[Applause]
who here can I get a show of hands who
here thinks they’re creative no
hesitation um can I get another chef
hands who thinks they’re not or believes
that they’re not Oh
some people are undecided so I think
creativity is a little bit of a buzzword
at the moment and my hope is that I’m
gonna be able to debug it somewhat and
for those of you who believe that you’re
not creative I’m hoping I can change
your mind about that now there’s a
couple of reasons why I think that
creativity is a little intimidating to
people in our society people seem to
dissociate themselves from the idea of
creativity I think it’s something that
society has decided that we either have
or we don’t and that’s ridiculous that’s
absolutely ridiculous
I believe that creativity is inherently
within all of us it’s a huge part of our
human experience it just takes time and
it takes practice now one reason that I
think we’ve dissociated ourselves from
creativity or why it’s intimidating to
people is that people confuse the idea
of creativity with an artist now an
artist people often say I’m not creative
I wish I was creative I can’t draw I
can’t paint I can’t sing now those are
people working within the arts people
working through artistic mediums
creativity is bigger than that a
question I get asked a lot is why
puppetry Jase why puppets and a huge
part of it for me is the accessibility
of the art form puppetry is non-gendered
puppetry is available to any age young
or old puppetry you don’t have to have a
certain level of ability you don’t have
to have a certain amount of money
puppets
very accessible what defines what should
or can be a puppet is very broad
it’s an incredibly broad concept when I
was at university here in Melbourne I
had a class in set design and costumes I
was studying theater the class was
actually called alternative spaces so I
was a little bit abstract now in
alternative spaces on our first day we
walked into class it was a huge space
and our lecturer had strewn materials
all over the room so Calico bamboo
newspaper wire string and we walked in
on day one and he just said make stuff
go and we all stared at him blankly and
went what excuse me
more guidance Thanks he was like no make
stuff go sets props costumes
I don’t care make stuff and then we all
launched in and once we connected with
this idea it was on we were sticking
things together trying things out and I
walked up to my lecturer and I said
could I make a puppet and he was like of
course go for it and over the next two
hours I created something from nothing
I created this cardboard dinosaur it was
on strings looking back now it was quite
a terrible puppet but for a first try
with no guidance and having no idea what
I was doing at the end of the class we
sat down for the last 20 minutes and and
we were asked to reflect how did this
process make us feel what did we learn
now something that I learned was that
this exercise was was so freeing it was
the first time in an educational setting
that I had been given that kind of
creative freedom and I think part of why
it was so freeing was that there was no
stakes the stakes were so incredibly low
this task was not for anything
there was no assessment there was no
exam we’re not making the costumes to
fit an actor we’re not making the props
to suit a certain script there are no
this was about the process it was about
the trying and the doing moving ahead a
few years later I’m studying at the
London School of puppetry and at LSP
they teach us both puppetry performance
and puppet making now part of our puppet
making component they put a huge
emphasis in our design they encouraged
us to make a mock-up now a mock-up is
basically a 3d blueprint of the puppet
that will be we use really raw materials
like newspaper masking tape cardboard we
put things together see how are they
going to connect what’s gonna move how
am I going to operate it what’s going to
work and what won’t what will the
challenges be and I found the process of
building these mock-ups incredibly
therapeutic it’s meant to be quick it’s
meant to be rough it’s meant to look a
bit unfinished but more than that this
puppet was not for anyone but me this
was a private piece of art this puppet
didn’t need to be seen by my tutors my
fellow students anyone but me it only
served me and my creativity and my
design I think the perception of success
around creativity is often on that end
result is on the beautiful picture is on
the lovely song like in Richards our
talk the the students focusing on the
drawing the pen and the paper rather
than the outcome on top of that I would
always fall in love with my mock-ups I
would find something so incredibly
engaging about these simple paper and
tape creations that quite often
I wouldn’t want or need to create the
final puppet I would be like this is so
beautiful and engaging on its own why
would I need to create anything more
permanent and what that taught me about
puppets
is that a puppets power
is not in its appearance our puppets
power is in its movements a puppet
doesn’t have to be pretty a puppet
doesn’t have to be permanent nothing is
permanent let’s be honest
now I’m home from the London School of
puppetry I’m back in Australia and I’ve
decided you know I’m gonna be a
professional I’m trained now I’m gonna
be a professional puppeteer how do I do
that now one one thing I decided to do
was that I was gonna I was gonna share I
was gonna share this art form that I
loved so much I decided to go into
schools and and teach about puppetry now
because I’m a professional I think I’m
gonna do this in a really structured way
and I start teaching really really
formulaic puppet making classes
