FYI
The Art of Everyday Life is a freshman colloquium course, offered as part of the First Year Introduction (FYI) curriculum at Eastern Connecticut State University.
Course Description
In The Art of Everyday Life, students both learn about and create art that connects with everyday life experience through various frames of reference, including: sound, ephemeral sculpture, movement and community-building. The course will benefit people interested in all forms of creative expression, especially those interested in the visual arts, theater, music, sports and sociology/ anthropology. It is a journey centered around what artist Josef Beuys called “social sculpture,” a mode of art-making aimed at shaping and transforming oneself, society and the environment. Unlike conventional forms of art making, the primary tools of social sculpture are one’s body, language, and thought, combined in creative action.
Thus, The Art of Everyday Life is not a course in which students are passive recipients of information. Rather, it is a thoroughly collaborative, physically engaging class, comprised of a combination of lecture and action-oriented production. (3 credit hours)
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I learned a lot about what the true meaning of creativity really was , creativity isn’t just being creative and making things your own. Using creativity in a class room can take you a long way and help you successfully. According to Keith Johnstone, when a person is afraid to do something, you must persuade them to have fun and approach the situation as a “creative” person. Meaning, creative people know how to have a great time. Creative people are very imaginative , and they know how to make something boring very interesting. I think it was really interesting to learn how being a creative person could really help you get through something difficult.
In the passage it is evident that creative people exist all around us. Everybody has different thoughts within their heads and the only way for them to be heard is if people express themselves. When Keith Johnstone makes a story specifically for his friend, she creates the scene quickly and effectively. He asks, “What was the street like?” Then his friend responds, “It was a London Street. Working-class. Some of the buildings have been demolished.” This response is what she envisioned, no matter how abnormal or basic, her creativity led her to make this scene without hesitation. Somewhere in all of us, there is creativity meant to burst out with expression.
What the reader made me thing about after reading this article was that people that go about their life as a daily routine will not be as imaginative as people who have creative jobs or creative lifestyles. The world has proven that there are all sorts of creativity, such as improvising which we do daily. For example , when you’re being creative its all about how you approach a situation. Meaning in the text they stated, ” Creative people have a great time, parallel lines turn into a tree trunk.” Another example, of what the author was trying to say was some people have to be encouraged to become or act creative in that moment.
During this reading I gained a lot of knowledge, I agree with parts of this article. The section of Originality I felt as if was really true. It starts off by stating “Many students block their imaginations because they are afraid of being unoriginal.” In the past in public school I was afraid of being weird for not drawing the pretty flower in my art class or even not writing about the right things in writing class. It really all has to do with what OTHER people believe. To be original means having to “go with the flow”, in other words to not steer away from the “Normal”. The article also states that no two people are alike and says that sanity is actually just a way to learn how to behave, it is how we stay liked by people and how we get the conformation that we are accepted in a community. Sanity also has no connection with how you think, it is all about how you showcase yourself. All in all I learned great pointers in this blog about Spontaneity. To be spontaneous to me is to be yourself.
This reading really made me think about how we are all raised, especially in America. There becomes a point in our life where we’re expected to only create “mature” art and have suddenly drop or hide our more childish creations. In the article the author says, “Most children can operate in a creative way until they’re eleven or twelve, when suddenly they lose their spontaneity and produce imitations of ‘adult art.'” This subject really resonates with me because I remember in elementary school we had classes where our teacher stopped praising the kids with more cartoonish drawing and really focused on teaching on “realistic” or mature drawings from real life. It was like we were told our creativity had no more value and the only way to make our authority happy was with acting adult like and mature in every aspect of our life. I definitely agree with everything the author said, throughout the years we’re trained to be embarrassed or ashamed of our spontaneity. after reading this it really makes me want to reclaim myself and create things I enjoy and present me, whether or not they’re “mature” or not.
(pgs 16, 17, 18, 19) It was a snowy night when Mr. Snowman and little Tommy remember that even astronauts need to eat. So Tommy sat Mr. Snowman down at the dinner table and they enjoyed a nice meal together as they chat about their exciting trip they planned to the moon. After a nice candle lit dinner, they look out the window at the moon and express faces of joy and excitement. Mr. Snowman and little Tommy throw on their hats and coats and sprint out the front door. Hand in hand they’re running and eventually lift up higher and higher towards the shining moon in the sky.