FLOW

So, I am taking 3 MOOCs at the moment.
One of which is 'Creativity, Innovation and Change'.
The discussion threads have proved thought provoking, fluffy and borderline absurd - all the things you'd expect on a course on creativity..

The paradox goes something like:
1: Hey! here's an undefined concept
2: this is what I think, what do you think?
3. Mazes, laterals, semantics, messy balls, personal experiences ~ attempts at answers
4. Hey! what about cognition..
5. Back to number 1.

Quite fun circular narratives going on.

It's interesting that the discussion forums are reflecting the course subject. I would say, compared to other forums they are more creative in nature. My observation is merely based on the divergency of topics and willingness it seems for people to speak up and not be judged.
Growth from the content seed - this is what I think makes a MOOC successful.

It seems we are attempting to discuss aspects of phenomenology and cognitive science without having prior knowledge of the subject or language.

One thing we all seem to agree upon is that creativity is a process, which involves problem solving and a mix of convergent and divergent thinking to come up with a solution.

Beyond that there is no agreed upon definition. Sometimes I wonder if creativity is even a thing. It seems likely that the term only exists socio-culturally and not as something that we (our 'our brains' ((ew so brain-centric)) enact. Is creativity not just life?

(Though I did recently read this article which convinced me of a bit more of the neuro aspect).

Words and definitions are frustrating, cos words are just concepts existing logically. So then, we ask, what are the signifiers of 'creativity'? and agin, I say everything. What is not creative? well...pah.

Everyone is creative. Interestingly, after completing the KAI test I found that I am on the Adaptive end of the spectrum (below) (I attempted to answer the questions truthfully but honestly I hate these things as i usually don't agree with any of the options)




This pretty much means that I prefer working around and with structure. Which makes sense for me on lots of levels.

Really, in situ, I see myself as continually switching in some sort of quantum way between/ all over/ up and around the entire spectrum. Thinking, as we know - activates ALL parts of the brain in complex ways. I believe when you incorporate even a few factors like pressure, time, mood and coffee the diagram would be more like a fractal chaos network then this bell curve thing.

Come on! When are we going to stop using 2D euclidean representations! Perhaps they could come up with an algorithm for creativity and then feed it into Mandelbulb ;)

FLOW. One of the posts was on FLOW. and being in 'the zone' you know when you're really into your work - and time flys? that's creativity. When you are riding the wave and things are connecting into place. A 'jam'.

That's what every artist I know lives for.

That's life.

Use whatever words or language you need in order to make sense to your self.

And then, believe in it.

1 comment:

  1. Cinema of the World's adress is still worldscinema.org. can you change it ?

    ReplyDelete