The Scientific Study of Artistic Creativity

Abstract

This paper attempts to show that problems associated with artistic creativity are amenable to conceptual analysis within the framework of academic and experimental psychology. It outlines at least three forms offlexibility which may be characteristic of the artist. First, artists appear able to access primitivefeelings and memories which are preserved in their unconscious. Second, artists appear able to access perceptual modes and alternate between physical-sensory and object information. This enables them to grasp the worldfrom a new vantage point. Third, artists canfunctionally separate stimulus input ('seeing as' mode) from motor output ('seeing that' mode) which makes it possible to recreate their new perceptions or images in a concrete work. The fact that these last two skills can be described in the language of experimental psychology suggests that they are amenable to empirical investigation. Experimental psychologists and psychological aestheticians may discover during the next few years just how much they share in common. The former possess rigorous experimental paradigms and a broad theoretical framework which relates the person to the environment. The latter have a rich collection of stimulus materials and access to the people who produce them. Scientific aesthetics has generally avoided the study of artistic creativity, focusing instead on spectator reactions and preferences [1-3]. This emphasis on processes within the spectator can be traced back to Fechner's early research on aesthetic preference and judgment [4]. He developed a variety of techniques for measuring preference which are still in use today, such as the method of choice. Modern researchers have not studied artistic creativity because of misgivings about the possibility of stimulating such activity under controlled laboratory conditions [3]. A more cogent reason is that a comprehensive theory of artistic creativity has still to be developed. Such a theory should emerge from the interaction of perception and cognitive psychology with experimental aesthetics and psychodynamic psychology. The basic goal of this paper is to indicate some areas where the ideas and principles of psychology can contribute to a scientific theory of artistic creativity. This theory will address artistic processes in general and will not be used to explain the qualities of a particular artwork or the development of an individual artist. Thus, the differences between a scientific theory of creativity and either art historical scholarship or the more clinically oriented psychoanalytic view must be delineated. A more specific goal of this paper is to consider how scientific psychology can address the uniqueness of artistic creativity. Does it reside in the artist grasping a scene in a new way, in the artist's ability to recreate that scene or image in a concrete world, or in the spectator's appreciation of the work? A psychological theory of artistic creativity need not, of course, conflict with the results of art historical scholarship. Art historians trace stylistic and iconographic developments across different historical periods and within the careers of individual artists and schools. They bridge the gap between the visual and the verbal, translating visual and technical innovation into clear and precise language. Psychological aestheticians share with art historians an interest in the work as a whole. However, while art historians stress the role of composition, colour or line in determining the success of a work, psychologists emphasize other structural qualities such as complexity and orderliness [1, 5]. Psychologists also focus on the interaction of the individual with the work of art. Traditionally, researchers have inquired as to how the spectator interprets and emotionally *Psychologist, Division of Life Sciences, Scarborough College, University of Toronto, West Hill, Ontario MIC IA4, Canada. responds to the work [6]. The challenge remains to explore how the work takes shape in the artist's mind and unfolds materially