SPONSOR HIGHLIGHT: William Taft, Biologist and Renowned Entomologist

SPONSOR HIGHLIGHT: William Taft, Biologist and Renowned Entomologist

by | Aug 30, 2018 | Sponsor Highlight

William (Bill) H. Taft Jr. is a retired biologist for the State of Michigan. He was employed by the state for 25 years where most recently he served as a senior aquatic biologist in the Water Bureau.

He actively collects clear-wing moths throughout North America and publishes on the subject. A collector since 1968, he’s known for identifying rare and unknown Sesiidae (clear wing) moths throughout North America.

Bill has followed and supported Ned Schaper and the Mat Bevel enterprise for the last 20 years. He explains, “I support Mat Bevel Company because the organization promotes Ned’s artwork which is unique. The theater, museum, school and video production involve a lot of science, and as a scientist I believe people need to know about physics, they need to know how to work with materials and make things. Plus, I think the work is clever. There isn’t that much stuff out there that is clever.”

Mat Bevel Company Educational Sponsor William (Bill) H. Taft Jr. is an entomogologist who’s known for identifying rare and unknown Sesiidae (clear wing) moths in North America. The moth image above is Carmenta wildishorum (Taft & Cognato).

Bill believes that Mat Bevel Company can help young people learn about science in a subtle way. The physical science of the museum is blended with theater and inspiring characters to make learning engaging and entertaining. Students get exposed to science, technology and engineering in a way they haven’t been before.

Bill says, “Whether it Bevelvision video footage, the Museum Of Kinetic Art or classes and workshops from the School of Intuition that teach people how to put things together, it only takes one exposure to change someone’s life.”

Bill had a powerful experience himself when he was young. He connected with a professional biologist who worked for the State of Michigan whose passion was for Michigan butterflies and moths. This gentleman became Bill’s mentor and it changed everything for him.

The Universe Within world-building course holds particular promise for Bill. Classes provide hands-on learning and participation where students design and create elements of their world in two-, three and four-dimensions—using a scientific sketchbook to capture their unique ideas, while making sculptural helmets and kinetic replicas from their worlds.

Bill lives in Michigan with his wife Barbara Kennedy and their English lab Luna.

Bill is certain that this type of problem-solving and discovery which integrates science, technology, theater and storytelling provides something that students will not get elsewhere. Exposure to new ways of thinking is how businesses and organizations succeed. The Universe Within has the potential to prepare students for careers as well as connect them to the physical world, something that’s especially important in the digital age we live in.

Bill’s hope is that the Mat Bevel Company enterprise will continue to become more successful. “Let’s face it. We don’t know where things will lead until you get there, but you can’t get there until you do something. In this case, interacting with students in school, is a great next step. The Universe Within is worthwhile because it’s both educational and inspirational. You don’t get that often in a class.”

Bill believes that the more people who are exposed to Mat Bevel Company’s kinesthetic approach to learning, the more likely they are to be successful and find something they enjoy in life. Bill says, “This is how people find their first career or get second careers….they discover something more interesting. They get their hands on it. They’re not just reading about the subject, the great people are doing it!”

With all the distractions today, from social media and video games, many young people do not find the time to think more deeply. As Bill says, “The greatest scientists thought about a problem they were going to solve. They understood that if they didn’t do it, who else was going to do it?”

Bill understands that the people who are unique and have novel ideas take the time to think about the world, and to solve problems.

Museum Of Kinetic Art Virtual Reality Tour is Live!

