Designing with different parts of the brain

When desktop PC's hit the market in the early 80's, folks thought they could save some big bucks over the data crunchers and processors they'd hired previously. So, Sally, the bright and faithful front desk girl, was given a PC and told to generate the biweekly company newsletter or the quarterly report statement presentation or the company trade magazine. She played with the early versions of PageMaker, Ventura Publisher, Adobe, etc. and out came a newsletter. It was spell checked and everything, except she didn't have a clue about typography, or what the printer might require in gripper range, for the sheet it was being printed on or a clue why it looked and read so poorly. Yeah, the company saved the prepress costs of their newsletter, that read and looked like crap, but hay, saving money is king, right. How many ugly magazines got produced, before they bit the bullet and hired it out professionally again?

Eventually, these brave, entrepreneurs realized they where paying the outside vendors for more then what 'ol Sally was capable of - expertise and industry understanding. A computer is just an extension of your hand, which is controlled by various motivations in your noggin. Some have better noggin retention and access then others, which usually shows in their work, regardless of the tool they use.

 

Nice post PAR, and I think I can see your point.

However, I am afraid it is all in vain. For some reason, when it comes to boats, even the grown up men often get carried by emotions and transform into daydreaming teenage boys. So there's a PC on the desk, and there's that nice freeware software... You know the rest of the story.

But, anyways, we've already been there and discussed it here, many times...

 

brain complexity

Given the immense complexity of the workings of the brain and the proportionally very sparse number of scientific experiments studying the brain, extrapolating from these results is more akin of drawing lines between unrelated stars in the night sky and explaining the relationship between the emerging zodiac like figures. Funny enough this is a phenomenon typical of our brain using processing paths that have proven effective in hunter/gatherer survival but that that play major tricks on us when applied outside the direct living conditions homo sapiens evolved for during million of years. In short, our brain was not meant to study itself and does it poorly, scientifically, speaking. As scientists hunt for funds they resort to filling in the scientific dots beyond the evidence as well to make sense for themselves as, ultimately, for the politicians who need "commercial" justifications for allocating tax payers' money.

A similar phenomenon with radiologists: eye physiologists have shown time and again that the human eye can discern more details using color than what it can from grayscales. Nevertheless, radiologists insist looking at black and white images from the days of silver nitrate cliches despite the possibilities for fine coloring spectra that present day digital radiography opened up. Or how tradition trumps science. Again.

Speculating about what sides of the brain are used with or without computers, drawing powerboats vs sailboats, influencing the attraction to the gestalt of monohulls or multihulls are nevertheless a fun pass time. And fun is what it is all about ;-)

Luc

 

Goodness me, what kind of boats get designed under the influence of alcohol, or, er, strong stimulants, I cannot imagine. Then there's always concussion, maybe that's where the really radical ideas come from !

 

Regarding the opening post:
I have not read any scientific work regarding the psychology or physiology of creative thinking. Can only contribute with testimony of how it works for me. I use basically two design modes - a purely imaginative (or styling) one and a drafting (or engineering) one. The imaginative mode is all done inside my head, while the drafting part can be done either by pencil/paper or with a PC/software.

The purely imaginative mode typically occurs to me when I am in a comfortable situation, free of worries and everyday incumbencies, when I don't have to think about paying bills and taxes, making stressing phone calls and similar creativity-killer duties. That's when my brain starts flying high and creating fancy and interesting stuff. And it does it without using any drafting tool (or drugs ) - it all happens in the head.
Occasionally, an interesting and useful idea or invention pops out of it, which then gets transferred to paper. But most of times the resulting forms, creations or boats are more sci-fi than practical and hence the idea dies there.
So, in this "imaginative mode" the creative sequence is pretty simple and goes like:
visual styling --> critical examination --> engineering.

The "drafting mode" happens when I am resolving a job-related problem. That's when logical thinking has to prevail over fantasizing, because the stress component is always present, the client wants the job done and there is a deadline. Now, I am an engineer - not a stylist or a visual artist. So the first thing I do, when in front of a new and super-sexy idea (even if it is my brainchild) is to ask myself following questions:

1) is it doable?
2) is it practical?
3) is it any better than what already exists?​

If the answer to any of these is NO, then the idea has to be modified, or substituted by another one. If the answers are YES, then the mathwork is done to check that physics behind the idea is ok, followed by a basic sizing and a visual styling. In this "drafting mode", the creative sequence is more like:
problem analysis --> best solution identification --> engineering --> visual styling.

