Building Social Worlds

People build social worlds as they meet and talk to others. Interestingly, when two people interact, their brains also become a single complex system, Andreas Roepstorff finds.

As we meet more people online, we network with those who inspire and take our thoughts to new places. We count these fold as friends. Two online friends, who share compelling ideas and noteworthy posts are, Liz Strauss and Mark McGuinness. Recently, each asked me to write a guest blog - for me an opportunity to collaborate with them and extend my work with MITA International Brain Center in new arenas. I leaped to the challenge...

The Blogging Brain - Ever wonder what goes on in the brain of a blogger? Liz Strauss was curious about that and asked me to write a post for Successful Blog.

The 8 Types of Creative Intelligence - Mark McGuinness, author of Lateral Action, wanted to know more about creativity and the brain. Interestingly, creativity often comes through novelty. The multiple intelligences open pathways to creativity, especially as you tap into the ones you don't tend to use.

Mark emailed me midweek to say that the article "really took off on Twitter!"

The internet dramatically increases possibilities for social interactions along with the type and number of friends we might have. In this case, an invitation to write a guest blog for two top-notch bloggers, opened an opportunity for me to interact with their regular readers and consider what they had to say. You could think of this experience as an adventure into Liz and Mark's social worlds.

Dr. Ellen Weber and I recently met Liz Strauss and Steve Roesler at the Bloggers Hub at the World Business Forum 2009. What fun!

Left to Right, me, Dr. Ellen Weber, Steve Roesler, Liz Strauss

Brain's Left Side - Tames and Organizes

The last post scanned an artist’s right brain hemisphere - when it brims over with colors and shapes. Leave your art there, though, and you’ll likely see chaos at best. So what’s missing?

That’s where the left brain organizer steps in. You could see it as a mental master of sorts – equipped to corral and tame.

Left brain taming is rather exciting when an artist draws on its capability. It shakes up colors and shapes as a kaleidoscope does and places them into designs of brilliance, under a master’s hand. Or it takes random words quickly jotted down in a brainstorming session to see patterns and logical order.

Peoples' left brains help them to analyze, judge, organize and choose between one good and another. Mark McGuinness reveals how creativity's grounded in a logical process.

It’s as much in the shift here, as the dance is in the hitch. Inspiration can run wild in the brain, unless the left brain taming tactics come alive. Incredible left brain booty includes:


When artists depend on their left brains for composition, they make winning choices for …

Essential elements – through infinite details that form and focus your eye on landscape or a person’s face in the finished piece.

Proportion - where rhythm creates cadence in proportions that emote pleasure, sadness, or shock

Value – in lights and darks played for different effects

Color – through selections that establish moods and integrate relationships

Texture – which shows up to the touch through heavy, soft, rough or smooth

Perspectives and angles - that point, slant, straighten up and curve to the human eye in art we love

An artist’s brain moves back and forth between the magical right and the logical left. It’s all part of the master’s polish to a final work that’s uniquely hers.

Thoughts?

Stay tuned for more on your brain's dual engines.