Hi folks – welcome to your course blog! This is where I will post weekly assignments, useful links, and assundry thoughts as we go through this very short semester.
For our first day of class, please read the following, which I sent out via email, but is also posted on blackboard:
- Anderson, Harold (1960). “The Nature of Creativity,” Studies in Art Education, Vol. 1, No. 2 (Spring), pp. 10-17. (BB)
- Best, David (1982). “Can Creativity Be Taught?” British Journal of Educational Studies, Vol. 30, No. 3 (Oct.), pp. 280-294 (BB)
- Maitland, Jeffrey (1976). “Creativity” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol. 34, No. 4 (Summer), pp. 397- 409. (BB)
- “How Concepts of Creativity Have Changed Over Time” (BB)
- “Stages of the Creative Process” (BB)
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I have really enjoyed this first week of class, I honestly did not know what to expect upon registering for this course, but needed to have the learning community credits to graduate, But I am very excited about the class and it seems to be a good group.
This first week of readings had a lot of content, but a lot was the same too. I totally agree with some parts of the article “Stages of the creativity process.” The part that I agree with is that “in real life, creative ideas often happen while you’re working with your materials.” I consider myself to be a fairly creative person, but if I sit down and try to think about how I am goign to create something, complete an assignment, or make some sort of craft, it is really tough to do at times. Sometimes I need to be sitting there working with the materials and trying different things in order to actually come up with something.
ALso relating to another article that was assigned this week though I do agree that it is completely difficult to just sit and intentionally try to come up with something that will be ‘creative’ it is not until I am out going for a run with my dog, in the car, or at the gym that I will come up with some of my most creative and best ideas.
I am a preschool teacher and I love doing crafts with my kids to teach certain themes. At some points throughout the school year it has been difficult to come up with something to do for the week, I could search the internet for ideas that other people have come up with, but I only like to do that if there is nothing else that I can come up with. What I will often do if I really can’t come up with something is find an activity online that I feel okay about and put it in my lesson plan, but sometimes on my way to work I will come up with some brilliant idea for a craft or an activity that I want to do for that particular day. WHen this happens I will improvise and do what I can to incorporate my idea into my school day. For some reason these last minute ideas are often the ones that are the most creative and enjoyable to me as well as to the children in my classes.
After reading this week’s assigned readings, I have discovered a new curiosity for creativity. Questions such as “what is creativity?” “Can creativity be taught?” and “when does creativity occur?” have been the main focus within these articles. Though these questions have been mentally stimulating, they pose no real definite answers that can be proven by science. In my opinion, creativity is something that cannot be defined by any words found in the human language. Creativity is quite similar to the human emotion of love. As humans, we all know, see and feel what love is; however, many feel that love is indefinable. Similar to love, creativity has describable characteristics and context as well as ranges and stages, which allows people to attempt to express legitimate viewpoints and definitions of creativity.
In the Jeffrey Maitland article, he discusses the multiple standpoints of creativity from many different perspectives. In the beginning of the article, Maitland states that creativity is one of the most significant, yet most confusing areas of human life. He also recognizes that most philosophical writings have further confused the human race on the issue of creativity. Throughout the article, he discusses the timeline of creativity and how an artist may or may not have a foreknowledge of his or her’s creativity. In class on Tuesday, we had an interesting discussion on context relating to creativity. Maitland converses about the same thing using the suggestions of R.G. Collingwood. Maitland recognizes that an artist cannot create without preconceived concepts and habits. However, he claims that it is the way that the artist uses his or her habits and conceptions that make him or her creative or not. I agree with this assertion. This is comparable to the saying, “It is not what is said, it is how it is said.” Overall, this article brings up numerous ideas of what creativity is and all are reasonable, but my favorite description of creativity within this reading is describing of creativity as a human freedom. This perspective is related to the overall process of an artist. What Maitland is suggesting is that an artist feels inspired and then decides to create a piece of art which is the foreknowledge of the piece. During each creative process, the foreknowledge gets disturbed and the artist has to adapt and use an improvisation of some sort. Though this article brings up many great avenues of what creativity might be, it still cannot come up with a true definition. These are all ways to describe creativity not define creativity, which is why I truly enjoyed the reading on conceptions of creativity.
