Advances in media, entertainment and the arts (AMEA) book series, 2015
How can digital media technologies, contemporary theories of creativity, and tradition combine to... more How can digital media technologies, contemporary theories of creativity, and tradition combine to develop the aesthetics of computer-based art today and in the future? Through contextualised case-studies, this chapter investigates how games, information technologies, and traditional visual and storytelling arts combine to create rich, complex, and engaging moving-image based artworks with wide appeal. It examines how dramatist and interactive media artist Maureen Thomas and 3D media artist and conservator Marianne Selsjord deploy creative digital technologies to transpose, transform, and transcend pre-page arts and crafts for the digital era, making fresh work for new audiences. Researcher in digital aesthetics, creative cognition, and play behaviour Dr. Phillip Prager examines how such work is conducive to creative insight and worthwhile play, discussing its remediation of some of the aspirations and approaches of 20th-century avant-garde artists, revealing these as a potent source of conceptual riches for the digital media creators of today and tomorrow.
Dada is the infant terrible of art history, an anarchic movement that is typically referred to as... more Dada is the infant terrible of art history, an anarchic movement that is typically referred to as nihilistic, pathological, and firmly enshrined within the modernist paradigm and the context of WWI. Through the lens of classical, romantic, and psychoanalytic notions, it certainly appears almost antithetical to creativity. Yet from a cognitive point-of-view, Dada marks a watershed in the understanding of creativity, and articulates principles of creative cognition with surprising insight and precision many decades ahead of science.
and-conditions-of-access.pdf This article may be used for research, teaching and private study pu... more and-conditions-of-access.pdf This article may be used for research, teaching and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution , reselling , loan or sub-licensing, systematic supply or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae and drug doses should be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material.
The Handbook of the Study of Play James E. Johnson, Scott G. Eberle, Thomas S. Henricks, and Davi... more The Handbook of the Study of Play James E. Johnson, Scott G. Eberle, Thomas S. Henricks, and David Kuschner, eds. New York: Rowman & LittleTheld; and Rochester, NY: The Strong, 2015. Notes, epilogue, index. 528 pp. $175.00 cloth. ISBN: 9781475807943This two-volume publication Thnally Thlls a void that play scholars-and those who recognize the primacy of play as a fundamental expression of humanityhave been anticipating with a tremendous sense of urgency for many years. The Handbook of the Study of Play unites the diverse academic disciplines that theorize, research, or apply play-ranging from cognitive, developmental and positive psychology, anthropology, evolutionary biology, ethology, sociology, philosophy, cultural and intellectual history, neuroscience, education, performance, and folklore studies to psychotherapy. Many of these disciplines have traditionally only implicitly devoted themselves to play, such as sociology, which has researched play under the guise of leisure studies. Others, such as psychology, have focused only on children's play, although we as humans distinguish ourselves as neotenous and retain juvenile characteristics, such as our capacity for play, throughout adulthood-a biological trait we do not share even with chimpanzees.This handbook consists of thirtythree concise and extensively referenced chapters divided into four broad sections, Disciplines and In!uential Minds in volume 1, and Applications and Challenges in the second volume. As editor James E. Johnson points out in the introduction, the organizational structure is based on Ernest Boyer's in!uential four-fold model of scholarship: discovery, integration, application, and teaching. This handbook certainly accomplishes its aim with tremendous sophistication. Although written by researchers and practitioners from diverse backgrounds, there is a consistency in terms of vocabulary and theoretical framing even in the highly specialized contributions, which not only allows the segregated body of play research to emerge as an interdisciplinary corpus of research but also distills the interdisciplinary character of play with great clarity."Come sail with me through a life spent Thshing the waters of play theory," Brian Sutton-Smith opens with in chapter 15, titled "Play Theory: A Personal Journey and New Thoughts" (p. 239). It is an invitation that might just as well refer to the entire handbook, for the seamless and pleasurable sequential logic of its chapters, each stocked with academic curiosities and fascinating anecdotes, allow the reader to !y-Thsh in this vast pool of exciting knowledge. …
Dada, an art movement that became well known in the late 1910s and early 1920s, challengeded trad... more Dada, an art movement that became well known in the late 1910s and early 1920s, challengeded traditional notions of art and aesthetics. Dada artists, for example, tossed colored scraps of paper into the air to compose chance-based collages, performed sound poems devoid of semantic value, and modeled a headpiece fashioned of sardine cans. To most art historians, Dada remains a culturally contingent expression of World War I trauma, nihilism, political disillusionment, and an aggressive attack on the moral bankruptcy of Western culture. The author suggests that this negative interpretation originates from art history's methodological blindness to the importance of play, not only to creative and artistic endeavors, but to human identity itself. Dada is characterized by an effervescent love of improvisation, curiosity, novelty and an unselfconscious exploration of the phenomenal world; it emphatically professed to be "anti-art" and "a state-of-mind." When considered from the perspective of play research and positive psychology, Dada emerges as an early and visionary milestone in understanding play as a fundamental expression of humanity almost a century before academia would take adult play seriously.
