The Creative Mind

Shirley Boudreaux, Danielle Vogel, and Amy Ruopp

Todays Agenda (ha ha ha)

4:30-4:45- Kathy Time
4:45-5:05 Chapter Review
5:05-5:20 Creative exploration #1
5:20-5:50 Discussion
Break (Maybe)
6:00-6:45 Creative Exploration # 2
6:45-7:15 Discussion

Why is true creativity so

unsettling?

Then vs now, how has society's view of creativity

shifted?

Big C: Large creative contributions, Einstein's theory of

relativity vs. Little c creative: independent creative endeavors

Being big C creative in one realm does not assume the same
creative acuity in another.

Truly creative ideas and events upset the order

of things, disrupts the comfortable known.

What does
Chsikszentmihalyi say?
Creativity is emergent from the interaction of these three elements:

Individual

cultural
domain
Has the domain been significantly altered
by the contribution?

Atypical OR
truly
significant?

social
field
Say Art Education :)

How does the Creator

stand out?
Temperament
Personality
Stance

She is perennially dissatisfied with current

work, current standards, current questions,
current answers. She strikes out in
unfamiliar directions and enjoys-or at least
accepts-being different from the pack.
When an anomaly arises...she does not
shrink from that unexpected wrinkle...she
wants to understand it and to determine if it
is a trivial error, an unrepeatable fluke, or an
important but hitherto unknown truth. She
is tough skinned and robust. There is a
reason why so many famous creators hated
or dropped out of school-they did not like
marching to someone elses tune(Gardner
pg. 83).

Picasso
I use to draw
like Raphael;
it has taken
my whole
life to learn
to draw like
a child
(Gardner, 2008 p. 84).

Pablo Picasso. Man and Flute Player, 1967. The Art Institute
of Chicago

Nurturing Creative
Minds
nurture creative minds in
the first decades of life
allow for unfettered
exploration
expose youth to creative
people who model the
creative life
reward innovation
make new mistakes
mid childhood:encourage
hobbies/activities that
have no right answer
provide multiple ways of
solving problems,
thinking about ideas

Pre-Adolescent-encourage
constructive criticism
Adolescents need
encouragement to envision
new ways of problem solving
hypercriticism thwarts
creative efforts

Work Force
The DNA of an
organization
they either foster the
creative mindset and
encourage
or
conventionality is
rewarded, the deviant is
fired or pushed to the side

3M, General Electric,

Amazon, Google, Ebay

Creativity by Groups
Most studies of creativity are
focused on the INDIVIDUAL.
Think:
BUSINESS- requires a large
team
SCIENCE-requires a large
team
ARTISTIC PRODUCTIONSrequires a large group of
personalities, often creative,
that CLASH
MASS MEDIA

The WISDOM OF
CROWDS: internet,
(google sources, Amazon
book recommendations,
eBay trusted sellers,
Wikipedia)
IS the INDIVIDUAL MIND
more important OR the
GROUP MIND????

Productive Mistakes/Failures
Creators FAIL the most frequently and the most dramatically.
Key to Creative Achievement
Charlie Chaplin: was rejected from
Hollywood Studio chiefs for being too
nonsensical.
Van Gogh: apparently only sold one
painting for next to nothing to a good
friend in his lifetime.
JK Rowling: suffered severe
depression, was broke, single mom,
attending school and writing, while on
welfare before her books hit it big
Babe Ruth: known for 717 homeruns
in his career, was also known for
having the most strikeouts for
decades! 1330 to be exact.

TRY AGAIN and AGAIN!

Abraham Lincoln: as a youth he went to war
as a captain and came home a private. He
ran for office several times and was
defeated. He started numerous businesses
that failed.
Dr. Seuss first book-was rejected 27 times.
Stephen Kings first book Carrie-rejected 30
times, he threw it in the trash and his wife
went and dug it out-told him to try again.
Colonel Sanders chicken-rejected 1009
times in restaurants
Oprah-endured an abusive childhood,
several career setbacks, including being
fired as a TV reporter for being unfit for TV

Creativity Gone Awry

Dangerous or Feigned or False Creativity:

Two different things to look back on.

