Enhancing Creativity IV

Psychological distancing in Kyrgyzstan

computer collage

©2010 Charlene Brown

Applying psychological distance means thinking of a problem as being far away geographically and/or in the future… Is this why we produce those high-flying, all-powerful ‘To Do Tomorrow’ lists at the end of the day?

This technique makes people approach a problem or project in more abstract terms and has been shown to facilitate a more creative, less inhibited, approach. Seeing a problem from another person’s perspective may achieve psychological distance. Thinking of a problem situation as if it were unreal and unlikely can yield a ‘hypothetical’ answer. Or a graphic novel. 

 

Enhancing Creativity III

Incubating an idea
watercolour and crayon
©2016 Charlene Brown

Take a break from solving a problem and do something else. It is important that this break takes place after giving the problem some thought, so that the break provides an incubation period for any ideas you may have begun to form.I should mention right now that the ‘break’ pictured here at the top of the Sea-to-Sky Gondola took place during our annual Mothers Day weekend in Squamish.  

I had not given any thought at all to the ‘problem’ of taking an online Psychology of Creativity course which was to begin the day after Mothers Day, and thus had no preparatory ideas to incubate. Anyway, misleading painting title aside, when we returned home Sunday night, I found a lot of preliminary reading and a long interactive lesson module in my email Inbox. Long story short, I got through it in time for the first 10 am live computer session Monday morning – even after the belated discovery that it started at 10 am Eastern time (7 am Pacific) but I digress…

Back to the concept of incubating an idea.  A nap that achieves REM sleep provides the ideal ‘incubation’ period. If the schedule can’t include this, similar benefits can be achieved by doing some mind-numbing (and mind-wandering-inducing) task during the break.

This has been tested in a controlled laboratory setting with boring computer tasks, but most of us are already aware that boring jobs encourage daydreaming. Isn’t it great that scientists have shown this is a good thing!

 

Enhancing Creativity II

Flexibility at the Ribat of Monastir
watercolour
©2006 Charlene Brown

In addition to idea generation, true creativity involves evaluating your options, according to a study printed in NeuroImage in 2011. This theory was tested by students from the Emily Carr University of Art + Design in Vancouver.

To distinguish between the generative and evaluative components of creativity and measure them separately as much as possible, they were asked to design illustrations for book covers on an fMRI-compatible drawing tablet while inside a brain scanner. They were to come up with ideas for their sketches for 30 seconds and then spend 20 seconds evaluating what they had sketched.

Activity in various areas of the brain was measured throughout the exercise. The results supported the hypothesis that the posterior (temporal and occipital) lobes of the brain are more associated with generative thinking and the prefrontal cortex is more associated with evaluative thinking. It also appeared that creativity involves a rapid shifting between these two processes ─ cognitive flexibility. 

Other researchers have developed mental exercises that could stimulate this cognitive flexibility – including performing common tasks in an unconventional manner.  I chose this painting of the Ribat, an Islamic fort, at Monastir, Tunisia to illustrate this point. 

The painting was compiled from two photos I took from the fort in the centre of the picture. The view on the left, above (looking north) was reversed so that the painting appears to be the view from the far distance, behind the Bourghiba Mausoleum looking south toward the fort. The view, on the right, above (looking south) to the Bourghiba residence remains (roughly) as photographed.

I often rearrange the components of a landscape to improve the composition of a painting, but a complete reversal like this is unusual.

 

 

Enhancing Creativity I

Lowering cognitive control

Computer drawing

Research that our Psychology of Creativity instructor, Evangelia G. Chrysikou, had done indicated that techniques for boosting creative potential may involve lowering cognitive control ─ breaking down established ways of viewing the world or invoking unconscious thought processes.

This helps overcome functional fixedness and puts people in a more open state of mind for problem-solving.

At my daughter‘s birthday party about fifty years ago, I tried lowering cognitive control by overcoming functional fixedness – the idea there is ‘one right way’ of doing something – with an elephant drawing competition. 

Without mentioning that they were supposed to be drawing an elephant, I gave the following instructions:

• Draw a circle in the upper left part of the paper.
• Draw eight vertical parallel lines in the lower right part.
• Add two short curved lines and one long curved line to the circle.
• Draw a little circle inside the first circle and a big floppy circle beside it. 
• Draw an oval that touches the first circle and runs along the top of the parallel lines.

My favourite drawing looked like the computer painting above, as I recall (remember that was before we had digital cameras so we didn’t take pictures of everything we saw). It won for ‘best use of colour‘ and did well in the ‘best legs‘ category, but placed well down in the ‘looks like an elephant‘ part of the competition. I remember thinking this drawing would have done well in a 'looks like a moose‘ contest...

The generic parts technique that I used in the elephant-drawing contest above is one way of doing this ─ by describing something in terms of its generic features rather than its actual name or function.

 I will write more blog posts about creativity-enhancing research as well as my take on how the theories involved can be applied by artists.

