understanding misunderstanding

Ilija Bosilj Bašičević The Apocalypse: The Eclipse, 1962 Oil on canvas 25.5 x 45.5 inches 64.8 x 115.6 cm IBo 10

Creativity vs Effiency : FvF Workplace with Christoph Niemann in Berlin

For our latest FvF Workplaces, we visit the Berlin studio of internationally renowned illustrator Christoph Niemann. Creating drawings for the likes of The New Yorker and Zeit Magazin, he is somewhat of a legend in the creative scene. 

Christoph discusses his aversion to efficiency when it comes to creating, why 2H pencils are his preferred tool to start a sketch and how returning to a drawing or project can alter your opinion, on Freunde von Freunden.

To survive, we humans need to be able to do a handful of things: breathe, of course. And drink and eat. Those are obvious.

We’re going to focus now on a less obvious — but no less vital — human function: learning. Because new research out today in the journal Science sheds light on the very building blocks of learning.

Imagine an 11-month-old sitting in a high chair opposite a small stage where you might expect, say, a puppet show. Except this is a lab at Johns Hopkins University. Instead of a puppeteer, a researcher is rolling a red and blue striped ball down a ramp, toward a little wall at the bottom.

Even babies seem to know the ball can’t go through that wall, though not necessarily because they learned it. It’s what some scientists call core knowledge — something, they say, we’re born with.

Why Babies Love (And Learn From) Magic Tricks

GIF credit: LA Johnson/NPR