{"id":374,"date":"2013-12-03T21:07:17","date_gmt":"2013-12-03T21:07:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.autodesk.com\/autodesk-university\/wouldnt-it-be-interesting-if-cats-ruled-the-world\/"},"modified":"2016-01-22T17:50:32","modified_gmt":"2016-01-22T17:50:32","slug":"wouldnt-it-be-interesting-if-cats-ruled-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.autodesk.com\/autodesk-university\/wouldnt-it-be-interesting-if-cats-ruled-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Wouldn’t it be interesting if cats ruled the world?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Got your attention?  Good, because yesterday\u2019s CAVE keynote address featured 2 of the most creative thinkers today: Angelo Satira, CEO of deviantART<\/a>, the world\u2019s largest online community for artists and art enthusiasts, and Neil Gaiman, award-winning author of Stardust<\/em>, American Gods<\/em>, Sandman,<\/em> and Coraline.<\/em><\/p>\n

deviantART: Create > inspire > empower > create<\/h2>\n

\"Angelo<\/a> Angelo Satira founded deviantART, an online community where, in his words, \u201cart meets application\u201d as a way to give creative people, artists whose work would not normally be seen, a place where they would have the courage to open up.<\/p>\n

In the beginning, every staff member commented on every piece posted to the site. Angelo made sure that as the community grew, members of this community would carry on this connection with each other. He wanted the site to be a \u201cforce for good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Angelo believes that having this community, which as become the \u201clargest aggregation of creative people in one place in all of history" has actually has inspired its members to create more art. It\u2019s become a place for inspiration, a sounding board, and maybe even an escape. A place where people create, get inspired, feel empowered, and go on to create some more.<\/p>\n

  <\/h3>\n

Okay, but what about the cats?<\/h2>\n

\"Neil<\/a> Speaker Neil Gaiman\u2019s talk was all about tapping into our creativity, and we can all probably use a little more of that, right?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe tend to see the world as big, heavy, huge, etc., whereas imagination is the world of daydreaming and foolishness,\u201d he said. \u201cYet, if you think about it, imagination made everything. We downplay dreaming and imagination. Writers are the worst. We get asked where we get our ideas come from and we make fun of you for saying that. The reason I did was because I didn\u2019t have a clue about where I get ideas from.\u201d<\/p>\n

But there came a time when he had to find the answer. \u201cAt my kids' school, when these 7-year-olds asked the question, I had to tell them the truth. I said, \u2018The important thing about ideas is we get them from daydreaming, from being bored. You ask \u2018What if? What if you woke up one day and your sister turned into a house? What if you learned that your teacher is going to eat one of you at the end of the semester?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Neil, imagining is the most important thing you need to do. You need to ask:<\/p>\n