Historiometrics

Serapeum at Alexandria

Computer painting

(This painting doesn’t actually exist except on my computer.)

©2013 Charlene Brown

A little background ─ after Alexander the Great conquered Egypt in the 4th century BCE, a combined Hellenistic-Egyptian god in human form was introduced to reconcile the two belief systems. An impressive temple was built (apparently vaulted in lodestone) that housed a colossal wood and iron statue of Serapis “which was neither supported on a base, nor attached to the wall by any brackets, but remained suspended.”

Later Christians considered this engineering feat diabolical trickery and the temple was ordered destroyed in the 4th century CE.

This miraculously suspended statue of Sirapis may not have actually existed, which would account for its absence in the list of the Seven Wonders of the World…

. . . . . 

Historiometrics is a quantitative method for the study of creativity and its sociocultural context. The technique depends on the scientific analysis of retrospective biographical references and historic data.

It has been used by D.K. Simonton to examine different hypotheses about the creative process:

• Psychometric data about creative individuals (skills and knowledge, abilities, attitudes, personality traits, educational achievement, as well as creative precociousness and productivity) is derived from biographical references.
• This is quantified and analyzed, using statistical methods such as factor analysis, multiple regression and hierarchial linear modeling,
• in terms of available information about the individuals’ environments – role model availability, geographical marginality, economic or military/political circumstances during their particular period in history

The next five blog posts will be an updated outline of an online course I completed recently, The Psychology of Creativity, part of the Active Learning program at NYU School of Engineering. The course instructor was Evangelia G. Chrysikou, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Kansas, where she taught cognitive neuroscience and creative cognition. 

Behavioral techniques:

·         Lowering cognitive control

·         Cognitive flexibility in generating and evaluating ideas

·         Incubating ideas

·         Psychological distancing

·         Visualization techniques

 

 

 

 

Sketching an Alaska Cruise VIII

Klawock AK

crayon, ink and watercolour

©2024 Charlene Brown

Klawock, with a population of about 800, is situated on Prince of Wales Island. This is their first year in the cruise ship business, and unlike Ketchikan, less than 90 kilometres away, they are working hard to increase the number of ships visiting there.  (Ketchikan, along with Juneau and Skagway, are looking at restricting the number of cruise ships and some residents are even hoping that occasional cruise-free days can be scheduled!)

As we filed onto Klawock’s brand new docking facility from the Regatta (their third cruise ship ever), we were treated to a Tlingit welcoming ceremony with singing and dancing and refreshments followed by a free shuttle to a unique arts and crafts exhibition and totem carving centre.  The beautiful native work we were shown was probably the most authentic that we saw anywhere in Alaska.    

Sketching an Alaska Cruise VII

Cruise ship terminal, Sitka AK

crayon, ink and watercolour

©2024 Charlene Brown

Russian explorers settled Old Sitka in 1799, naming it Fort of Archangel Michael.  In June 1802, Tlingit warriors destroyed the original settlement, killing many of the Russians. The Russians got it back following the Battle of Sitka in October 1804, and established the rebuilt town as New Archangel which they designated the capital of Russian America.

The original Cathedral of Saint Michael the Archangel was built in Sitka in 1848 and became the seat of the Russian Orthodox bishop of Kamchatka, Alaska, and the Kurile and Aleutian Islands. 

Full disclosure: This cathedral (shown in the painting above) is located in the downtown business district of Sitka, nowhere near the cruise ship terminal.

Russia was going through economic and political turmoil after it lost the Crimean War to Britain, France, and the Ottoman Empire in 1856, and decided it wanted to sell Alaska before British Canadians tried to conquer the territory. Sitka was the site of the transfer ceremony for the Alaska purchase by the United States on October 18, 1867. The purchase price (at 2 cents per acre) was $7.2 million.

Sketching an Alaska Cruise VI

Icy Strait Point from the Skyglider Gondola

crayon, ink and watercolour

©2024 Charlene Brown

In 2001 the Huna Totem Corporation began development of America’s only private cruise ship destination and in 2004, it welcomed its first ship. Icy Strait Point grew steadily each year except for the pandemic years 2020 and 2021, thriving as a cruise port that preserves the character of the local village and Tlingit culture as much as possible.

The Skyglider Gondola took us from Wilderness Landing to the top of the mountain and offers stunning views north over the water toward Glacier Bay National Park. At the top of the mountain there are nature trails through unique wildlife habitat with spectacular views in all directions.

The painting above includes the two huge cruise ships in port at the time we were there, and our smaller ship, Regatta. from which we needed to tender ashore.  Tendering, in the ship’s lifeboats – which were nowhere near as the luxurious as the ship itself ─ was required quite frequently on this cruise because the number of cruise ships plying South-east Alaska often exceeds the docking facilities available. I’ll write more about that in my blog post about Klawock in two weeks.

Map showing the northernmost portion of our cruise