Deconstructing Creativity: Environment

For my masters project the area I want to explore is the intersection of creativity and games, a broad area, but one that allows me to touch on several areas of interest for future research.  Ultimately the project will have a much more narrow focus.  However, at this stage, I am general reflecting and researching in order to better understand what immediate research and design needs exist within emerging creativity studies.

To do this, involves deconstructing creativity, defining its elements so that I might be able to see what areas a game can build skill or confidence.  As it stands, "Creating" or "Synthesis" has long been at the top levels of Bloom's Taxonomy of the Cognitive Domain, being most recently moved to the very highest level.  This suggests that there are many processes and aspects to creativity to consider.

From "Bloom's Taxonomy of Learning Domains"

If you look at the taxonomy, it is clear how many cogs in this domain are relevant to the creative process.  When considering creativity pedagogy or environments to encourage creativity, one must remember the level of cognition necessary, and the structure built up beneath it that allows success at creating.

To deconstruct from here results in a large number of relevant aspects of creativity: environment, motivation, process, and community being paramount.  However, to be more descriptive for the sake of exploring creativity further, I have broken those down into descriptive subsets:  Environment, Motivation, Process, Invention, Reflection, Exhibition.

 

Today I plan to focus on Environment, and explore each other area in depth at a later time.  There is a great deal of content to work with in the concept of a creative environment alone.

Environment

Environment is a significant part of creativity, in that the environment where creativity takes place greatly effects areas such as motivation, process, invention, and even to reflection.  

 RISD, Painting Studio

 

Consider how many traditional creative fields have "studios:" painters, dancers, musicians.  Musicians are also lucky enough to have the term "conservatory," a lovely word that to me emphasizes that those with music skills should be conserved like a natural resource.  Even scientists have laboratories and designers have distinct flavor to their office structures.  Writers often work at coffee shops.  I recount visiting the Rhode Island School of Design, and the comment made by students was that all of the large class studios had large windows facing out into the world.  This was important to the studio, as it extended the environment, added natural light by which to work, and provided inspiration.

 

West Valley University, Dance Studio

New England Conservatory

This points to a problem area I see within K-12 education, that could be a focus of my project.  Creativity is lacking in schools, but if you look at most American classroom spaces, there is no room for creativity, no room for inspiration, or thought.  Most classrooms appear bare and institutional or so busy that there is no room for the child's expression.  Although some of this is likely due to the current focus on achievement tests, that is a more political discussion with a separate place.

 

Why is that important?  According to Druin and Antle, (2009) children use their environment in order to construct new meanings and ideas.

"Children develop knowledge by exploiting external scaffolding or spatial properties of the environment. Meaning is created through restructuring the spatial configuration of elements in the environment. A highly structured environment does not provide opportunities for restructuring and thus limits knowledge construction. What is required is an environment, either computational or otherwise, that supports multiple spatial configurations."

Just look at some "typical classrooms" as searched through google images:

 Note row seating, small desks, fluorescent lighting, no student work on display.

Busy classroom, lots of text, bright colors, little student work on display. The work on display all looks the same.

Jarring, primary colors, fluorescent lighting, window blinds closed, play spaces marginalized on walls, no student work on display.

Now, obviously, most teacher's care about environment, but the environment often isn't emphasizing the use of higher order thinking skills and creativity.  My own classroom environment fell pitfall to support rote memorization, my way or the highway instruction, and a teacher centered environment.

"Beauty inspires us to maintain order. Beauty inspires us to arrange and rearrange materials and spaces. Beauty inspires us to refine our ideas and our environments. Beauty inspires us to look more closely." (Baker et al, 2005)

In looking at studio spaces, environments for creativity there is an element of beauty to each, from wide windows to open space teeming with possibility.  It is very interesting to look at classrooms inspired by studios, classrooms that beg for student work, creativity and discovery.  These are very purposeful classrooms, student centered and student celebratory.  This aspect of celebration will come up again when I discuss motivation and exhibition at a later date.

 

In this space, everything in the room is child level.  Work is lovingly displayed with room to examine, both at child and adult level.  Nature has been brought indoors, window shades are open, and nothing is too busy with color.

Reggio and Reggio inspired schools take the concept of studio and exhibition of student work to the extreme in their classroom environments.  The environment is held apart as the "third teacher" and vital to demonstrating how the children are viewed (competent, individual, and creative) as well as providing the structure for exploration and creativity.  In " Children, Spaces, Relations: Metaproject for an Environment for Young Children" this Reggio Emilia perspective is explored at great length.

 

Note how natural each Reggio classroom looks.  The colors are soft, lighting is not harsh and comes through windows, in much the same was as the RISD paint studio or dance studio photos.  However, a Reggio classroom is simultaneously a studio and art exhibition for the students, and work is on display everywhere, ordered, and mounted on materials that emphasize the work, not the background.  The adults rather fade into the background in such an environment.  These rooms look much like a combination of the studios and this:

RISD's Foundations Exhibition for Freshman students.  How competent the students must feel to have their work exhibited in such a way.  In fact, important to note that RISD freshman enter the campus with work exhibited.  Pieces from the RISD entrance portfolios for each admitted student are put on display before students arrive.  Exhibition, tying to community, is also an essential part of the creative environment, the celebration of having stayed motivated through the process, reflected, and invented a creation.

Other classrooms teeming with creativity share this.

 Here, student work in progress is everywhere.  The colors are dark, but natural, not meant to be gloomy.  Tables are laid out in such a way there is no telling where the instructor could spend their time but flitting about helping students reflect on their work.  It is evidence that there is no fluorescent lighting, or if there is, it is not used.

 Lots of windows in this room. The seats face foward, but almost to make room for students to view their work at the back.  Colors are brighter, but the emphasis is on the work.  The lighting appears over the work, rather than the students, to give a better view.  Windows have soft curtains, rather than blinds, to filter light.

Although reading is not in itself creativity, inquiry, imitation, and interpretation is part of the creative process. Having a space such as this to "research" in this way, is thoughtful of the classroom teacher.  Note students can get cozy on the floor, therefore books are at sitting level.  Boards are empty and waiting for student work.

So the first major problem I see in developing creativity is the issue of environment.  This is translatable through digital environments of games.  It also, perhaps, offers opportunities for an augmented studio space for developing creatives.

A takeaway quote from Rinaldi, proponent of the Reggio Emilia philosophy:

"Creativity is not just the quality of thinking in an individual.  It is also an interactive, social project. [Creativity] requires a context that allows it to exist, to be expressed, to become visible"