Life Goes On

Mind Barf: The Dutch Education System (a.k.a. Why Can’t It Be Like That Here)

I had a conversation (via twitter) with someone I know who’s Dutch. The plan was that I wanted to ask her a few questions so I can get an idea of what to write. She gave me a few bases on what to work on, but one really stuck out to me.

My mother took her master’s on education. I was always told, whether she meant to or not, of what is wrong with the education system in our country and how it should be done. In fact, aside from taking care of her children, this is her job, being an advisor of sorts in a private school. So it goes without saying that I know quite a bit about, at the very least, Indonesian’s education system.

Straight out I just gave her the theme written out by the organizers of kompetiblog2012, which is as following:

“Dutch Creativity” - Holland is a creative nation. Dutch people enjoy innovating and constantly ask themselves and others questions to come up with new ideas.

Being the curious person that I am, I asked her why she thought that was so. Her answer gave me an insight on how Dutch education works. (Though it’s still confusing overall. Very different from here in Indonesia.)

She said that kids are encouraged to be creative since they were small. She said that it’s because at school they are encouraged to be innovative and always curious, always asking questions and finding out the answers by themselves. Being bombarded with so many cultures, because of their big naval history, they’re constantly trying to understand the world around them. Their small country, with their limited resources, often had to be innovative when it comes to solving problem, hence the creativity, to survive. (Which in turn make me wonder about other small-island country and their success, such as Japan, England, and so on. But that’s something to think of later.)

Of course, my next thought was comparing our education with theirs. I know that here, most kids are pushed to become a doctor, a scientist, an engineer, a businessman, or something that is very exact and profitable. Jobs in the art field are often discouraged because you’re not sure where exactly you’re going to end up. Not everyone can get good pay out of the creative fields. I asked her how it was in NL. She answered that, no, kids are encouraged to be what they want. In fact, a lot of young girls aspire to be a fashion designer. There are many schools focusing on fashion, music, design, and so forth.

Do you see how successful the Dutch are? How well known they are for their innovations? Of their products? Of their brainchild? Now if only they’d implement these kinds of thinking here in Indonesia, encouraging the creative fields, letting children be what they want to be, then we’d be able to at the very least come close to the success of our former colonizer.

Blurring the Lines: Theo Jansen and his Strandbeest

While looking for materials on what to write for kompetiblog2012, I remember a certain website filled with videos of  intellectuals giving talks on their field of works, www.ted.com. I was first introduced to TED and, respectively TED Talks, by my professors who’d often show videos of architects giving lectures on their buildings and whatnot. I actually went to the website to look for a talk done by the Dutch architect, Rem Koolhaas. Instead, what I found was, in my opinion, better than any architecture talks could ever be. I discovered Theo Jansen and his incredible, mind boggling Strandbeest.

Strandbeest literally means “Beach Beast”. Though upon looking at it, you wouldn’t really call it a beast.

A little background about Jansen, he is a kinetic sculptor with a background in physics. Growing up, he was interested in both physics and art and was involved in many projects that utilizes both fields. He managed to combine both science and art, two things that many people think cannot go together, in what he calls a new form of life, the Strandbeest.

Strandbeest, as stated on this website, is a new form of life made not out of seeds or pollens, but of plastic yellow tubings. They are made to “walk on the wind”. His vision is “to put these animals out in herds on the beaches, so they will live their own lives”.

Interesting wording, eh?

If you watch him talking about these sculptures (here’s a link), you can see that he doesn’t treat them as merely sculptures, but as actual living beings, as alive as the many crabs that you see walking on the beach. He uses terms like ‘teaching them how to walk’, ‘they’re not ready to go out on their own’, and ‘they don’t need to eat’. Just the general way he refers to his strandbeest shows how much he treats them as more than just moving sculptures. These things have central brains, muscles, legs, muzzles, things that you would associate with a creature. Each prototype even has its own name, such as Animaris gubernare, much like one would call the domesticated dog by its scientific name, Canis lupis familiaris.

Watching these creatures move is, as cliche as it sounds, like watching poetry in motion. Its legs move in such a synchronized way, reminiscence of a centipede’s legs in motion. Most of them have some kind of a wing mechanism that turns the wind into moving power. The power from the wind is then stored in bottles by way of pressurized air. The mechanism is designed in such a way that the pressurized air is released one bottle at a time. The released air then push pistons that act like muscles to move the legs. It’s kind of hard to describe in such a short article, but you can read the full article here if you want. (WARNING: lots of science contents and probably not enough pictures for your liking. But do check it out if you’re curious.)

What I love so much about these creatures, and Theo Jansen himself, is that he managed to take the quirky thinking of an artist and combine it with the logical thinking of a scientist. He showed us that science and art can indeed be combined into one marvelous creation.  It reignited my hope that one day I could become an artist that is also a scientist.

To those who don’t believe that science and art can’t coexist, look at Theo Jansen’s Strandbeest and tell me otherwise.

Mind Barf: Dutch Creativity? (a.k.a. When You Don’t Know Exactly What To Write, Just Write Whatever You’re Thinking))

Dutch creativity.

What’s the first thing that comes to mind when hearing these two words?

Well, to me, not much really. Truthfully, I’m not that familiar with the Dutch culture except for some of their words that have been incorporated into the Indonesian language. Oh and also how we build our houses. It’s based on when the Dutch colonized Indonesia and lived here. (I know this because I’m majoring in architecture.)

So when asked to write about Dutch creativity, I didn’t know what to write. As clueless as I am, I had to research.  And as most research go, the first thing I do is hit Google and just typed in Dutch creativity. The first link led me to the Holland Trade page and the Creative Industry section.  According to them, their top most creative industry is in Architecture (yay!), Design, Gaming, and Fashion. Of course, as an Architecture student, I had to find out more about Dutch architecture.

When I think of Dutch architecture, all I think of are those colonial houses most noticable in Bandung, Jawa Barat (and all those boring architecture history classes I had to take). But of course, that’s not the current architecture style in the Netherlands, so I had to find out more. After reading for a while, I realized I don’t want to just write about Architecture, I do enough of that in class! (But I think I will eventually write an article on Dutch architecture. Maybe.)

Then I thought what do people think about when they think of the word creativity? Art, of course. For some reason, in my head I have this thought that the Dutch have a great street art scene. I have this idea that the Dutch are very free, flowing people, very artistic, don’t give a damn about things, and very loose. Maybe because of the fact that marijuana is legal and gay marriage is legal. Also, their Red Light District. Need I say more?

I typed in Dutch street art into Mr. Google, and yes indeed they have some great street art, but nothing that really sticks out to me. (Maybe I just didn’t search hard enough.) It was just like any other street art, but nothing that scream Dutch. Nothing that makes it stand out from street art of other places.

After browsing some more, I realized something. I don’t want to just write about one aspect of the Dutch creative industry. I don’t want to write just about architecture, just about fashion, or just about design. What I want to know is why the Dutch are considered creative with their out-of-the-box thinking? Why are their fashion conceptual? How do they design ‘out of the box’? And how did Rem Koolhaas convinced the contractors in Seattle to build this thing?!

And how he came up with the idea in the first place.

And most importantly, can I do that research in less than 10 days and write it in approx. 500 words?!

Only time will tell.

I need to write three articles on Dutch creativity. Well, at least one. Somebody who’s Dutch wants to help me? I need to get my creativity juices flowing.

I NEED IDEAS.

I swear to god, one of these days I’m just gonna unfollow everybody and just post my own stuff here. Too much drama going on.

I think I’ll just go to sleep and pretend that Glee never happened to my life