In a review of the methodology of the Bauhaus (Germany's famous art school of the Weimar Republic... more In a review of the methodology of the Bauhaus (Germany's famous art school of the Weimar Republic era) in light of more recent scientific research on creativity and especially in light of the work of László Moholy-Nagy, the author examines the emphasis the school placed on play and positive emotions and concludes that it evinced a highly sophisticated understanding of creative cognition half a century ahead of science. He thus questions the modernist and rationalistic paradigms into which the Bauhaus has been enshrined and discusses its true relationship to the idea of play.
The Handbook of the Study of Play James E. Johnson, Scott G. Eberle, Thomas S. Henricks, and Davi... more The Handbook of the Study of Play James E. Johnson, Scott G. Eberle, Thomas S. Henricks, and David Kuschner, eds. New York: Rowman & LittleTheld; and Rochester, NY: The Strong, 2015. Notes, epilogue, index. 528 pp. $175.00 cloth. ISBN: 9781475807943This two-volume publication Thnally Thlls a void that play scholars-and those who recognize the primacy of play as a fundamental expression of humanityhave been anticipating with a tremendous sense of urgency for many years. The Handbook of the Study of Play unites the diverse academic disciplines that theorize, research, or apply play-ranging from cognitive, developmental and positive psychology, anthropology, evolutionary biology, ethology, sociology, philosophy, cultural and intellectual history, neuroscience, education, performance, and folklore studies to psychotherapy. Many of these disciplines have traditionally only implicitly devoted themselves to play, such as sociology, which has researched play under the guise of leisure studi...
In a review of the methodology of the Bauhaus (Germany’s famous art school of the Weimar Republic... more In a review of the methodology of the Bauhaus (Germany’s famous art school of the Weimar Republic era) in light of more recent scientific research on creativity and especially in light of the work of László Moholy-Nagy, the author examines the emphasis the school placed on play and positive emotions and concludes that it evinced a highly sophisticated understanding of creative cognition half a century ahead of science. He thus questions the modernist and rationalistic paradigms into which the Bauhaus has been enshrined and discusses its true relationship to the idea of play.
Dada, an art movement that became well known in the late 1910s and early 1920s, challengeded trad... more Dada, an art movement that became well known in the late 1910s and early 1920s, challengeded traditional notions of art and aesthetics. Dada artists, for example, tossed colored scraps of paper into the air to compose chance-based collages, performed sound poems devoid of semantic value, and modeled a headpiece fash- ioned of sardine cans. To most art historians, Dada remains a culturally contingent expression of World War I trauma, nihilism, political disillusionment, and an aggressive attack on the moral bankruptcy of Western culture. The author sug- gests that this negative interpretation originates from art history's methodological blindness to the importance of play, not only to creative and artistic endeavors, but to human identity itself. Dada is characterized by an effervescent love of improvisation, curiosity, novelty and an unselfconscious exploration of the phe- nomenal world; it emphatically professed to be "anti-art" and "a state-of-mind." When c...