The article is strictly recounting the history of creativity which is extremely interesting and less subjective. When something like creativity becomes less subjective, we understand creativity as something with a definition, even though we don’t know how to truly define the term. Again, it is similar to love in the sense that we watch, read and hear stories of love and understand the characters and their dilemmas within love, even though love itself is something we do not fully understand. It was comforting to have the term creativity defined as such a definite concept as it was in the history article, instead of something that has many possible definitions and things to consider to define the term.
I have thought a lot about the question you’ve asked me in class regarding how scientists would envision a creative process or if it exists in the scientific field. The answer to your question heavily depends on the field of study. For instance, for those a part of pharmaceutical research, credible scientists take their findings and apply it to their study. Of course this process takes trials and trials of experimentation. In this case, scientists undergo a creative process I feel much like the stages described in the article “The Second Wave: Cognitive Psychology”. In class we discussed that everything can be measured and quantified up to stage 3 which refers to insight. Scientists undergoing research obviously do not have the answer and do not know the outcome but they use their knowledge to develop an educated hypothesis in the beginning. There comes a point in the experiment when they must not only rely on their knowledge but expand with uncertainty of the outcome. This uncertainty requires an individual’s creativity on how to approach the study to come to a conclusion.
From my experience, I feel that science is very structured. Most of the courses I have taken are focused on biology and chemistry. There is always one answer to a question. Exams do not require much thinking, but memorization and understanding concepts. It takes practice which invests a lot of time. There are set boundaries and not enough room for a creative process. I always know the product or the outcome because every question is already answered. Again, it may be because education in my field does not consider alternatives, even when experimenting in labs. The procedures are structured in that we must follow an A, B, and C process to come to an X, Y, and Z or already determined answer.
I would have to agree with the inverted U function since it illustrates that “schooling can get in the way” of creativity and make students have a “conventionalized way of thinking”. Unfortunately, being a science major I don’t think I was challenged to think creatively. I know that I have not been encouraged to discover other possibilities.
Currently, I am finding employment before I apply to graduate school. Because of the recession, I must look for ways I can apply the skills I have developed in my past work experience and relate it to other job functions that may not be what I have envisioned for myself in the past. Strangely this has stimulated a creative process than all of my coursework combined because I am at an uncertainty which feels somewhat scary. I have to question how companies that may not even pertain to the science field can benefit me, while also questioning how I can become an asset to the organization. Although at this point I feel a tremendous amount of stress, I know that I need to think deeply on other career roles and somehow “sell” myself to think how a field different from my studies can benefit myself and the prospective team.
When you asked me the question during class, I was hesitant to give an answer because I was unsure of how to approach it. In my mind, although I would hate to say it, studying science does not give me room for exploration, but set boundaries. At the beginning of class you mentioned that reading these articles stimulated more questions than answers, which is completely different in science. There are a lot more answers than questions.
I had no idea what to expect when I first walked into class the first day. I had thought much about creativity before but I didn’t know how in depth it could be analyzed. I figured that I was creative and therefore, I would understand the study of creativity. The readings for the first day of class were interesting. I had never thought about creativity in such a philosophical way. I found them confusing and hard to relate to. There were some ideas however, that did leave me wondering.
