Estimated reading time 6 mins
‘Herein lies one significant aspects of the arts – they not only describe experience, they directly manifest experience.’ (Franklin, 2012:90).
Whilst writing my arts based, autoethnographic Masters Research project I looked at readings to support my investigation into what enables and inhibits my own art making. I identified theories on threshold concepts and creativity to gain new insights into my own thinking.
In parallel with the reading and writing of my literature review I was also experimenting with art making based around the colour Blue. I had read that William Gladstone noticed the lack of a word for the colour blue in Homeric writing (Deutscher 2011) and Solnit (2006:29) writes;
‘The world is blue at its edges and in its depths. This blue is the light that got lost’.
This idea of blue getting lost or not existing was quite fascinating to me and I pursued the abstract capturing of blue through a process of cyanotype light and shadow photography. These pieces were experimental, ethereal, digital pieces that didn’t really exist, and there was a sense of other worldliness about them. But I had yet to find any true meaning to them.
A serendipitous critical incident occurred prompted by an invitation for consideration of submissions of art work to illustrate Flow at the Glass Tank, Oxford Brookes.
Immediately I knew I had a piece that illustrated that feeling for me, a small video clip of dancing light and shadow.
This video was a visual representation of my own flow experience, a flurry of activity, excitement and being in the moment. May (1975:122-123) suggests a feeling of ‘mild ecstasy’ as ‘order comes out of disorder, form out of chaos’. The meaning of ecstasy in Greek is ‘to stand outside of yourself’ (Greenfield, 2016:9) and Csikszentmihalyi (2004) suggests it is a step into an ‘alternative reality’. At this stage an individual might encounter a transformation of thinking and period of new growth.
I was suddenly aware of having visual pieces that corresponded to many of the stages I was discussing in my written work. It had become self-referential and my own visual meta narrative was emerging of the creative process.
May (1975) suggests an artist is first absorbed by something physical or conceptual, calling this an encounter.
This encounter was with the colour Blue.
Boden (2004) talks of conceptual spaces or styles of thinking.
A sort of abstract space which individuals utilise for surprising thought generation, where one could get lost in thinking.
During the creative process one crosses a threshold and enters the unknown, ‘passing through a portal’ (Land et al, 2010: ix).
A place of potential danger and unease (Schwartzman, 2010).
Stepping through the portal may not reveal a Eureka moment, but rather an entry into a liminal space.
This can be heuristic and ‘sometimes experienced as oscillative’ (Land et al, 2014 A: 2).
Time in a liminal space can also be a holding place for creativity within art making, a fluid state and an emergent space (Land et al, 2014B).
A liminal space can provide time for a shift of awareness from aesthetic to conceptual. To value process and have the courage that something will be revealed that was not previously imagined (Hamlyn, 2011).
It allows for ideas which are exciting and unpredictable. A time of many possibilities in which thoughts and concepts are constantly evolving.
A threshold concept is not solitary and often shares a border with other thresholds making them bounded (Hill, 2010; Meyer & Land 2003)
and there might be a struggle to cross these boundaries as troublesome knowledge is encountered.
It is not an easy space to traverse and an individual might encounter
‘stuckness’ (Savin-Baden, 2008:76) or ‘defensiveness’(Schwartzman, 2010:34).
Tensions might arise as new knowledge questions previous ways of thinking and doing.
and sometimes learning might be suspended.
An individual might resort to ‘mimicry or lack of authenticity’ in order to
find a way out (Land et al, 2014 A:2).
However a period of inactivity allows the subconscious to process thoughts and allow creativity to develop through day dreaming or reverie (Koestler, 1964; May, 1975).
It is the time in-between thinking or whilst thinking of something else
that creative ideas emerge allowing access to senses and feelings that are richer and deeper (Boden, 2004).
Being in ‘flow’ happens when creativity is in full force and one is lost in the moment.
As I reviewed my art work a visual narrative unfolded of the direct subjective experience of my creative process (Greenfield, 2016), a visual manifestation of my own understanding (Franklin, 2012) and one I couldn’t have imagined or visualised at the beginning of my research . The creative process is not linear or guaranteed, but recursive, risky and a step into the unknown.
References:
Boden, M. (2nd Ed) (2004)The Creative Mind .Myths and mechanisms. Routledge. London.
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2004) Flow. The secret to happiness. TED2004
https://www.ted.com/talks/mihaly_csikszentmihalyi_flow_the_secret_to_happiness/transcript?language=en Accessed 15/04/2020
Franklin, M.A (2012) Know thyself: Awakening self-referential awareness through art-based research. Journal of Applied Arts & Health, Volume 3, Number 1. 87-96
Greenfield, S. (2016) A Day in the life of the Brain. The neuroscience of Consciousness from Dawn Till Dusk. Penguin Books. Kindle edition
Hamlyn, J. (2011) Ten Threshold Concepts in Fine Art. Blog accessed 19/03/2020
Hill, S. (2010) Troublesome Knowledge: why don’t they understand? Health and Libraries Journal, 27, 80-83. Health and Libraries Group
Koestler, A. (1964) The Act of Creation. Hutchinson & Co. (publishers) Ltd. London.
Land, R. ,Meyer, J.H.F. and Baillie, C. (eds) (2010) Editors’ Preface: Threshold Concepts and Transformational Learning, in: Threshold Concepts and Transformational Learning. Sense Publishers. Rotterdam.
Land, R., Rattray, J. and Vivian, P. (2014 A) ‘Learning in the liminal space: a semiotic approach to threshold concepts.’ Higher education., 67 (2),199-217.
Land, R., Rattray, J., and Higgs, B. (2014 B) Ch 1; A Closer Look at Liminality: Incorrigibles and Threshold Capital: From Personal Practice to Communities of Practice. Proceedings of the National Academy’s Sixth Annual Conference and the Fourth Biennial Threshold Concepts Conference [E-publication] O’Mahony, C. Buchanan, A. O’Rourke, M. and Higgs, B. (eds).
May, R. (1975) The Courage to Create. W.W. Norton & Company. Inc. New York.
Meyer, E. and Land, R. (2003) Threshold Concepts and Troublesome Knowledge: Linkages to Ways of Thinking and Practising within the Disciplines. Occasional Report 4. Economic and Social Research Council© ETL Project, Universities of Edinburgh, Coventry and Durham, 2003.
Savin-Baden, M. (2008) Liquid Learning and Troublesome Spaces: Journeys from the Threshold? pp75-88 in Threshold Concepts within the Disciplines. Land, R., Meyer, J.H.F. and Smith, J. (eds) series: Educational Futures, volume:16 e-book https://brill.com/view/book/edcoll/9789460911477/BP000007.xml accessed 29/03/2020
Schwartzman, L. (2010) Ch 3. Transcending Disciplinary Boundaries: A Proposed Theoretical Foundation for Threshold Concepts, in: Threshold Concepts and Transformational Learning, Land, R., Meyer, J.H.F. and Baillie, C. (eds) Sense Publishers. Rotterdam.
Solnit, R. (2006) A Field Guide to Getting Lost. Cannongate Books. Edinburgh.
CREATIVE PROCESSES 