Sure, the contraptions which come out of these two creative modes are quite different. The imaginative mode gives sexy objects and shapes which resemble spaceships from sci-fi movies, while the engineering mode gives objects which above all work, and then (secondary goal) look good.

By the way, it is a common opinion that creativity involves the right side of the brain, while logical thinking uses the left side. I am left-handed, and hence (in theory) the dominant side of my brain is the right side - hence creativity. But I am an engineer, and my job requires me to use a lots of logic and math, hence I should be using more the left side of the brain. Now that I think of it, I might have a problem here...

Cheers

 

Designing and engineering are two different things, Designing with a beer is a good thing!

 

I often sketch designs by hand and rub lines out and re-sketch then I scan those sketches and use them as the basis for the CAD model which I do the detailed shape in.

A friend, a naval draughtsman (died recently unfortunately). But left to finish details such as a bulwark sheer or a cabin top he said he 'sneeked up' on his drawings and looked at them differently after a break, or he would put them away for a few days and look at them anew without the emotional attachment of the work put in.

 

That's exactly what I use to do. When I do the job all at once, in the same day, I tend to get visually desensitized to the resulting design. After looking at a shape for too much time, it becomes an ordinary stuff and my mind tends to become uncritical towards it. It might have some big flaws but my eye won't catch it, because it got too used to the shape it was looking at all day long.

Happens even in the "engineering mode", which should be guided by the logic. One can get so involved in working on details that he easily loses focus on the global picture.

So after some time I tend to put it all in the drawer, close the file I'm working at, and start doing other stuff. When, after a day or two, I get back to the design, the global picture becomes sharp again. Things and issues with design which passed unseen just one day before, become very clearly visible again.

Cheers

 

Yep, confirmed. I have a problem: http://www.wherecreativitygoestoschool.com/vancouver/left_right/rb_test.htm

33% left-side, 67% right-side

43% linear
25% symbolic
21% logical
14% reality-based

50% random
46% concrete
42% holistic
36% fantasy-oriented
20% intuitive

I should have been a painter...

 

Only left-handed people are in their right minds.

 

I usually work in 3D with the origin representing the aft perpendicular. I find that by mirroring the lines I look at them quite differently and even find something 'artistically' unacceptable that i've been staring at for several hours. I think that's the same effect.

 

daiquiri: It is interesting that you create these whole images in your head. I do that too and is difficult to explain the process to people that don't think like that. It is not just a design, but a timeline of construction and details of hardware, etc. I often resent having to draw something instead of just building it. I like the process of evolving a design through building it. There are however many drawbacks, like expensive mistakes (experiments I call them).

 

Exactly so.

 

I am right handed but have been assesed as a right brain dominant. That was before when my work requires me do a lot of sketches for an idea or as a means of communicating to the shop floor how things go together. I have also to explain to the salespeople what a boat is and what it does.

Lately, my work requires me to do a lot of number crunching and numerical analysis, plus I enrolled in a community college for a course in scientific management. Out of curiosity, I took the test again, this time in the internet, It showed that I am left brain dominant. What is surprising is the teaser that asks if the lady in picture test is rotating clockwise or counterclockwise. I can, at will, make it rotate clockwise or counterclockwise (in my brain).

Researching further, I find that they use the words "left brain dominant, right brain dominant" depends on your inclination and it is not permanent, Our brain uses the left hemisphere and the right hemisphere at the same time. It is just the degree of use that makes one more dominant than the other.

Except for the savants, most of us are in the 50/50 range with some who have developed their brains to think abstractly and logically at the same time 100/100. So it is possible a good artist/imaginator can be good in 3D simulation in a computer.

Some refuses to use either side of the brain and prefers to keep it at 0/0, keeping it brand new, never used.

 

To really work out what part of your brain is being used takes a lot of technology. Recently ( within 10 years) there has been a big jump in scanning techniques and nuerology has advanced a lot understanding which parts of the brain are used for what.
It's really interesting, and in particular the physiological brain differences between the sexes. Men ( with a few exceptions ) are close to around 7 times more capable than women at spatial cognition.

The spinning figure, I look at it as a 2d projection and can visualise it spinning either left or right at will. But I don't think it is taken seriously.