The initial idea brought about between the existence of creativity as an intuition or creativity as a cognitive thought through our readings was very interesting for me. I have always thought about creativity as something that just comes to you without understanding the foundation for it. I still believe at this point that creativity is intuitive, but that doesn’t mean I don’t think it can be taught. Intuition I think, comes about through teaching because it is different than instinct. So teachers and learning create a solid foundation for creativity but it’s an individual’s ability to tune into their subconscious that allows creativity to flow. The quote from a reading for the first day “Only in your dreams can creativity flow because there is nothing to inhibit it” has stuck in my mind. For many years, I have relied on dreams for projects or papers when I have trouble finding inspiration. I will wait for a night or a nap-time when I have a dream and then interpret it and figure out how that could apply to my assignment if it isn’t obvious.
The debate between the craftsman and the artist in terms of their creativity brought up lots of questions for me. I have always thought of artisans and craftsman as artists because it takes a certain creativity to continue making pieces beautiful. I think of a wood carver who makes chairs. Every piece of wood is a little bit different even if it comes from the same tree due to moisture or age. Every flake is slightly different and it is up to the wood carver to be creative enough to understand the varying outcomes and determine which path will be best to create his beautiful piece. It also involves making something that has flaws and turning it into something that can be genuinely appreciated.
As much I feel like creativity comes from the individual, at the same time, I do not agree with the idealist theory that simply thinking of an idea is as good as creating it even if no product ever comes to fruition. An important part of the creative process comes through the process.
The study of creativity is very interesting but it makes me wonder, can the study of creativity, hinder creativity?
I totally agree with you there! It’s a little like what we were talking about in class about learning an ‘art’ or how to create something via apprenticeship or repetition. Doing it over and over again, perfecting it. I think this process has potential to get people ‘stuck’ in exactly that what is being ‘pushed’ onto them to perfect. While the initial project may have been creative in the eyes of the creator or the person requesting a creation, the process used to arrive at achieving that outcome may be very conventional. Corporations want innovative models constanly, especially economics; those working to realize the ‘visions’ of the requestors, the ‘artists’ are so focused to meet criteria that, while being creative in meeting the objective, that creativity may be only centered around one discipline or area.
The “Individualist Approaches” section reading on stages of creative process I found the easiest to follow, comprehension wise. I agree with in to some point; actually witht he incubation stage. I’ve found (especially the ‘outside the box’ part of senior portfolio) that I have an idea and I’ve been ‘brewing’ around it. I’m having a hard time actualizing what I’m envisioning; but I’m pretty sure that whatever I have in mind with be a totally different something for the final product.
Another thought: the graffiti art. Yes finally it’s being recognized in gallery’s, but is its’ appreciation taking away from the ability to value older (created long ago) art? Same for music, are songs by Janis Joplin or Don McLean as appreciated now? Even though culture has changed many themes/topics of lyrical compositions are still applicable today. Love, drugs, pain I think are themes that are timeless- but the instruments and technology used to record it is changing- do the new technologies of modern day recording studios take away from the ‘point’ or message of a certain song?
To define creativity is a hard task. What exactly is creativity? Well, I don’t really think any of the reading accurately gave a specific answer. The readings gave more of an overview of the characteristic of creativity, whether it is a gifted or can be taught and an historical account for creativity over time. When I was reading I couldn’t help myself from thinking what are my thoughts on creativity I think the nature of creativity is very much hidden in each of us in some form of way. Weather it comes from a conscious or unconscious thought is irrelevant, to my opinion. I think creativity is something that can only be judged by a matter of prospective, and unlike the readings I think the process is more to be emphasized then the product. The product is something that is judged by other people and can be viewed in many different ways. Creativity needs to be measured first by the owner of the thought. If one has created something new to him, but well known for the rest, hasn’t he or she been creative? Just because someone else thought about it before doesn’t make one more or less creative – Creativity is a matter of process per a point of view. As for the detail process we all think in different ways, some logically and organize others more emotionally and disorganized. I will say I agree to some extant with the article “The Stages of the Creative Process” since I try to think in a logic way as much as I can. I do believe creativity doesn’t just come out of nowhere, it comes after many years of experience as much of the readings suggests. I also will argue that we always think about what we wish to create and are seeking for inspiration, this can be accounted for the incubation stage. However, I think what is hidden in the insight stage is the actual scheme of thought in our brain. We do have means to explain a lot about the world around us and within us, yet there is still much more we don’t understand. I will also say that in the process of being creative we tend to go back and do these stages over and over. I can point out to a few times where I was required to be creative and even though I could see my final work, I still had to be very creative on the way. This is the one point I agree creativity is about preference and problem solving. To me being creative is simple improvising a solution to either a problem or a vision that is not working right at the time of thought. The last think I must say is in reared to teaching creativity, can it be taught? Well to some extant it can. If one has a thing for physics, obviously as the years go by, if one sticks to his physics, one could and would become more creative if given the proper direction. However, if one tries to be a painter, one might fail miserably in being creative, even if one will master the technique, one won’t necessarily be creative. I would agree with David Best that a teacher holds a cretin amount of responsibility to spark students with creative ideas. In other words, I believe in education students need to be less standardize and more free to explore different possibilities. Creativity is a lot in common with improvising, as someone once told me “a hammer can do more then hit nails into walls”, well can it?
