Creativity and Consciousness

Construindo um Conceito de Consciência a partir de António Damásio, Cornelius Castoriadis e Susan Carey

by José Monserrat Neto

An Introduction to Process-Information - From Information Theory to Experiential Reality

by Jeroen B. J. van Dijk

For viewing the paper via the Philosophy Documentation Center, see: http://www.secure.pdcnet.org/chromatikon/content/chromatikon_2011_0007_0075_0084

In its deepest essence, information is not about syntactical data or sequences of symbolic signs. Instead, information... more In its deepest essence, information is not about syntactical data or sequences of symbolic signs. Instead, information involves the activity of nature’s self-organizing process-structures as they mutually affect (i.e. ‘in-form’) each other by way of their non-equilibrium in- and outflow cycles. Like this, these criticality-seeking open systems actively give form to one another’s structural-functional organization, thus constituting an all-pervading reciprocal process-informativeness.
In this view, information is ultimately a nature-wide reflexive process in which conscious observers are themselves embedded endo-systems within the greater embedding processuality of nature as a whole. Like this, our process-informative natural world is internally meaningful in the sense that all process-structures make a difference to all other process-structures, and vice versa, in an order of undivided wholeness.
Accordingly, Reg Cahill’s Process Physics interprets our universe as an indivisible psychophysical process-informational whole containing all kinds of seamlessly integrated, yet highly differentiated contents, including conscious brain-equipped organisms like ourselves. In this way, Process Physics can be seen as compatible with Max Velmans’s Reflexive Monism and David Ray Griffin’s neo-Whiteheadian panexperientialism. After all, Reflexive Monism states that we – as embedded organisms equipped with a dynamically evolved conscious view on the larger embedding universe – participate in a reflexive process through which nature experiences itself, while panexperientialism holds that conscious experience is a concrescent extension of nature’s inherent psychophysicality.

ABSTRACT The art consciousness and creative work

by Parul Bhatnagar

Reclaiming The Sacred: A Festival Experience as a Response to Globalisation

by Karin Mackay

published in Journal for the Study of Religion, vol 24, No 2, 2011

Pressures of globalisation such as the focus on the growth of productive economies, consumerism, and long work-hours... more Pressures of globalisation such as the focus on the growth of productive economies, consumerism, and long work-hours have fragmented cultural beliefs and practices worldwide. Devaluation of deeply held soulful, creative, and nature-based practices in the dominant neoliberal capitalist discourse has challenged the way cultural and spiritual wellbeing are lived. Instead of being completely subsumed into the neoliberal global discourse, local responses incorporating global themes are emerging in the form of the “neo-tribal” festival experience. Although festivals have primarily been seen as places of consumption, this misunderstands the drive to participate in a festival experience. This article investigates a women’s arts and ecology festival held in The Blue Mountains, Australia, where members of the local community celebrate the return of spring. Findings suggest that this festival was a site for reclaiming a localized sense of connectedness, where participants reclaimed what was sacred to them. I will argue that consumerism is secondary to the desire for a sacred synergy of connectedness at this festival where critical creative action challenges the neoliberal and patriarchal discourses in the negotiation of global culture.

Poetry Lessons: On Organizing Creativity

by Janet L. Borgerson

published in Aesthesis

The article invokes poetry as organization of creativity through an engagement with poetry lessons, paraphrases of... more The article invokes poetry as organization of creativity through an engagement with poetry lessons, paraphrases of writing advice given in one-on-one seminars of which the author was a part. Advice comes from Allen Ginsberg, Anne Waldman, and Joanne Kyger among others who were teaching at Naropa Institute, Summer 1986. Also discusses Ted Berrigan, Yves Bonnefoy, Pierre Bourdieu, and The Alternative Press of Ken and Ann Mikolowski. Includes an original poem, Poetry Lessons, by the article's author; a reproduction of a postcard of one of Ginsberg's last poems (of 3/23/97, 4:51 AM) printed by The Alternative Press; and two poems written by the article's author in 1986, with hand-written comments by Ginsberg.