In a review of the methodology of the Bauhaus (Germany's famous art school of the Weimar Repu... more In a review of the methodology of the Bauhaus (Germany's famous art school of the Weimar Republic era) in light of more recent scientific research on creativity and especially in light of the work of Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, the author examines the emphasis the school placed on play and positive emotions and concludes that it evinced a highly sophisticated understanding of creative cognition half a century ahead of science. He thus questions the modernist and rationalistic paradigms into which the Bauhaus has been enshrined and discusses its true relationship to the idea of play. Key words: Bauhaus; cognition; creativity and play; Laszlo Moholy-Nagy; philosophy; photographyThe Bauhaus, Weimar Germany's iconic modernist school, which operated from 1919 to 1933, pioneered the integration of industry, science, and design. In this article, I focus on Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, one of the more prominent Bauhaus artists and pedagogues, who played a key role in formulating the Bauhaus phi- los...
Dada, an art movement that became well known in the late 1910s and early 1920s, challengeded trad... more Dada, an art movement that became well known in the late 1910s and early 1920s, challengeded traditional notions of art and aesthetics. Dada artists, for example, tossed colored scraps of paper into the air to compose chance-based collages, performed sound poems devoid of semantic value, and modeled a headpiece fashioned of sardine cans. To most art historians, Dada remains a culturally contingent expression of World War I trauma, nihilism, political disillusionment, and an aggressive attack on the moral bankruptcy of Western culture. The author suggests that this negative interpretation originates from art history's methodological blindness to the importance of play, not only to creative and artistic endeavors, but to human identity itself. Dada is characterized by an effervescent love of improvisation, curiosity, novelty and an unselfconscious exploration of the phenomenal world; it emphatically professed to be "anti-art" and "a state-of-mind." When considered from the perspective of play research and positive psychology, Dada emerges as an early and visionary milestone in understanding play as a fundamental expression of humanity almost a century before academia would take adult play seriously.
is two-volume publication nally lls a void that play scholars-and those who recognize the primacy... more is two-volume publication nally lls a void that play scholars-and those who recognize the primacy of play as a fundamental expression of humanityhave been anticipating with a tremendous sense of urgency for many years.
Il Dadaismo, movimento artistico che si affermò alla fine del 1910 e nei primi anni Venti, sfidò ... more Il Dadaismo, movimento artistico che si affermò alla fine del 1910 e nei primi anni Venti, sfidò le tradizionali nozioni di arte ed estetica. I dadaisti, per esempio, gettavano ritagli di carta colorata in aria per comporre ipotetici collage, eseguivano poesie prive di valore semantico e creavano cappelli formati da scatole di sardine. Per la maggior parte degli storici dell‟arte, il Dadaismo rimane culturalmente una espressione legata in maniera contingente alla Prima guerra mondiale, al trauma, al nichilismo, alla disillusione politica e ad un attacco aggressivo alla bancarotta morale della cultura occidentale. L‟autore suggerisce che questa interpretazione negativa proviene dalla cecità metodologica della storia dell‟arte rispetto all‟importanza del gioco, importanza non solo in relazione agli sforzi creativi e artistici, ma anche in relazione all‟identità umana. Il Dadaismo è caratterizzato da un amore impetuoso nei confronti dell‟improvvisazione, della curiosità, delle novità e da una esplorazione inconsapevole del mondo fenomenico; enfaticamente professato come „anti-arte‟ e „stato mentale‟. Se considerato in riferimento all‟analisi sul gioco e alla psicologia positiva, il Dadaismo emerge come una pietra miliare anticipatrice e visionaria, in grado di capire il gioco come espressione fondamentale della umanità, quasi un secolo prima che il mondo accademico lo prendesse sul serio.
