Creative Arts Research Articles

From Digital Art to Crypto Art: The Evolution of Art Brought by NFT

Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) are transforming the digital art by allowing artists to sell unique, one-of-a-kind digital artwork that is verified on the blockchain. Although NFTs have attracted much attention from academia and industry, little is known about this innovative art practice. In this work, we focus on how NFT artists understand their art creation process, interact with NFT marketplaces, and face challenges in their NFT practices. We conducted a mixed-method study, including interviews with 19 artists and an analysis of market transactions on OpenSea and SuperRare. We found that serialization and Web3 concepts are significant features in NFT artwork creations, and artists utilize artificial intelligence and smart contracts to create artworks incorporating these features. Artists perceived that blockchain features like transparency, openness, and authentication strongly influenced their NFT trading experiences, and they also encountered challenges such as determining artwork value, rights ownership, and addressing technical issues in the creation process.

Sexual Futures and Creative Practice: Engagements in World-Building

ABSTRACT This paper outlines the inception, process, and key findings of five creative arts workshop held with 28 students in 2022 at Newcastle University. Participants engaged in crafting exercises and semi-structured discussions about sexual ethics grounded in lived experience. Sexual consent and novel models of sexual ethics were discussed, as well as an approach called a pleasure and care-centred ethic of embodied and relational sexual Otherness. Using an iterative form of thematic analysis, four core themes were identified: namely, culture and ethnocentrism, gendered sexual scripts/sexual-gendered scripts, heteronormativity, and pleasure. Analysis of the art objects also yielded findings related to anger, gendered norms, communication, and obligation. This project examined how university students felt about consent as the dominant model of sexual ethics and explored other possibilities using discourse and crafting to engage with lived experience. This article aims to capture these findings while also placing the workshops and its findings in methodological and socio-cultural context.

All wounds speak – performing trauma/witnessing grief

While ‘trauma' has become a buzzword encompassing any distressing event, its definition as an unassimilated psychological wound, unresolved and recurrent, also means that it cannot ever be completely known. Trauma therapy seeks to reintegrate experiences, breaking the cycle of perpetual suffering through fragmentary recollection. Drama and performance art offer a platform for this reintegration, potentially facilitating healing. However, the fine line between therapeutic confrontation and re-traumatization necessitates careful navigation, avoiding triggering negative emotions. Crucially, not all traumatic events lead to PTSD; resilience and communal support can mitigate the effects of distressing experiences, as seen in instances of shared acceptance and forgiveness. Theatre's role in addressing trauma lies in its ability to bear witness, creating spaces for communal acknowledgment and shared grieving. While contemporary performances often revel in discomfort, embracing unresolved narratives, they prompt reflection on the limitations of representation. Art's transformative potential lies not in explicit curative intent but in its expression of unresolved complexities of human experience. Through patience, acceptance, and a refusal to impose meaning, creative arts can serve as a site for healing, fostering empathy and connection amidst the fragmentary experience of what Freud called ‘traumatic neurosis,’ what has since come to be called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

A genome-wide association study of occupational creativity and its relations with well-being and career success

Creativity is one defining characteristic of human species. There have been mixed findings on how creativity relates to well-being, and little is known about its relationship with career success. We conduct a large-scale genome-wide association study to examine the genetic architecture of occupational creativity, and its genetic correlations with well-being and career success. The SNP-h2 estimates range from 0.08 (for managerial creativity) to 0.22 (for artistic creativity). We record positive genetic correlations between occupational creativity with autism, and positive traits and well-being variables (e.g., physical height, and low levels of neuroticism, BMI, and non-cancer illness). While creativity share positive genetic overlaps with indicators of high career success (i.e., income, occupational status, and job satisfaction), it also has a positive genetic correlation with age at first birth and a negative genetic correlation with number of children, indicating creativity-related genes may reduce reproductive success.

