In order to foster creativity of a tactile nature, a daily practice was developed in which elements were arranged into small sculptures over the course of ten-minute sessions. Initial specifications required that objects be sourced from the immediate environment, and consist of at least one man-made and one natural element, with no less than three total elements per sculptural composition. This promoted aesthetic dialogue between the organic and the synthetic, echoing a dichotomy that has deep cultural resonance for the millennial generation.
Creative blocks in the daily practice led to a more holistic approach, which abandoned the requirement of small, ten-minute complete sculptures in favor of an ongoing study of physical computing and terrarium cultivation. The result was a culmination of the semester’s research into a large-scale interactive sculpture incorporating both live plants and live circuits. This piece was on display in the Champlain College Communications & Creative Media Gallery lounge as part of the graduate student exhibit “10×105: Explorations into Daily Creativity” in December 2016.
