Readings

Summary for “Thinking Outside and On the Box”

Main Idea: In Julia Marshalls article called “Thinking Outside and On the Box”, she touches on the idea that the art classroom is one of the best places for the cultivation of creativity. The way in which she explains this is by discussing creativity theory and ways in which young artists were able to articulate creative thinking through the Invention and Packaging Art Project.

Supporting Key Concepts:

·      The Wallas Stages of Creativity show four stages of the creative process (preparation, incubation, illumination, and verification). The creativity process coincides with this idea of the Wallas Stages of Creativity in a way that we as artists use to create new work that has a lot of deep meaning and thought put into it.

·      The theories of creativity impart understanding for artists in their goal to make new artwork that is unique. The invention projects undertook by the students used these theories to prove that art making indeed facilitates creative thinking.

·      Creative processes, as a form of learning is the way in which most liberal arts programs teach art to their students. It has been proven effective and is shown in the articles talk about the invention projects that the students had to take on.

·      The Invention and Packaging Art Project shows that creative theory can be quite affective in teaching art students how to think creatively and to make something new that communicates effectively.

Example and Assessment: One of the ideas, or phases, of creative theory was the “mine and extract” phase of creativity, which means to unearth underlying ideas and potential for the project. The author uses the example of the Invention and Packaging art projects to show that this process is supposed to challenge students to think about imagery and how it might be applied to a project for effective communication. This is a good example as to how art making facilitates the creative process and how they go hand in hand.

Personal Response: My personal response to this reading is that I find this way of teaching and thinking is very present in the art classes that I have been taking while here at GV. I think that this is exactly how most of my graphic design projects specifically are thought of, and the research and process to get to the end product is very much the same.

Questions: How might we use this way of thinking in our future careers? Is this how we are going to think about art in this class for the future?

“Paradigms in Creativity”

Main Idea: This article identifies 3 main paradigms in creativity theory and research in psychology (the He, I, and We-paradigm). He-paradigms focus on the solitary genius, I-paradigms is individual but related to each and every person, while the We-paradigm incorporates what became known as the social psychology of creativity. This article goes further in investigating creative acts and their psychological roots based on a framework of self, community, new artifact, and existing artifacts.

Supporting Key Concepts:

·      The author states that “the number of ways in which creativity has been theorized and the variety of domains it has been applied to is impressive.” From cognitive science, behavioral, and problem solving tendencies, there is a diverse range of studies on the matter.

·      The three categories of paradigms are also referred to as: the genius stage, the creative person stage, and the “social” stage.

·      “The He-paradigm, based on the individuality, insight, outstanding ability and fertility of the genius, gives an elitist and essentialist account of creativity”

·      The idea behind the I-paradigm was to instill the idea that anyone can be creative, an idea not used with the He-paradigm. “With this shift, the use of the term genius declined leaving space for notions like gifted and creative.”

·      Qualified creativity as a quality of the lone individual.

o   “Overall, taking into account both theory and research methods, it could be said that the I-paradigm largely encouraged methodological reductionism by focusing on intrapsychic processes to the exclusion of other levels.”

·      The We-paradigm addresses the idea that creativity is and can originate from externalities, such as culture, other people, and outside perspectives. Described as the “result of human interaction and collaboration.

Example and Assessment

An example that I think emulates the concepts presented in this reading would be when we critique work in any drawing, illustration, or graphic design class. The exchange of ideas, thoughts, and opinions really helps push the creative process along. We all need culture and social interaction as a means to be creative. Without them, our ideas and creations can’t exactly relate to other people.

Personal Response

My personal response to the reading is that it’s very interesting to see how the psychology and science behind creativity has evolved into how we define creativity today. I agree that creativity is a process and talent that is fueled or instilled by culture and other people. Social interaction definitely is a big part of the creative process.

Questions

Some questions that I had included how can we better our creative thinking within a social context and possibly in a personal context? Also, how can creative acts evolve as we grow in knowledge?

