Anyone who sketches or attempts to create anything new is attempting to create a new way of seeing something, even if just for themselves, in their own sketchbooks, or–as I did last night–on the back of an envelope. They are, to varying degrees, storytellers. Urban sketchers certainly are storytellers or, if you will, citizen reporters, and “plein aire” artists, drawing and coloring what they see! Those who tell stories about their sketches, their sculptures, their jewelry-making projects, their workshops, or other sorts of creative endeavor are providing narratives to put a frame around the effort. So sketching leads straight to frame innovation…which is getting serious attention in some business and academic circles.
Illustration: Watercolor, gouache, and ink by Black Elephant Blog author
It appears that artists have a lot to teach those of us who have depended primarily (so far…) on our analytic brains to carry us forward. And who, after all, isn’t an artist, given a chance? What happens when our analytic brains are simply not up to the challenges (some of which may be “black elephants”) ahead? A few posts back began to look at a book on this subject published by MIT Press recently.
This post thus will segue back into the discussion of frame innovation raised a few weeks ago here on this blog (and to which there may be a few more unanswered questions by now). One question so far raised, for instance, is whether the ideas behind “frame innovation” are, in fact, anything new? The next few posts will consider this and related issues.
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