Monday, April 27, 2020

For Discussion: Imagination, Creativity, Improvisation, and Knowledge

It's important to note that Taylor, after suggesting that knowledge and the imagination are mutually determining and of equal importance, defines the imagination as a controlled recombination of memories: a recombination to distinguish simple remembering from imagining; and controlled to distinguish dreams from imaginings (we typically think of dreams as uncontrolled recombinations of memories).  What Taylor fails to clarify is the distinct nature of creativity (which she occasionally treats as synonymous with imagining). In my dialogue, I suggest that creativity is a special case of imagining; a concrete application to the world of the more free-wheeling capacity to imagine (for example, I become creative only when I produce or create a story from my imagination).  Further, I suggest that improvisation is a special kind of creativity -- creativity in the moment, or relatively spontaneous acts of creativity under conditions of uncertainty.  How might these notions (creativity, imagination, and improvisation) relate to the last term of our discussion, knowledge?  (We can think of knowledge as consisting of true beliefs for which we have evidence.)  Other terms to consider include the understanding, conscious awareness, wisdom, and experience.  What questions/comments do you have about these readings?

Saturday, April 18, 2020

Assignment #7: Knowledge, Imagination, Creativity, and Improvisation


Read: 

1. Taylor, "Is Imagination More Important than Knowledge?"
http://neurotaylor.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/thes-for-web-ii.pdf

2. Sawyer, "Improvisation and the Creative Process" (JSTOR):

3. Johnson and Silliman, "Improvisational Pedagogy"
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Mm6ANBj5htqF5FHWTBKlD8J7XAh4UYt5jtJACy2-os8/edit#

Essay #3:

What are the relations between knowledge, imagination, creativity, and improvisation?

Due: Monday, May 4.

This is the last graded assignment of the semester; it may not be dropped or missed!  I will, however, drop the lowest grade on quizzes/essays prior to this one for each student when calculating final averages.

Saturday, April 11, 2020

For Discussion: Carlson's NE model

There's an interesting symmetry to Carlson's critique of the object and landscape models and consequent adoption of the "natural environmental" model.  In his view, the object model rightly focuses on natural objects while neglecting the environmental context which contains and constrains them.  In contrast, the landscape model rightly extends its purview to the larger environment, but appreciates it in the fashion of a landscape painting rather than as a part of (nonhuman) nature.  So, combining the virtues of each model (the appreciation of nature in the object model and the appreciation of the environment in the landscape model), Carlson arrives at his preferred model, the natural-environmental model.  Comments/questions?

Monday, March 30, 2020

For Discussion: Other models

Carlson juxtaposes his preferred account of full and proper aesthetic appreciation of nature (the "natural environmental model") with several others, all of which, he claims, fail in a number of ways.  Most centrally, the landscape and object models (not to mention the "human chauvinistic" model) strike Carlson as errantly anthropocentric (overly concerned with humans to the neglect of nature).  Do you agree?

Auer touches on yet another concern with Carlson:  what are the boundaries, if any, between humans and nature, our technologies and those of nature (beaver damns, bird nests, etc.)?  His natural environmental model advises us to ignore the sounds of human industry when appreciating a "natural" scene.  Is he implying that humans and their attendant noises are not natural?

Sunday, March 29, 2020

Assignment #6: Carlson

1. Read Carlson, chapter 46; read also, Auer, "Environmental Aesthetics in the Age of Climate Change,":

https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/18/5001/htm

Essay #4: What is the proper way (fully) to appreciate nature aesthetically?

Due: April 17

Monday, March 2, 2020

Assignment #5: Music (updated)

1. Read Chapters 20 (Hanslick) and 53 (Kivy).

Essay #3: How does (absolute, wordless) music express or evoke (you supply the appropriate verb) emotion?

Due: Wednesday, April 1


In lieu of classroom-based communication, I'll be posing questions/comments for discussion along with recommended ancillary texts in posts on this site labeled "For discussion."  I hope that many of you will choose to contribute regularly.  (To do so, simply click on "comments" following each post.)

Sunday, February 16, 2020

Assignment #4: Beauty

1. Read: "An Essay on Beauty and Judgment":

https://www.threepennyreview.com/samples/nehamas_w00.html

And, "The Neglected Muse":

https://www.aft.org/periodical/american-educator/fall-2006/neglected-muse

Essay #2: What is beauty?  (Your essay should reference the ideas of Nehamas and Kalkavage, along with any further research you undertake.)

Due: Friday, March 6.