A path of research leading to project brief four; information gathered and ideas prompted by reading. 

Negus, K & Pickering, M 2004, ‘Chapter 1: Creation’, in Creativity, Communication and Cultural Value, 1^st edn, SAGE Publications Ltd., Thousand Oaks, CA, pp. 1-22. 

• Where does creativity come from? Are your ideas really yours or do you just acknowledge and use them when they float into your head from some external source? Divine intervention – muses?
• John Lennon: “real music … the music of the spheres, the music that surpasses understanding … I’m just a channel … I transcribe it like a medium”
• Modern, self-initiated creativity hand in hand with sense of authenticity – why we despise plagiarism. Less of a problem in Shakespeare’s day, for example (he ripped off everything & was still a genius)
• Is the creativity in thinking of a new idea or improving an old one? Both? Neither? Are there any new ideas?
• Creativity and individuality – why do we look upon those who create in a group as lesser creatives? Obsession with assigning all great works to an individual, an auteur – even films to a single director, as if everyone else involved had nothing to do with the outcome
• Can anyone create alone? How much should other people be credited? Bouncing off ideas, asking the right questions, simply listening? A dog can listen, can a dog be a co-creator?
• Tension between real (dull) life and creative (vibrant) interpretation – are you then miserable if you can’t make or appreciative creative work? Do we expect too much because we’re raised on art? Happily ever afters, for example?
• Can never really express what’s in your imagination – the germ of an idea is always polluted when you try to put it into words

A path of research leading to project brief four; information gathered and ideas prompted by reading. 

Katz, D & Kahn, R 2008, ‘Communication: the flow of information’, in Mortensen CD (ed), Communication Theory, 2^nd edn, Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick, NJ, pp. 382-389.

• If we increase and improve communication channels, will we really communicate better and solve so many problems in society? (Communication as education)
• Well, maybe not – communication can create as well as solve problems, eg. revealing a side of someone’s character previously unknown
• So is it better and more peaceful to live in the dark? Is ignorance really bliss? Is bliss a worthwhile goal?
• Image, smokescreens & spin – if you can communicate something attractively, you might not need to fundamentally change or improve it
• An organised social system implies the restriction of communication – a formal organisation includes a limited number of people (such as the social construct of a family) and therefore limits communication by limiting the channels
• Pure, unfiltered communication only possible through anarchy? Even then, society still exists – limited by human factors i.e. you can’t meet everyone
  • But this is the only societal model where it’s hypothetically possible – goes hand in hand with the destruction of mass media
• But to unfiltered communication doesn’t mean good communication – needs structure to have meaning (even structure as basic as language)
• “Preaching to the choir”, then, to communicate effectively – is this frustrating? Limiting? As an artist?
• The coding process: we bring our own assumptions and pre-determined judgement to anything communicated to us – not to mention pack mentality, “us vs them”, in an organisation
• To move from pack to pack, communication must be translated as if these groups were speaking different languages