by | Jun 30, 2018 | News

In 2017, Ned Schaper received an artist research and development grant from Arizona Commission on the Arts to support development of the Museum Of Kinetic Art (MOKA) into a 360-degree virtual reality tour. Over the last year and a half, he’s been experimenting, learning and producing a tour so that people anywhere can enjoy the Museum Of Kinetic Art. Approximately 7 minutes from start to finish, the tour allows viewers to feel as if they are inside the museum and get a close look at many of the mechanized characters. The tour is now live on YouTube: https://youtu.be/L8U0pFU1hHg. Footage is also being used in classroom videos for The Universe Within, a creative thinking and world-building course developed by Mat Bevel Company. Ned’s original idea was to put a virtual reality camera on a motorized cart and move it through the museum as a person would walk through the space. But after purchasing and experimenting with a 360fly virtual reality camera, he realized the images were far more interesting when you put the camera inside the sculptures. He explains, “It looks like you’re in a city of skyscrapers. It makes the viewer feel like he/she is a small entity inside a giant warped universe of junk.” So instead of moving the camera like a normal virtual reality tour where the viewer controls the experience, for example using goggles, the camera stays still, Ned controls the virtual reality output, creating a final video piece as a normal HD video.
Ned got the idea to build kinetic devices to move the camera while in “Watch Me” editing mode. The first thing he tried was a turntable that made the camera slowly turn in a circle. He says, “This world of rotating sculptures reminded me of a spiraling galaxy of junk sculpture stars.” This gave him the idea to set the whole room of sculptures into a circular installation, packed with all the sculptures and lights in one small area with the camera right in the center. You’ll easily pick this effect up in the video. Ned went to work creating this circular installation while shooting from the same camera position. Once the installation was complete, and he got the shot he was looking for, he then began moving the camera around close to the sculptures without the rotating turntable making use of the bizarre fish-eye effect. When he started the project, the Museum Of Kinetic Art occupied the entire space, but after he built this installation, the museum was packed into a smaller circular area.
With many years’ experience shooting and editing video, the virtual reality technology represented a major step forward for his art. The project substantially expanded his knowledge of how to use virtual reality technology, how to move the camera in new ways and how to capture localized sound. The three cameras give Ned a whole new context and narrative for his theater’s world of Beveldom. This helped him establish the look and feel of Beveldom as a space junk experience in a galaxy of kinetic art stars. Ned says, “One interesting aspect of the 360fly is how it changes what’s desired for the ceiling. With 360fly the ceiling is such a big part of it, you want to work with what’s above.” This project changed his artistic path. Experimenting with the new 360fly camera technology gave him an internal perspective on the museum. It led him to design a new 360 Theater for the future, in a new location where he can combine a live and a virtual theater with a virtual reality camera in the center of a circular stage. The theater set will help establish the look and feel of Beveldom—”the galaxy of junk”—with a full sphere of kinetic sculpture and light.
Addressing A National Creative Deficit At A Grassroots Level

Addressing A National Creative Deficit At A Grassroots Level

by | May 10, 2018 | News

A Nation-wide Creativity Crisis

In Dr. KH Kim’s “The Creativity Crisis (2011)”, she reported that American creativity declined from the 1990s to 2008. Kim’s 2017 Creativity Crisis Update: How High-Stakes Testing Stifles Innovation reveals that “The Creativity Crisis” has grown worse since 2008. The results also reveal that the youngest age groups have suffered the greatest.
SOURCE: http://www.creativitypost.com/education/the_2017_creativity_crisis_update_how_high_stakes_testing_has_stifled_innov

The significant declines in outbox thinking skills (fluid and original thinking) indicate that Americans generate not only fewer ideas or solutions to open-ended questions or challenges, but also fewer unusual or unique ideas than those in preceding decades (Figure 1).

According to Dr. Ken Robinson, one of the world’s most influential voices in education, our schools are killing creativity

“America is now facing the biggest challenge it’s ever faced—to maintain its position in the world economies. All these things demand high levels of innovation, creativity, and ingenuity. At the moment, instead of promoting creativity, I think we’re systematically educating it out of our kids.”

SOURCE: http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/sept09/vol67/num01/Why-Creativity-Now%C2%A2-A-Conversation-with-Sir-Ken-Robinson.aspx

One of the world’s top business thinkers, Dr. Teresa Amabile’s Theory of Creativity outlines three components necessary for an individual to acquire creativity, defined as the production of ideas or outcomes that are both novel and appropriate to some goal:

  • Expertise
  • Creative thinking skills
  • Motivation

SOURCE: http://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Publication%20Files/12-096.pdf

A Grassroots Solution

The Universe Within is a world-building course developed by Mat Bevel Company to help solve this national creative thinking deficit at a grassroots level. Coursework integrates Mat Bevel Company President and Founder Ned Schaper’s magical world of Beveldom and his Available Resource Technology (A.R.T.) practices. Students learn how to innovate, problem-solve and navigate unknown situations through original thinking exercises and out-of-the-box approaches.

