Creativity Symposium - Session Descriptions click here for print version (pdf)

Subject Areas:
Creativity: Ideas and Translations
Interdisciplinary Creative Process and Practice
Creative Economies and a Sense of Place
Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Creative Environments: Tactics and Outcomes
Creative Citizenship and Creative Literacy
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Creativity: Ideas and Translations

Interdisciplinarity as Critical Inquiry: The Science/Art Interface
> Thursday, Mar. 19, 1:45 – 2:15 pm, Benson, Room TBA

In what new ways can non-specialists participate in scientific knowledge and decision-making in our increasingly complex and interconnected world? Recent examples of interdisciplinary practices will be discussed that are critically challenging traditional assumptions about both art and biology as well as our notions about subjectivity and objectivity, the relationship between amateurs & experts, and the creative basis of knowledge in different disciplines.

Andrew Yang
Assistant Professor of Biology and Liberal Arts, School of the Art Institute of Chicago

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Creativity as Rational Exploration
> Thursday, Mar. 19, 2:15 – 2:45 pm, Benson, Room TBA

Intellectual creativity has stymied many researchers for the reason that it is an emergent mental phenomenon that supervenes upon non-creative mental functions.  I'll attempt to dispel the anti-rationalist approach to this concept by arguing that the 'making-newness' of creative insights is quite often the culmination of a search for a rational explanation; 'creativity' is nothing but the logical extension of the insistence that all things have some rational explanation or other.   

Christopher Martin
Assistant Professor of Philosophy, University of Wisconsin Green Bay

Analogy and Metaphor:  Using Image Theatre to Teach Creativity Across Discipline
> Thursday, Mar. 19, 11 am – 12 pm, Scales, Ring Theater

Cognitive neuroscience supports our hypothesis that Image Theatre (Boal) could provide an approach to teaching analogic thinking.   In this workshop, we draw on neuroscience as well as creativity theory to create a set of physical “sculpting” exercises designed to stimulate analogic and metaphoric thinking about “problems” proposed by participants.

Emily Rollie
PhD Student, Theatre, University of Missouri
Cece McFarland
Asstistant Director, University of Missouri Interactive Theatre Troupe
PhD Student, Theatre, University of Missouri
Adrianne Adderley PhD (Theatre, MU, 2008)
Assistant Professor, Missouri Valley University
Suzanne Burgoyne
Curators’ Teaching Professor of Theatre, University of Missouri, Kellogg National Fellow, II

The Embodied Brain
> Thursday, Mar. 19, 11 am – 12 pm, Scales, M306

Creativity is not located in any one part of the brain, but emerges from kin-aesthetic resonance with people and things. This interactive lecture will shed light on recent discoveries in neuroscience on how our thoughts, feelings, intentions, and actions are body-based and shared.

Glenna Batson PT SCd MA
Associate Professor of Physical Therapy, Winston-Salem State University | dancer |
somatic educator | movement muse

Practice of Existence
> Thursday, Mar. 19, 1:45 – 2:45 pm, Benson atrium and Room TBA

"Practice of Existence" is a research project in being, given for humans to receive through eyes, ears, and whole-body empathy. The work was created in largely wordless convening and without the employment of visual design tools and choreographic devices.  Purposeful forgetting of “dancing” nourishes the emergence of organic movement architecture.  Oral “sounding” communicates the experience of being, outwardly and inwardly, individually and socially. The Practice of Existence was born in downtown Montréal in December 2006, and moved to Greensboro, NC in July 2007.

Principal Investigator: Larry Lavender
Professor of Dance, University of North Carolina Greensboro | creativity researcher & author
Co-Investigators: Blair Chamberlain, Jennifer Guy, Emily Hatfield, Caitlin Spencer

Overcoming Creative Obstacles in Geographically Fragmented Environments:
Lessons from Small World Networks
> Thursday, Mar. 19, 3 – 4 pm, Benson, Room TBA

The essential concept of “small world” networks is that most of us are connected with one another by a relatively small number of mutual acquaintances (e.g., “six degrees” of separation). This concept dates back to a seminal experiment performed by Stanley Milgram (Psychol Today. 1967;2: 60–67.), who demonstrated small world connectivity in an experiment that spanned a geographical area from Nebraska to Boston.  The human brain can also be described by such small world principles. The brain generates goal directed creative behaviors by activity that is distributed by connectors within brain networks that promote cooperation between often distant network elements. Organizations that would promote cross disciplinary creative processes may benefit from this biological metaphor as they encounter obstacles presented by technological and geographical barriers to collaborative endeavors.

