Have you ever watched “The Iron Chef”. I was just watching it tonight with my 12 year old son and was struck by how the methods they use, can be adapted to fire up your creativity.
For those who have not seen the show, it involves top chefs competing to produce the most tasty, visually exciting and creative dishes in under an hour.
They have on hand top notch cooking equipment, and top quality ingredients. At the beginning of the show, they are given one surprise ingredient which they must incorporate in a central way in their menu.
What they create in an hour is truly astounding. The surprise ingredient forces them to improvise, and the short amount of time, allows them little time to think and plan. They must rely on their right brain to come up with inspiration, and their left brain to very quickly plan. The element of competition adds to the excitement and creative impetus.
So how can this help you creatively? When you are doing a creative project, whether it be creating a sculpture, writing a poem or book, or doing a drawing, see if you can incorporate some of the elements of “The Iron Chef. Put a crazy deadline so that you are doing it so quickly that your left brain can’t get in the way and over analyze. Introduce a surprise ingredient. For example, go to any page of a favorite poetry book and take the first quote you see. Use it as a central ingredient or theme for your work.
Or bring some friends together and see what is each is able to create in 5 minutes, 10 minutes or an hour. Or enter one of these competitions where authors or other artists create a literary or visual arts project in an evening or a weekend. So you might not win, but it will get your creative juices racing, and get you out having fun with other artists.
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