everyone’s given the same materials ABCD
step 1 join a 2b take your bottle top
and connect it to this piece of string
and step to join C to D and D to E and
at the end we all have the exact same
puppet now that’s a nice puppet
that’s cute kids were happy they’ve all
got a lovely puppet at the end it’s fun
but there wasn’t much value beyond that
and for me it wasn’t particularly
inspiring for me it was very repetitious
very monotonous and in fact wasn’t
encouraging kids to express their own
creativity
it was teaching them to copy mine so I
looked back on my time at University in
that roomful of calico and bamboo and I
said that’s what I need to be doing that
that’s what I need to be doing and I
thought what would happen what would
happen if I went into a classroom and I
threw rubbish all over the floor and I
let the kids go wild what would happen
two years ago I founded a company called
trash puppets now a trash puppets we do
puppet making workshops you guessed it
we make puppets out of trash it’s kind
of in the title now
imagine we’re in a classroom of 40 kids
there’s ten kids at the front holding
garbage bags on the count of three
they’re gonna tip rubbish all over the
floor one two three and then we let them
launch at it and the teachers face is
quite often because chaos is frightening
ha ha but we’re big advocates of chaos
now chaos and play come under the banner
of creativity what a wonderful way to
discover your creativity through chaos
and play now a huge part of what school
is teaching us is to be compliant well
behaved adults put your hand up stand in
line ask politely wait your turn that’s
all very important but I think there’s a
lot of value in defiance now there was a
young boy at a school during a workshop
and he came up to me we’ve just done our
big introduction the kids have launched
at the trash it’s all going really well
and this young boy about seven years old
walks up to me and says I can’t do it
Jess I can’t do it it’s too hard I’m not
gonna be able to make a good puppet it’s
too hard not gonna do it and I said to
him how about instead of trying to make
the world’s best puppet why don’t you
just try and have as much fun
as you possibly can and he went okay and
so he jumped in and he started rummaging
in the trash and finding things and
being like look at this and sticking
them together and looking at his friends
and talking about what they were making
and at the end he did have a beautiful
puppet it was awesome but I wouldn’t
have cared if he’d had nothing if he had
made nothing at all that would not have
been a failure because he had tried and
he had played and he had explored
because it is in the process that is
where the value lies we actually send a
waiver home with kids before our
workshop saying that if your child does
not come home with a functional puppet
that is not a failure
because parents are not in the room with
us they don’t see that exploration they
don’t see that play they don’t see the
discovery sometimes a child will have
something that in their eyes is the
world’s greatest puppet and they go home
and their mum goes what is that
and that’s horrifying
because a moment ago they thought that
was the greatest puppet on earth now the
trash pile itself is for me and good
metaphor so the trash pile kids finding
puppets within that trash pile or adults
we work a lot with adults as well is
it’s about using the resources that you
have now we’ve worked with thousands and
thousands of people in the last few
years across a wide range of communities
we’ve worked with schools festivals and
events corporate spaces peach’ teachers
PD’s and what we’ve found is that it’s
it’s an incredibly unifying task now
they’re rummaging in the trash trying to
find what they need to create their
puppet what they think they need and
what often happens is someone will come
up to you and say I’ve got this plastic
spoon I need three more just like it to
give my puppet four spoon legs
and all I can say to them is I can’t
guarantee this three more spoons it’s
just what’s there you’ve just got to use
what’s there now we’re obviously a
company with a focus on sustainability
we teach about waste management
recycling right we’re very passionate
about that
we’re also passionate about economic
sustainability social sustainability now
using what we have in the trash pile if
I’m looking at an issue we have around
environmental sustainability and I go
what we really need to fix this problem
is three more spoons but we don’t have
three more spoons oh well better give up
we need to be thinking differently we
need to be looking at what we do have
and using those tools to find new
creative solutions to our issues because
turns out maybe our puppet didn’t need
legs at all maybe it needed wings maybe
it needed tentacles the entrepreneurs of
the future the leaders of tomorrow are
going to be thinking differently if we
want to make any positive changes in our
world we’re going to be thinking
differently now on top of all of that
let’s be honest puppets are cool puppets
are just really cool aren’t they
now for me the magic of puppetry is that
right there you know this is just
newspaper and trash that’s right that’s
right you know it is but for a moment
for a brief moment you suspend your
disbelief there is a brief moment for
just a second a millisecond where your
mind thinks it’s real and you connect
with it and for me that’s the magic
that’s the magic of puppetry now a
puppet doesn’t have to be pretty a
puppet doesn’t have to be permanent good
cool yes so if I can give any advice
today if I can give you any action
moving forward trying to discover your
own creativity it’s go make stuff thank
you
you
who here can I get a show of hands who