How can digital media technologies, contemporary theories of creativity, and tradition combine to... more How can digital media technologies, contemporary theories of creativity, and tradition combine to develop the aesthetics of computer-based art today and in the future? Through contextualised case-studies, this chapter investigates how games, information technologies, and traditional visual and storytelling arts combine to create rich, complex, and engaging moving-image based artworks with wide appeal. It examines how dramatist and interactive media artist Maureen Thomas and 3D media artist and conservator Marianne Selsjord deploy creative digital technologies to transpose, transform, and transcend pre-page arts and crafts for the digital era, making fresh work for new audiences. Researcher in digital aesthetics, creative cognition, and play behaviour Dr. Phillip Prager examines how such work is conducive to creative insight and worthwhile play, discussing its remediation of some of the aspirations and approaches of 20th-century avant-garde artists, revealing these as a potent source of conceptual riches for the digital media creators of today and tomorrow.
Margaret Boden is Research Professor of Cognitive Science at the University of Sussex, where she ... more Margaret Boden is Research Professor of Cognitive Science at the University of Sussex, where she was the founding dean of the university’s School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences. Trained originally at the University of Cambridge and at Harvard University in medicine and the history of philosophy, she has since pursued and published in related fields such as psychology, social psychology, linguistics, neuroscience, cybernetics, control engineering, computer science, and artificial intelligence. A frequent interviewee on television and radio in the United
Kingdom, she lectures widely in Europe, North and South America, and Asia. Boden is known best for two widely translated books, The Creative Mind: Myths and Mechanisms, where she draws on computational ideas to explore human intuition, and the two-volume history of cognitive science, Mind as Machine: A History
of Cognitive Science, in which she investigates in a computational frame the range and latitude of consciousness itself. In this interview, Boden reflects on her diverse interests with special reference to the relationship of combinatory play to creativity
and invention in science and technology, art and architecture, mathematics, philosophy, and literature.
In a review of the methodology of the Bauhaus (Germany’s famous art school of the Weimar Republic... more In a review of the methodology of the Bauhaus (Germany’s famous art school of the Weimar Republic era) in light of more recent scientific research on creativity and especially in light of the work of László Moholy-Nagy, the author examines the emphasis the school placed on play and positive emotions and concludes that it evinced a highly sophisticated understanding of creative cognition half a century ahead of science. He thus questions the modernist and rationalistic paradigms into which the Bauhaus has been enshrined and discusses its true relationship to the idea of play.
Dada, the exuberant art movement that burst into prominence in the 1910s and 1920s, revolutionize... more Dada, the exuberant art movement that burst into prominence in the 1910s and 1920s, revolutionized traditional notions of art and aesthetics. Artist Hans Arp, for example, tossed colored scraps of paper into the air to compose chance-based collages; Hugo Ball performed sound poems devoid of semantic value; and Baroness
Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven modeled a headpiece fashioned of sardine cans. To most art historians, Dada remains a culturally contingent expression of World War I trauma, nihilism, and political disillusionment and an aggressive attack on the moral bankruptcy of Western culture.
The author suggests that this negative interpretation originates from art history’s methodological blindness to the importance of play, not only to creative and artistic endeavors, but to human identity itself. Dada is characterized by an effervescent love of improvisation, curiosity, novelty and an unselfconscious exploration of the phenomenal world; it emphatically professed to be “anti-art” and “a state-of-mind.” When considered from the perspective of play research and positive psychology, Dada emerges as an early and visionary milestone in understanding play as a fundamental expression of humanity almost a century before academia would take adult play seriously.
Creativity Research Journal (Routledge), Nov 16, 2012
Dada is the infant terrible of art history, an anarchic movement that is typically referred to as... more Dada is the infant terrible of art history, an anarchic movement that is typically referred to as nihilistic, pathological, and firmly enshrined within the modernist paradigm and the context of WWI. Through the lens of classical, romantic, and psychoanalytic notions, it certainly appears almost antithetical to creativity. Yet from a cognitive point-of-view, Dada marks a watershed in the understanding of creativity, and articulates principles of creative cognition with surprising insight and precision many decades ahead of science.