“Designing in Digital” Reading Response

Main Idea: This article talks about digital design and how we should be designing to “mimic what we like.” In this reading, there is an in depth look at some design issues that are talked about through discussion. The article also discusses two movies, with illustrations, to examine a number of choices that are fairly typical in the early stages of digital media design.

Supporting Key Concepts:

·      “Design is the method of putting form and content together. Design, just as art, has multiple definitions; there is no single definition. Design can be art. Design can be aesthetics. Design is so simple, that’s why it is so complicated” (Paul Rand).

o   Defamiliarizing of the ordinary

o   Taking something that is so simple, three letters in a logo, and make those letters seem iconically extraordinary. These are one of the many challenges that designers must face.

·      You don’t have to suffer an endless design process to surprise us. You simply need to think about how in the choices you are making, you are challenging yourself to not go with what is blindingly obvious. Allow for happy accidents, where an image that was meant for one part of the story, ends up as illustrating something completely different.

·      Simple choices, but seen as a system of thinking.

·      Rob was able to create the story/design through use of

o   Making one picture become many pictures.

o   Working within the frame, or using the frame to your advantage.

o   Visual pacing, or timing in the case of Rob’s Camaro project

o   Implicit use of images

o   Panning and zooming

·      We have found in our process, as well as in considering the processes of other artists, that often what is finished, polished, and refined becomes over-polished and over-refined and lacks the directness and spontaneity of the initial drafts.

·      Intuition is the largest part of experimentation.

Examples and Assessment: An example that I can relate to is one of the designs I made for my graphic design class. For one project we had to make a multi page magazine design for a topic of our choosing. I choose to do a vacation themed magazine, which included three articles, two advertisements, front and back cover, and a table of contents. The idea was to make the pages and layouts feel copasetic and related to each other throughout the magazine. This I believe is a good example as to how design should have good pacing, an implicit use of images, and using unifying elements to tie the spreads together.

Personal Response: I think that the article does a good job of describing the creative process that a designer would go through, as well as providing great examples of how that process would go down in different situations. The creative process varies depending on the project and must be treated accordingly. A design is a sum of many different parts that work together to compliment the subject matter. This includes typography, imagery, placement of elements, and much more.

Summary 9: Ethics in Visual Research

Main Idea: This article has three main purposes; to discuss ethical considerations as a vital part of all research, to highlight issues, which are of importance to visual research, and to show a coding system used throughout the article as an easy way of thinking about ethics in visual research.

Key Points:

·      Ethics treated usually, almost as an afterthought. Usually scattered throughout texts, or not even included at all.

·      The act of seeing comes with responsibilities, that the active researcher has to be able to justify his or her actions. A little more forethought can later save time.

·      Two main issues regarding research ethics; acting with integrity, and respecting the rights to others.

·      The best time to consider ethics in research is; before you start researching, while you are researching, and when you are analyzing and presenting the results of your research

o   Preparation, Fieldwork, and Post Research Phase

·      Though ethics constantly change over time, there is always disagreement between the details of those ethics.

·      A huge advantage of visual research is that unlike many other forms of social research, direct interaction with people and the need to elicit responses from them is often eliminated. Instead, information is gathered by observation.

·      The Internet has significant advantages, which include the ever-growing volume of data available, and the ease with which they can often be accessed. It alleviates the necessity of interacting with people at all, instead offering a feast of existing data ready for the visual researcher to use.

·      Ethics symbols come in many different forms, and add greater meaning to the project you are working on.

o   Deception or manipulation, observing and objectifying people by looking covertly from a distance, intimate or detailed observations of personal places or behavior, and the possibility of causing discomfort or concern.

Example and Assessment: When it comes to using ethical symbols in research, consider the activities involved, the settings in which they are occurring, and any cultural expectations or societal events, which ought to be factored in. With some consideration and planning, your research can be enjoyable.

Personal Response: My personal response to this article is that I agree with what the author is trying to say, that ethics should be considered in all research and not put to the side as something of lesser importance.  It can facilitate a higher form of learning through research and is far more efficient to the overall process.

Questions: What other ethics symbols can be used in the research process, and how can ethics based research be taught in the classroom?