Dwayne W. Godwin PhD
Associate Professor of Neurobiology and Anatomy, Assistant Dean of the Graduate School, WFU School of Medicine
Jennifer Stapleton PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy
Paul Laurienti MD PhD
Department of Radiology and the ANSIR lab
Walter Wiggins MSII
Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy

LifeCore Interactive:  Where Natural History Meets Personal History
> Wednesday, Mar. 18, 3 – 5 pm, Room 10 (Printmaking Studio), Scales

LifeCore: Where Natural History Meets Personal History. This is a workshop based on science tools and theories such as science core diagramming, reference slides and Hans Jenny's soil forming factors (CLORPT).  Participants will apply the concepts of cores to their personal histories, creating their own 'lifecore' or 'eventcore' diagrams.

Heidi LaMoreaux PhD
Associate Professor of Field-Oriented Physical Geography, Hutchins School of Liberal Studies, Sonoma State University

Interdisciplinary Creative Process and Practice

Trans-Disciplinary Creativity and Its Educational Tools—Research, Practice, Applications and Minds-On Exercises
> Thursday, Mar. 19, 1:45 – 4 pm*, Benson, Room TBA (*extended session)

This lecture, demo panel, and workshop focuses on intersecting approaches to thinking about and teaching creativity. Our four presentations thread through imaginative play in childhood and adult creative achievement at the highest levels (e.g. Nobel Prize), tease out proven strategies for creative accomplishment (e.g. worldplay, polymathy, symbolic model-building) and apply those to self-choice and classroom learning environments that emphasize creative and aesthetic processes, novel educational software and digital technologies.  The session will include hands-on exercises and experiential learning that characterizes what creative thinkers and learners actually do.

Robert Root-Bernstein PhD
Full Professor, Department of Physiology, Michigan State University | artistically-inclined biologist | historian of science | MacArthur Fellow | author of Sparks of Genius (Houghton Mifflin, 1999)
Michele Root-Bernstein PhD
Adjunct Faculty, Department of Theatre, Michigan State University | award-winning historian | published writer and poet | author of Sparks of Genius
Todd Siler PhD
Internationally recognized artist, inventor, psychologist, author | founder of Think Like A Genius, LLC | founder of Psi Phi Technology Corp
Punya Mishra PhD
Educational Psychologist, College of Education, Michigan State University | award-winning teacher | accomplished visual artist and poet
Michael DeSchryver
PhD student, Department of Education, Michigan State University

Academic Creativity and Institutional Flexibility: Boundary-Crossing Research and Education in Response to Global Health Challenges
> Thursday, Mar. 19, 3 – 4 pm, Benson, Room TBA

This paper will analyze creative approaches employed by researchers for their collaborative strategies in the area of global health, and will shed light on the complexities of organizational development in the areas that require boundary-crossing approaches.

Anatoly Oleksiyenko PhD
Post-doctoral researcher, Theory and Policy Studies, University of Toronto

Boundary vs. Frontier: Hidden Imperatives of the Art of Collaboration
> Friday, Mar. 20, 11:45 am - 12:45 pm, Benson, Room TBA

This presentation will explore via case examples the operational and conceptual differences between boundary (barrier) and frontier (opportunity, exploration) in intra- and interdisciplinary collaboration, with particular attention to the arts (e.g. collaborations between artistic, demographic or ethnic traditions), and fields of inquiry with reciprocal relationships to the arts (e.g. digital imaging in astronomy or medicine).

Richard Robeson
Adjunct Assistant Professor of Social Medicine, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, School of Medicine | Adjunct Instructor of Guitar, Interim Director of the UNC Guitar Ensemble, UNC Chapel Hill Department of Music | collaborates with scholars in bioethics and the medical humanities, dance and theater artists, and musicians

Performable Case Studies:  Dramatic Arts Casuistry in Ethics Education
> Friday, Mar. 20, 10:30 - 11:30 am, Benson, Room TBA

Professors Robeson and King began working together to use staged readings to inform public bioethics discussion in 1988, with an extracurricular program for medical students at UNC and have since extended the program to other medical schools in NC through an NEH Exemplary Award in collaboration with the NC Humanities Council, and subsequently developed a for-credit course for second-year UNC medical students. This workshop will provide participants with insight into the process and power of theater as a means of stimulating robust critical reflection about moral issues of societal importance.  We will bring copies of a script and engage participants in a concert reading and discussion.