here thinks they’re creative no
hesitation um can I get another chef
hands who thinks they’re not or believes
that they’re not Oh
some people are undecided so I think
creativity is a little bit of a buzzword
at the moment and my hope is that I’m
gonna be able to debug it somewhat and
for those of you who believe that you’re
not creative I’m hoping I can change
your mind about that now there’s a
couple of reasons why I think that
creativity is a little intimidating to
people in our society people seem to
dissociate themselves from the idea of
creativity I think it’s something that
society has decided that we either have
or we don’t and that’s ridiculous that’s
absolutely ridiculous
I believe that creativity is inherently
within all of us it’s a huge part of our
human experience it just takes time and
it takes practice now one reason that I
think we’ve dissociated ourselves from
creativity or why it’s intimidating to
people is that people confuse the idea
of creativity with an artist now an
artist people often say I’m not creative
I wish I was creative I can’t draw I
can’t paint I can’t sing now those are
people working within the arts people
working through artistic mediums
creativity is bigger than that a
question I get asked a lot is why
puppetry Jase why puppets and a huge
part of it for me is the accessibility
of the art form puppetry is non-gendered
puppetry is available to any age young
or old puppetry you don’t have to have a
certain level of ability you don’t have
to have a certain amount of money
puppets
very accessible what defines what should
or can be a puppet is very broad
it’s an incredibly broad concept when I
was at university here in Melbourne I
had a class in set design and costumes I
was studying theater the class was
actually called alternative spaces so I
was a little bit abstract now in
alternative spaces on our first day we
walked into class it was a huge space
and our lecturer had strewn materials
all over the room so Calico bamboo
newspaper wire string and we walked in
on day one and he just said make stuff
go and we all stared at him blankly and
went what excuse me
more guidance Thanks he was like no make
stuff go sets props costumes
I don’t care make stuff and then we all
launched in and once we connected with
this idea it was on we were sticking
things together trying things out and I
walked up to my lecturer and I said
could I make a puppet and he was like of
course go for it and over the next two
hours I created something from nothing
I created this cardboard dinosaur it was
on strings looking back now it was quite
a terrible puppet but for a first try
with no guidance and having no idea what
I was doing at the end of the class we
sat down for the last 20 minutes and and
we were asked to reflect how did this
process make us feel what did we learn
now something that I learned was that
this exercise was was so freeing it was
the first time in an educational setting
that I had been given that kind of
creative freedom and I think part of why
it was so freeing was that there was no
stakes the stakes were so incredibly low
this task was not for anything
there was no assessment there was no
exam we’re not making the costumes to
fit an actor we’re not making the props
to suit a certain script there are no
this was about the process it was about
the trying and the doing moving ahead a
few years later I’m studying at the
London School of puppetry and at LSP
they teach us both puppetry performance
and puppet making now part of our puppet
making component they put a huge
emphasis in our design they encouraged
us to make a mock-up now a mock-up is
basically a 3d blueprint of the puppet
that will be we use really raw materials
like newspaper masking tape cardboard we
put things together see how are they
going to connect what’s gonna move how
am I going to operate it what’s going to
work and what won’t what will the
challenges be and I found the process of
building these mock-ups incredibly
therapeutic it’s meant to be quick it’s
meant to be rough it’s meant to look a
bit unfinished but more than that this
puppet was not for anyone but me this
was a private piece of art this puppet
didn’t need to be seen by my tutors my
fellow students anyone but me it only
served me and my creativity and my
design I think the perception of success
around creativity is often on that end
result is on the beautiful picture is on
the lovely song like in Richards our
talk the the students focusing on the
drawing the pen and the paper rather
than the outcome on top of that I would
always fall in love with my mock-ups I
would find something so incredibly
engaging about these simple paper and
tape creations that quite often
I wouldn’t want or need to create the
final puppet I would be like this is so
beautiful and engaging on its own why
would I need to create anything more
permanent and what that taught me about
puppets
is that a puppets power
is not in its appearance our puppets
power is in its movements a puppet
doesn’t have to be pretty a puppet
doesn’t have to be permanent nothing is
permanent let’s be honest
now I’m home from the London School of
puppetry I’m back in Australia and I’ve
decided you know I’m gonna be a
professional I’m trained now I’m gonna
be a professional puppeteer how do I do
that now one one thing I decided to do
was that I was gonna I was gonna share I
was gonna share this art form that I
loved so much I decided to go into
schools and and teach about puppetry now
because I’m a professional I think I’m
gonna do this in a really structured way
and I start teaching really really
formulaic puppet making classes
everyone’s given the same materials ABCD
