Monday 2 February 2015

Creativity



While listening to Episode 70 of the Osher Günsberg Podcast with Stephen Herchen I found myself drawn to an example of creativity that could probably be applied to any field, but reminds me particularly of the developing works I see in the Drama classroom.

I've condensed the audio a little by removing some of the conversational elements so it sounds a little more declarative than it does in the original, but I don't think I've altered the intent of the words in any way.

How do you make something exist if it didn't exist previously? You have to start from something that you know. The elegance of the creative process is in being able to find or choose a starting point and then figure out how to manipulate what you have in order to produce a result.

And what of the result? How do you know you have achieved what you set out to achieve? You test it, even if you can't see what it is that you're testing. Throw some light on it and see how the light reacts.

Bringing it back to the classroom - my advice to students is to be prepared to show your work before you can see what it is that you're testing. By 'throwing some light' on your creation, you might just develop a better understanding of what it is that you've created.

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