Richard Robeson
Adjunct Assistant Professor of Social Medicine, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, School of Medicine | Adjunct Instructor of Guitar, Interim Director of the UNC Guitar Ensemble, UNC Chapel Hill Department of Music | collaborates with scholars in bioethics and the medical humanities, dance and theater artists, and musicians
Nancy M. P. King
Professor, Department of Social Sciences and Health Policy | Director, Program in Bioethics, Health, and Society, WFU

The Impacts of an Interdisciplinary Design Studio on Creativity
> Thursday, Mar. 19, 3 - 4 pm, Benson, Room TBA

This presentation will describe the design, implementation, and evaluation of a piloted, interdisciplinary course that incorporates creative strategies and the arts with engineering design and will conclude with activities from the course to inspire attendees to incorporate creativity through interdisciplinary efforts.  

Nadia Kellam, Tracie Costantino, and Bonnie Cramond
Faculty. Engineering, Art Education, and Educational Psychology, University of Georgia

The Academic Intellectual Entrepreneur: Interdisciplinary Creative Processes Manifested in Vision, Experiential Learning, and Leadership
> Friday, Mar. 20, 11:45 am - 12:45 pm, Library, Room TBA

Based on a qualitative, case-study research project, and a graduate course, this presentation focuses on Intellectual Entrepreneurs by University faculty. Focusing on Intellectual Entrepreneurship, I suggest that entrepreneurial qualities can greatly enhance faculty's roles, cultivating high impact research, teaching, and service. The presentation will address the ways that creativity and interdisciplinarity are central to these different entrepreneurial aspects such as vision in exploring, identifying and creating opportunities.

Liora Bresler PhD
College of Education, Curriculum and Instruction, Professor | School of Art and Design, Professor | School of Music, Affiliate | Academy of Entrepreneurial Leadership, Fellow, University of Illinois

Can Interdisciplinary Creative Collaboration Really Work?
> Thursday, Mar. 19, 3 - 4 pm, Benson, Room TBA

This paper/discussion will explore the following questions:  Is it realistic to believe that we can make interdisciplinary courses and programs work?  To what extent do students of different orientations really interact, work together, learn from each other, and synergistically increase each other’s creativity?  To what extent are faculty willing to move out of customary teaching styles and the familiar ways that courses and curriculum are handled in their departments?

Jennifer Burg
Associate Professor of Computer Science, WFU

Stumbling and Soaring:  The Process of Creative Collaboration between Theatre and Science
> Thursday, Mar. 19, 3 - 4 pm, Benson, Room TBA

Theatre artists and scientists bring to each other new skills and perspectives, but also potential disciplinary culture clash.  In this paper, we examine the process of two theatre/science collaborative projects at the University of Missouri for both stumbles and joyful flights.

Suzanne Burgoyne
Curators’ Teaching Professor of Theatre, University of Missouri
Marjorie Skubic
Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, MU Lapierre

Classroom Intersections:  A Creative Teaching Model for Cross-Course Interdisciplinary Collaboration at Wake Forest University
> Thursday, Mar. 19, 3 - 4 pm, Benson, Room TBA

Faculty and students in four disciplinary areas—Playwriting, Digital Art, Documentary Film-making, and Japanese literature—reconfigure course boundaries and explore interdisciplinary platforms for creative collaboration, drawing on Csikszentmihalyi’s model of flow, Zen theory, and knowledge and concepts from each of the four subject areas.

David Phillips
Associate Professor, Humanities and Japanese Studies, WFU
Sharon Andrews
Associate Professor, Theatre and Dance, Wake Forest University 
Roy Carter
Assistant Professor, Art, Wake Forest University 
Max Negin
Lecturer, Communication, Wake Forest University 

Supporting Interdisciplinary Curriculum in Learning with Digital Museum Databases
> Friday, Mar. 20, 11:45 am - 12:45 pm, Library, Room TBA

The Museum of Anthropology at Wake Forest University is developing and implementing a database system and online information service to promote and preserve its collections, make information in its digital database freely accessible, and engage visual learners.

Stephen Whittington
Director, Registrar, and Collections Manager, Museum of Anthropology, WFU

Creative Economies and a Sense of Place

Growing a Creative Economy – One Experiment
> Thursday, Mar. 19, 4:10 - 5:10 pm, Benson, Room TBA

Learn about one city’s year-long attempt to grow their creative economy, which engaged a wide variety of constituents.  Session participants will explore additional ways to create stronger creative economies.