The development of educational gerontology in Ukraine under martial law

The full-scale military invasion of the Russian Federation aggressor country into Ukraine has led to the mobilisation of Ukrainian citizens of the draft age and caused a reduction in the labour market of young and middle-aged specialists. To support the labour market and economy of Ukraine, the need arose to introduce elderly people into the educational system. Therefore, the main aim of this article was to determine the specific grounds for developing educational gerontology during the full-scale military invasion of Ukraine. The data for the research were assessed using quantitative and qualitative methods, including questionnaires, observation, and analysis of data and documents. The study of the main fields of educational gerontology chosen by elderly people revealed the following: digital technology, management, health and wellness, language and culture, creative arts, engineering and infrastructure, agriculture, and logistics and supply. Researchers of educational gerontology in the USA and European countries (including Ukraine up to February 2022) identified the main reasons for the need to include elderly persons in the educational process, namely: loneliness, mental health support, and socialisation. After February 2022, the main reasons for including the elderly in the educational process expanded to include the shortage of specialists in various fields of the economy due to the mobilisation of young and middle-aged adults into the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the tragic loss of life from the bombings of Ukrainian cities and villages, and the outflow of human resources abroad. These circumstances necessitate the development of adult learning strategies and the establishment of a network of educational gerontology institutes, which will provide mental health support for the elderly and include them in the socio-economic environment

Factors Influencing the Continued Use of Procreate Digital Painting Software by Fine Arts Students in Chongqing, China

Background and Aim: With the rise of digital technology, digital painting software has become a tool for artistic expression. The purpose of this paper is to explore the factors that influence the continued use of Procreate digital painting software by undergraduate art students in Chongqing, China, through three major theories: ECM, UTAUT 2, SCT, and other modeling frameworks. Materials and Methods: This study adopted a quantitative approach to data collection using a five-point Likert scale for the questionnaire. The sample of this study was undergraduate students of six fine arts programs in different regions of Chongqing, China, and the participants were selected through a Judgmental or purposive sampling technique. The instrument used to collect the data was a questionnaire and the data were analyzed on 487 valid questionnaires, CFA and SEM were executed to validate the fit, validity, and reliability of the model and to confirm the causality between the variables for hypothesis testing. Results: All hypotheses were supported, with perceived usefulness and satisfaction as direct influences. self-efficacy had the most significant effect on perceived usefulness. Conclusion: Key factors influencing Chongqing art students' continued use of Procreate digital drawing software include hedonic motivation, confirmation, self-efficacy, and knowledge application, which together contribute to students' continuance intention to use the software by enhancing satisfaction and perceived usefulness. This study provides new perspectives for understanding the use of digital drawing software in art education, offers insights for educational institutions to optimize digital strategies for art education, helps software developers to improve product functionality, and guides art students to make more effective use of digital tools for art creation, thus promoting the in-depth application and development of digital drawing technology in the art field.

The Development and Practice of Interactive Animation in Digital Media Art

As an important part of digital media art, the development and practice of interactive animation occupies a key position in the field of modern art. Through the combination of technological progress and artistic expression, interactive animation has shown unique advantages in multimedia exhibitions, virtual reality, game design, etc. Its application not only enhances the audience s sense of participation and immersion, but also provides new forms of expression and interaction for artistic creation. Analyzing the historical evolution, technical realization, artistic value and application of interactive animation in practical projects can reveal its innovative potential and development trend in digital media art.

Creative Forces programming with military families: Art therapy, dance/movement therapy, and music therapy brief vignettes

LAY SUMMARY Creative arts therapists (art therapists, dance/movement therapists, and music therapists) administer assessments and interventions that support the holistic well-being of military families affected by traumatic brain injury (TBI) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Through participation in the Creative Forces: United States National Endowment for the Arts Military Healing Arts Network, military families discovered strengths, inspired connections, and improved understanding of their relationships. Creative arts therapies (CATs) motivated engagement, which ultimately boosted family resilience. CATs are an integral part of interdisciplinary care to address behavioural and rehabilitative conditions of military families impacted by TBI and PTSD. Future research should examine the efficacy of creative arts therapies in improving resilience in military families.

Psychobiological responses to choir singing and creative arts activities in children and adolescents with mental disorders: results of apilot study.

