EDN Themes: Art & Creativity

Listed below are entries for the Art & Creativity theme. Related entries can be found through keyword searches. For example, creativity can be found in other themes. Using Google "Search This Site" to do a keyword search for "creativity" reveals related entries in other themes.

Artwork: "It's Religion That Uses Electronic Machines To Command The Brain"

In Paris Revolts Over Morbid Artwork Alex Duval Smith reports that people are deeply disturbed about a new art exhibit called Plancher de Jeannot (Jeannot's Floorboards) at the Bibliotheque Nationale de Franc. The artwork consists solely of eighty lines of text - there are no images - carved into the floorboards. An excerpt from the floorboards reveals what many consider to be insane perceptions...

Creative Process: Jerry Wennstrom - Wandering

The creative process is a highly individualized form of exploration. It is inexorably linked to life experiences and cannot be reduced to a generic model. Learning our own unique creative process is an act of lifelong perpetual discovery - an exploration deep within the heart, mind and spirit where the paradox of the beautiful and the horrific find a sense of unity. Jerry Wennstrom describes his creative process as a form of "wandering" through "frightening territory" in pursuit of a "shimmering allurement." To me, this reveals insight into his perceptual acuity - an area of learning that I believe is greatly undervalued if not ignored in our systems of education and training. Here is Jerry's own description of his creative process with two samples of his artwork, and my own interpretation of his thoughts...

Creative Process: Tension - Artists of the Living

A basic conflict for an artist is to find a way embrace their own individual creative perception and expression within a society characterized by the pursuit materialism. The material world is not one that embraces the creative imagination in any meaningful way; the artistic world is not one that embraces the economy of things as a source or purpose for living. In a sense, the artist is in a constant battle for survival and a war for the preservation and expansion of soul. Irene Claremont de Castillejo captures the artist's internal conflict (bold and italics are mine)...

Creative Thinking: Don Quixote - The Inconveniences of Learning

The idea that learning can present inconveniences in life brings us closer to the idea that learning is not always comfortable. Perhaps one of the most immediate images this statement brings to mind is the period of time immediately leading up to an important test or examination. Most of us experience a degree of stress and tension during these periods. These are moments in time that are summative, in other words, moments in time in which we will find out if we are ready for what we having working to prepare for.

In Cervantes' Don Quixote I came across an interesting statement that focused on the inconveniences of learning...

Expression: The Arts Intellectual

The Arts are an essential element of culture that give life vibrancy and depth of meaning. They are essential to our identity. There is, it seems to me, a general cultural decline in Art. Music, visual arts, drama and other artistic pursuits are in decline not only in education, but across society in general. It seems as though artistic endeavour, whether it be in education or entertainment, are becoming increasing marginalized.

For example, the music industry has become so dominated by corporate interests that creativity has become formula. In education systems, the arts have been dominated by technique over substance. In The Advancement of Learning four qualities of an Arts Intellectual are introduced...

Identity: Ken Harvey - The Town That Forgot How To Breathe

Ken Harvey's The Town That Forgot How To Breathe is an exciting and fast-paced novel that portrays what can happen to people when they lose their identity...

Improvisation: Keith Jarrett - The Koln Concert

There are certain musical performances that bring us into close proximity to the precise center of improvisation. Keith Jarrett's 1975 performance in Koln Germany is one of these rare performances [The Koln Concert: MP3 | CD]. The entire concert is a solo piano performance completely improvised in the moment. We often think of musical improvisation as an extemporaneous performance based on an underlying chord and/or rhythmic progression. In other words, there is a basic underlying ground or form present. In the case of The Koln Concert, Jarrett took the stage without any predetermined conceptions about what he would play. The only underlying ground on the stage was the immediate expression of the moment...

Mystery: Learning To Walk In The Unknown

Mystery invokes learning. I use the word invoke to focus my attention on the unknown, or more specifically, what I don't know about learning and life. When we invoke learning we summon ourselves into action or make an attempt to bring something new to us into existence. This helps us to more closely link the idea of learning to the artist's perception. It also helps to retrieve some of the more magical qualities of learning in the moments of quiet awe and wonder we experience at times in our life. In a mythological sense, we are calling down the spirit of learning from the mountain and invite consideration of learning through mystery.

If we are to move forward in our understanding of learning, then it is necessary to invite and contemplate it from a wide variety of perspectives. Too often I see the idea of learning discussed as if it were the exclusive domain of educationalists or corporate idealists. There is, of course, benefit in these perspectives, but left unto themselves they are incomplete and isolated. No one I am aware of can articulate the precise relationship that is imagined to exist between schooling and learning or training and learning. We assume a connection exists, but the nature of that relationship is illusive...

Narrative: Jerry Wennstrom - Interview

Jerry Wennstrom
Jerry Wennstrom is the author of The Inspired Heart: An Artist’s Journey of Transformation. He is also the subject of two Parabola documentary videos, In the Hands of Alchemy: The Life and Art of Jerry Wennstrom directed by Phil Lucas and Mark Sadan and Studio Dialogue directed by Jim Friedrich. The Combined videos are now available a new single DVD distributed by Parabola Magazine: The Society for Myth, Tradition and the Search for Meaning.

Jerry’s web site is The Hands of Alchemy. In this interview with Brian Alger, Jerry Wennstrom explores the role of learning in art, creativity and life. With Jerry's permission, I have added a selection of his artwork that I feel relates directly to the insights he has offered...

Perception: Sensibility vs. Technique

Cynthia has been sharing some interesting perceptions about the importance of artistic expression in her life. In A Day of Rest she provides a quote from "The Smile" by S.S. Curry published in 1915. The quote describes the importance of creativity in the development of perception...

Probe: Learning as Improvisation

Learning and improvisation are intimately related. I would also suggest that they are unavoidably interconnected. In the Arts, improvisation means freedom of expression in the present moment. With respect to learning, improvisation allows us to open ourselves up and literally play with the things that we think, feel and do. Through improvisation we discover our own unique expression and identity through open expression in our own particular circumstance. Improvisation in learning means that there is an authentic and immediate response to a situation. Throughout the confluence of everyday life we are all improvisers...

Research Archive: Art & Creativity

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