Run in 2016, Genesis was subscribed to by more than 40 participants. The material developed for the course is accessible here. The forum discussions are excluded to protect the privacy of the participants.

Genesis: The Innovator's Dilemma: A course for creative innovation

With Christine Dumont and Donna Greenberg

In the eye of the storm

To be a polymer [clay] artist today is to be part of a turbulent and evolving creative journey. Permanently logged in to social networks, our computer screens pull in images from all over the Planet. Everyday, we see new artists, new perspectives, new countristormes pushing the medium's boundaries.

This creative energy can be motivating as it urges us to look deeper into ourselves for new ideas. But good ideas are hard to come by. Often students and fellow artists say they want to embrace the challenge, but feel dispirited, lacking confidence in the strength of their ideas and their ability to be original.

Dragging us down is the fear of copying others' work. No matter how good we are at generating new ideas, the truth is that we may be influenced, consciously or not, by what we see. As a result we incur the risk of being accused of copying. Therefore, creative self-reliance and confidence have become even more critical than in the past. wheredoideas

The objective of this course is to help you find the eye of the storm, a place where you can get in touch with your ideas, and systematically and effectively grow them into an original body or work.

Course's Objectives

If you feel that:

  • you would like to be more creative more often,

  • you lack confidence in your ideas,

  • your ideas lack originality,

  • you are indiscriminately reliant on the ideas of others,

then this course will help you:

  • create the conditions for creativity and innovation; you will learn strategies to help you generate ideas often and in quantity,

  • develop confidence in the power of your ideas,

  • select, shape and mature your technique and design ideas,

  • learn from the work of others without stealing, plagiarising or copying.