Lynnette Claire PhD
Assistant Professor, School of Business and Leadership, University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington | participated in her community’s Creative Cities Leadership Project

Creativity and Entrepreneurship: Drivers in Regional Economic Development
> Friday, Mar. 20, 11:45am - 12:45 pm, Library, Room TBA

University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG) panelists will provide their definitions and applications of creativity, innovation, and invention through the process of engaging artists in engineering economic development. The central theme is how innovative entrepreneurship drives creativity, advancing the dynamic “creative society” that is now seen as essential to promoting a region’s economic prosperity.

Rebecca Clark
Director of the Piedmont Triad Film Commission | The Tale of Two Soldiers: How the Piedmont’s Creative Community Provides the Basis for Artistic Excellence
Jody Cauthen
Theatre Manager, UNCG Theatre | Setting the Stage:Theatre Entrepreneurship in the Triad
Joe Erba
Director, UNCG Summer Entrepreneurship Bootcamp | The Entrepreneurship Bootcamp as an Agency of Innovating Creative Change
John Lee Jellicorse
Panel chair and director, Entrepreneurial Innovation in the Arts Program, UNCG | Artists’ Stories of Entrepreneurial Innovation in the Triad
Terry Kennedy
Lecturer/Associate Director, MFA in Writing Program, UNCG | Keeping the Word Alive: Independent Magazine and Small Press Publishing Entrepreneurship
Amy Purcell
Associate Professor, Department of Art, UNCG | Design, Art, and Technology as a Focus of Creative Innovation: Inspiration from the 2008 DATS Symposium
Jan Van Dyke
Head, Department of Dance, UNCG | The Do It Yourself Dance
Dianne Welsh
Charles A. Hayes Distinguished Professor of Entrepreneurship, Bryan School, UNCG | Self Employment in the Arts as a Sustainable Perspective for Growing Creative Societies

The Arts as Tool for Community Improvement
> Friday, Mar. 20, 10:30 - 11:30 am, Benson, Room TBA

This panel discussion will present a brief overview of the “community arts” movement, highlight national and regional examples of such work that serve as a catalyst for community engagement and transformation, and present examples of such projects underway in the Piedmont Triad (NC) area.

Doug Borwick
Director/Fine Arts Division-Salem College | Director/Not-for-Profit Management and Arts Management Programs-Salem College | Director/Piedmont Triad Initiative for Community Arts| composer | consultant in not-for-profit management and arts management
Lia Miller
Director, Center for Creative Aging | Executive Director, Shepherd's Center of Greensboro, NC
Bonnie Poindexter
Executive Director of Piedmont Opera, NC
Lynn Rhodes
Executive Director and Co-founder, Winston-Salem Youth Arts Institute, NC

Teaching Innovative Thinking – What does Creativity have to do with it?
> Thursday, Mar. 19, 3 - 4 pm, Benson, Room TBA

Innovation must be at the forefront of any discussion about revitalizing our economy, and helping people understand the role of creativity within the innovation process is essential.  In this session we will be previewing a new skills-based model to teach community college students about creativity & innovation.

Liz McCormick
Director of Innovation Workspace, Grand Rapids Community College | Project Champion of the WIRED West Michigan, Innovation Curriculum, funded by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration

Case Study of an Interdisciplinary Creative Process: Developing a Model for Teaching Integrated Business Communication in a Global Marketplace
> Thursday, Mar. 19, 3 - 4 pm, Benson, Room TBA

Our complex world demands that we educate students to think and act globally. This process requires innovative ways of thinking without the silos of academic disciplines and the restrictions of time, place and people. This paper examines the collaborative creative process involved in developing a model for teaching integrated business communication in the global marketplace.

Marilyn S. Sarow
Professor of Mass Communication, Winthrop University
Bonnye E. Stuart
Instructor of Speech and Mass Communication, Winthrop University

Maine Center for Creativity’s Art All Around™ Public Art project
> Thursday, Mar. 19, 4:10 - 5:10 pm, Benson, Room TBA

The Maine Center for Creativity is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the promoting the growth of the arts and creative industries in Maine.  The founder, Jean Maginnis, will present profiles of two public art projects that demonstrate unique arts and industry collaborations through volunteers. The first, an arts and industry event, called "Light House," a large scale projection, collaborative community project with FPL Energy and the Cousins Island Power Plant. The second is a collaboration with Sprague Energy Corp. to run an international competition “Art All Around,” to transform 8 energy tanks plus 8 tops of tanks into a world-class work of public art (261,000 sq.ft.) located in the International Port of South Portland, Maine. London-based, Jaime Gili's design has been selected.