The Enron Deal of 1990
Cold Fusion at the University of Utah in
1989.

Both were false, dangerous and/or feigned.

Enron proclaimed that they were going to

making money when in fact they were not.
Based on false hopes in their estimate - made
in futures gas purchases from overseas
countries - primarily in developing nations.

At the University of Utah - Stanley Pons and

Martin Fleischmann announced that they had
successfully made Cold Fusion work.

Creating and Synthesizing

The synthesizing mind seeks order

The creative mind is motivated
by uncertainty, surprise,
continual, challenge, and
disequilibrium.

Three Guises of Creativity in the Future

A/r/tography and the senses

An a/r/tographical approach to understanding and creativity
through touch, challenges us to reconfigure HOW we encounter
and perceive objects.
Touch becomes a mode of knowing through proximity and
relationality and poses different ways of making sense of the
world, challenging mechanisms of visual perception (Irwin &
Springgay, 2008 p. xxi).

A little creative play

Each group will receive a bag of mysterious goodies. Using only your hands and
sense of touch, get to know the objects in the bag. Describe these objects to the
person who is not touching the objects, you may do this any way you wish. DO
NOT LOOK IN THE BAGS!
As a group, follow the prompt on your bag. Create a design illustrating your
creative task. You may complete this with any materials you want, just note the
time constraint. Objects do not necessarily have to be proportionate to the size you
imagine in your mind as you design your creation. You must use everything in the
bag, but you do not have to use the bag itself.
* On a computer or iPad, film the process of your group as you complete this task
* You have 5 minutes to do this (NOT KIDDING AROUND HERE, there will be a
timer)

Groups
Group 1
Liv
Kari
Abi*

Group2
Kathy
Jon
Kristen*
Lauren

Group 3
Rachel
Amy*
Mike

If you have an * next to your name, you are completely dependent on the
descriptions offered to you by your group. Your knowledge will arrive via
auditory description OR sketched interpretations. You will not be touching the
objects in the bag but will contribute to the design ideas.

Howd that happen?

OK. Now that youve responded to this prompt, put the results to the side for the
moment. What had to happen for your group to accomplish this task? What
were the key moments and turning points in the creative process that led to
your particular solution?
View the video of your groups process and identify pivotal moments in the
process you identify as creative moments, maybe lines of flight, ah ha moments,
hitting a wall and over coming, HOW did synthesis play a role? The disciplined
mind? How do these minds support the creative process?
The product IS the creative process
Take 10 minutes to discuss this in your groups and then we will share
discoveries as a class.

Dr. Quantums
FLATLAND

Transforming Space

PLAY
George Szekely says, PLAY
builds a belief in ones own
powers, abilities, and
resourcefulness.
Play demonstrates art as a
SEARCH and not an
assignment
Play EMPOWERS students
Play NURTURES CURIOSITY
Starting a class with play opens
a FLOODGATE of
POSSIBILITIES

Play EXPLAINS and

EXPLORES the art
PROCESS
Play CHALLENGES
students to SEARCH their
surroundings, try the
UNLIKELY
Play INSPIRES the artistic
license
Play is the art of
CREATING SURPRISE!

Dare to imagine!
Unflatten the classroom space!
Envision a classroom (or school if you prefer) space designed to educate for an
unknown future. WHAT IF budget were not an issue? WHAT IF policy and
standardized assessment were not an issue? How would you transform how we
currently set up learning environments to meet the needs of global learners and
cultivate creative minds??
As Artist/Researcher/Teachers, you are all touched with a mysterious inspiration!
Pool your disciplined minds and allow a never before conceived of creative
learning space to unfold. You have approximately 45 minutes to draft a plan, you
may construct it, mind map it, draw it, digitally appropriate images to construct
something brand new. How could the design you propose significantly impact the
domain of (art) education?