Wisdom, Consciousness, and the Future

by Tom Lombardo

To read more on Wisdom, Consciousness, and the Future and order copies of the complete book see: http://www.centerforfutureconsciousness.com/book_wcf.htm

The collection of essays in this book chronicles the development of Dr. Tom Lombardo’s theoretical perspective on a... more The collection of essays in this book chronicles the development of Dr. Tom Lombardo’s theoretical perspective on a series of related philosophical and psychological topics: consciousness and creativity; human evolution and education for the future; and future consciousness and ethical character virtues. Central to the author’s theoretical vision is wisdom. Dr. Lombardo explains how wisdom is the highest expression of future consciousness; how it is the key ideal that should be modeled and taught within education; how wisdom subsumes all of the other important academic virtues; how wisdom aligns with our ongoing technological evolution and global- ecological awareness; and why wisdom is the appropriate ideal toward which we should strive in our individual and collective evolution. Wisdom, Consciousness, and the Future is nothing short of a blueprint for a new and integrative wisdom-based model of education and the purposeful evolution of mind and human consciousness in the future.

Included in this link is the Table of Contents and the Introduction.

The ‘New’ Bohemians of the Creative Industries: An American Perspective on the Czech Republic’s Cultural Exports.

by Selena Anguiano

Keywords Bohemianism, Export, Culture, Creativity, Marketing, Branding

Abstract

I intended to discuss the Czech New Wave in the context of bohemianism, how the subject matter of... more Abstract

I intended to discuss the Czech New Wave in the context of bohemianism, how the subject matter of the movies produced during that time and subsequently, informed bohemianism as a characteristic of national identity in cultural and creative products. I thought this would be interesting and informative given my distinct perspective-an American participating in the Lions of Czech Film Series, a community engagement initiative of the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Washington, DC.

However my vantage point has been informed by almost seven years of experiencing the country's cultural exports ergo what manifested was a more comprehensive analysis of Czech cultural and creative production that exemplified a new interpretation of bohemianism versus the traditionally accepted definition. I chose several activities presented by the Embassy in Washington, DC which met my determined characteristic of Czech National Identity. From this evolved several questions about general knowledge and perceptions about Czech culture.

Suffice to say, the evolution of this discussion was bohemian in nature. Personal and professional experiences involving activities through the Czech Embassy in Washington, DC provided the primary foundation for this article. Secondary materials included both unconventional and conventional sources such as online and print reference materials; a series of questions submitted to and answered by the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Washington were included in the discussion. And finally, In order to develop the conclusion beyond the answers provided by the Embassy, I conducted an informal survey online to determine the impact of the Czech Republic current identity on a foreign, particularly American, consciousness.

Psychoanalysis & Art: Unconscious Automatic Watercolour Painting and Analysis

by Ayla Michelle Demir

Writing and Symbolism

by Anthony Bloor

Written for the NAWE conference on 'The Diversity of Teaching Writing' at Middlesex University and published in 'Writing in Education', 11, Spring 1997.

A paper that recommends an integrated approach to the teaching of writing skills and technological skills. The paper... more A paper that recommends an integrated approach to the teaching of writing skills and technological skills. The paper advocates a method that looks at writing and technology from the point of view of symbolism. The uploaded document is a scanned copy of the published version, taken from the journal "Writing in Education," 11, Spring 1997.

Testing for forced-choice precognition using a hidden task: two replications

by David Luke

Luke, D. P., Roe, C., & Davison, J. (2008). Testing for forced-choice precognition using a hidden task: Two replications. Journal of Parapsychology, 72, 133-154.

This paper describes two studies that were intended to replicate and extend the findings of Luke, Delanoy and Sherwood... more This paper describes two studies that were intended to replicate and extend the findings of Luke, Delanoy and Sherwood (2008), who were able to demonstrate a precognition effect using a covert task with contingent reward or punishment. Performance in their study was related to measures of belief in luck that could be considered to be related to experience of PMIR in the field. In Study 1, 25 participants completed the short-form Questionnaire of Beliefs about Luck (QBL: Luke, Delanoy & Sherwood, 2003) and a 10-trial preliminary preferences task that required them to select which of four fractal images they found most pleasant. In fact this was a precognition task and based on performance participants in the contingent condition subsequently either completed a pleasant task, involving rating cartoons for humorousness, or an unpleasant task, monitoring sequences of digits. Participants in the nocontingent condition completed neither. Overall, participants selected significantly more target images then mean chance expectation (t24 = 2.60, p = .02), but there was no difference between the contingent and nocontingent conditions (t23 = .73, p = .47). Performance was positively correlated with the Chance and Providence subscales of the QBL (r = .48, p = .02, and r =.39, p = .05 respectively) In Study 2, we added measures of openness to experience and creativity that we hypothesized to be related to PMIR performance as correlates of latent inhibition (LI) and lability respectively. 32 participants completed Goldbergs (1999) measure of Openness to Experience, Holts (2002) Creative Cognition Inventory and Luke, et al.s (2003) long-form QBL. All then completed the contingent version of the covert precognition task used in Study 1. Overall, participants again selected significantly more target images then mean chance expectation (t31 = 2.01, p = .03). We did not replicate the correlations between performance and the Chance and Providence subscales of the QBL, nor with creativity measures, but there was a significant positive correlation with openness to experience, as predicted (r = .46, p = .01). Suggestions are given for further research utilizing this task, particularly in testing the assumption that the psi element need be covert

