Do School Kill Creativity?

Here we have a very ejoyable and intersting talk by Sir Ken Robinson on TED were he makes an entertaining and profoundly moving case for creating an education system that nurtures (rather than undermines) creativity.
Seems sometimes that is hard to make it more clear than in his 20 min talk, so please enjoy it:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY

Continuation for Pro-Arts Education

  Other studies have found that art-based education strategies improve the core skills of reading and writing (small children so important start up!), and that integrating visual assessments in addition to written assessments improves students understanding of knowledge.

  The arts provide students with a new language and new set of visual tools and methods to process and articulate their ideas.


  Most significantly teaching with works of art provide opportunity to involve students in critically open-ended conversation: to engage in enquiry that recognises that every student posses, and has the right to posses , their own interpretation of the image and events that they observe around them.

   This idea and the dynamic pedagogical space it creates can teach students to develop their own analyses and opinions about the meaning of the past and present, and support their ability to communicate, believe in, and defend their ideas.

Book of Spring-land intstallation TrinityCollege Dublin University

Few Reports Pro-

  Last few decades, brought suggestions that art based education holds enormous possibilities for traditional education.
Not only is art education proven to develop the critical and creative thinking capacities of young people, reports demonstrates that students who consistently participate in art education are more engaged and successful, and have better communication skills than other students.

  A Carnegie Foundation report recently found that students who
"consistently participate in comprehensive, sequential, and rigorous  art programme" are four times more likely to be recognise for academic achievements and to participate in math and science fairs, and three times more likely to be elected to leadership positions within their school attendance, (Heath, Stanford University&Carnegie Foundation, 1998).

Studio expierience; www.beatapiekarskadaly.com

Active but unfocused attention

[There is an area of the nervous system to which the texture of paint communicates more violently than anything else]


                              Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon Figures in a Garden,circa 1936, curtesy of Tate Modern, London

Overloaded by Pictures

  We live in a visual culture.
There is nothing new in saying it,
 however not anymore.
We have so many ways of representing human experience
are now common place.
  (...) "human experience is now more visual and visualised than ever before from satellite pictures to medical images of the interior of human body", remind us Nicholas Mirzoeff,(1999)'(1). Our students not only are extremely familiar with visual symbols and communication, but are often target of this messaging.
 Visual imagery saturates their (Our)daily existence, and they are perhaps more likely to learn about history, geography, biology,(or other disciplines) from television, film, video games, and photographs then from reading. And while students are learning how to negotiate every aspect of contemporary existence in this increasingly visual culture, educators cannot ignore the visual nature of students' lives, no matter what subject they teach!


The stakes of this endeavour are high.

(1) Mirzoeff, N. (1999). Introduction to visual culture. London; Routledge

Creativity and Science

 Todays enjoyable "snak" of Innovation/Creativity I would recomend Mr Charles Limb TED's talk.  Musician and researcher Charles Limb wondered how the brain works during musical improvisation -- so he put jazz musicians and rappers in an fMRI to find out. What he and his team found has deep implications for our understanding of creativity of all kinds.

Please enjoy short TED-talk by Mr Charles Limb here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BomNG5N_E_0



It is very interesting how certain part of brain deactivate and activate during improvisation and  memorised learned experience.


My one of favourities is BOLD Imaging, which exactly is Blood Oxigen Level Dependent.


Wonderful challenge as well for finding an answer to:


What is creative genious?
Why does the brain seek creativity?
How do we acquire creativity?
What factors disrupt crearivity?
Can creative behaviour be learned?


 Thank You Mr Limb.

Sa yo nara
B
 Some pictures one (A)of a brain second (B)of Tractographic reconstruction of neural connections via DTI, from web.

             A           B       

For more mRi pictures go to http://www.ucl.ac.uk/medphys/research/mri/Methods

IMAGINE, CONTEMPORARY EDUCATION THROUGH CONTEMPORARY ART

   Amid all the educational debate surrounding rigid unimaginative tests, classroom scripts, and bureaucratic mandates, this blog is a “free flow” of opinion from different disciplines, such as for instance: anthropology, sociology, educational research in music, all visual aspects of contemporary art, including multimedia through science experience-insist on an alternative set of educational priorities that promote engagement with creative and critical thinking.

  As a visual artist and educator I will with all my strength promote and support experientially-grounded, practically-minded pedagogical investigation meant to push teachers and students to think critically without sacrificing their ability to succeed in a standard-driven education climate.

 This blog seek to illuminate the essential connection between theory and practice that connotes the teaching/learning experience.

  Very crucial are the stories and experiences of people who strive both to critically analyze and challenge oppressive relationships and institutions, and to imagine and create a more just and inclusive alternative.

   I shall support my experience and writings about “critical visual strategies” by ever-growing empirical research in all disciplines; for instance in the next blog I will introduce very interesting groundbreaking studies by Doctor Charles Limb and the importance of improvisation in our life and education. Sa yo nara!

                                                                                                                                B.