‘It’s not Dada that is nonsense–but the essence of our age that is nonsense.’ One of my favourite creative movements (really more anti-art so I’m hesitant to call it ‘art”) is that of the Dadaists. You’ve heard of them – Duchamp, Man Ray, Tzara… Here’s a list of the major players (taken at the fab Dada exhibit at NYC’s Museum of Modern Art this past summer) As a girl who loves her remix, I’ve always adored the Dada approach. I’m even contemplating starting a workshop or onlin

image taken from a vintage book on my shelf The other day I came across this shocking (or sadly, perhaps not so shocking, but rather, appalling) photograph on Pinterest: Let it sink in for a moment. To be frank, it brought back all sorts of horrible memories of my years as a student. I have always tottered on the brink of wanting to please others and do well and at the same time pay heed to my innate “rebel” qualities, nurtured by an artistic, devil-may-care mother and an ext

I just returned from one of my favourite towns on the planet – Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada. Uncharacteristically, it snowed! I was so giddy tidying up Friday’s presentation next to a roaring fire with a winter wonderland outside my window. The presentation focused on integrating the new BC curriculum with my upcoming book with Dan Ryder (@wickeddecent). The link also provided the 500 participants with access to Dan’s Instagram (where he posts a bevy of images of stu

This year I wanted to try out a little digital advent calendar. I toyed with the idea of creating my own template with something like Thinglink, but didn’t really have the time. Then I chanced upon https://tuerchen.com/ I’ve been using their template and uploading my own original artwork for the windows. (how it looks in editing mode) Frustrations so far have been not being able to hyperlink in the text box and not being able to scroll down to edit. I’ve solved this by using

Just a quick tip with an appsmash (credit that word to @gregkulowiec). I recently chanced upon a series of Christmas / Winter / Holiday -inspired sketches I did in 2015 for a series I called #novembrrrr. In fact, I even spliced them together at the end and made a quick film: I ended up losing several when my phone crashed but managed to salvage the bulk of them via my Instagram Lately I’ve been tinkering with a few apps, mixing them together to create new media. My favourite

“The Tag is the Soul of the Internet” This summer at Alan November’s Building Learning Communities (BLC16) I launched a new presentation called “Hashtaggery”. I wanted to share more creative ways to use hashtags, rather than for mere searching and sharing. How can we use them for serendipitous creativity? After some background into what folksonomy is and the history of the hashtag in social media (aka “octothorpe”), I delve into more whimsical uses, such as contextualizing me

This summer I took a chance on a new form of conference offering for me – the outside-the-venue-creative-safari. I launched it at Alan November’s Building Learning Communities (BLC 16), which is one of the most intimate and thought-provoking events out there. Part of my raison d’être is that I firmly believe in the use of smartphones as the ultimate device (at present) for the classroom. Coupled with BYOD programs and GAFE (Google Apps for Education), I am convinced smartphon

What is the best part of any conference or similar professional gathering? It’s the people, of course! From purposeful networking to informal side conversations, the interaction of the attendees will undoubtedly make or break an event. Too often are participants made to feel not at all participatory  – that is, they must wander around aimlessly during the intersessions awkwardly staring at strangers’ name badges trying to muster up the courage to forge a connection – even a t

note bene: while this post is directly applicable to educational organizations, the strategies may be effectively applied to any organization As schools start back up again, teachers seek ways to “get to know” their students and cultivate a healthy classroom community. Many schools engage in pre-term professional development and other meetings in order to prepare for the new year. Confession: I have never been a fan of meetings, in particular. In fact, in some of my workshops

The other morning I was lingering in my bed in my Airbnb in Maine and noticed something stunning on the white paneled wall…the light danced enticingly, almost teasingly. Juxtaposed with the leaves and window blinds it was an overwhelmingly poignant sight that succeeded in captivating me for a good few minutes. I was working out an accompanying audio track in my head when I got the idea to archive this fleeting moment on camera (iPhone6 to be exact), and marry it to some music

taken while walking at a trolley station in San Diego Metaphorical Meanderings I recently returned from a speaking trip to both Austin, Texas and Worcester, UK (but then noodled around in Oxford, London, and Birmingham). When I travel, I don’t like to do the usual tourist thing…rather, I enjoy connecting with local friends (most of whom I’ve only previously known virtually), and losing myself as a flâneur of sorts – an urban stroller a la Baudelaire. Back in the days of old-s