Children and adolescents living with mental health problems often experience stress and poor mood states, which may influence their quality of life and well-being. Arts interventions may improve mood and well-being and reduce physiological stress in this vulnerable population. Acohort of patients in child and adolescent psychiatry (N = 42; age range: 12-18years) participated in one of four arts activities including choir singing (n = 11), textile design (n = 9), drama (n = 16), and clownery (n = 6). They were led by professional artists and delivered through five consecutive 90-min daily afternoon sessions over the course of 1week. Questionnaires of mood and saliva samples before and after each session served to assess short-term psychobiological changes. In addition, patients reported their quality of life and well-being at the beginning and at the end of the 1‑week program. Results showed that alertness was significantly enhanced after textile design (∆post-pre = 4.08, 95% CI [0.77, 7.39]) and after singing (∆post-pre = 2.20, 95% CI [-0.55, 4.94]). Moreover, mood tended to be positively affected by textile design (∆post-pre = 2.89, 95% CI [-0.39, 6.18]). Quality of life increased significantly after singing (∆post-pre = 5.49, 95% CI [1.05, 9.92]). Arts participation except singing was associated with significant reductions in salivary cortisol (sCort) (textile design ∆post-pre = -0.81 ng/mL, 95% CI [-1.48, -0.14]; drama ∆post-pre = -0.76 ng/mL, 95% CI [-1.28, -0.24]; clownery ∆post-pre = -0.74 ng/mL, 95% CI [-1.47, -0.01]). No significant changes were observed for well-being over the whole program and salivary immunoglobulinA (sIgA) after any of the arts activities. These results suggest that arts participation can improve mood state and reduce stress in young people with mental disorders, but there is aneed for further studies.

지식 그래프를 활용한 중국 무용치료 연구동향 분석

Dance therapy, as a therapeutic method that integrates psychology and creative arts, which has attracted increasing attention from all walks of life. In order to help scholars from all over the world grasp the development context and trends of dance therapy research in China, this research analyzes the relevant literature on dance therapy in the China National Knowledge Infrastructure(CNKI) database, revealing the research trends of dance therapy theme in the past 30 years, which can give data support for related research and provide theoretical basis for scholars around all over the world, and promote international academic exchanges and cooperation. Through the knowledge graph analysis method, the high-frequency words and high centrality words of 402 literature were explored and analyzed, and the knowledge network graph of dance therapy was presented from five aspects. It was found that, the research of dance therapy topics has gradually evolved in three stages in the past 30 years in China. On the whole, early research mainly focused on the role of dance in rehabilitation treatment, and mainly focused on the treatment of elderly. In recent years, with the focus on dance therapy and in-depth practice, emerging research topics involve the treatment of ‘depression’, ‘anxiety’, ‘stroke’, etc., which more pay attention to students, autistic children, and other groups. It shows that, with the increasing in research and attention on the field of dance therapy in China, the research not only focuses on dance therapy, but also involves many related fields, such as psychotherapy and self-acceptance in different groups, which shows that keeps expanding the research's progress and application of dance therapy in China. However, it also reflects the problems of incomplete operation system and insufficient academic-industrial linkage in Chinese dance therapy. This study is expected to provide implications for the direction of development of Chinese dance therapy to scholars around the world, including Korea.

A Machine Walks into an Exhibit: A Technical Analysis of Art Curation

Contemporary art consumption is predominantly online, driven by algorithmic recommendation systems that dictate artwork visibility. Despite not being designed for curation, these algorithms’ machinic ways of seeing play a pivotal role in shaping visual culture, influencing artistic creation, visibility, and associated social and financial benefits. The Algorithmic Pedestal was a gallery, practice-based research project that reported gallerygoers’ perceptions of a human’s curation and curation achieved by Instagram’s algorithm. This paper presents a technical analysis of the same exhibit using computer vision code, offering insights into machines’ perception of visual art. The computer vision code assigned values on various metrics to each image, allowing statistical comparisons to identify differences between the collections of images selected by the human and the algorithmic system. The analysis reveals statistically significant differences between the exhibited images and the broader Metropolitan Museum of Art digital collection. However, the analysis found minimal distinctions between human-curated and Instagram-curated images. This study contributes insights into the perceived value of the curation process, shedding light on how audiences perceive artworks differently from machines using computer vision.

