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Creativity As Concept

Kellner, Michael S
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1405608425

Abstract Details

2014, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Arts Administration, Education and Policy.
The problem this dissertation addresses is the over-determined understanding of creativity in contemporary Western culture. I argue that popularized scientific understandings of creativity limit both the historical understanding of the term, as well as its potential. This dissertation utilizes a methodology that draws from the work of the philosopher Gilles Deleuze and the psychoanalyst Felix Guattari. The duo, working in conjunction with one another, develops an understanding of a philosophical “concept.” According to the authors, a “concept” is encyclopedic and multidimensional; when a concept becomes “commercial professionalized training” it is robbed of its encyclopedic form. Therefore, by employing the concept as a methodology that addresses creativity, I work to resist easily definable ideas of creativity; in other words, the task of the concept is to keep creativity as encyclopedic as possible. This dissertation employs the concept in two ways. First, I present a series of three conceptual arguments utilizing historical understandings of creativity in Western culture. In the first conceptual argument, creativity requires a structure to make itself manifest; in turn, the results of the creative act often reify this structure. As part of this argument, an individual’s refusal of some dominant socio-cultural parameters can create a space where other, previously less visible, socio-cultural parameters are brought to attention. The second conceptual argument begins with a Platonic reading of creativity before pressing forward chronologically through the Scientific Revolution. Through this history, the process of creativity is often individualized, but its reception is socialized. Within this framework, I argue that the dominant reading of creativity in Western culture is masculine, even if creativity’s association with madness and isolation troubles attempts to simplify this reading. The third conceptual argument brings to the fore a feminist reading of creativity. Here, the traditional, historical pairing of female creativity with birth is identified. Creativity as birth provides a space to explore the more embodied and disruptive affects of feminist creativity, a research focus only hinted at in the previous two conceptual examples. The second way Deleuze and Guattari’s concept is employed is by utilizing some of the authors’ other philosophical ideas to understand creativity as production. Production is addressed broadly by considering desire; here, an individual’s desires are inextricably intertwined with the desires of their surrounding environment. Creativity as production is then addressed more specifically by considering sensation in artwork. Sensation asks us to consider both the reception and creation of the work of art as a Deleuzean encounter, which “forces us to think.” In considering creativity in relation to desire and sensation, creativity is recognizable as process driven. It is here that I argue creativity becomes pedagogic. Creativity, as a concept, resists being captured as commercial professionalized training and, instead, is tilted it to its encyclopedic form by way of desire and sensation.
Sydney Walker (Advisor)
Philip Armstrong (Committee Member)
Michael Mercil (Committee Member)
Jack Richardson (Committee Member)
373 p.
Art Education
creativity; art; artist; studio; artistic thinking; studio thinking; art as research; feminist analysis of creativity; Deleuze and Guattari; concept; rhizomatic;

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Kellner, M. S. (2014). Creativity As Concept [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1405608425

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Kellner, Michael. Creativity As Concept. 2014. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1405608425.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Kellner, Michael. "Creativity As Concept." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1405608425

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1405608425
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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.