Advances in media, entertainment and the arts (AMEA) book series, 2015
How can digital media technologies, contemporary theories of creativity, and tradition combine to... more How can digital media technologies, contemporary theories of creativity, and tradition combine to develop the aesthetics of computer-based art today and in the future? Through contextualised case-studies, this chapter investigates how games, information technologies, and traditional visual and storytelling arts combine to create rich, complex, and engaging moving-image based artworks with wide appeal. It examines how dramatist and interactive media artist Maureen Thomas and 3D media artist and conservator Marianne Selsjord deploy creative digital technologies to transpose, transform, and transcend pre-page arts and crafts for the digital era, making fresh work for new audiences. Researcher in digital aesthetics, creative cognition, and play behaviour Dr. Phillip Prager examines how such work is conducive to creative insight and worthwhile play, discussing its remediation of some of the aspirations and approaches of 20th-century avant-garde artists, revealing these as a potent source of conceptual riches for the digital media creators of today and tomorrow.
Dada is the infant terrible of art history, an anarchic movement that is typically referred to as... more Dada is the infant terrible of art history, an anarchic movement that is typically referred to as nihilistic, pathological, and firmly enshrined within the modernist paradigm and the context of WWI. Through the lens of classical, romantic, and psychoanalytic notions, it certainly appears almost antithetical to creativity. Yet from a cognitive point-of-view, Dada marks a watershed in the understanding of creativity, and articulates principles of creative cognition with surprising insight and precision many decades ahead of science.
and-conditions-of-access.pdf This article may be used for research, teaching and private study pu... more and-conditions-of-access.pdf This article may be used for research, teaching and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution , reselling , loan or sub-licensing, systematic supply or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae and drug doses should be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material.
The Handbook of the Study of Play James E. Johnson, Scott G. Eberle, Thomas S. Henricks, and Davi... more The Handbook of the Study of Play James E. Johnson, Scott G. Eberle, Thomas S. Henricks, and David Kuschner, eds. New York: Rowman & LittleTheld; and Rochester, NY: The Strong, 2015. Notes, epilogue, index. 528 pp. $175.00 cloth. ISBN: 9781475807943This two-volume publication Thnally Thlls a void that play scholars-and those who recognize the primacy of play as a fundamental expression of humanityhave been anticipating with a tremendous sense of urgency for many years. The Handbook of the Study of Play unites the diverse academic disciplines that theorize, research, or apply play-ranging from cognitive, developmental and positive psychology, anthropology, evolutionary biology, ethology, sociology, philosophy, cultural and intellectual history, neuroscience, education, performance, and folklore studies to psychotherapy. Many of these disciplines have traditionally only implicitly devoted themselves to play, such as sociology, which has researched play under the guise of leisure studies. Others, such as psychology, have focused only on children's play, although we as humans distinguish ourselves as neotenous and retain juvenile characteristics, such as our capacity for play, throughout adulthood-a biological trait we do not share even with chimpanzees.This handbook consists of thirtythree concise and extensively referenced chapters divided into four broad sections, Disciplines and In!uential Minds in volume 1, and Applications and Challenges in the second volume. As editor James E. Johnson points out in the introduction, the organizational structure is based on Ernest Boyer's in!uential four-fold model of scholarship: discovery, integration, application, and teaching. This handbook certainly accomplishes its aim with tremendous sophistication. Although written by researchers and practitioners from diverse backgrounds, there is a consistency in terms of vocabulary and theoretical framing even in the highly specialized contributions, which not only allows the segregated body of play research to emerge as an interdisciplinary corpus of research but also distills the interdisciplinary character of play with great clarity."Come sail with me through a life spent Thshing the waters of play theory," Brian Sutton-Smith opens with in chapter 15, titled "Play Theory: A Personal Journey and New Thoughts" (p. 239). It is an invitation that might just as well refer to the entire handbook, for the seamless and pleasurable sequential logic of its chapters, each stocked with academic curiosities and fascinating anecdotes, allow the reader to !y-Thsh in this vast pool of exciting knowledge. …
Dada, an art movement that became well known in the late 1910s and early 1920s, challengeded trad... more Dada, an art movement that became well known in the late 1910s and early 1920s, challengeded traditional notions of art and aesthetics. Dada artists, for example, tossed colored scraps of paper into the air to compose chance-based collages, performed sound poems devoid of semantic value, and modeled a headpiece fashioned of sardine cans. To most art historians, Dada remains a culturally contingent expression of World War I trauma, nihilism, political disillusionment, and an aggressive attack on the moral bankruptcy of Western culture. The author suggests that this negative interpretation originates from art history's methodological blindness to the importance of play, not only to creative and artistic endeavors, but to human identity itself. Dada is characterized by an effervescent love of improvisation, curiosity, novelty and an unselfconscious exploration of the phenomenal world; it emphatically professed to be "anti-art" and "a state-of-mind." When considered from the perspective of play research and positive psychology, Dada emerges as an early and visionary milestone in understanding play as a fundamental expression of humanity almost a century before academia would take adult play seriously.
