Download - Foundations creativity
titleCREATIVITY FOR CREATIVE MINDS
An Interdisciplinary Look at Creativity
Dr. Lori Kent
INTRODUCTIONINTRODUCTION
Paul Chan “My birds…trash…the future” (2006) detail
Assumption METACOGNITION
Thinking about thinking
By being aware of processes of one’s own best thinking one can
further perfect thinking…
Who are we as creative people…
how do we function
?
GOALSGOALS
Goal:To introduce a brief history of idea-making
Goal:To overview the creative contexts of 21c visual arts
Goal:To look at attributes of creativity
Goal:To offer methods for maximizing creativity…
SOME DEFINITIONS
SOMEDEFINITIONS
What is creativity
?
cre • a • tiv • i • ty
From the Latin creatus meaning “to make or produce” or literally “to grow”
cre • a • tiv • i • ty
The term did not come into popular parlance until…
The 1950swhen it was popularized by psychologists
cre • a • tiv • i • ty
“[human’s] capacity to produce new ideas, insights, inventions or artistic objects, which are accepted of being of social, spiritual, aesthetic, scientific, or technological value.” - Dictionary of Developmental and Educational Psychology (1986)
What are some common misconceptions
?
General Views of Creativity
• Life would be really bad without it
• Genius and talent are essential to being a creative person
• It’s the main thing that differentiates art from other practices, such as business
• It comes from a mysterious place deep inside of a person
General Views of Creativity
• Life would be really bad without it
• Genius and talent are essential to being a creative person
• It’s the main thing that differentiates art from other practices, such as business
• It comes from a mysterious place deep inside of a person
General Views of Creativity
• Life would be really bad without it
• Genius and talent are essential to being a creative person
• It’s the main thing that differentiates art from other practices, such as business
• It comes from a mysterious place deep inside of a person
General Views of Creativity
General Views of Creativity
• Life would be really bad without it
• Genius and talent are essential to being a creative person
• It’s the main thing that differentiates art from other practices, such as business
• It comes from a mysterious place deep inside of a person
General Views of Creativity
• Life would be really bad without it
• Genius and talent are essential to being a creative person
• It’s the main thing that differentiates art from other practices, such as business
• It comes from a mysterious place deep inside of a person
General Views of Creativity
• Life would be really bad without it
• Genius and talent are essential to being a creative person
• It’s the main thing that differentiates art from other practices, such as business
• It comes from a mysterious place deep inside of a person
Teaching Creativity to the Creative ? ? ? ?
Artists perpetuate myths about creativity (for example, art students who think depression = talent, also known as the “Van Gogh’s Ear Syndrome”)
Teaching Creativity to the Creative ? ? ? ?
Over a lifetime, adults build defenses that inhibit creative thinking.
Teaching Creativity to the Creative ? ? ? ?
• Artists are not necessary creative*
Who is the creative genius?
Picasso? or Braque?
Was Picasso an innovator…?
…even though Cezanne broke the illusion of the Renaissance windowmany years before the invention of Cubism?
Continuities
Discontinuities
Weisberg’s Creativity: Beyond the Myth of Genius
W.A. Mozart C.P.E. Bach
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3i-SzzhUtws
The Seven
Year Rule
Weisberg’s Creativity: Beyond the Myth of Genius
Michelangelo Buonarroti (aged 12-13)
CREATIVITY THRU THE AGES
CREATIVITYTHROUGHTHE AGES
Not much is known about prehistoric conceptions of creativity…
Some things must have been perceived as creative
such as the creation myths that were passed from one generation to another.
Some argue that the invention of time caused an awareness in mortality that made art particularly important.
Art and creative acts were a means of being immortal. Ancient art forms were linked to spiritual practices.
In addition, creative objects added beauty to otherwise harsh lives and improved things in other ways…
• Imagine the initial discovery that clay hardened in fire… then think about the course of functional and aesthetic improvements that followed.
Lucie-Smith, The Story of Craft
Throughout early Western history…
certain motifs, stylizations and themes must have been perceived as beautiful or valuable because they were perpetuated.
It can be argued
thatsome artists exhibited breakthrough thinking…
But they were influenced by a rigid cultural context. Artistic creation was restricted in its content, technologies, forms, and values until the age of modernism.
Today, we look at models of creativebehavior from many years ago despite the fact that we live in very different worlds.
CREATIVITY THRU THE AGES
CREATIVITYIN A
CONTEMPORARYCONTEXT
Today, we live in a (post) postmodern age.
