Session 1

Apr. 21

The Creative Zone

Links

• Jon Jandai, "Life Is Easy; Why Do We Make it So Hard?," TEDxDoiSuthep (2011; video clip, 15:10 min.)

• John Cleese, "Creativity in Management," Video Arts (video clip; 36:09 min.)
• Stuart Hall, "The Work of Representation," Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices (1997; the entire chapter is thought-provoking discussion on communication and meaning but pages 56–58 analyzes Velasquez's Las Meninas which we looked at in class)
• "Chewing Gum Target of Clean-Up Drive," The Huddersfield Daily Examiner (2004)
• "What Is Improv?," The Hideout Theatre
  

In-class writing

• Free Notes: Draw, doodle, jot, comment, connect or whatever expressive response you have as you listen to Jon Jandai's talk at TEDxDoiSuthep.
  
• What Is This?: (5 minutes)  Look at the image on the handout. What is it? Make further additions to the image to reveal what it is.
  
• Free Writing: Change into a different/unfamiliar/unusual/unconventional (ex. take off your shoes, lie down, use the chair as a table/as a bed, go out of class, face the back of the room) but comfortable position to write. Write nonstop for five minutes. Don't worry about punctuation, grammar, logic. Throw your eraser, Wite-Out/Liquid Paper, correction tape away. Let what is in your head flow directly to the tip of your pen.
  
• Listing: (3 minutes)  As fast as you can and without stopping, list in a column down the page words or phrases that come to mind from the color of your M&M. Don't worry about editing or repetition. Just focus on getting down ideas that your mind is associating to at each moment.
  
• Describing Six-Year-Old Memory: (10 minutes)  Remember the posture you used for free writing. Now think about how you sad, moved, and thought ten years ago. Now, go back even further to when you were six years old. How did you sit? What memory from then that captivates you even now? Describe that glimpse of you at six years old, that world that you inhabited, and try to capture the feel of what it was like.
  
• Skit: (15 minutes)  In groups of four, write a very short play putting an idea or issue of your choosing "through its paces," as Bridget Riley says. Each member of your group is a character in the situation that you devise, providing his/her lines and actions: perspective on or provoking through various means critique of the chosen topic. The improvised play must contain the words: table, run, fat, and beautifully. Each character must include somewhere in his or her lines the fifth item in your listing exercise. Give your play a title.
  

Issues: What does creativity need? What are some conditions that encourage creativity? How can you provide yourself with a safe space and tools for doing creative work? What is creative? The creative process; techniques for generating ideas, thinking outside the box, challenging the usual/conventional/familiar; peer critique; limitations and creativity; practice as exploration, enquiry, observation/perception, reflection, research, discovery; how we communicate; what gives meaning in a text?

The Creative Finish

Links

• Dewitt Jones, "Creativity" (video clip; 6:25min.)
• Grey Spain, "Anar Foundation against child abuse needs funds urgently" (2013; video clip, 1:11 min.)
• Matthew May, "The Story Behind the Famous FedEx Logo, and Why It Works," The Laws of Subtraction (2012)
  
• E. B. White, "Notes and Comment," The New Yorker (1969; on the moon landing)

In-class writing

• Word Edit
• Phrase Edit
• Education Cluster Listing
• Education Metaphors
  
• Education Creative Writing
  
• Work Revision