"Timeless Space" for Creativity - Education based on Memory + Imagination, Past & Future not the PRESENT please!
CREATIVItY, or rather Creative Thinking, happens exactly in the "timeless space" of the encounter between our memory and our capacity for imagination, that is, between the past and the future.
Memory feeds on "lived" experiences whether they are factual, "adjusted by our present perception of what was the reality" or fictitious. Imagination feeds on the projections we are capable of making of the future.
In this timeless space,"informed creativity" is born, built on the stimuli of "experience" and "imagination" that allows us to "cross" or re-interpret signs and signifiers, generating new meaning or "new information".
We tend to call this process "Intuition" many times because it is difficult to accurately make it tangible and define all the moments that happen internally in our body and which are then transformed into the creative Idea or the creative solution.
In this sense, "the present" only adds to the process context and framework. I dare to say that a process that is tendentiously focused on the present departs from Creativity because it lacks one of two things that feeds it: the "past and future", or better said experiential memory and imagination
Just reflect a little and realize how much our teaching system is focused on the PRESENT…
In the “today” and in the “now”, competences are formed for the professions of today and not those imagined for the future, for example.
From the past, in education, there is no room for exploring “adjusted” or fictitious experiences, taught on the basis of factual memories (usually those determined by the teacher) does not fuel "the construction of each Story", for example. A student who has a different look and experience regarding the past is considered “out of the norm and rules”, it hardly fits into the current teaching models!
On the other hand, students' ability to "project" new scenarios into the future is inhibited, even when it is their own motivation to "set" new directions for their future. Often the current models of education focused on the present: "These are the dogmatic interpretations of the Past that you have to learn and apply in today’s "menu" of existing professional exit doors!
If we want teaching and pedagogical models guided by creative thinking and processes (according to some authors it is the basis of future professions) then we must radically change the way of our education system, from basic education to higher education, based on the creation of Memories trough experiences (factual, adjusted and fictitious) and focused on the ability to imagination so that they, the students or learners, can "be active players in building their own skills and knowledge."
This change involves introducing multidimensionality by systematically confronting divergent stimuli so that they can "cross and re-interpret" signifiers and generate new meanings and knowledge.
It is necessary to constantly introduce new challenges on everything that surrounds them and not challenge class-by-class, theme-by-theme according to the supposed "step of the ladder" of passive teaching methods their teacher normally follows. The learning Stages must be defined by their ability to solve challenges by increasing the degree of complexity and approach to real-life contexts along the “Learning Journey” of each student in a personalised way.
The profound changes are difficult to achieve! We have to be prepared to take risks, make mistakes, and learn in the whole process of change and with the change itself. We will encounter obstacles, personal barriers, students with more ability to change the way of learning and others less open to change processes. It takes resilience, adaptability and meet each of them looking for different platforms and bridges tailored to their personality and belief system.
Crucial is never to lose the "pathway" and the "purpose". It is not a question of changing by changing, but rather of building a more active model that is more capable of transferring to the student the tools and skills that are oriented to the future and not just to the present.
That the Why, the How and the What of the post graduation course of Design Thinking & Prototyping that we build at IADE, focused on building "Memory" trough experiences (immersive creativity class in different creative industries), together with an increasing complex real life context multidimensional challenges to "Imagine" the Future....
Interested?