Today, we live in a (post) postmodern age
Contemporary artreflects the cultural
context(s) ofpostmodernism
postmodernism is pluralisticeclecticreflexive
de-constructed and
de-centered
which makes culturalproduction much more
complicated
Contemporary
Creation
Vik Muniz
Vik Muniz
Tom Friedman
Tom Friedman
Tom Friedman
Tom Friedman
Tara Donovan
Tara Donovan
Tara Donovan
Tara Donovan
Tara Donovan
Michael Lucero
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ul8kgtiD4yg
Hans Belmer
Henry Darger
Douglas Gordon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1jkoMfPa40
Weegee
Michelangelo Pistoletto
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VF9-sEbqDvU
ATTRITBUTES OF CREATIVIVE THINKERS
BELIEFS ABOUT
CREATIVITY
EXPERTS AGREE
Creativity should be viewed not in terms of individual genius thinking, but as a “dynamic… evolving system that is developmental, pluralistic, and interactive.” (John-Steiner, Gruber, Feldman)
In other words…creativity does not stay still
EXPERTS AGREE
Thinking strategies that are important to being creative are…
THINKING…
1. “Breaking set” or breaking out of old patterns.
THINKING…
2.Understanding complexities.
motherboard
THINKING…
3.Suspending judgment.(particularly in brainstorming)
Statue of justice
THINKING…
4.Keeping options open as long as possible.
Long road
THINKING…
5.Thinking broadly and seeing relationships.
THINKING…
6. Remembering accurately.
THINKING…
7. Perceiving freshly.
THINKING…
8.Using “tricks”.(making the familiar strange and the strange
familiar, playing with ideas, investigating paradoxes, etc)
ATTRITBUTES OF CREATIVIVE THINKERS
ATTRIBUTESOF
CREATIVE THINKERS
THE CREATIVEare • tolerate of ambiguity
• naive• nonconformists• intuitive• ambitious, driven• intrinsically motivated• competent in their domain• prefer complexity
THE CREATIVEare • tolerate of ambiguity
• naïve, yet knowledgeable• nonconformists• intuitive• ambitious, driven• intrinsically motivated• competent in their domain• prefer complexity
THE CREATIVEare • tolerate of ambiguity
• naïve, yet knowledgeable• nonconformists• intuitive• ambitious, driven• intrinsically motivated• competent in their domain• prefer complexity
THE CREATIVEare • tolerate of ambiguity
• naïve, yet knowledgeable• nonconformists• intuitive• ambitious, driven• intrinsically motivated• competent in their domain• prefer complexity
THE CREATIVEare • tolerate of ambiguity
• naïve, yet knowledgeable• nonconformists• intuitive• ambitious, driven• intrinsically motivated• competent in their domain• prefer complexity
THE CREATIVEare • tolerate of ambiguity
• naïve, yet knowledgeable• nonconformists• intuitive• ambitious, driven• intrinsically motivated• competent in their domain• prefer complexity
THE CREATIVEare • tolerate of ambiguity
• naïve, yet knowledgeable• nonconformists• intuitive• ambitious, driven• intrinsically motivated• competent in their domain• prefer complexity
THE CREATIVE • tolerate of ambiguity
• naïve, yet knowledgeable• nonconformists• intuitive• ambitious, driven• intrinsically motivated• competent in their domain• prefer complexity
BEING MORE CREATIVEBECOMING
MORECREATIVE
COMMON CREATIVE BLOCKS
Be aware of
EmotionalBlocks:Fear,
Sadness,etc.
Political Oppression
andLegal
Restrictions
Discriminationand
Racism
Religiousand
CulturalBlocks
TIPSTo enhance creativity.
TIPS
Create your own rituals.
TIPS
Create your own ideal conditions.
1
Draw or describe your ideal working conditions
for creativity.
TIPS
Use background music.
2
Is there a musical artist, genre or song that inspires
you to create?
TIPS
Know your domain or field.
3
What do you know the most about?
TIPS
Maintain a high level of passion.
TIPS
Form a support group. Converse.
TIPS
Seek out the new. “Travel is the midwife of thought.” - Alain de Botton
4
When was the last time your thought
“wow! that’s new! ?
Describe.
TIPS
Laugh. How many art students does it take to screw in a light bulb?
-only one…and she gets three credits for it!
5
Write down a joke.
TIPS
Cultivate solitude.
6
How long was the most time that you have consecutively spent
alone?
TIPS
Intersect disciplines and ideas.
Functional Fixedness
7
With a partner, make a list of ALL of the possible uses
for the object you have been given.
TIPS
See old things in new ways.
ART AND FEARSection on art and fearPart of artmaking is…
Learning how not to quit.
ART AND FEARSection on art and fearPart of artmaking is…
Finding a supportgroup.
ART AND FEARSection on art and fearPart of artmaking is…
Drawing on imagination and vision.
ART AND FEARSection on art and fearPart of artmaking is…
Getting in touchwith materials.
ART AND FEARSection on art and fearPart of artmaking is…
Living with uncertainty.
ART AND FEARSection on art and fearSome Wisdom
The function of the overwhelming majority ofyour artwork is to simplyteach you about the small
fraction of your workthat soars.
ART AND FEARSection on art and fearSome Wisdom
You learn how tomake your artwork
by making your artwork.
THE END
Create. Solve Problems. Add some beauty to the world. Find Problems. Be curious about everything. Cultivate joy….