Popular Visual Culture in Art Education: A Group Creativity Perspective

Abstract

There are many kinds of creativity. A significant number of studies have been conducted on creativity in the context of the education. Most of these have focused on methods and strategies for encouraging in a school setting. Few studies, however, have focused on group creativity in the context of popular culture: for instance, the creativity of the Asian ethnic dōjinshi groups in Hong Kong and Taiwan. The dōjinshi groups consist of amateur manga enthusiasts from Asia, who create their own manga and participate in animation, comic and game conventions to showcase their creative works every year. The number of these independent amateur groups has been increasing rapidly in recent years. This article examines the creativity of these groups and argues that a group-based approach to creativity can provide a dynamic model showing how an emphasis on group creativity, group creativity, identity, and the popular visual cultural can benefit theoretical art education.