I suppose I generally think of creativity as a problem-solving process. While this infers some sort of building up through steps, I find it difficult to accept the idea in the article “Stages of the Creative Process” since it assumes these steps follow a linear route. The human mind may be inventive, but few, if any, are actually able to think solely logically, and certainly not in such a pat manner. Step A to step B results in C… In reality, we may leap from step to step, insights intermixed. Often the pattern of these thoughts and conclusions is circular, hardly easy to quanitfy or measure.
As we brought up in our second class discussion, oftentimes those in poverty, forced to seek out unorthodox means to survive and be satisfied, end up being the most creative in their approaches. There is not really much choice except to think of clever ways to subsist. It seems like more and more, at least in our niche of average American society, we become programmed into a slip-n-slide through our daily lives. This is our comfort zone essentially, and if you think about it, often we are only creative in order to ease a burden that keeps us from the smooth ways. What is there to motivate creativity in a world where we’ve planned it all out… boredom?
I aksed Allie: Do you think teachers are creative?
Her reply:
Yes i do think teachers are creatvie.
I think teachers are creatvie because they take us on fild trips to teach us lessons.they don’t just take out a book to mack us read about the stuff we need to know.
Creativity: the word itself makes us to think creatively. In the article, The Nature of Creativity by Harold H. Anderson, it is said that creativity can be measured by person’s activity. If we give the definition of Creativity then it’s more formal and limited. Creativity is the thing which cannot be measured. It is unique by itself. If I take my example, I like to draw designs of henna. Whenever I start to draw design, it’s automatically comes in my mind that which shape I will draw next. For that I don’t have to wait for long hours to think that which shape of design will come next. It shows that the process of creativity only happens in present time. In the article of Anderson, it is also said that creativity has more emphasis on product instead of process, because in product we have to make visible product which can be seen and feel. But in the process, something is not real that can be feel or seen. For the Creativity, it is must that we have to show our talent by making something real.
In the second article, David Best said that creativity cannot be thought. It develops automatically in person and I agree with it. Creativity is not things that can be explain by pre-preparation, but sometime it is necessary to teach someone something very creative. As we discussed about children in class that they are not that creative now-a-days and it is true. For example, my friend’s daughter, she is 5 years old. She has some basic creativity into her genes, but her mother has to teach other creativity. It is hard for her daughter to learn something hard because if it is not hard then it’s not creativity. Her father is trying to teach her football, but she doesn’t remember every rules of the game. Their parents are trying to make her remember and it’s not that easy for their daughter to learn. But their daughter is very enthusiastic and learning it very deep interest which makes her more creative. So, in my opinion creativity can be taught. For the teaching of creativity, other example would be of job. During job hours, people do their work whatever assigned to them. They don’t put any creativity in their work. But if we put some interesting work then people can put their own opinions of creativity. Overall, we have to make people think creatively.
