CARTS

CARTS, when I look back after finishing all the courses at IIMB, is one of the best courses that is being offered in campus. I recommend the course for two reasons a) for the unique course content b) for the professor B.Sekhar. The Couse is definitely one of its kinds that look at creativity in different facets of life.

The course begins with an Introduction to the genesis of Creativity. The recommended readings for this course is a book on Creativity by David Bohm has very in-depth and profound perspectives of creativity, it got us started with the course. I vividly remember the first question that professor asked, Why is TV called an Idiot Box? and the course unfolded with lot of questions and answers on creativity. After the introduction the professor spent few weeks on dissecting creativity in Aural and Visual Media. This part to me was the most enjoyable in the course. Every lecture would have video clips and audio clips being played and professor would critically analyse every minute details of the clips and explain the intra and inter domain metaphors and creative ingenuity of the creators and composers. After attending these lectures, watching a movie or listening to an opera was a new experience. I could appreciate the nuances of the creation much better than I could before I attended the lectures. We got introduced to the beautiful classics from bollywood which we would not have gotten introduced to otherwise. Many clippings from old Hollywood classics and animated movies are also part of the lecture which just made missing a class impossible. After studying the creativity in Audio and video forms, the focus shifted to drawings and paintings. Escher art was analysed from various perspectives and so were other sketches and paintings. Next in line was creativity in the realm of literature. Absorbing prose of Hugo, the eloquent writing style of Chekov and different aspects of humor were all discussed in the classroom lectures. The topics handled in this course are so diverse that the final part of the course is dedicated to recognising and appreciating creativity in Mathematics and Natural science. The big take away from this course is it broadens your perspective and make you appreciate even the minute things that are born out of a creative mind. The course introduces you to plethora of subjects and analyses the creativity element in each of them. I found the analysis by the professor of all these varying subjects never to be superficial; it had always been very in depth and a little subjective. About the professor, he is one of the friendliest professors in campus. He encourages discussion even outside classroom.