Jean Maginnis
Executive Director, Maine Center for Creativity

Piedmont Triad Creative Economy- A Center of Excellence in Design
> Thursday, Mar. 19, 3 - 4 pm, Benson, Room TBA

This session will explain the evolution of the creative economy in the region and the recent decision to focus efforts economic and workforce efforts on Design.  Margaret Collins is the Director of the creative cluster of the Piedmont Triad Partnership, established as a W.I.R.E.D. hub whose primary aim is the economic development and marketing of the Piedmont Triad Region of North Carolina.

Margaret Collins
Director, Creative Enterprises and the Arts, Piedmont Triad Partnership, Greensboro, NC

Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship

How to Make an Entrepreneur Out of a Towel: Teaching Creativity in the Academy and in Industry
> Friday, Mar. 20, 10:30 - 11:30 am, Benson, Room TBA

Are creative people BORN or MADE? Teaching creativity might seem impossible ("you either got it or you don't"), but with the help of a tea towel, anyone can shake up their habitual modes of thought. This panel proposes a pedagogical model for fostering creativity in student/facilitator interactions, both for university classrooms and for industry training and consulting, including an exercise for stimulating creative collaboration in groups.

Carolyn D. Roark
Theatre Arts and Arts Entrepreneurship Instructor, Editor, Ecumenical Journal
Mary Abrahams
Director, Living and Learning Center, Baylor University
Kevin Daum
CEO, TAE Consulting

Mark Twain’s Conflicts with Creativity: “We Have Lost as Much as We Have Gained by Prying into That Matter”
> Friday, Mar. 20, 10:30 - 11:30 am, Library, Room TBA

Mark Twain was not only the “father of American literature,” but also had a scientific orientation – he was an inventor with 3 patents of his own, and he was an eager consumer of all that was new and innovative (ranging from bicycles to telephones to recording machines). He was a champion of scientific and social advancement, but through his own experiences he also recognized that scientific innovation could have a dehumanizing effect that required a counterbalance of artistic creativity.

K. Patrick Ober MD
Professor of Internal Medicine and Associate Dean for Education, Wake Forest University School of Medicine |author of the book Mark Twain and Medicine:Any Mummery Will Cure

Build a Nest - A Wake Alum Launches Her First Venture
> Friday, Mar. 20, 10:30 - 11:30 am, Library, Room TBA

Build a Nest is a nonprofit dedicated to changing the lives of women artisans in developing countries through the provision of interest-free microfinance loans. After just over two years, Nest serves over 100 women in 6 countries. Rebecca Koussky, a graduate of Wake Forest University (’04) will discuss the social mission of Build a Nest and support why her company chose to work specifically in the arts.  She will also address particulars about being a young (she founded Nest at the age of 24) female entrepreneur. 

Rebecca Koussky
Founder and Executive Director of Build a Nest (www.buildanest.com) | Master’s in Social Work, Washington University, St. Louis 2006

From Low, Silent, Faceless Places: Articulating Student Need for Creativity Education, Entrepreneurial and Leadership Skills through Arts Entrepreneurship Programs
> Friday, Mar. 20, 11:45 am - 12:45 pm, Library, Room TBA

This paper presents the outcomes of a national survey that articulates the need for Creativity, Arts Entrepreneurship and Arts Leadership education programs at the university level by undergraduate arts students.  As the first study of its kind, the results are intended to assist those colleges and universities in assessing the need for such programs before institutionalization.

Alyssa R. Murphy
Graduate Student pursuing a Master of Music Education, Band degree, University of South Carolina, Columbia

Creativity and Entrepreneurship: An Interdisciplinary Approach towards Success in the Music Industry
> Friday, Mar. 20, 10:30 - 11:30 am, Library, Room TBA

This session will focus on how a creative interdisciplinary approach to the teaching of entrepreneurial skills can help students be more successful in the world of business.  Drawing on examples from the music industry, this session will demonstrate how the creative use of entrepreneurship and business skills, the visual arts, cultural sociology, and demography can help the young entrepreneur create dynamic and effective marketing and sales strategies that focus on specific markets in order to increase company visibility and revenue.

