Artist Isaac Bower developed Cojiform to share his passion
for form, creative process, and the mindful use of the hands.
Cojiform combines the beauty of abstract art, the playfulness of building blocks, and the challenge of a puzzle. It shares a collective dynamic with traditions like origami or quilting: particpants can invent new modules and methods that expand the catalogue of Cojiform designs. These can be passed on to future participants.
Sensing and Learning
Cojiform brings a sophisticated yet accessible art experience into almost any setting, for people of all ages and abilities. With endless ways to connect and combine the complex Cojiform shapes, participants are able to embrace creative process with immediate feedback. The smooth surfaces are a pleasure to handle, which increases immersivity.
Cojiform invites people to connect with their aesthetic sensibilities and tactile skills as they explore form, balance, negative and positive space, pattern, light and shadow. All people have innate aptitudes in these areas, but may lack opportunities to exercise these particular muscles.
Today, much of our time is spent on screens. Cojiform offers a way to reconnect with the use of our hands and mind in the physical world, while cultivating persistence, focus, and the power of trial and error learning.
Fruitfully Challenging
The Cojiform parts can be combined into an endless array of elegant sculptural designs. However, in contrast to a system like Legos, the Cojiform parts don’t connect in obvious ways.
While there are many simple ways to build with Cojiform, it takes experimentation and persistence to create more complex designs and structures. This learning process, with collapses and do-overs along the way, underlines the positive role of failure within growth and creativity. When participants build a meaningful design of their own, or master a known design by studying photographs or watching the tutorial videos, there is a strong sense of achievement.
Adaptive and Novel
The Cojiform experience can be playful and simple or algorithmic and complex, depending upon the aptitudes of the participants. The sophisticated design of the system encourages persistence and creative growth.
Some people, even in childhood, have negative ideas about their ability to enjoy creative activities like art, dancing, or singing. Cojiform defeats these preconceptions by being so novel. When people encounter Cojiform, they don’t tend to think “I’m not good at that.” A more typical reaction is “what is that?” This question is fundamentally linked to the growth mindset, and can naturally lead to rigorous play and experimentation.
Origins and Development
Cojiform didn’t start out as an interactive project: it began when Isaac created three small clay sculptures. Having often used repetition and pattern in his artwork, Isaac made molds over the forms, going on to cast thousands of multiples of each part. He was delighted to find that these multiples could be connected and arranged into endless array of compelling designs.
Just as exciting, he realized that the activity itself offered benefits in the areas of creative problem solving and wellness. Isaac invited people of all ages to participate, and it became even more clear that Cojiform is a unique way to cultivate creativity, persistence, collaboration, focus, and a state of flow.
Isaac has gone on to develop Cojiform as an interactive experience that travels to a wide range of settings, with or without his in-person facilitation. Cojiform workshops, exhibits, and events have allowed over 20,000 people of all ages to experience the meaning, joy, and flow of hands-on creative work.