Monday, October 11, 2010

Creativity from Without

Creativity from without, or finding inspiration from outside yourself. 

Two months ago, a few of my cousins and I started on our self-made Christmas gift for this year. We decided to make a calendar using photos that we will take ourselves using our Canon camera. For the calendar's theme, we chose to look at the surroundings of our hometown: San Francisco.

(Image by Me, Daniel Daquigan)

After assigning places like the Golden Gate Bridge or AT&T Park to each month, we noticed that we had too many well-known places - places that San Francisco is obviously known for. We wanted to show people places within San Francisco that makes the city a secret gem - places that gives locals the beauty and advantage of living within the city limits. 

After driving around the city, we stumbled upon this land structure along the Golden Gate Yacht Club:

(Image by Me, Daniel Daquigan)


This compilation of cement an pipes is known as the wave organ. As an exhibit of the San Francisco Exploratorium, the concept of the wave organ was developed by Peter Richards and put together by George Gonzalez. With this concept, Richards and Gonzalez looked "from without" and uses the San Francisco Bay for inspiration. As waves from the San Francisco Bay hit the metal pipes that are embedded in the cement, the openings of each pipe producing wave sounds, or what San Franciscans call "ocean music." 

Whether we're using landmarks around the neighborhoods of San Francisco or using the sounds of the Bay, the city is a great source of inspiration "from without."

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