Growing ‘into’ Creativity

The Anderson quote we were given in one of the hand outs mentoned that one of the criteria’s for the strength of galleries as places of learning is demonstrating processes. 

York City Art Gallery certainly displayed this, especially in the first room which we viewed. At first I found it quite odd, viewing paintings and then reading the comments that the general public had left under them in chalk. I didn’t think that people should be able to just assume a certain fact/idea about a painting, and thought that the artist should reflect the meaning behind it themsleves, perhaps without the ability to negotiate or question it’s relevance or meaning.  However, allowing others to comment on the paintings with their own personal response and view point, I began to find that I could look past the initial idea or thought and the ongoing creative process taking place was allowing me to enhace my creativity and come to my own conclusions the meanings benhind the art.

Two paintings which stood out for me were the John Piper painting, and the Interior with nude. These paintings got my attention initally from their obviously creative and artistic flare, however they stood out from the rest because of the comments left below them. The John Piper painting was an abstract piece, with blue and red shapes and I found it pleasing to the eye. However, I then saw a comment left which read ‘The blue earred mouse wished the butterfly would stop chasing him’. When I looked at the painting a second time, sure enough I saw the mouse and the butterfly. I was amazed that someone had been able to see this in the painting.. and wondered whether the artist himself had intended on the shapes being these? The Interior with nude was a picture of an older woman sitting on a bed, naked. I walked past the painting, and didnt have a very strong reaction to it. However, I then saw a comment underneath which made me look twice and gave me a greater sense of attatchement and meaning to the painting. It read ‘To me you are still 22′. 

With these different perspectives, the paintings viewed can be brought to life, emotion being put into the painting. There can even be a new, or deeper meaning to a piece of art, if seen from a different perspective, allowing for a greater significance and ultimately, a greater appreciation for art?

Towards the end of todays session, we had to think about the importance of our own creativity and how our own and others creativity could/should be enhanced. 

One of the main subjects that kept popping up was the idea of the environment in which creativity finds itself. 

In the first video we watched, from Teachers TV- Learning through play- creative development, we witnessed environmental factors as being a highly important element of the children’s cognitive and social learning, as the use of all the senses through different activites and stretching the imagination , amaongst other things, was believed to quicken a child’s learning aquisition. 

This got me thinking about my own learning environment whilst at school and the impact that the classroom environment had on me.

A personal example of a negative experience related to creativity was that in primary school we would be given a long period of time to write a story and then 5 or so minutes to draw a picture to illustrate the story. I would always be rushed to finish the drawing, and whilst I was often proud of my imaginitive stories, I would feel frustrated that I could not finish my work to it’s full extent. Colouring in a picture may not seem as important as the story in its written form, however it was an important element of the end product for me. It was only when both written story and illustration were both complete that I had complete satisfaction in my work. If I, and many others in the classroom had been given those extra few precious minutes to finish our usually underestimated illustrations, this may have resulted in me feeling more confident and proud of my achievements, enchancing my self belief in my creative abilities. 

In M. Csikszentmihalyl’s ‘Creativity’- Flow and the Psycghology of discovery and Invention it is said that Creativity, when seen as an idea or action has no way of indicating whether or not it is valuable until passing ‘social evaluation’. Therefore, it is argued that creativity occurs ‘in the interaction between a person’s thoughts and a sociocultural context’. 

I liked the following quote from ‘Creativity’- ‘It is easier to enhance creativity by changing conditions in the environment than by trying to make people think more creatively’.

So.. it might not ALL be based or relied upon the environment in which creativity is found/nurtured.. and therefore can ultimately “thrive”. HOWEVER, it may be alot easier if the right environment can be found, and therefore may encourage those who feel they are ‘uncreative’ to find their own creativity with greater ease.

At the end of this week’s lecture, we were given time to spend on our blogs. I’ve found this whole blogging concept fine until now.. but once I was told to write a blog in the lecture, with a time scale attatched I sat, frozen with nothing to reflect on or write about. So I looked at other blogs and journals, in annoyance with myself that I could not produce anything worth while.

Creativity shouldn’t be like this. On reflection, it wasn’t my creative flow that didnt seem to be in operation or runnning smoothly, it was in fact me being consciously aware of what I was to write about.. and the worry of being ‘wrong’. As I was thinking of what to write, I became more aware of what would be a good or bad thing to put into my blog post.

As Sophie keeps reminding us, it is not a case of being right or wrong.. and this is what ultimately lead to me being unable to unleash my inner thoughts and creative expression through the process of blogging.

This is why I decided to explain my reasoning for not writing a blog whilst in the lecture.. as although I should have written a blog in the time that was allocated to us to do this, I was unable to, which I felt was important to reflect upon.

Whilst watching Dragons Den, The Dragon’s Story, Deborah Meaden commented on the idea of keeping up creativity and commented that one womans particular business would continue to be a success as long as she kept her creativity. 

This made me question creativty and the idea that it is something that can be lost. Do we need to make a conscious effort to maintain our creativity or does it naturally flow through us? - Maybe a mixture of both?

Could creativity be an innate quality which some naturally have more of than others?

I felt that this was a good example of the importance of creativity outside the classroom, regardless of your age.

Today in our lecture with Nick (Education in Literature) one of our handouts was a poem by Roger McGough, First Day at School. We were looking at the idea of ‘schema’- where children fit what they know into new ideas. I found this to be a very creative poem, which expresses a child’s capability for creativity, especially in the middle stanza. So here it is…                    

And the railings.
All around, the railings.
Are they to keep out wolves and monsters?
Things that carry off and eat children?
Things you don’t take sweets from?
Perhaps they’re to stop us getting out
Running away from the lessins. Lessin.
What does a lessin look like?
Sounds small and slimy.
They keep them in the glassrooms.
Whole rooms made out of glass. Imagine.