"Editor's Introduction: Transcending Self-Consciousness"

by Gregory Nixon

Editor's Introduction to Journal of Consciousness Exploration & Research [JCER] 2(7): Focus Issue on Self-Transcending Experience: Narrative & Analysis [see in Books for the issue]

But, self-consciousness transcended (as opposed to self-dissolution, so the remembering self remains itself... more But, self-consciousness transcended (as opposed to self-dissolution, so the remembering self remains itself remembered) could have metaphysical implications: Those who have cultivated the transcending of self-consciousness in life, experiencing it over and over again and gaining a measure of control over the awakening, may well be able to retain the artifacts of selfhood – memories – as original awareness leaves the body behind, that is, in death. Just as the electricity continues after the light bulb darkens, in either case, life energy withdraws from the body but continues as unbound dynamism, but, in the latter case of self as silent witness, the memories of a lifetime may go with it, perhaps to enrich the manifold of experience in that source, which, in this way undergoes change and learning. Without those memories, able to withstand such radical decentering, the self dies with the body.

Vaid, J. (2006) Joking across languages: Perspectives on humor, emotion, and bilingualism. In A. Pavlenko (Ed.), Bilingual minds: Emotional experience, expression, and representation (pp.152-182). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

by Jyotsna Vaid

Surprising creativity: a cognitive framework for interactive exhibits designed for children

by Adrian Bromage

Zheng, S., Bromage, A., Adam, M. and Scrivener, S.A.R. (2007). In Proceedings of the 6th ACM SIGCHI conference on Creativity & cognition (C&C '07), Washington, DC. New York: ACM Press. pp. 17-26. ISBN:978-1-59593-712-4,
Available at: http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=1254960.1254964

Interactive exhibits in museums are providing exciting and dynamic learning experiences with significant potential to... more Interactive exhibits in museums are providing exciting and dynamic learning experiences with significant potential to stimulate children's creativity. However, current sophisticated interfaces designed to deliver easily accessible information are not teaching the fundamental skills necessarily to foster genuine creative outcomes. The aim of our research is to promote a design methodology that fosters children's creativity, helping them to gain the formative skills necessary to nurture the process of creative learning. There needs to be more encouragement to motivate children's curiosity and the promotion of observational skills that can help them realise the creative possibilities to be derived from everyday experiences. This paper describes the development of the Creative Surprise Model (CSM): a cognitive framework that informs a methodology to support interactive design practitioners. It identifies the motivational link between surprise emotion and the generation of creativity. We demonstrate how it is applied by describing a real life design task.

Creative States and Structures

by Lynne H Roff

Cycle of Transformation: Creative Process in the Performing Arts

by Lynne H Roff

Stvarnosti / Svesti / Narativi 4: Ovo (ni)je... (Realities / Consciousnesses / Narratives 4: This is (Not)...)

by Dejan Grba

Rezime mini-serije predavanja održane u okviru tribinskog programa Biblioteke grada Beograda 2009 godine.
A resume of the lecture series that examined the creativity in fine arts, film and popular culture in relation with the recent scientific concepts of perception, consciousness and reality. It was realized within the lecture programme of Belgrade City Library in 2009. In Serbian language.

Ova serija predavanja je bila posvećena razmatranju kreativnog delovanja u likovnim umetnostima, filmu i popularnoj... more Ova serija predavanja je bila posvećena razmatranju kreativnog delovanja u likovnim umetnostima, filmu i popularnoj kulturi sa aspekata novijih prirodnonaučnih saznanja o percepciji, svesti i stvarnosti.