Dianne H.B. Welsh
Charles A. Hayes Distinguished Professor of Entrepreneurship at the Bryan School of Business and Economics at University of North Carolina Greensboro | member of the Arts Entrepreneurship Committee of BELL (Building Entrepreneurship Learning for Life)
Jon Epstein
Professor, Sociology Department at University of North Carolina Greensboro | member of the Arts Entrepreneurship Committee of BELL

Crosscurrents in the World of Play: Amusements in the 21st Century
> Thursday, Mar. 19, 1:45 - 2:45 pm, Benson, Room TBA

The United States gaming and toy industries produce over 45 billion dollars in domestic sales. This vibrant and turbulent world is being created by artists and designers who will define the aesthetic viewpoint and cultural memories of future generations. The element of play is being expressed in a dizzying array of game media and 3-D objects, which reflect both our worldly desires and otherworldly dreams.  This roundtable discussion addresses crosscurrents in the world/s of play from the perspective of toy retailers, gaming designers, wholesale toy specialty marketing/sales companies, fair trade agents for global toys, and cultural commentators and/or historians from the museum community.

Jan Detter
Panel moderator | Third Eye Studio | Instructor, Office of Entrepreneurship & Liberal Arts and the Graduate School of Divinity, WFU
George Scheer, Stephanie Sherman, Co- Directors, Elsewhere Museum
Andy Foltz, Matt Turner, George Lamontagne, Digital Designers, Red Storm Gaming Company
Jessica Vogel, Bill Brown (WFU '08) | Founders, Stuffed Robot LLC

Creative Environments: Tactics and Outcomes

Terry Riley's "In C," Performance and Discussion with Students
> Thursday, Mar. 19, 11:00 am - 12:00 pm, Hanes Art Gallery, Scales

In Terry Riley's landmark minimalist composition "In C", players decide when and how and how long to play a series of 53 musical fragments, creating unique textures and colors in each rendering of the piece. Our performance will feature advanced string players from the WFU Department of Music on violin, viola, cello, bass, harp and guitar. Feel free to grab a seat or to walk about the gallery and lobby as you listen. A Q&A session with Associate Professor of Music and Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation Fellow Jacqui Carrasco and students will follow the performance.

Jacqui Carrasco
Associate Professor of Music | Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation Fellow, WFU

Creativity and Design Education: An Exploration of Students’ Architectural Designs
> Friday, Mar. 20, 11:45 am - 12:45 pm, Library, Room TBA

Based on the premise that creativity requires deep or genotypical ideas that leave the solution space as open as possible to creative invention, this paper attempts to investigate to what extent designers explore solution possibilities at the genotypical level and whether their creativity changes as they increase their expertise in a domain.

Emrah Orhun PhD
Computer Science Department, Troy University Montgomery Campus, Montgomery AL
Deniz Orhun PhD
Auburn, AL

Liturgical Creativity, Tradition and Destabilization
> Friday, Mar. 20, 11:45 am - 12:45 pm, Library, Room TBA

This paper examines two approaches to liturgical creativity within different streams of Jewish tradition to illustrate the creative potential for revising accepted meanings or defining new ones by liturgical innovation. 

Andrew Vogel Ettin
Professor of English, WFU | Rabbi, Temple Israel, Salisbury, NC

The History of Tooled Education as an Interdisciplinary Form
> Thursday, Mar. 19, 4:10 - 5:10 pm, Benson, Room TBA

A guided tour of an historic demonstration by George Nelson, Charles Eames, and Alexander Girard in 1952 entitled, “ART X.” This program evaluates teaching methods in a contemporary art program, while presenting the innovations of an immersive teaching environment.  These sketches of hypothetical courses introduced the world to the “multi-screen” array and to concepts in learning that were presented around the world.  This history introduces new collaborations with contemporary practitioners in a variety of fields.

Sean Mills
Lead researcher of the Art X Project | BFA with an emphasis in Digital Media | In-house artist of Baseline Sportsmedia | Director of Aitu Media

Deploying Radical Imagination - From Classroom to Collaborative Community
> Friday, Mar. 20, 10:30 - 11:30 am, Library, Room 203 A

This session will focus on building the Program for Creativity and Innovation at Wake Forest, how it functions as a cornerstone for the Entrepreneurship initiative here and how it is a bridge for transmitting highly imaginative creativity research and practice through curricular and programming innovations across disciplinary boundaries. Course and project examples will be highlighted from the Foundations in Creativity and Innovation seminar for the Entrepreneurship and Social Enterprise minor and a theatre course, “Wild Ideas: Performance and Utopian Desire” that engaged students in a transdisciplinary public performance and exhibition project.