According to the journal of “The Second Wave: Cognitive Psychology,” there are four stages of creative process that are very important in creativity. But in my opinion, if we are doing something creative, then we also experience mini insights. But those insights are necessary because if we do some mistake then only we can do our creative work as best. For example, if we are writing an essay, we think on our subject a lot and come up with good thoughts and then we put it on paper. But during that process sometimes our sentence doesn’t make sense and we have to change it. So these mistakes are also creative sometime. That way we can improve our knowledge and we can write better.
Overall, creativity is the process of unconscious mind that involves mistakes but those mistakes are also creative and we can improve our knowledge from those mistakes.
I have really enjoyed the first week of class. I had no idea what this class was going to be about. I like the idea that we have a project on a creative community. I have started to research everything that i thought was a great creative community.During my readings I have found the definition of creativity to be very interesting. Normally when you think about it, you think its a way of being different. Everyone is creative in their own ways. You can not learn to be creative but it comes to you naturally .You learn over a period of time on your creative background.
i almost thought the point regarding documentation of creativity was going to go un-addressed. thank gosh for the blog:-) i guess my big point is that while we’re talking about the nurturing of creativity, allowing avenues for it’s expression and environments that prosper and allow the creators to prosper from the ideas we haven’t touched on how ‘teaching creativity’ is being documented and ‘passed on’, so to speak.
we were talking about the white/blank moment, the clarity, sudden realization but Florida acknowledges that the chaos that brings on that eureka moment comes from the “individual thought processes so complex and elusive that they could not easily be documented or communicated”(p.70). It makes me feel better that I’m not so weird for really not getting ‘things’ from reading, rather i HAVE to actually perform an action to ‘get it’ and practice over and over to perfect it- than i make my own alterations to whatever it is.
I felt terrible that I was petrified with shaking hands the first time I had to start an IV and when i started educating patients i stuck with very generic ‘questionnaire type’ conversation starters for a long time. now, years later, im quite proficient in being ‘a good stick’ and getting my assessments done WAY faster, but when i train others; it’s so hard! it’s like words just don’t carry the message. i can explain the angle needed for cannulation, i can advise a tone for initial consult but it always sounds fake- after practice over and over i guess the process becomes more natural because of the necessities for ‘evolution’ we were talking about.
it’s a bit creepy for me to realize this efficiency and ease come from repetition and actually being in ‘that’ moment when starting a treatment or getting into conversations like those regarding housing situations (such as asking reasons for multiple shelters patients stay in within a week- getting their reasons for not obeying rules and just staying in one).
I always thought (and the movie addressed this) that doctors performing procedures are always very much aware of what they’re doing and have planned it well. This applies to me as well, however, there’s just ‘something’ that makes things click and literally glide. It’s like being conscious and not at the same time- sorta’ like the Zen idea of the small mind and the greater universal consciousness. Point for the future: if you’re ever going to get your blood drawn- go to that person who talks the whole time- those are the ones that are the best sticks and won’t blow your veins or have to re-stick!
The funny thing…i’m finally really good at my jobs and I’m looking for a new one- AND an office position at that! I ask myself why and I have no answer other than…because. Weird, but I’ve never been a planner
There were lots of discussions on Thursday that peaked my interests. When I think about cultural creative vs. the creative class I think about it in the home. I really see the cultural creative in flannel fabric and a musty, old (but still the most comfortable seat in the house) orange sofa. And when I think of the creative class I see bleach white walls and funny black morphed sculptures that really don’t form anything in particular and serve no tangible meaning. I definitely agree with the idea that the creative class was created through the evolution of the cultural creative.
Understanding this in context with the baby boomer generation was also very interesting since my father is in that generation. It makes sense that the folks that stood in the streets and screamed out their values 40 years ago, aren’t going to be the people to sit in a cold sterile cubicle staring at the artificial light hearing the incessant hum from the computers. It seems clear to me that they would need something a little more involved with the individual.
