Wen-Jean Hsueh is Director of the Creativity Lab in Taiwan. Her theme: How do we use the untouched power of creativity within us?

There is, she says, a single Chinese word that means both danger and opportunity. Taiwan found a “creativity gap.” The engineers and scientists need to be more creative. They’re not in touch with users and customers.

The Lab brings together snthropolgoists, writers, architects, and animators. When the Lab was set up, within the mega-complex of the Technology Institute, they painted their doors different colors with interesting calligraphy to announce that things are different. This gesture took courage in a culture that values conformity, she says.

you generate creativity by having people integrate work and pleasure. Also, diversity encourages creativity. [Power to the miscellaneous! :)] They collaborated with artists to create a performance using traditional dancers, sensors, and image processing. It was a good example to show the engineers that such “cold technologies” can be usd to create scenarios of beauty and enjoyment.

She says the paradigm is shifting in Taiwan: Customers don’t know what to want. So, we need to identify new genres of problems, use intuition, and imagine what’s between the lines. Perspective is more valuable than IQ. Multidisciplinary team work. “Insights often come from ‘Extreme Users’.” Women’s perspectives.

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