Students stretch their imagination during classes by watching footage from Beveldom—the museum’s whirling fine-art sculptures and the theater’s funny characters. Classroom instruction teaches students how to capture, connect, test and activate their original ideas through a series of classes: The Daily Doodle, Corrugated Headgear, Story Book and Pedestrian Carnival. 

Students play the part of a central character in a unique imaginary world of their own making all while learning art, science and English language arts lessons.

With the addition of The Universe Within TV show that will launch in the fall of 2018 in partnership with Creative Tucson. new inspirational educational programming will be used in the classroom and for long-distance learning.

Sponsor "The Universe Within"
Read The Course Overview

Stage Stop Inn and Wild Horse Restaurant & Saloon

Stage Stop Inn and Wild Horse Restaurant & Saloon

by | Apr 30, 2018 | Blog

Mat Bevel Company Educational Sponsor Highlight:

Meet Lynne and Gerry Isaac, entrepreneurs and philanthropists

Lynne and Gerry Isaac (the two touching fingers above) own the Stage Stop Inn and Wild Horse Restaurant & Saloon in Patagonia, Arizona. Since they purchased the hotel in 2010, there isn’t anything they haven’t retouched, replaced, retextured—the ceilings, walls, floors, furniture, fences and doors.

The 35,000 square-foot property, with 30 fully restored rooms, is part of a remarkable story that dates back to 1960 when the avid horse lover Anne Stradling moved to dusty little Patagonia and opened her Museum of the Horse. Admission to this amazing collection of anything horse related was only $2, yet no one came to visit the museum. Anne surmised that it was due to lack of lodging. So, this wealthy East Coast family heiress built the Stage Stop Inn. It was completed in 1969.

When Lynne and Gerry purchased the property, they named their restaurant Wild Horse Restaurant in her honor.

Hear the authentic Mariachi music of “Mariachi Penumbra de Nogales, Arizona” on Sundays at The Wild Horse Saloon

Several months ago, Lynne and Gerry expanded the Wild Horse Restaurant, with the opening a new Saloon that connects street-side, indoor and courtyard patio bar and dining areas. The new Saloon is the former place where Anne stored her extra wagons and stage coaches in the hotel, just a few steps away from her Museum of the Horse.

It was Lynne’s sleuthing that led her to design the Saloon as an open breezeway leading from the street sidewalk to the poolside courtyard in the center of the hotel. She realized that when Anne built this part of the property, she made it so that the horse-drawn vehicles could roll directly from the inside room onto the street.

And just a few weeks ago, a new tradition began at the Saloon. Every Sunday, and occasionally on Saturdays, from 1 to 4 pm guests can enjoy the authentic Mariachi music of “Mariachi Penumbra de Nogales, Arizona” on the sidewalk café. Members of the band are Carolina Yadria Sanchez, Salma Diaz Zdunczyk, Jesus Abraham Figueroa, Maria Siquerios, Luiz Andres Chavarria and Dionicio Figueroa (pictured above).

When you go, check out the stunning back bar mirror in the saloon. Lynne repurposed it from Anne Stradling’s bedroom head and foot board, refinishing the wood and adding beveled glass. The door to the wine room in the saloon is an historic jail door from Santa Cruz County. There’s fine art, historic relics and special touches throughout the hotel, conference room, restaurant and saloon.

Lynne and Gerry are creating a totally unique Patagonia experience. Lynne explains, “We’re keeping the history of Patagonia alive by memorializing its people and places in each of our guest rooms. We’re creating themed guest rooms that honor Anne Stradling, John Wayne, Patagonia Lake, the Railroad and much more.”

Anne’s museum and hotel would change Patagonia forever, creating a new “main” street on McKweon Avenue. Lynne says, “Without Anne the town would not exist. She invented something out of nothing because she could.”

Lynne and Gerry are following in her footsteps. Their generous labor of love is creating another Patagonia treasure, a gift and a gathering place for people who live here and visit.

For more information:
303 McKeown Ave, Patagonia, AZ 85624
(520) 394-2211
www.stagestophotelpatagonia.com

 

Doodle Your Ideas Into Reality

by | Apr 17, 2018 | Blog

When most people think of doodling they think of a way of passing the time, escaping from boredom. In reality, doodling is a powerful way to capture your ideas. Doodles are idea snapshots that can be connected through time so that your ideas can become reality.

