Creativity as Research Practice in the Visual Arts

Abstract

Creativity has a long tradition as a “doing” or “making” practice and is a continuing focus of research by arts and educational researchers, and discipline specialists. Yet the informing contexts and desired outcomes that characterize creativity as a valued human capacity remain elusive. Consequently the use of creativity in constructing and critiquing new knowledge remains obscure and mostly undervalued. To redress this misunderstanding about its individual, institutional, and cultural value, this chapter critiques creativity as a research construct and explores the contexts that inform creative practice. There are three premises on which the arguments presented here are based. First, creativity refers to the individual capacity to see and understand things in new ways that others also find important. Second, creativity is a site beyond the self whereby creativity takes place in public ‐ it is not just a habit of the mind, but is characterized by individual agency and social action. And finally, it is argued that creativity is a cultural practice that has an important role to play in advancing our critical understanding of artistic, educational, social, and technological issues of the times. The thesis being advanced is that creativity is an individually directed and culturally mediated practice upon which models of inquiry can be developed that give rise to new insights. Consequently, “creative-led” research involves practices that both create and critique new knowledge and has the capacity to transform human understanding.