Blending popular culture and design theory, framed by a decade of scholarly research, this book highlights how play and humor fuel innovation. Now, more than ever, we are in need of creative solutions to global problems, but creative skills and abilities decline over time without intervention and practice.
Sparking Creativity provides empirically supported methods for embracing the often-trivialized domains of play and humor to increase our creativity. It shows that topical examples, such as Seinfeld's humor, the Apples to Apples board game, and the Adventure Time cartoon series, are more closely related to innovation than you might first think. The book is organized into five main parts, each containing short, engaging subsections and informative, playful, and colorful illustrations to demonstrate concepts.
Written in a humorous and accessible style, this book is aimed toward creative-minded entrepreneurs, designers, engineers, industry leaders, parents, educators, and students. It encourages a playful approach throughout a design process to produce truly innovative solutions.
Author(s): Barry Kudrowitz
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 294
City: London
Cover
Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of Contents
List of Figures
Biography and Acknowledgements
Introduction
Part I: Creativity, Play, and Humor
1 The Four Requisites of a Creative Person, Dr. Momen’s Clothing Dryer, and Captain Planet
2 Divergent Thinking, Rocket Racoon, and Scribblenauts
3 Convergent Thinking, Bunny Scissors, and Sherlock Holmes
4 Verbal Creativity, Code Names, and Puns
5 Fluency, Originality, and Family Feud
6 Flexibility, Elaboration, and Scattergories
7 Inspiration, da Vinci’s Notebooks, and RuPaul’s Drag Race
8 Diffusing Focus, Shower Thoughts, and (a Few) Psychoactive Drugs
Part II: Innovation, Play, and Humor
9 Three Requisites of Innovation, Utility Patents, and a Tanning Booth Toaster
10 Silly Ideas, Shitty Robots, and Poop Ice Cream
11 Flavors of Innovation, the Nonstick Frying Pan, and USB Drives
12 Radical Innovation, Whiskey-Infused Lotion, and High Fashion
13 Questioning the Status Quo, Taboo Topics, and Toilets
14 Questioning the Status Quo, Taboo Topics, and Toilet Paper
15 Hindsight, Toothbrushes, and Smart Phones
16 Science Fiction, Superheroes, and Aliens
17 The Adjacent Possible, The Simpsons’ Predictions, and Rick and Morty
Part III: Play, Creativity, and Innovation
18 Defining Play, Puppies, and Tom Sawyer
19 Play Taxonomies, Adult Play, and Jake the Dog
20 The Criteria for Play, Flow, and Bluey
21 Work, Montessori, and TPS Report Coversheets
22 Play–Creativity Connections, The Little Prince, and Positive Affect
23 Steve Jobs vs. Mary Poppins, Kindergarten, and Spinach Brownies
24 Adding Play Value, Overcooked, and the Holle Bolle Gijs
Part IV: Humor, Creativity, and Innovation
25 Two Theories (and Larrys) of Humor, Throwing Shade, and Throwing Pies
26 The Incongruity Theory of Humor, Cartoon Captions, and the Excalibur Toilet Brush
27 Remoteness of Association, Garth’s Spew Cup, and Apples to Apples
28 Metaphorical Thinking, a Finger Trap Biopsy Needle, and SCAMPER
29 Connecting Domains, the Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, and TRIZ
30 The Humor of Discovery, Hidden Gorillas, and Seinfeld
31 How Comedy Makes Change, Satire, and South Park
32 Improvisation, Yes and… “Boom! Freeze! Michael Scarn, FBI!”
Part V: A Playful and Humorous Design Process
33 Thinking About Design Thinking
34 Researching Design Research
35 How Might We… Define How We Define Our Prompts
36 An Improv Warm-Up Progression for Team-Based Idea Generation
37 Ideas for Idea Generation
38 Models of Testing and Testing of Models
Afterword
Index