Lynn Book
Program Director, Creativity & Innovation, Office of Entrepreneurship & Liberal Arts |
Visiting Associate Professor, Department of Theatre and Dance | interdisciplinary artist

The Hutchins School of Liberal Studies at Sonoma State University: Creating Spaces for Interdisciplinary Creativity
> Friday, Mar. 20, 10:30 - 11:30 am, Library, Room 203 A

This presentation examines how the seminar-based Hutchins School of Liberal Studies creates unique spaces for creativity by encouraging both students and faculty to explore interdisciplinary connections, participate in creative activities, and co-create curriculum.

Heidi LaMoreaux PhD
Associate Professor of Field-Oriented Physical Geography in the Hutchins School of Liberal Studies at Sonoma State University

Building Blocks:  Four Anxious and Undisciplined Hybrids Consider Creativity
> Thursday, Mar. 19, 1:45 - 2:45 pm, Benson, Room TBA

This panel is conducted by 4 University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA) academic faculty who consider themselves hybrids. As practicing artists, they each pay close attention to the nature of creativity and how it can be both cultivated and limited by disciplinary constraints. As academic professionals, they recognize the difficulty of husbanding a "space" for creativity in an institutional environment.  They will share practices and concerns in a session that is part dialogue and workshop that it is both wide-ranging and concrete.

Bob King
Teaches Digital Media | background in painting, drawing, and cultural studies
Joe Mills
Teaches Humanities and Writing | trained as an American Literature scholar
Betsy Towns
Teaches World Visual Culture, Modern and Contemporary Art | art historian and sculptor
Dean Wilcox
Lighting designer | theatre historian | teaches such courses as The Aesthetics of Dissonance, Chaos Theory and the Arts, and Performance Art

Advancing Creativity through Improvisational Techniques
> Thursday, Mar. 19, 3 - 4 pm, Benson, Room TBA

As the co-director of the Berea College Entrepreneurship for the Public Good Program, one challenge we face is to open the entrepreneurial mindset to non-business students and to draw upon non-business content as a vehicle leading to creative inventions. During this presentation participants will experience improvisational techniques which can be incorporated into everyday activities and educational settings.

Peter H. Hackbert PhD
William and Kay Moore Chair in Entrepreneurship | Management and Co-Director, Entrepreneurship for the Public Good, Berea College, KY

Writing on Water:  Extensions of Text (and Teaching) onto Landscape
> Friday, Mar. 20, 11:45 am - 12:45 pm, Benson, Room TBA

Our project was initiated by a simple, straightforward desire: to write on water, to put a poem on a pond. In my presentation, I will discuss the subsequent “writing on water” projects undertaken in conjunction with university classes offered on visual and concrete poetry, its history and application. Here, the students and I were together presented with the challenge of imagining (and manifesting) alternative forms of text, alternative means and methods—other than upon paper or computer screen—of inscribing language onto the environment.  The poetic and pedagogical repercussions from these projects proved quite illuminating, as language itself was materially and conceptually re-enlivened, re-imagined as liquid resonance, as floating form.

Clark Lunberry
Associate Professor, Department of English, University of North Florida | visual artist | poet

Creative Solutions to Patient Perception Issues
> Friday, Mar. 20, 11:45 am - 12:45 pm, Library, Room TBA

Compartmentalized structures and selection biases affect patient perception and behaviors. This session offers a look into how these how these ‘blinders’ obscure real options in fundamentally powerful and sometimes insidious ways and suggests how patterns can be overcome through creative solutions with far reaching consequences. 

Steven Feldman MD
Professor of Dermatology, Pathology and Public Health Sciences, WFU School of Medicine

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Mental and Creative Literacy - Building a Solid Foundation for Creative Thinking
> Friday, Mar. 20, 11:45 am - 12:45 pm, Library, Room 204

Need a user’s manual for your creative mind? In this results-oriented presentation, we’ll explore the physiology and psychology of the “agile mind”, from an end-user’s perspective. We’ll then explore a Swiss Army Knife of creativity tools, from abstracting to analogizing to empathizing. The goal? To provide the skills to grow your own creative thinking skill set.

