Teague-Mann, Christina "Reconceptualizing Creativity: Creativity as Embodied Practice as Research." PhD
, Alverno College, 2023
Keywords/Fields of Study : Embodied Creativity, 4 e Cognition, Practice as Research, Choreography, Creativity
Abstract: 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.
Department: Education
, Alverno College
Advisor(s): Becky Engen
