point. Generally, the greater the number of participants the more interesting the result.
Even so, it still works when one only has a few people and the pad has to be circulated several times to get a decent result, as was the case on Saturday.
The image above shows the first and last drawings in the sequence. To appreciate the evolutionary changes I created an animation that illustrates the phenomenon best:
http://www.hiltoncreative.co.uk/ou_101/ds130310/vw1.html
Good fun.