Crikey, what a flurry of activity!

Three (four?) more heretical offerings:

1. At a keynote at the DRHA conference in Dartington on 2007 (I
think) the speaker proposed that our entire discourse and,
ultimately, our actual practice is being shaped/changed/corrupted(?)
by the current obsession (in research funding but also in society)
with process rather than product. It is no longer sufficient to
create or do - one must document the process to get any recognition.
The outcome is no longer regarded as evidence of a legitimate
activity that led to that outcome. (This argument leads into
dangerous waters if you consider current attempts to narrow the gap
between, say, actor or musician training - which historically was not
regarded as an 'academic' route - and university courses in theatre
studies or music. For the professional actor or instrumentalist the
only valid and necessary judgement may be of the performance on the
night (and the certainty of reliable excellence in new
circumstances/performances). For the practice-as-research student,
the process of getting there has to be scrutinised.

2. The focus on process rather than product may be linked to the way
in which 'talent' is now a disputed or even forbidden term.

3. It's never wise to rely on people's autobiographies for an account
of the process that got them to the position of being famous enough
for anyone to be interested in their working process!


I'm with Jenny in thinking maybe creativity isn't a 'thing' which we
can get closer to by careful study and more precise words. I think
it's more likely an effect that we have (quite rightly) developed a
name for. A set of behaviours and outcomes tempts us to assume that
there is a creator agency called creativity, in the same way that the
existence of the world leads us to assume that there is a creator
agency called God. This is an essential human activity - but we
haven't had a lot of success in finding or describing 'it' - only
better descriptions of the 'evidence'.

Regards,

Lisa


>I am with Jenny here--I have been struck by the way artists and
>designers use their sketchbooks or journals to develop ideas- and
>have developed something similar to record the process of developing
>as a researcher for an EdD. I have found that by using techniques
>associated with visualisation and developing skills and awareness
>associated with drawing, that I am revealing ideas to myself that I
>did not know existed, and making them tangible, available for
>revisiting. Sometimes these do not appear to be 'creative' to me-
>but other people think they are, so my 'creative' is different to
>someone else's.
>
>In my work, art and design are informing my research methodology and
>my research methodology is becoming a piece of art and design
>
>Hazel Messenger
>
>Currently Snr Lecturer at the University of Hertfordshire
>[log in to unmask] .........about to be made redundant, (31st
>July) then on [log in to unmask]
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: List for people wishing to share knowledge experiences of
>curriculum design
>[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
>Jenny Moon
>Sent: 20 July 2009 13:27
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: FW: How drafts reveal the creative process?
>
>________________________________
>From: Jenny Moon
>Sent: 20 July 2009 12:45
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: FW: How drafts reveal the creative process?
>
>
>________________________________
>From: Jenny Moon
>Sent: 20 July 2009 11:17
>To: List for people wishing to share knowledge experiences of
>curriculum design
>Subject: RE: How drafts reveal the creative process?
>
>I have felt, in this discussion, that there is an underlying sense
>that there is an entity that is called creativity.....that
>ultimately we can fathom completely by clever and precise use of
>language. How about the possibility firstly that there is no one
>entity called creativity - it is a figment in the mind of each of
>us, whether it is derived from personal sensations of being creative
>at times, or from research of literature or of the behaviour of
>others?
>
>Also, how about the possibility that it will not be possible to use
>our tools of language, wonderful though they are, to get at this
>thing called creativity? I think that, in general, but perhaps
>specifically in HE (well - all areas of HE but art and design), we
>assume that we can deal with anything, and come to an understand of
>anything through language. In recent years, I find I have
>increasing doubts about this. I think that much of what we learn
>and work with is what I call 'the unspoken'. It cannot be reached
>or transmitted in language, except perhaps, in example or in the
>development of constrasts.
>
>We have certainly been working with example, but maybe some
>contrasts would be interesting - what I might see as creative in
>contrast to what I see as not creative. In writing or painting,
>sometimes I feel creative and other times I slog and do not feel
>creative. I think that the product may well be the same on both of
>these occasions - which suggests that one large part of my sense of
>what creativity is, is a feeling and perhaps a feeling about an
>outcome.....
>
>Jenny Moon
>
>Dr Jenny Moon, Associate Professor, Centre for Excellence in Media
>Practice, Bournemouth Media School, Bournemouth University.
>

--
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lisa Whistlecroft
Deputy Director

PALATINE: a Subject Centre of the Higher Education Academy
supporting learning and teaching in dance, drama and music

Lancaster University
Email: [log in to unmask]
Tel: +44 (0)1524 593776
WWW: http://www.palatine.heacademy.ac.uk