I’m taking a class for the next 8 months called Relax Into Success and in yesterday’s session I was asked what I do and what I am interested in.
It’s a tough question to answer, but this was my response: “I’m interested in everything.”
Now, it’s scientifically and humanly impossible to be interested in everything because our finite minds cannot physically grasp everything, let alone nothing. But the reason I am interested in everything is because I love learning. More importantly, I love taking two subjects or ideas and mashing them to create something new.
Much like this mashup of Metallica and Herbie Hancock, my obsession with everything finally has a soundtrack:
In Imagine, author Jonah Lehrer introduces the theory of conceptual blending–taking two distinct ideas and combining them to form an entirely new idea. He gives examples of 3M’s history of creating innovative products. Scotch tape was the conceptual blending of cellophane and adhesive.
Conceptual blending is causing me to look at what I do differently. I am imagining what a blend of video production and web development would look like.
What if a user interface transformed a video into a non-linear experience where the speed at which the video was scrolled caused the content to morph and change?
In animation production, programming enables complex action to occur in a less time-consuming manner, but why hasn’t programming been applied to video production in a similar manner?
Just a taste of the swirls of everything in my limited mind. In the meantime, the soundtrack has changed: