Tag Archives: cor noltee, design thinking, art, education, curiosity, creativity

The Why, How and What of Fred.

28 sep

theartofrelevance_cover

The Art of Relevance is the title of the book by Nina Simon. I got it from Emmeline from the Dordrechts Museum as a graduation gift.

Nina has been  working to make the entire text of The Art of Relevance available here for free, with a link to a few sample chapters so you can get a taste of the book.

In the book two cognitive scientist argue that there are two criteria that make information relevant.

  1. How likely that new information is to stimulate a positive cognitive effect– to yield new conclusions that matter to you
  2. How much effort is required to obtain and absorb that new information. The lower the effort, the higher the relevance.

One of the reasons I once entered the world of branding was that I was curious about how to influence people by making ideas for brands. And to know more about how the brain works I visited Fred van Raaij’s college about Laddering in 1993.

In 1993 laddering was a relatively new technique. It can be used to describe cognitive structures of individuals or groups (Reynolds and Gutman, 1984, 1988). In marketing it can be applied to describe the knowledge consumers have about a product or a brand by making the distinction between different end values, consequences and attributes.

The old version of Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle? A kind of Golden Structure of your brand.

Some examples of the old Why, How and What of Fred:

hierarchical_valuemap_movieshierarchical_valuemap_packedjuiceshierarchical_valuemap_trucks

Wanna know more?

 

 

 

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18+

26 sep

I’m reading a book by Gijsbert van der Wal, Wijd open ogen. (Wide open eyes. Pieces about art and the pleasure of looking). In the chapter I read yesterday there was this story about dutch artist Ewoud Broeksma (1957). Broeksma shows, in his ongoing serie Dubbelaars (Doubles), two pictures of the same male model. One with and one without clothes. It’s not that I’m curious about a naked man, I prefer women and one in particular laying naked just 2 meter and 80 centimeters above me, no it’s the contrast that makes me curious.

When I was a young boy we had this small magician shop in Dordrecht where they sold  magic glasses. I never believed it could be possible, putting your magic glasses on and see through the clothes of people. I never bought one. Maybe my curiousity about the work of Broeksma is fed by my decades long subconscious need to see people naked. I’m about to Google ‘Ewoud Broeksma Dubbelaars so if you are, or watching with 18-, it’s not my responsibility.

broeksma_skater

Want to see more…….or less?

Or just download the app….here

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What’s the status quo?

25 sep

Some days ago a fan of my saying ‘De lucht is blauw. Het gras is groen. Ik ga wat doen.’ asked me for an English translation. I tried to translate it and this is the best I can do;

The grass is green.

The sky is blue.

I’m ready. Are you?

Driving home already in the dark in my old Alfa Romeo Spider the winter version came to me:

The sky is grey.

The grass is turning brown.

No reason to feel down.

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ofCOR’s

23 sep

ofcors-001

What is a dilemma? The first song that pops up in my mind is this:

A dilemma is a brain fight between two (or more) equally interesting or bad options.

Louis CK calls it a competition in your brain between ‘Ofcourse’ and ‘Maybe’:

I’m glad I’m not Louis’ nephew and take another bite of my oats with nuts.

This afternoon me and my fellow master in art education students will receive their master degree. After I was fired as Waterbakker in kindergarten I tried some universities but dropped out twice in the first year. Kabouter was in charge for years and years keeping me of track and out of Flow. Thanks to the trust of Gabrielle Kuiper and Thera Jonker I found my way in (art) education. Trying to balance my growing Knowledge (what I know X what I want X what I did X what I can) with new Challenges. It brought me to the Guggenheim, Venice, Milan and got me jobs at the Politecnico Master Strategic Design  and the Dordrechts Museum as museum educator. And don’t forget my intense friendship with Piet Mondriaan and my new friends at Het Landje in Rotterdam

So from today I will not turn my head I you call me ‘Cor’.

From today it’s Master of Arts Bernardus Cornelis Albertus Maria Noltee.

Also for you Sikko.

ofCOR’s…..

but maybe

 

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Sorry you were saying?

22 sep

A year after my first post I printed my 364 stories and burned my ‘blog book’ together with Kabouter in a small coffin in a small church in Dordrecht.  My friend Anna Maria was there and she made this video:

My blog was gone and so was Kabouter. A year long I wrote and published before 7.00 am. I’m still writing, now killing my English Kabouter. I total I wrote about 1200 posts. Far less than the 2000 kabouters Anna Maria send me this week:

img_6245img_6247

The 2.000 apping Kabouters are part of ‘Sorry you were saying?’ by Bram Ellens (38) and depicts the individualization and the growing apathy of people through their mobile phone. I wonder what the message is on their mobile. I guess they are turning off the “Share my account information” button in their WhatsApp Settings.

Wanna know why and how?

Click here.

You have till next Sunday.

 

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Miles and words

20 sep

Schermafbeelding 2016-09-20 om 07.22.42.png

Yesterday morning my good friend DJ called to share his plan to bike to Siberia. Any other friend I would officially declare crazy but DJ had done crazy bike tours before and DJ IS crazy. I wished more people were as crazy as DJ. In DJ’s case I would define crazy as following your dreams and make stuff along the way. The last bike tour took him from the Netherlands to Turkey….on a normal city bike and no cash. Fortunately he is not crazy enough to use that bike again. Now he talked about Kevlar tires and stuff I never even heard about. For this trip to Siberia he will be prepared. He will make miles and words. The story he wrote about his trip to Turkey was the most original and hilarious roadtrips I ever read. I bought the movie rights without hesitating a second.

Impressed and enthousiastic about DJ’s plans I walked into HKU (University for the Arts in Utrecht),  were I work 2,5 days a week, entered a room and left via a door  I normally never use. Next to this door someone sticked a note with ‘Free movie tickets” and underneath 6 tickets for the Dutch Film Festival. Two of them were for ‘Sketches of Siberia’ with an Q&A with director Ben van Lieshout. I wonder what DJ is going to ask him next week. DJ is going to Siberia but first Ben wil show him his sketches……in Utrecht:

‘In 1913, the Norwegian arctic explorer Fridtjof Nansen took part in an expedition to establish a trade route. He sailed from Scandinavia via the Arctic Ocean to the Siberian interior. En route, he took photographs and kept a diary. Using themes like colonialism, mineral exploitation and demographic and geopolitical developments, the film holds up his observations to the present. This associative documentary in the form of a road/boat movie looks for the human dimension, with its precarious balance.’

https://www.filmfestival.nl/profs_en/films/sketches-of-siberia

 

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Hiho hiho.

18 sep

hiho-001

Bert’s price for my grandfather’s self-portrait was 5.000 guilders, let’s say € 5.000 today. That was an awful lot of money I definitely did not have privately. But who says accountants can’t be creative is wrong, very wrong. My accountant came up with an ‘if you can’t convince them, confuse them’ strategy that was so confusing that it had to be convincing. In the Netherlands the pay of for the tax authorities is ‘we can’t make it more fun but we can make it easier.’ My accountant had proven that it can be easy AND fun. So I paid for grandfather and at the end of the exhibition Bert called me on Thursday to ask me if I was able to collect grandfather the coming Saturday around 16.00 so we could have a toast on the family reunion. “OfCOR’s” I sayd to Bert on the phone and on Saturday Noëlle (our 7 year old daughter) and I went to Bert’s gallery. We walked on the Voorstraat and I told Noëlle we were going to pick up her great-grandfather. She probably thought she had to help because he was so great. (hahaha my first English pun). This is a good sign, me making puns (woordspelingen). It’s a sign of me being in my Element (read the book by Sir Ken Robinson). Anyway after a glass of red wine Bert asked me if I had a blanket to cover grandfather. On my “no” Bert picked up a blanket from the back and solemnly draped great grandfather. It felt strange and special, standing in the doorway with Noëlle’s little feet on the Voorstraat, me still in the gallery and grandfather horizontal in between. I thanked Bert for reuniting me with my grandfather and started singing “Hiho hiho it’s off to work we go” with Noëlle quickly joining her favorite Disney song…..and me not realizing that one day grandfather would help me to redeem the 5.000. But for now I sang along with Noëlle and grandfather “Hiho hiho it’s off to work we go” leaving Bert in the doorway with a big smile on his face. I never saw Bert again.

To be continued.

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Cor & Cor

16 sep

Last Tuesday I had a job interview and part of the interview was a 15 minute tour for 16/17 year old HAVO 4 students designed by the applicants.  The Dordrechts Museum was looking for Museum Guides. Preparing my Tour doubt struck me hard on Sunday night. Was what I made interesting for 16/17 year old young adolescents and was it unique or could it be done by any other applicant? I decided that it was not and threw away what I had and started all over. I decided to take this sentence from my application letter as my starting point;

“this job would be the easiest way to get get my grand father in the museum again”

So the question became “How can I get my grandfather (a dutch impressionist 1903-1967) into the museum again?”

After all it was 43 years ago that he had an exhibition in the Dordrechts Museum.

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I decided to bring my grandfather with me and do the tour together. Kabouter did not like the idea at all and said the they would never let me take my grandfather with me into the museum. I did it anyway. I wrapped up the self portrait  I bought years ago from Bert Jintes. Bert was a art historian and friend of my grandfather and wrote a fantastic book about the work and life of my grandfather. Bert’s book became an important connection in the tour.

Tuesday at 12.45 we arrived at he museum. It had been quite a challenge to transport grandfather with my small folding bike. But we managed. I parked grandfather next to the entrance of the museum and told the receptionist I had a meeting for a job interview at 13.00. In the meanwhile I bought 3 postcards of a portret painting by Jan Veth in the Museumshop and waited for the 3 people from the museum who would role-play 16/17 year old students as part of the interview. The 3 were all members of the education department of the museum. One of them was curious about what was inside the big brown package. I told them we first had to find the Jan Veth painting and asked them to follow ‘us’.  I heard that one of them said to security  that it was ‘okay’, meaning that it was okay for me to take that big brown package into the museum. I though “Yes. We are in!”

As soon as we arrived in the room where the Jan Veth painting was hanging I parked grandfather under the Jan Veth painting and asked the three who wanted to unwrap the big brown package. In the meanwhile security also entered the room and watched me carefully. I told the painting  was a self portrait of my grandfather Cor Noltee and that it was mine. I continued my tour with the bizar story of Bert Jintes.

To be continued.

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Once upon a time…

14 sep

A great way to train your creative muscle is to show people an interesting picture and ask them 3 questions.

  1. What’s happening here?
  2. How do you know that?
  3. Where do you want to know more about?

Creative people are curious and use their imagination to make a story.

Here is the picture.

succes_story

But what’s the story?

And if you want to make a story that sticks check it with Dan and Chip Heath’s SUCCESs criteria:

succes_plakfactor

Is it Simple?

Is it Unexpected?

Is it Concrete?

Is it Emotional?

Is it a Story?

Maybe start with:

One upon a time…..

 

 

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Spread the word.

13 sep

I don’t know where I stole it but it’s the easy to remember ‘Why’ to shut up Kabouter. Shutting up Kabouter is especially useful when you are looking for meaningful insights. Then it’s good to just listen. To the people, the place or products you are working with or for. But listening is hard with a Kabouter that is constantly judging. About you or the situation you are in. To listen you have to be silent. That’s it. Did you get it? Or was Kabouter talking in between?

Ok here it is again. To listen you have to be silent. They call it an anagram.

Just like Axl Rose is an anagram for oral sex.

I hope the silent-listen anagram will help you on you creative quest.

Spread the word. Keep killing.

We are on our way to world coverage. In the last 24 hours nine countries were  added which brings it to a total of 78 Kabouter Killing Countries.

Spread the world!

listen_silent-001

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