Written by Emme Raus, contributor
Arianna Huffington kicked off the SCADshow lecture series with her informative speech entitled “Creativity, Design, Innovation,” at 7 p.m. on Sept. 30.
Huffington is the chair, president and editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post Media Group. She has earned a spot on Time Magazine’s list of the world’s 100 most influential people and the Forbes Most Powerful Women list. In addition, she is a national columnist, author of 14 books and the mother of two daughters. Last Tuesday, the SCADshow auditorium was packed with students and staff to hear her speak with some attendees forced to stand along the walls.
Prior to the lecture, Kara Robson, a second-year animation major commented on how she “always likes to hear the writers, particularly someone as well-known and accomplished as Arianna Huffington.”
Huffington opened her lecture by appealing to the audience with her earrings which she pointed out were created by a SCAD graduate student. Over the course of the presentation, Huffington broke down her lecture about how to harness creativity in your field through three main actions.
Acknowledge Obstacles and Disconnect from Distractions
She stated the importance of acknowledging our obstacles and disconnecting from distractions. She explained how children have this innate ability to create since birth but as we grow older the critic or “roommate in the back of our mind” grows stronger and discourages us. Her advice was to trust our creative instincts and she described how she learned to trust her voice more by writing her dreams down as a freewriting exercise.
Huffington also encouraged students to disconnect from technology as it breaks our focus and undermines the creative process. She used the term “constant partial attention” to describe the mindset of people in their careers and referred to an app called Anti-Social which puts all incoming messages to her phone on hold.
Connect With Yourself
In this portion, she described the significance of connecting with oneself in order to produce the best ideas. She stressed how the busier we get the more important it is to preserve creativity by taking a day off to enjoy a hobby, get in touch with your spirituality or even catch up on some sleep.
She also observed how in museums today, visitors spend more time reading off of their phones than looking at the actual artwork. In response, she justified that as creators we must “recapture our sense of wonder in art and nature, even with small beauties that we take for granted.”
Create Big Ideas
Her final message was that big ideas lead to the next big thing. She discussed how in the modern business world, whether you are an established corporation or a new industry, there is no way to future-proof your business except to create “a culture of creative disruption.” This is a community where every member feels free to express themselves and is valued for who they are as well as what they do.
Huffington noted that businesses today are “prioritizing their treatment of employees for the sake of creativity.” For example, workers are receiving predictable time off in order to rejuvenate and produce stronger ideas. She favored an idea called the email policy, where a person is off work is also off their email.
In addition, Huffington assured us that our ideas do not need to be universally appreciated and we do not need to be afraid of failure; it’s all a part of the process that leads to success.
She concluded her lecture by claiming that “creativity starts with us and the more in touch with ourselves we are, the more fulfilling life will be.” Her finishing quote was from Archimedes: “Give me a place to stand and I will move the world.”
After her speech, 15 minutes were left for Huffington to answer questions from the audience. A handful of SCAD students with majors and interests ranging from film and television to singing and songwriting, asked her for advice regarding spirituality and women in the workplace in relation to creativity.
The most moving moment of all was when Huffington brought an 11-year-old girl from the audience on stage and encouraged her to keep writing and drawing. She invited the young artist to post her work on the Huffington Post. Huffington was also kind enough to share her email address with the entire audience in order for SCAD students and staff to more easily post their work on the Huffington Post.