This past week I was privileged to meet with dear old friends in the beautiful land that is the U.K. I culminated my part business / part pleasure trip in Manchester, where I spent a few days traipsing gleefully with Jeffrey (a California expat who has known me since I was 14) and Kimmo ( a lovely Finn who I met in France during a college trip). Jeffrey is a musician and music producer and comes complete with a cool studio in the heart of the North Quarter (I’m describing as

Yesterday listening to a beautiful rendition of Jefferson Airplane’s White Rabbit by Icelandic chanteuse Emiliana Torrini: I’ve always loved Lewis Carroll, mostly for his wordplay (and his pioneering use of photography in the early days). I’ve even done some birthday sketchquotes for him Whilst thinking on the potential uses for the phrase “Feed your head” I recalled the tale from the dormouse in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland: `Once upon a time there were three little sist

Last night I serendipitously came across this great documentary on the great “advertising creatives” of the last 60 years. “Art and Copy”, directed by Doug Pray, weaves together interviews from the people whose work became, as Shakespeare once said, “familiar as household names” but whose own names remain obscure to the average citizen. from http://www.theinspiration.com/ These are the people who developed iconic marketing campaigns such as “Think Different”, “Got Milk?”, “Wh

I believe the greatest calling of an educator is to inspire one’s students to want to wonder and learn about things on their own, and to point them in the direction of tools (hardware, software, and mindware) they can use to facilitate their respective (life-long) learning pursuits.  One perception of our responsibility is to prepare the youth under our influence for “the future“. I’ve always considered “the future” to be esoteric at best and completely uncertain and unpredic

I chanced upon two things this morning that really struck a chord (you’ll get the pun when you see that both are about famous musicians). First, my Twitter feed offered up this jewel of an article about Carol Kaye called “The Beach Girl Behind the Beach Boys”. The Beach Boys were what I was raised on in 1970’s southern California, and I spent countless Saturdays dancing with my mother to their records as we put away the laundry and dusted the bookshelves. I was thrilled and s

Prince died today. He was one of the people from my heyday, though I was more in the Cyndi Lauper camp at the time (note that he did write her When You Were Mine). As I grew older I could appreciate how clearly talented and innovative he was – a true Renaissance Man in purple brocade. In the rainbow of posts documenting his career, I chanced upon this video of Dick Clark interviewing a very self-assured yet casual-cool 19 year old Prince. In this screen shot he’s explaining t

A few weeks ago I had the privilege of chatting with David Lizerbram, a business lawyer, in his “Products of the Mind” series, “a podcast about the intersection of business + creativity.” We spoke mostly about my views and experience with the nature of creativity, a bit about teaching and my work with EdgeMakers, remix and fair use, and tips for fostering personal creativity. Take a listen: http://lizerbramlaw.com/podcast/burvall/ I asked my lovely friend Bryan Mathers to do

Last week I really enjoyed a little collaborative creativity exercise proposed by Nick Sousanis, author of Unflattening, and taken up by the #ds106 crowd as a Daily Create. I talked a bit about it in my previous post, where I admit to my difficulty in confining myself to grids. Here are all my doodles for the #gridsgestures project, and what I really liked was the fact that I didn’t have to explain them. Some people did…either in words affixed to their image or in the corresp

“We don’t really want what we think we desire” The other day I stumbled upon this piece from “theorist and provacateur” (read: best job title ever) Slavoj Žižek. I was particularly drawn to the title, as I spend a lot of time investigating the nature of creativity: “What Fulfils You Creatively Isn’t What Makes You Happy” Happiness is a strange thing. Personally, I think we are a tad obsessed with it. I’ve always struggled with the fact that “happiness” seems to vaguely hover