1. Creative Thinking and Creative Action One of the Signs of an Educated Person

2. Siena Heights University’s Art Department Learning Outcomes 1. Fundamentals of Technique and Design 2. Productivity and Creative Experimentation utilizes the Studio beyond classroom expectations works productively and diligently practices creative and technical exploration and experimentation sees value in unexpected results 3. Personal and/or Cultural Identity 4. Critical Thinking and Ethical Behavior 5. Speaking, Reading and Writing 6. Art Historical Research 7. Senior Exhibition

3. Siena Heights University’s Liberal Arts Studies Learning Outcomes 1.Liberal Arts Learning 2.Religious Traditions 3.Creativity: –Students will engage in the creative process. –Students will make studio art or participate in a theatrical or musical performance or write creatively. –Students will describe, analyze, and demonstrate the creative process. –Students will take creative risks with self expression. –Students will generate a variety of potential solutions to problems. 4.Critical Thinking 5.Communication 6.Ethical Integration 7.Diversity in Community 8.Social Responsibility

4. What is the definition of “creativity”? According to brain researcher Rex Jung, creativity is defined as “anything that is novel and useful within its social context.”* Novelty means that it is new, original, fresh, alternative, or unprecedented. (If something is novel, it is NOT cliché.) Usefulness suggests that the creative work serves a purpose and becomes meaningful. (Think of the University’s Mission, “…to help students become more competent, purposeful, and ethical…”). However, this does NOT necessarily mean that it must to be functional, like a tea pot or a chair, although it could be.) The requirement of a social context acknowledges that things, images or ideas might gain or lose their novelty and/or usefulness depending on the time and place they appear. *Krista Tippet, “Creativity and the Everyday Brain” (Interview with Rex Jung), On Being with Krita Tippet, American Public Media, March 27, 2012. http://www.onbeing.org/program/creativity-and-everyday-brain/transcript/1882

5. How do you define the key components of “creativity”? “Creativity” can be defined as… “Novelty” is… As it relates to creativity, the term “usefulness” suggests… In terms of creativity, the term “social context” suggests…

6. How do you define the key components of “creativity”? Creativity can be defined as “anything that is novel and useful within its social context.” “Novelty” is an essential part of creativity, and suggests that the creative work is new, original, fresh, alternative, or unprecedented--NOT cliché. As it relates to creativity, the term “usefulness” suggests that the creative work serves a purpose and becomes meaningful. In terms of creativity, the term “social context” suggests how images or ideas might gain or lose their novelty and/or usefulness depending on the time and place they appear.

7. An Example: “Novelty” is an essential part of creativity, and suggests that the creative work is new, original, fresh, alternative, or unprecedented within its social context. Japan had been a mostly closed society until it was opened to trade by Commodore Matthew C. Perry in 1852. At the time, Japanese artists were not considered to be especially novel or creative in Japan because they were working within an established tradition. Prints like this one by Hiroshige Ando sold for just a few cents. Similarly, traditional Japanese art is not especially novel in Europe and America today. Hiroshige Ando, Sudden Shower over Ohashi Bridge, 1857

8. Alexandre Cabanel, Birth of Venus, 1863 Hiroshige Ando, Sudden Shower over Ohashi Bridge, 1857 However, traditional Japanese art, such as this print by Hiroshige Ando, seemed radically new within the social context of 19 th -century Europe. How is this Japanese image of figures near water different from this traditional French image of figures near water? What qualities are new? (Cabanel was one of the most popular French painters of his day. This painting, when it was exhibited in 1863, was immediately acquired by Emperor Napoleon III for his private collection.)

9. Hiroshige Ando’s print offered alternative style of art that served the needs of a few Europeans, such as Van Gogh and his friends. The style of the work came to symbolize anti- establishment values. Hiroshige Ando, Sudden Shower over Ohashi Bridge, 1857 Vincent van Gogh, Bridge in the Rain (after Hiroshige ), 1887

10. Many members of Van Gogh’s generation were struggling with dramatic social, religious, economic and political changes, including industrialization, urbanization, and secularization. Japan, closed to the West for so long, seemed to offer an alternative to European industrialization. The qualities of modern European life disturbed Van Gogh so much that he left Paris and moved to Southern France, which he referred to as “my Japan.” Useful suggests that the creative work serves a purpose and becomes meaningful within this social context.

11. Back to Rex Jung: According to Jung, creative thinking is not separate from intelligence. He dispels the popular, though inaccurate notion of the creative, spatial right brain and the intelligent, linear left brain. In fact, he says that creative thinking depends on information already stored in all regions of the brain. *Krista Tippet, “Creativity and the Everyday Brain” (Interview with Rex Jung), On Being with Krita Tippet, American Public Media, March 27, 2012. http://www.onbeing.org/program/creativity-and-everyday-brain/transcript/1882

12. According to Rex Jung, knowledge acquisition is important because it provides the raw materials for creativity. Intelligence refers to acquired knowledge and can be measured (I.Q.), and is an accurate predictor of longevity as well as success in education and work. But intelligence is not necessarily a predictor of how creative someone will become. Intelligence requires the development of quick and efficient connections in the brain. We must expend considerable energy to create these connections and to have them function like well- worn roads. (These roads are organized by the frontal lobes of the brain.) *Krista Tippet, “Creativity and the Everyday Brain” (Interview with Rex Jung), On Being with Krita Tippet, American Public Media, March 27, 2012. http://www.onbeing.org/program/creativity-and-everyday-brain/transcript/1882 Frontal lobes of the brain

13. Creativity, however, requires us to suppress the frontal lobes of the brain so that novel paths can be made. Jung calls this “transient hypo-frontality,” which means that we temporarily suppress the frontal lobes of the brain. It allows the brain to get out of its ruts, investigate novel paths, and “meander around to put ideas together.” In this sense, creative thinking (transient hypo-frontality) is the act of building new roads between existing destinations in the intelligent brain.

14. How can you induce creative thinking (transient hypo-frontality)? Jung recommends that you first acquire knowledge, ponder solutions, and then try: Meditation Analysis of dream states, when the frontal lobes are naturally suppressed. Physical activity to leaves the mind free, including exercise, such as yoga, and household chores