In a review of the methodology of the Bauhaus (Germany's famous art school of the Weimar Republic... more In a review of the methodology of the Bauhaus (Germany's famous art school of the Weimar Republic era) in light of more recent scientific research on creativity and especially in light of the work of László Moholy-Nagy, the author examines the emphasis the school placed on play and positive emotions and concludes that it evinced a highly sophisticated understanding of creative cognition half a century ahead of science. He thus questions the modernist and rationalistic paradigms into which the Bauhaus has been enshrined and discusses its true relationship to the idea of play.
The Handbook of the Study of Play James E. Johnson, Scott G. Eberle, Thomas S. Henricks, and Davi... more The Handbook of the Study of Play James E. Johnson, Scott G. Eberle, Thomas S. Henricks, and David Kuschner, eds. New York: Rowman & LittleTheld; and Rochester, NY: The Strong, 2015. Notes, epilogue, index. 528 pp. $175.00 cloth. ISBN: 9781475807943This two-volume publication Thnally Thlls a void that play scholars-and those who recognize the primacy of play as a fundamental expression of humanityhave been anticipating with a tremendous sense of urgency for many years. The Handbook of the Study of Play unites the diverse academic disciplines that theorize, research, or apply play-ranging from cognitive, developmental and positive psychology, anthropology, evolutionary biology, ethology, sociology, philosophy, cultural and intellectual history, neuroscience, education, performance, and folklore studies to psychotherapy. Many of these disciplines have traditionally only implicitly devoted themselves to play, such as sociology, which has researched play under the guise of leisure studi...
In a review of the methodology of the Bauhaus (Germany’s famous art school of the Weimar Republic... more In a review of the methodology of the Bauhaus (Germany’s famous art school of the Weimar Republic era) in light of more recent scientific research on creativity and especially in light of the work of László Moholy-Nagy, the author examines the emphasis the school placed on play and positive emotions and concludes that it evinced a highly sophisticated understanding of creative cognition half a century ahead of science. He thus questions the modernist and rationalistic paradigms into which the Bauhaus has been enshrined and discusses its true relationship to the idea of play.
Dada, an art movement that became well known in the late 1910s and early 1920s, challengeded trad... more Dada, an art movement that became well known in the late 1910s and early 1920s, challengeded traditional notions of art and aesthetics. Dada artists, for example, tossed colored scraps of paper into the air to compose chance-based collages, performed sound poems devoid of semantic value, and modeled a headpiece fash- ioned of sardine cans. To most art historians, Dada remains a culturally contingent expression of World War I trauma, nihilism, political disillusionment, and an aggressive attack on the moral bankruptcy of Western culture. The author sug- gests that this negative interpretation originates from art history's methodological blindness to the importance of play, not only to creative and artistic endeavors, but to human identity itself. Dada is characterized by an effervescent love of improvisation, curiosity, novelty and an unselfconscious exploration of the phe- nomenal world; it emphatically professed to be "anti-art" and "a state-of-mind." When c...
