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”


The term did not come into popular parlance until…

The 1950swhen it was popularized by psychologists


“[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


• 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”)


Over a lifetime, adults build defenses that inhibit creative thinking.


• 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

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

Tom Friedman

Tara Donovan

Michael Lucero

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ul8kgtiD4yg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ul8kgtiD4yg

Hans Belmer

Henry Darger

Douglas Gordon

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1jkoMfPa40

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 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.


Finding a supportgroup.


Drawing on imagination and vision.


Getting in touchwith materials.


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….

foundations creativity

Documents

creative person

creative genius

creative thinking

ages creativity

teaching creativity

attributes of creativity

creative contexts

creative objects