I see a kind of cycle happening in the United States. The country moves from having the focus on the individual to the focus being on assembly lines in the industrial revolution and seeing it come back with this creative class. Are we undergoing a slow shift away from the individual?
I wonder what it will mean for retirement in the next 10-15 years. At this moment, retirement seems like the period that all working people are waiting for but the life is not so sweet post-paycheck. I really wonder how retirement homes and communities will evolve. I believe that the generation will stay true to it’s convictions and find a way to un-lump the term “old people” and make that more individual just like they have done their whole life.
If that generation grew up trying to get out of the house at the earliest age possible and and turned out individualistic and successful, what is going to happen with the ensuing generations who are nursed until age 27? Is my generation and ones following going to be less prepared for the adversities and need for creativity in 10 years?
The Creative Spirit had a lot of intriguing statements. I wonder about the white moment and how it is for me. I have recently felt a lack of creativity in my life which is strange because I have always been very creative in art, music and athletics. I think my biggest problem right now is, like the video mentioned, the self-censoring and staying within a box is hindering my creativity. When you worry too much about other people, it inevitably leads to a dam in the flow. Very interesting class on Thursday…
Cultural creative is the story of a whole culture, but it is also a personal story of how people choose their new life, leave the old beliefs and values behind. If we talk about older people then they are very strict on their rules. They don’t move from their beliefs. They want everything in the way they wanted. Older people live with their existing lifestyle and don’t follow the modern techniques. But in the cultural creative, people see the picture as a whole. For example, if we talk about government system, it thinks from all purpose. It doesn’t work for any single person. Government wants to see the growth in everyone’s life.
Cultural creative has heavy emphasis on the importance of helping others and developing their unique needs. If we take an example of teacher, they want all students to learn that is important in their life. Teachers want to help students to make their future bright. Here teacher works as a cultural creative who works as a whole and try to make their students more knowledgeable. But on the other side, teachers are teaching what the books tell to them. So, in one way it’s a traditional way to teach the students.
But in the creative class it’s different. Creative class has their own thoughts and they work on their own schedules. Every person has their own creation, but the thing is not every people show their own creativity. In every city there is some part where people are creative and do their work in their own style. If we talk about cities in Rajasthan, India, there people have their own creations. For example handbags, dance, food, and clothes. People come to visit from all over the world and see their unique creativity.
In other words, I am thinking that creative class is a class in which people are concentrated in on one thing and on the other side cultural creativity works as a whole. In creative class, not every people is willing to know or learn something in a unique way. It is just for a group of members. On the other side cultural creative works for everyone. And I agree with the function of cultural creative because it thinks about everyone in the world.
One of the comments that I found most intriuging throughout this weeks discussion was the idea of whether those that practice creativity have a responsibility to their products. I had never thought about the idea in quite that way before, but it makes a lot of sense. Especially for folks that are creating technological advancements that are extremely life-changing, do they have a responsibility to see how those processes are carried out?
The 4 elements of creativity killers as brought about by the movie the Creative Spirit were evaluation, a feeling of being watched, rewards for work and competition amongst peers were very realistic. All of these things seem very reasonable as things that kill creativity.
Going off of this idea, the chapter in The Rise of the Creative Class about workplaces increasing creativity to lead to more efficient workers makes a lot of sense. When you adjust the lighting, and change the layout of the office so that people aren’t huddled over each other and have places to go stand and breathe then it makes sense that, just like children, they will be more productive and come up with more inventive and new ideas.
I like the idea of a children’s museum as being not for a product but for the process of what the child gets out of it. I think that creating places like these not only for children but for adults will create the environments that are needed in order to become more productive. And it makes me think that if we had more areas of community life that encouraged creativity and exploration, would we have more collective creativity amongst artists?