CHAIRS: Andrea Polli and Madeline Rowene

Creative Thinking & Innovation Methods

The most important tools that creative people (and people who manage creative people) can use are those that enable them to effectively enable the creative process from idea generation to innovative application or artwork creation. These are Thinking Tools that artist and scientist alike may benefit from.

Biocultura and LASER Santa Fe host an evening of art and science with Tom Greenbaum. Attendees will learn several innovation methods including Six Thinking Hats and actively participate in a Lateral Thinking session. When Tom was Executive Director of the Intel Rio Grande Innovation Center he received training in these methods by Edward de Bono, the inventor of Lateral Thinking.

Topics included:
-John Kao's Innovation Manifesto
-Beginner's Mind
-Managing Creativity and Innovation
-Paradoxical Characteristics of Creative Groups
-Three Components of Creativity
-Six Thinking Hats
-Lateral Thinking
-Random Entry Idea Generator
-Capturing, Harvesting, Treating and Assessing Ideas

Tom Greenbaum has spent his career practicing both technology and art. In the late 1970s, Greenbaum got his hands on early computers and after he moved to New Mexico in the 80s, he began working with computer aided design and 3D photorealistic rendering. Soon he joined the Digital Fine Arts Society of New Mexico and began printing high-resolution computer-generated artwork using AutoCAD and POV-Ray software.

Later, after years of working at Intel as a Senior Software Engineer, he became Director of the Intel Innovation Center, which empowered him to reach out and benefit the community, donating projectors, computers and even a supercomputer to New Mexico art efforts like the UNM ARTS lab, Taos PASEO, and world-famous local artists. With Intel’s support he sponsored events including workshops at the Taos Toolbox Makerspace and the Duke City Shootout Digital Filmmaking Festival. He hosted the Women In Technology awards and contributed as a Board Member on the New Mexico Technology Council. In retirement he working with local sci/art organizations including with Keshet on a project in which a diverse group of dancers and scientists investigate opportunities to collaboratively develop a dance movement evoking a common understanding of human discovery.

For a taste of Tom’s art, consider his introduction to his work “The Spheriphor,” which he has presented at the International Symposium on Digital Earth (ISDE5) and at the Santa Fe Complex in the Occam’s Razor Exhibition.

“My intent is to develop a novel spherical metaphor for multi-dimensional data visualization on a digital dome projection system. This spherical metaphor, or to coin a term ‘Spheriphor,’ takes advantage of the opportunity to visualize high-density, multi-dimensional data using spherical coordinate systems. Virtual Globes may also use the Spheriphor to display non-GIS data. The Spheriphor opens a door into a new universe of rich visual metaphors based on spherical geodesic geometry and a Whole Systems Framework.”

SPONSORS:

LASER (Leonardo Art Science Evening Rendezvous) Talks is Leonardo's international program of evening gatherings that bring artists and scientists together for informal presentations and conversations. LASER Talks were founded in 2008 by Bay Area LASER Chair Piero Scaruffi and are in over 30 cities around the world. To learn more about how our LASER Hosts and to visit a LASER near you please visit our website. 

The mission of the LASERs is to provide the general public with a snapshot of the cultural environment of a region and to foster interdisciplinary networking.