In our fifth week of our seminar session, we discussed the chain of thought and imagination. We explored that different ways we explore our creativity and how we implement it in our work. I learned that it’s important to brainstorm first, and then draw. Whe we rush into things we tend to get stuck in a rut and on the same idea. It is hard for us to expand our imagination. Speed thinking uses a sort of intensity, whereas ideating and giving your brain time to think about idea enhances creativity and makes for better ideas.

I also learned some elements to include in my made up city. Exaggeration being one of them, ensures emphasis on certain things. It makes something more than ordinary, bold and intense. It makes the audience shocked and surprised. This is a significant aspect to include in our designs, as they grip the audience and the viewer.

I considered this and took inspiration from New York City to create my own invisible city. The idea came to me when I was examining the tall skyscapers of New York. I decided to be inspired by this and make the whole premise centered around mushrooms. I wanted to make this city as bizarre and imaginative as I could but still make it look like a city that could be real and work well in the contemporary world. I decided to replace the skyscrappers of New York and replace them with mushrooms.

This was one of the narratives I wrote. This one was on the city of Amanita:
You’ll know when you’re in Amanita when you walk down the dainty cobbled pathways embedded with violet limestones that almost look crystal-like. The streets, lined with a thousand sky scraping, lanky mushrooms, a jungle of homes for the inhabitants of Amanita, sleeping soundly in them in the dead of night. The sky, a vibrant shade of lapis lazuli inundated with iridescent clouds that hang above the city like a protective blanket, as dragonflies nestle themselves in the crooks of the mushroom. All these wonders are too familiar to the city people, who know how to navigate around these very pathways like it’s the back of their hands. Even the long, elongated vines that jut out of the soil, straddle the pastel coloured mushrooms and stand tall, reaching for the sky, like inverted roots. This city tells a story about its people, each amenity tells a tale about adventure, labour, hard work and imagination. The roads that lead them here, to the city where the passerbys work hard at their businesses and markets, earning each grain of rice by bearing sweat on hot summer and cold winter days. Therefore, Amanita is the land of dreams. Each experience seemingly fantastical making any visitor stare at it in wonderment.