I really enjoyed looking at this poem, and whilst linking it to the ideas we were discussing in the other module, the creativity shown in it really stood out for me, and I decided that it would be good to put into a blog- as it elaborates and goes nicely with my other post on my own creativity and how I feel this has perhaps been lost after my 7 years of formal education. I guess I wish I still had this innocent, curious creativity and imagination reflected in the poem. I also feel this poem expresses the importance and specialness of young children and their ability to pressume or guess. As adults, we are so worried about being wrong. (Again linking to our hero, Ken!- If we are so worried about being wrong, we’ll never get anywhere!!)

I’m going to end on a quote by Ghandi-This being…

 ‘The enemy is fear’.

 I found this quote on the website that Dave blogged about recently- thanks for the link!

http://www.positivityblog.com/index.php/2008/10/03/how-to-overcome-your-fear-7-tips-from-the-last-2200-years/

I feel that it is this fear that stops us from reaching our creative potential and holds us back from expressing ourselves fully. We need to take a look at how children use creativity and use this to enhance our own- as we seem to have lost sight of creative value and the importance it can have on the way in which we express ourselves as individuals. 

Oh and if you want to have a look at the poem in full, you can find it here http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/first-day-at-school/

So since last week, I have been looking into Ken Robinson in further detail. There are SO many blogs/sites which acknowledge him as influencial in issues of creativity. He is being praised all over the net for his vivid, humourous, and moving speeches (especially the one we watched in the first session about whether schools kill creativity) Here’s the link for anyone who wants to watch it: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=l0deXiIQSF0&feature=related

I had a browse on the TED website (http://www.ted.com/) and came across another interesting talk by novelist Amy Tan, titled ‘Where does creativity hide?‘ You can find this at http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/amy_tan_on_creativity.html.

If you get a minute, it’s definatly worth having a look at, as she gives a personal account of her own creativity in relation to her writing. 

Something that really stuck out for me from this talk is the idea that ‘Out of nothing comes something’. I think that this is a great way of looking at creativity, as it has no restrictions on what creativity is, and can come  from anything and anyone. I do feel that often the best, and sometimes most creative ideas really do come to you when you let your mind wonder and allow yourself to play with ideas, even if they dont seem that great at the time.

This links back to what Ken Robinson said about if your not prepared to be wrong you wont come up with anything original. We are so frightened of being wrong- but what is the worst that can come from this? Perhaps originality!  Currently, we are educating people OUT of their creative capacities. This is why I titled my blog ‘Growing into creativity’ as I feel that 7 years of formal education has had a negative effect on my creativity and that it is most definatly not what it used to be when I was much younger. I remember being told by my parents and teachers in primary school that I had the most wonderfully vivid imagination, writing stories and making up games… and now I wonder if this has just faded/gone, (with age/formal educating which does not allow for much creative writing?)- and if so.. WHERE?!

I also found a video on Youtube; What is Creativity - Brian Tracy, which looks at creativity as a skill- one which can be learnt using systematic methods, allowing for creative breakthroughs.. perhaps once we feel this original creativity has been lost? http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=l0deXiIQSF0&feature=related

That’s all for now.

p.s Finding it easier to blog now.. although I do find it takes up alot of time! I am finding it quite relaxing now though.. putting your thoughts/ideas down in one place really does seem to let your thoughts just sort of flow.. whether this is creativity flowing I have no idea!!

Are we so caught up in being creative.. letting our ‘creative juices.. flow‘ that we loose site of the bigger picture? The pressure to be creative, and often within limited periods of time must surely be having a negative effect on our creativity (and whatever we may mean by this)

For me, creativity seems to involve self expression, by outwardly and often physically representing an idea/opinion/passion by whatever means we feel necessary.

I also think that creativity is a process, one which continues throughout our lives. If we are told at a young age that we are simply ‘uncreative’ or have more logical skills, this will ultimately affect how we feel about our own creativity at different times in our lives. One of my favourite quotes is ‘To define is to limit’. I feel that this is the case with creativity, as by defining ourselves as either creative or logical we are limiting ourselves to being one or the other, and implying that if we are logical it means we simply cannot be creative aswell, ultimately not allowing for creative progress or ‘flow’. 

Pressure pressure pressure…

I think that schools have a part to play in this, and should be encouraging both creative and logical thinking, so that alongside each other, ideas can spark and balances can be met.

So.. had our second session today. I now feel that I ‘get’ the idea behind these blogs more after today. As the course goes on, I see myself writing more and blogging on a more regular basis, which will hopefully help towards my assignment.

I found the self hypnotherapy in today’s session odd at first, however thought it was a good idea after Sophie told us how self conscious alot of us felt about setting the blogs up, writing them and our own creativity from the emails she had received. I was slightly apprehensive at first, but once I had closed my eyes, I found the exercise to be relaxing. It isnt often that I spend even 5 or 10 minutes sitting, relaxing and being able to clear my thoughts. Thinking about not thinking i guess?!

Afterwards I felt more relaxed, and also more alert and aware of my surroundings. My thoughts also seemed clearer and I felt more composed. I have a pretty hectic day today, with alot to remember and think about so it was really good to just get everything into perspective and have the time to be still.

 I think i will try it again, and see whether this helps/hinders compared with doing it in class. I love being busy, and always having somewhere to go/something to do. However, because of this, sometimes I let myself get carried away. Sometimes I know I just need to stop, and even just for a few minutes, relax my brain and body.

I found it really interesting today, the idea between the brain and body which Sophie mentioned. Hopefully, if I the technque again, it will have the same or even more of a lasting relaxing effect.

That’s all for now i think..  I’m going to try and blog more this week and get into the habit of it. It still feels a bit strange writing all this on here.

Over and out.

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