Reconceptualizing creativity : creativity as embodied practice as research

Title

Reconceptualizing creativity : creativity as embodied practice as research

Creator

Teague-Mann, Christina

Description

Teague-Mann, Christina

Predominant models for creativity are highly computational leaving considerations of embodiment out of the process. The question of the role of the body in creativity has been widely debated in the field of creativity. The research explored the value, extent, and enaction of embodied cognition in creativity to reconceptualize how creativity can be engaged with and facilitated. It was a post hoc analysis of creative outputs from graduate level choreography courses that offered learning experiences synthesizing 4 e cognition with choreographic practice as research. The researcher used practice as research, hermeneutic phenomenology, and thematic analysis to place the student’s creative expressions in dialogue; to grasp how student-creators were experiencing, comprehending, and using embodied cognition in creative processes.

Contrary to the ubiquitous use of highly computational models for creativity, the study demonstrates the rigor of embodied practice as research in choreography and the value it brings to creative processes. The importance of embodiment for holistic and authentic processes for creativity is discerned, as well as the impact of situated embodiment for the facilitation of creativity. The synthesis of 4 e cognition and choreographic practice as research created a means for students to realize and articulate dynamic, complex, and multidimensional aspects in their creative processes. These findings have important methodological implications for creativity from how it is conceptualized and facilitated, to how it is approached through unique dispositions for perception and interpretation; shedding light on the rarely acknowledged issue of disembodied creativity.

Date

2023

Publisher

Alverno College

Extent

370 pages

Language

English

Format

PDF

Type

Text
Dissertation

Subject

Creative ability
Choreography
Cognition
Embodied creativity
4 e cognition
Practice as research
Creativity

Rights

These materials may be used by individuals and libraries for personal use, research, teaching (including distribution to classes), or for any fair use as defined by U.S. Copyright Law.

Citation

Teague-Mann, Christina, “Reconceptualizing creativity : creativity as embodied practice as research,” Alverno College Library Digital Commons, accessed May 14, 2024, https://alverno.omeka.net/items/show/897.