step 1 join a 2b take your bottle top
and connect it to this piece of string
and step to join C to D and D to E and
at the end we all have the exact same
puppet now that’s a nice puppet
that’s cute kids were happy they’ve all
got a lovely puppet at the end it’s fun
but there wasn’t much value beyond that
and for me it wasn’t particularly
inspiring for me it was very repetitious
very monotonous and in fact wasn’t
encouraging kids to express their own
creativity
it was teaching them to copy mine so I
looked back on my time at University in
that roomful of calico and bamboo and I
said that’s what I need to be doing that
that’s what I need to be doing and I
thought what would happen what would
happen if I went into a classroom and I
threw rubbish all over the floor and I
let the kids go wild what would happen
two years ago I founded a company called
trash puppets now a trash puppets we do
puppet making workshops you guessed it
we make puppets out of trash it’s kind
of in the title now
imagine we’re in a classroom of 40 kids
there’s ten kids at the front holding
garbage bags on the count of three
they’re gonna tip rubbish all over the
floor one two three and then we let them
launch at it and the teachers face is
quite often because chaos is frightening
ha ha but we’re big advocates of chaos
now chaos and play come under the banner
of creativity what a wonderful way to
discover your creativity through chaos
and play now a huge part of what school
is teaching us is to be compliant well
behaved adults put your hand up stand in
line ask politely wait your turn that’s
all very important but I think there’s a
lot of value in defiance now there was a
young boy at a school during a workshop
and he came up to me we’ve just done our
big introduction the kids have launched
at the trash it’s all going really well
and this young boy about seven years old
walks up to me and says I can’t do it
Jess I can’t do it it’s too hard I’m not
gonna be able to make a good puppet it’s
too hard not gonna do it and I said to
him how about instead of trying to make
the world’s best puppet why don’t you
just try and have as much fun
as you possibly can and he went okay and
so he jumped in and he started rummaging
in the trash and finding things and
being like look at this and sticking
them together and looking at his friends
and talking about what they were making
and at the end he did have a beautiful
puppet it was awesome but I wouldn’t
have cared if he’d had nothing if he had
made nothing at all that would not have
been a failure because he had tried and
he had played and he had explored
because it is in the process that is
where the value lies we actually send a
waiver home with kids before our
workshop saying that if your child does
not come home with a functional puppet
that is not a failure
because parents are not in the room with
us they don’t see that exploration they
don’t see that play they don’t see the
discovery sometimes a child will have
something that in their eyes is the
world’s greatest puppet and they go home
and their mum goes what is that
and that’s horrifying
because a moment ago they thought that
was the greatest puppet on earth now the
trash pile itself is for me and good
metaphor so the trash pile kids finding
puppets within that trash pile or adults
we work a lot with adults as well is
it’s about using the resources that you
have now we’ve worked with thousands and
thousands of people in the last few
years across a wide range of communities
we’ve worked with schools festivals and
events corporate spaces peach’ teachers
PD’s and what we’ve found is that it’s
it’s an incredibly unifying task now
they’re rummaging in the trash trying to
find what they need to create their
puppet what they think they need and
what often happens is someone will come
up to you and say I’ve got this plastic
spoon I need three more just like it to
give my puppet four spoon legs
and all I can say to them is I can’t
guarantee this three more spoons it’s
just what’s there you’ve just got to use
what’s there now we’re obviously a
company with a focus on sustainability
we teach about waste management
recycling right we’re very passionate
about that
we’re also passionate about economic
sustainability social sustainability now
using what we have in the trash pile if
I’m looking at an issue we have around
environmental sustainability and I go
what we really need to fix this problem
is three more spoons but we don’t have
three more spoons oh well better give up
we need to be thinking differently we
need to be looking at what we do have
and using those tools to find new
creative solutions to our issues because
turns out maybe our puppet didn’t need
legs at all maybe it needed wings maybe
it needed tentacles the entrepreneurs of
the future the leaders of tomorrow are
going to be thinking differently if we
want to make any positive changes in our
world we’re going to be thinking
differently now on top of all of that
let’s be honest puppets are cool puppets
are just really cool aren’t they
now for me the magic of puppetry is that
right there you know this is just
newspaper and trash that’s right that’s
right you know it is but for a moment
for a brief moment you suspend your
disbelief there is a brief moment for
just a second a millisecond where your
mind thinks it’s real and you connect
with it and for me that’s the magic
that’s the magic of puppetry now a
puppet doesn’t have to be pretty a
puppet doesn’t have to be permanent good
cool yes so if I can give any advice
today if I can give you any action
moving forward trying to discover your
own creativity it’s go make stuff thank
you
you
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