Stvarnosti / Svesti / Narativi 3: Alan Ford br. 5 (Realities / Consciousnesses / Narratives 3: Alan Ford No. 5)

by Dejan Grba

Rezime mini-serije predavanja održane u okviru tribinskog programa Biblioteke grada Beograda 2009 godine.
A resume of the lecture series that examined the creativity in fine arts, film and popular culture in relation with the recent scientific concepts of perception, consciousness and reality. It was realized within the lecture programme of Belgrade City Library in 2009. In Serbian language.

Ova serija predavanja je bila posvećena razmatranju kreativnog delovanja u likovnim umetnostima, filmu i popularnoj... more Ova serija predavanja je bila posvećena razmatranju kreativnog delovanja u likovnim umetnostima, filmu i popularnoj kulturi sa aspekata novijih prirodnonaučnih saznanja o percepciji, svesti i stvarnosti.

Stvarnosti / Svesti / Narativi 2: Likovno (Realities / Consciousnesses / Narratives 2: Visual)

by Dejan Grba

Rezime mini-serije predavanja održane u okviru tribinskog programa Biblioteke grada Beograda 2009 godine.
A resume of the lecture series that examined the creativity in fine arts, film and popular culture in relation with the recent scientific concepts of perception, consciousness and reality. It was realized within the lecture programme of Belgrade City Library in 2009. In Serbian language.

Ova serija predavanja je bila posvećena razmatranju kreativnog delovanja u likovnim umetnostima, filmu i popularnoj... more Ova serija predavanja je bila posvećena razmatranju kreativnog delovanja u likovnim umetnostima, filmu i popularnoj kulturi sa aspekata novijih prirodnonaučnih saznanja o percepciji, svesti i stvarnosti.

Stvarnosti / Svesti / Narativi 1: Stvarno? (Realities / Consciousnesses / Narratives 1: Real?)

by Dejan Grba

Rezime mini-serije predavanja održane u okviru tribinskog programa Biblioteke grada Beograda 2009 godine.
A resume of the lecture series that examined the creativity in fine arts, film and popular culture in relation with the recent scientific concepts of perception, consciousness and reality. It was realized within the lecture programme of Belgrade City Library in 2009. In Serbian language.

Ova serija predavanja je bila posvećena razmatranju kreativnog delovanja u likovnim umetnostima, filmu i popularnoj... more Ova serija predavanja je bila posvećena razmatranju kreativnog delovanja u likovnim umetnostima, filmu i popularnoj kulturi sa aspekata novijih prirodnonaučnih saznanja o percepciji, svesti i stvarnosti.

Amor Fati: Consciousness in Nietzsche’s Gay Science

by Mark Sentesy

in Pensées: The Canadian Undergraduate Journal of Philosophy. Montreal: McGill University, 2002:3.

In The Gay Science, Friedrich Nietzsche tries to sketch a way of living in the face of nihilism.  By outlining... more In The Gay Science, Friedrich Nietzsche tries to sketch a way of living in the face of nihilism.  By outlining the conditions of his society’s nihilism, he mounts a radical attack on epistemology and metaphysics, but also prepares a solution. He argues that there is no “reality” in the traditional sense: there are no “things.” For us, reality is made up of appearances, of surfaces that we constitute. Language and communication on the one hand, and consciousness on the other, are key tools in Nietzsche’s critique of epistemology and of the solution that he offers. The insight that relates these tools to one another, is that consciousness is not individual, but developed under the pressure of the need to communicate. This will serve as a lens through which we will try to glimpse a cluster of ideas at or near the centre of his thought. Nietzsche’s critique is so radical that it challenges the possibility of both knowledge and consciousness. On the other hand, Nietzsche wants to refine a higher form of consciousness: amor fati (love of fate), a “Yes” to reality as such. I argue that this problem can be resolved by distinguishing two kinds of consciousness. Nietzsche says that consciousness penetrates and merges with its object, but this cannot yield self-consciousness, and so does not make consciousness possible. But a prior shape of the mind allows us to grasp what is impenetrable and unique, to remain outside the object. I argue that this is the meaning of Nietzsche’s metaphor of distance, in which his project of incorporating consciousness into the human creature, of “life as a means to knowledge”  intertwines with the idea of writing one’s life.