Paul Schuytema
Oversees the Office of Creative Software Development for University of Illinois Extension | entrepreneur | computer game developer

Creative Engagement and Transformative Impact:  The Power of Art and the Prison
> Thursday, Mar. 19, 4:10 - 5:10 pm, Benson, Room TBA

This paper discusses an art history course at the TN Prison for Women and explores the experiences of the class, the powerful, educational outcomes, and the new sense of self for the incarcerated. 

Laura Lake Smith
Chair and Assistant Professor of Art History, Department of Art, Lipscomb University, Nashville, TN

Creative Networks: Web 2.0 Citizenry
> Thursday, Mar. 19, 1:45 - 2:45 pm, Benson, Room TBA

While journalism, the arts and academic research were previously specialized areas of gathering, producing and disseminating information, the advent of the Internet, the rise of the so-called information age, and, most importantly, the widespread adoption and use of various Web 2.0 technologies has ushered in a new era of interdisciplinary information and communication, and, by extension, a new era of citizenship.

Musetta Durkee
Independent scholar and artist | MA Performance Studies, New York University ‘07 |BA Philosophy, Columbia University '06

The Interactive Window
> Wednesday, Mar. 18, 3 - 5 pm, Scales Fine Arts Center lobby

The Interactive Window is a Non-haptic Gesture-based Interactive Display System that can be presented on almost any large glass window. This system represents the first generation of inexpensive large-scale interactive display systems and was developed through the collaboration of software developers with visual, sound and interactive designers in NC State’s College of Design Advanced Media Lab. This panel will detail the research, development and applications of this creative use of technology.

Lee Cherry & Patrick Fitzgerald
Researchers, Advanced Media Lab, College of Design, North Carolina State University

Bridges to the Other: Creative Linkages of Community and Art
> Friday, Mar. 20, 10:30 - 11:30 am, Library, Room TBA

Todd Drake creates works of art that are intimately shaped by “strangers.” He has worked with, among others; long distance truck drivers, undocumented immigrants, exotic dancers, refugees, US and Iraqi Soldiers, Muslim-Americans, and Alzheimer patients.   Drake will share how he reaches out to these often over looked or misunderstood communities and involves them in a wide range of creative processes that invite others into greater understanding, less fear, and a strengthened sense of shared humanity.

Todd Drake
Artist in residence, Center for Global Initiatives, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill

Building Creative Literacy: A Product Tasting Exercise
> Thursday, Mar. 19, 4:10 - 5:10 pm, Benson, Room TBA

This interactive presentation showcases an experiential exercise that Professor Muir employs in his business communication classes to encourage creative thinking and to enhance evaluative skills in his students.   In this chocolate tasting session, participants will use their creative and critical thinking skills to describe the tasting experience towards demonstrating why language matters in the creative process.  

Clive Muir
Teaches marketing and communication courses in the School of Business and Economics at Winston-Salem State University

Report on a Symposium Series on Citizenship
> Thursday, Mar. 19, 1:45 – 2:45 pm, Benson, Room TBA

This paper addresses the lessons learned from the first two Symposia on Citizenship held in the spring of 2007 and 2008 at Wake Forest University and discusses why this event is an innovative pedagogical exercise that connects students, faculty and community members.  The objective of the Symposia Series is to encourage and develop academic and creative thinking about specific issues relating to citizenship.
                         
Alessandra Beasley Von Burg
Assistant Professor, Department of Communication, WFU

Creativity and Self-Expression through Scratch Programming
> Thursday, Mar. 19, 11 am - 12 pm, Scales, Art 102

The name Scratch comes from spinning creative rhythms aggressively to create harmony by using vinyl records to mix music clips together. Likewise, a new programming language called Scratch created at the MIT Media Lab, permits young people (ages 8 and up) to mix together a wide variety of media: graphics, photos, music, and sounds enabling them to create their own interactive stories, games, music, and animation for the Web. In this session, the presenters will discuss how Scratch can be implemented in the classroom and in the community to help students think creatively, plan systematically, analyze critically, work collaboratively, communicate clearly, design iteratively and learn continuously.

Scott Betz
Associate Professor of Art, Winston Salem State University
Antionette Moore
Instructional Technologist, Winston Salem State University

>> Click here to learn more about Creativity: Worlds in the Making, A National Symposium!

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