For all of his adult life Mat Bevel Company president Ned Schaper has rarely let a day go by without a doodle. He says “It’s the daily doodle that has enabled me to record my thoughts and construct ideas through time.”

Our thoughts evolve every day but it’s impossible to see this progression or do anything with it if we leave those ideas in our brain. To actualize our ideas, we must put them on paper and refer back to them. The doodle is a great way to do this.

In fact, a study published in the Journal of Applied Cognitive Psychology found that doodling can improve the ability to remember information by nearly 30%. Doodling can free up short- and long-term memory, improve content retention and increase attention span. Doodling can also produce creative thoughts and problem-solving insights, because it stimulates default networks in the brain that help us analyze information differently.

To support The Universe Within program in schools, consider making a donation or purchasing a fun doodle shirt like this one from the World of Beveldom.

Sunni Brown, author of The Doodle Revolution, teaches “applied visual thinking”– a.k.a doodling–to coders, designers, and even journalists. She says, “[Doodling] gets the neurons to fire and expands the mind.” Just why and how this happens is the topic of Brown’s recent book, The Doodle Revolution. Here, she shares her doodling “dos.”

Doodling can also produce creative insight, because “when the mind starts to engage with visual language, you get neurological access that you don’t have when you’re in a linguistic mode,” says Brown. Most of us use reading, writing, and talking to brainstorm, but “the human mind is very habit forming,” she says. To break that habit, you have to think in an unfamiliar medium–a visual medium.

Doodling has practical and powerful applications. Mathematicians and scientists use doodles to explain complex theories and equations. Business people use doodles to map business plans and strategies. Across the globe, people from all walks of life doodle to give visual representation and meaning to their ideas. Visual aids help us communicate and help others.

Doodling helps us focus and recall information. A large body of research indicates that visual cues help us to better retrieve and remember information. Our brain is mainly an image processor, not a word processor. In fact, the part of the brain used to process words is quite small in comparison to the part that processes visual images. You may be on the verge of a daydream when you start doodling, but the simple act of doodling will help you concentrate and kick you into visual learning mode as you create visuals.

Doodling helps us find creative solutions to problems. Not only does doodling light up different parts of the brain that could spur an ah-ha moment, it also allows you to record potential solutions. You can refer back to doodles to find answers to a problem that has been in the background of your brain.

Doodling helps us reduce stress and deal with tough challenges. Sometimes, life’s challenges can create emotional stress and impair our ability to deal with the situation at hand. Spontaneous doodles allow us to find lost puzzle pieces of memories, bringing them to the present, and making the picture of our lives more whole again. With this greater sense of self and meaning, we may be able to feel more relaxed, define the problem and figure out a way to handle the situation.

Prolong those consonants but don’t encourage misdirected faith. At the Daily Doodle the story is how you tell it.

The great thing about doodling is that you don’t have to know how to write or draw well to use its power. Schaper has been doing his daily doodle routine for 40 years, and it has never been about perfection.  He wants to capture his ideas every day. He attributes his prolific body of work to the doodle, and says, “The only way to fail is to give up.”

Diane Bleck has spent almost 20 years studying and teaching doodling. She launched The Doodle Institute following the publication of her book, Discovery Doodles: The Complete Series, which reached #1 on Amazon for Education & Professional Development the week it was released.

Bleck says, “I believe visual learning is a powerful tool for strategic thinking, brainstorming and business planning, for real life applications like math & science, or even in your personal life to help you imagine your hopes and dreams. Other applications also became apparent through my students. I saw them using doodling for health and healing. It is a tool to relieve stress and to attract positive energy into their life.”

The Universe Within is a grassroots solution to a national creative intelligence deficit that increases student capacity to innovate, problem-solve and navigate unknown situations through original thinking exercises and out-of-the-box approaches.

The Daily Doodle is part of a suite of creative thinking skills taught by Mat Bevel Company as part of an educational worldbuilding series called The Universe Within. This specific class teaches students visual thinking and the importance of recording thoughts and ideas using drawings and words. Students are encouraged to pick up where they left off the day before so that they can tackle life’s challenges, big and small, with greater imagination.

For more information contact:
Paula Schaper, Vice President 
Mat Bevel Company
520-604-6273
pschaper@matbevelcompany.org

Additional references:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2076785/?page=1
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4324396/
https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/the-thinking-benefits-of-doodling-2016121510844