In a review of the methodology of the Bauhaus (Germany's famous art school of the Weimar Repu... more In a review of the methodology of the Bauhaus (Germany's famous art school of the Weimar Republic era) in light of more recent scientific research on creativity and especially in light of the work of Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, the author examines the emphasis the school placed on play and positive emotions and concludes that it evinced a highly sophisticated understanding of creative cognition half a century ahead of science. He thus questions the modernist and rationalistic paradigms into which the Bauhaus has been enshrined and discusses its true relationship to the idea of play. Key words: Bauhaus; cognition; creativity and play; Laszlo Moholy-Nagy; philosophy; photographyThe Bauhaus, Weimar Germany's iconic modernist school, which operated from 1919 to 1933, pioneered the integration of industry, science, and design. In this article, I focus on Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, one of the more prominent Bauhaus artists and pedagogues, who played a key role in formulating the Bauhaus phi- los...
Dada, an art movement that became well known in the late 1910s and early 1920s, challengeded trad... more Dada, an art movement that became well known in the late 1910s and early 1920s, challengeded traditional notions of art and aesthetics. Dada artists, for example, tossed colored scraps of paper into the air to compose chance-based collages, performed sound poems devoid of semantic value, and modeled a headpiece fashioned of sardine cans. To most art historians, Dada remains a culturally contingent expression of World War I trauma, nihilism, political disillusionment, and an aggressive attack on the moral bankruptcy of Western culture. The author suggests that this negative interpretation originates from art history's methodological blindness to the importance of play, not only to creative and artistic endeavors, but to human identity itself. Dada is characterized by an effervescent love of improvisation, curiosity, novelty and an unselfconscious exploration of the phenomenal world; it emphatically professed to be "anti-art" and "a state-of-mind." When considered from the perspective of play research and positive psychology, Dada emerges as an early and visionary milestone in understanding play as a fundamental expression of humanity almost a century before academia would take adult play seriously.
is two-volume publication nally lls a void that play scholars-and those who recognize the primacy... more is two-volume publication nally lls a void that play scholars-and those who recognize the primacy of play as a fundamental expression of humanityhave been anticipating with a tremendous sense of urgency for many years.
Il Dadaismo, movimento artistico che si affermò alla fine del 1910 e nei primi anni Venti, sfidò ... more Il Dadaismo, movimento artistico che si affermò alla fine del 1910 e nei primi anni Venti, sfidò le tradizionali nozioni di arte ed estetica. I dadaisti, per esempio, gettavano ritagli di carta colorata in aria per comporre ipotetici collage, eseguivano poesie prive di valore semantico e creavano cappelli formati da scatole di sardine. Per la maggior parte degli storici dell‟arte, il Dadaismo rimane culturalmente una espressione legata in maniera contingente alla Prima guerra mondiale, al trauma, al nichilismo, alla disillusione politica e ad un attacco aggressivo alla bancarotta morale della cultura occidentale. L‟autore suggerisce che questa interpretazione negativa proviene dalla cecità metodologica della storia dell‟arte rispetto all‟importanza del gioco, importanza non solo in relazione agli sforzi creativi e artistici, ma anche in relazione all‟identità umana. Il Dadaismo è caratterizzato da un amore impetuoso nei confronti dell‟improvvisazione, della curiosità, delle novità e da una esplorazione inconsapevole del mondo fenomenico; enfaticamente professato come „anti-arte‟ e „stato mentale‟. Se considerato in riferimento all‟analisi sul gioco e alla psicologia positiva, il Dadaismo emerge come una pietra miliare anticipatrice e visionaria, in grado di capire il gioco come espressione fondamentale della umanità, quasi un secolo prima che il mondo accademico lo prendesse sul serio.