Research on the Relationship Between Technology and Art

With the development of technology, the maturity of AI technology has enabled most people to experience artistic creation. In this way, the relationship between art and technology has become a hot topic in academia. This paper examines the intricate relationship between technology and art, focusing on their mutual influence. Using literature reading and analysis, the study explores the advantages and challenges of integrating technology with art. This article will explore from the following three perspectives: First, the impact of camera technology on impressionism; Second, the influence of industrialization on pop art; Third, the use of artificial intelligence in modern art. From these three angles, it can be seen that art and technology are mutually reinforcing. Technology drives the innovation of art, and in turn, art promotes the iteration of technology.

Research on the Relationship Between Technology and Art

With the development of technology, the maturity of AI technology has enabled most people to experience artistic creation. In this way, the relationship between art and technology has become a hot topic in academia. This paper examines the intricate relationship between technology and art, focusing on their mutual influence. Using literature reading and analysis, the study explores the advantages and challenges of integrating technology with art. This article will explore from the following three perspectives: First, the impact of camera technology on impressionism; Second, the influence of industrialization on pop art; Third, the use of artificial intelligence in modern art. From these three angles, it can be seen that art and technology are mutually reinforcing. Technology drives the innovation of art, and in turn, art promotes the iteration of technology.

Application of Virtual Reality Technology Based on Convolutional Neural Network in Digital Media Art Creation

On the basis of the convolutional neural network based on the absolute value layer, a convolutional neural network based on multi-level parallel is proposed. This model adds shortcut connections between different convolutional layers of the convolutional neural network. The shortcut connections allow the feature map output from the shallower convolutional layers in the network to be directly used as branch information, which is similar to the deep convolutional layer. The feature maps are combined to obtain a feature map with more comprehensive information. By using the features of the shallow convolutional layer and the deep convolutional layer at the same time, the embedded traces it learns are more accurate. The final experimental results prove that the multi-level parallel convolutional neural network has a significant improvement in detection performance compared with the rich model art creation analysis algorithm, even when confronting the HILL art creation algorithm with an embedding rate of 0.4bpp.

Self-Portrait as Self-Presentation in the Works of Female Painters of the Turn of the 19th—20th Centuries

The article examines the creativity of women artists, which experienced an upsurge at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, associated with the removal of restrictions on their education at the Imperial Academy of Arts and the increasing need for self-realization in art. General tendencies are revealed, which do not concern the subject-technical side of the paintings, but allow us to draw generalizing conclusions about the artists’ thinking: self-determination and correlation of themselves with the creative environment, drawing attention to themselves as individuals. An attempt is made to understand the ways in which women were included in the full-fledged learning process as a group with its own socio-cultural characteristics.The aim of the paper is to analyze the creative approach to self-portraiture of the female artists E.A. Kiseleva, E.K. Luksh-Makovskaya, O.L. Della-Vos-Kardovskaya, who started their professional path under one teacher — I.E. Repin. The relevance of the article lies in the attempt to raise the problem of studying women’s creativity in the creation of self-portraits, identifying its artistic specificity, defining the cultural and aesthetic basis.The article focuses on the prerequisites for the formation of the creative method of female artists, based on the combination of individual and imitative. On the basis of consideration of the gallery of works the author develops a typology of female self-portrait: professional self-portrait, self-portrait-emotion, family self-portrait, self-portrait-image. It is traced how in the work of women-artists various artistic influences in Russia and Western Europe of the turn of the 19th—20th centuries, interpreted by them in their own way.

Развитие творческого мышления студентов в процессе преподавания скульптуры

This article addresses the issue of the lack of creative thinking among master’s degree students in sculpture departments at universities in China. Combined with teaching practice, the article puts forward countermeasures to solve the problem of lack of creative thinking and emphasizes the importance of cultivating students’ creative thinking ability in sculpture teaching practice. Among these measures, whose effectiveness has been confirmed through teaching practice, are: encouraging student initiative, emphasizing independence in creative exploration, ensuring interdisciplinary training, integrating various art forms, and enhancing student self-discipline. Additionally, the author highlights the need for reforming the sculpture curriculum and updating the teaching methodology. In the context of modern art education, it should not be limited to the development of a specific set of skills but should instead stimulate students’ imagination and creative pursuits to meet society’s demand for creative art products. Cultivating of students’ creative thinking is not solely the responsibility of teachers; it requires active participation from the students themselves, ultimately leading to the formation of an independent artistic style and personalized artistic self-expression.

