Artistic Thinking -- Week 13

The Role of Artistic Play in Problem Solving – Eliza Pitri

Pitri describes play as an essential “medium” of creative thinking in which students develop intrinsic motivation, problem solving skills, and the ability to supply their own meanings through experiences.  Pitri suggests breaking down the wall separating work to the classroom setting and play to recess time only. 

Pitri defines play has having “no extrinsic goals; its motivations are intrinsic.”  Furthermore, “Players are concerned with the process of an activity more than its results. Goals are self-imposed, and existing rules can be modified…Children supply their own meanings to activities and control the situations themselves.”

How is “playing” a medium:

* “A medium is a condition in which something may function or flourish. Play is a condition in which the cognitive functions of the mind can be allowed to function optimally.

* A medium is a means of conveying something, a channel of communication. Play is often the means by which children express their thoughts and feelings and facilitates understanding of these thoughts and feelings.

* A medium is a surrounding or enveloping substance. Children become completely enveloped in play. Almost every activity in which young children engage has elements of play behavior, such as spontaneity of physical and emotional expression.

* A medium is a material or technical means of active expression. For young children, active expression is vitally important, and sensorimotor activity is a major mode of behavior. Play is used by children.”

“Sutton-Smith (1972) describes the different types of playa s imitation, exploration, testing, and world construction.”  Pitri argues that play is an important aspect of curriculum in the art classroom.  “When art instruction is planned around play, students can draw ideas from their own experiences instead of following the teacher's lead. They learn how to discover and plan for themselves.”  In this way, “The child is viewed as competent and full of potential and active in constructing his or her own knowledge, through interactions with peers, adults and the environment.”  When students participate in playing, they are honing their cognitive ability to implement attachment and connection through their work, rather than separation and abstraction.

   “Problem solving is enhanced through play because as Garvey (1990) points out, play facilitates cognitive flexibility, serves symbolic function, and leads to problem finding… Play stimulates intrinsic motivation forces of exploration and curiosity… These forces drive children to seek novel stimulation and increase the chances of recognizing new problems. Sensitivity to problems is one of the important components of creative thinking.”

Play – Daniel Pink

Having fun, playing, allows for more success.  Pink describes play as “manifesting itself in three ways: games, humor, and joyfulness.”

            Games

            “Games have become a large and influential industry that is teaching whole-minded lessons to its customers and recruiting a new breed of whole-minded worker.”  Games, more specifically video games, can substitute “virtual experience for vicarious insights.”  “Half of all Americans over age six play computer and video games.”  If almost half of America is playing video and computer games, wouldn’t it make sense to use them as a vessel of bigger ideas and values?  “Games have become a tool for solving problems, as well as a vehicle for self-expression and self-exploration.” It is important to utilize the power of games, perhaps especially in education.  This idea connects to previous readings in that video games and computer games create an environment closer to reality.  These games incorporate more senses than just a standard lecture or worksheet.  Students can use games to “sharpen many of the skills that are vital in the conceptual age.”  Some aspects of video games include spotting trends, drawing connections, and discerning the big picture. Game design has moved away from its emphasis on code and more towards an emphasis on art design. Game development is more and more being considered an artistic medium.

            Humor

            “Humor is an accurate marker for managerial effectiveness, emotional intelligence, and the thinking style characteristic of the brain’s right hemisphere.”  From research, “neuroscientists concluded that the right hemisphere plays an essential role in understanding and appreciating humor.”  Humor often involves incongruity, which is located in the right hemisphere of the brain.  Some maintain that “humor represents one of the highest forms of intelligence.” 

            “Humor embodies many of the right hemisphere’s most powerful attributes—the ability to place situations in context, to glimpse the big picture, and to combine differing perspectives into new alignments.  And that makes this aspect of play extremely valuable in the world of work.”     

            Joyfulness

            “Joyfulness is demonstrating its power to make us more productive and fulfilled.” 

Hetland Chapter 11

This chapter discusses the importance of play in order to allow students to explore, take risks, and be creative.  Play stresses the importance of the process, not the end product.  One instructor teaches her students several different principles of play (specifically in regards to clay sculpture):

-Experiment with expression through texture

-Experiment with tools

-Discover new techniques through play

-Focus on the process

She found that “When students are playing, they are more able to take suggestions and criticisms than when they are working on a piece that must be finished in final form.”

Another teacher also suggested that students experiment with a range of different forms and materials, even invent new tools.  They encouraged students to take advantage of accidents and let things happen.

Tim Brown – Creativity and Play

Notes:

We fear the judgment of our peers – causes us to be conservative with our thinking

Kids feel the most free to play – security to take risks

Adult habits get in the way of creativity – ideas

Construction play – learning tool – building towers, etc. – learning by doing

Thinking with your hands – making prototypes

In schools and in the work place – the tools for creative play gets taken away

Role play – acting out a solution (specifically in the classroom or in design, or both)

Stuart Brown – Why Play is Vital – No Matter What You’re Age

Notes:

Play is born by curiosity and exploration

Need social play

Rough and Tumble play – preschool age, should be allowed

Imaginative play

What does play do for the brain? – Play lights up the brain, 3D play fires up cerebellum, helps contextual memory be developed

Collective Play – Play signals

Play-related Project   

For my play project, I wanted to “play” with a medium and subject matter I hadn’t used in a while.  For me, this was watercolor and figure drawing.  I did three different figure drawings, but only focused on the exterior/ornamentation of the figures: the clothing.  I wanted to investigate the movement of clothing (drapery, folds, lines, the way things fall due to what lies underneath them, etc).  Here are my pieces of play:

I enjoyed using color, as well as colored pencil to play with the use of line and tone in order to create depth and understanding of what was depicted in each image.