They Might Be Giants: The Creative Interplay of Literature and Psychology

In the sometimes seemingly quixotic quest to overcome the loneliness of our human condition, a main driver of discovery is the interplay of literature and psychology, the core dynamic fueling the human imagination from the picaresque journeys of Cervantes to the royal road that Freud traveled down in his interpretation of dreams. They might be Giants. In her posthumously published paper on loneliness, Dr. Fromm-Reichmann explores the creative interplay between literature and psychology, which stimulates our understanding as readers and our receptivity as an audience, while in turn, inspiring creative artists like Fellini, who began his mythical journey in La Strada, found his guiding ideals in Jungian analysis and who completed the realization of his collective vision in 8 ½.

The mental imagery scale for art students: Building and validating a short form

Mental imagery is a vital cognitive skill that significantly influences how reality is perceived while creating art. Its multifaceted nature reveals various dimensions of creative expression, amplifying the inherent complexities of measuring it. This study aimed to shorten the Mental Imagery Scale in Artistic Creativity (MISAC) via the Ant Colony Optimization algorithm (ACO), a metaheuristic methodology for developing psychometrically robust brief scales. Answering 63 items in the original version of MISAC demands a higher cognitive load and, consequently, more time. Therefore, our goal was to shorten it while preserving its psychometric properties. In this study, responses to the MISAC were obtained from 500 undergraduate students enrolled in an art education program. The items on the short form of the MISAC were selected based on pre-specified validity criteria and content representability. The 28-item short form of MISAC demonstrated comparable performance to the original version regarding construct validity, criteria-related validity, and reliability coefficients. Moreover, strict invariance was attained across both gender groups in the validation process of the short form. These results highlight the utility of the shortened version of the MISAC as a valid measure with minimal loss of information of scores compared to the full version.

Research on the Aesthetic Education in the Age of Social Media

In the generation of social media, the rapid development of technology has inevitably transformed art, and the way it is consumed, shared, and created. Art has developed a greater focus on aesthetics and beauty, along with the desires of the viewer instead of the artists. The rise of different trends and styles may pressure artists to change their art to conform to these trends, and individuality will have to be sacrificed for the sake of views, likes, and validation from the users. Nonetheless, these platforms have proved to be a great tool for artists, allowing a direct reach to global audiences and engagement in interactive experiences. Communities created online may encourage growth, providing information and opportunities that may have been inaccessible to them previously, lowering the threshold of artistic creation and increasing accessibility. This may allow emerging or discriminated artists to present their work without any traditional barriers. Additionally, social media may stimulate the creative spirit of artists, allowing a variety of sources to draw inspiration from, and creating an environment that fosters experimentation and innovation. Unfortunately, social media is not without its drawbacks on its impact on art. A focus on popularity with likes, follows, and shares may cause a superficial exchange of art. Platforms may usually promote artworks that are easily consumable and visually appealing, disregarding any genuine artworks that may require a deeper reflection. This may additionally exacerbate the commercialization tendency in art, leading to a lack of originality in artworks.

A Study of the Application of Creative Arts Therapy to Improve Depression

This paper explores the practical application and effectiveness of an emerging psychological intervention, creative arts therapy, in combating depressive mood. In today’s society, depressed mood has become a mental health problem with wide-ranging effects in the face of increasing life pressure. Against this background, creative art therapy, such as painting, music composition, and handicraft production, as a psychotherapeutic approach that breaks through the traditional framework, is showing its unique charm in reducing depressive symptoms and improving mental health. Through in-depth analyses of a series of studies and real cases, this paper demonstrates the remarkable contribution of creative art therapy in promoting emotional recovery and improving quality of life and looks forward to its future application.