How can digital media technologies, contemporary theories of creativity, and tradition combine to... more How can digital media technologies, contemporary theories of creativity, and tradition combine to develop the aesthetics of computer-based art today and in the future? Through contextualised case-studies, this chapter investigates how games, information technologies, and traditional visual and storytelling arts combine to create rich, complex, and engaging moving-image based artworks with wide appeal. It examines how dramatist and interactive media artist Maureen Thomas and 3D media artist and conservator Marianne Selsjord deploy creative digital technologies to transpose, transform, and transcend pre-page arts and crafts for the digital era, making fresh work for new audiences. Researcher in digital aesthetics, creative cognition, and play behaviour Dr. Phillip Prager examines how such work is conducive to creative insight and worthwhile play, discussing its remediation of some of the aspirations and approaches of 20th-century avant-garde artists, revealing these as a potent source of conceptual riches for the digital media creators of today and tomorrow.
Margaret Boden is Research Professor of Cognitive Science at the University of Sussex, where she ... more Margaret Boden is Research Professor of Cognitive Science at the University of Sussex, where she was the founding dean of the university’s School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences. Trained originally at the University of Cambridge and at Harvard University in medicine and the history of philosophy, she has since pursued and published in related fields such as psychology, social psychology, linguistics, neuroscience, cybernetics, control engineering, computer science, and artificial intelligence. A frequent interviewee on television and radio in the United
Kingdom, she lectures widely in Europe, North and South America, and Asia. Boden is known best for two widely translated books, The Creative Mind: Myths and Mechanisms, where she draws on computational ideas to explore human intuition, and the two-volume history of cognitive science, Mind as Machine: A History
of Cognitive Science, in which she investigates in a computational frame the range and latitude of consciousness itself. In this interview, Boden reflects on her diverse interests with special reference to the relationship of combinatory play to creativity
and invention in science and technology, art and architecture, mathematics, philosophy, and literature.
In a review of the methodology of the Bauhaus (Germany’s famous art school of the Weimar Republic... more In a review of the methodology of the Bauhaus (Germany’s famous art school of the Weimar Republic era) in light of more recent scientific research on creativity and especially in light of the work of László Moholy-Nagy, the author examines the emphasis the school placed on play and positive emotions and concludes that it evinced a highly sophisticated understanding of creative cognition half a century ahead of science. He thus questions the modernist and rationalistic paradigms into which the Bauhaus has been enshrined and discusses its true relationship to the idea of play.
Dada, the exuberant art movement that burst into prominence in the 1910s and 1920s, revolutionize... more Dada, the exuberant art movement that burst into prominence in the 1910s and 1920s, revolutionized traditional notions of art and aesthetics. Artist Hans Arp, for example, tossed colored scraps of paper into the air to compose chance-based collages; Hugo Ball performed sound poems devoid of semantic value; and Baroness
Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven modeled a headpiece fashioned of sardine cans. To most art historians, Dada remains a culturally contingent expression of World War I trauma, nihilism, and political disillusionment and an aggressive attack on the moral bankruptcy of Western culture.
The author suggests that this negative interpretation originates from art history’s methodological blindness to the importance of play, not only to creative and artistic endeavors, but to human identity itself. Dada is characterized by an effervescent love of improvisation, curiosity, novelty and an unselfconscious exploration of the phenomenal world; it emphatically professed to be “anti-art” and “a state-of-mind.” When considered from the perspective of play research and positive psychology, Dada emerges as an early and visionary milestone in understanding play as a fundamental expression of humanity almost a century before academia would take adult play seriously.
Creativity Research Journal (Routledge), Nov 16, 2012
Dada is the infant terrible of art history, an anarchic movement that is typically referred to as... more Dada is the infant terrible of art history, an anarchic movement that is typically referred to as nihilistic, pathological, and firmly enshrined within the modernist paradigm and the context of WWI. Through the lens of classical, romantic, and psychoanalytic notions, it certainly appears almost antithetical to creativity. Yet from a cognitive point-of-view, Dada marks a watershed in the understanding of creativity, and articulates principles of creative cognition with surprising insight and precision many decades ahead of science.
In a review of the methodology of the Bauhaus (Germany’s famous art school of the Weimar Republic... more In a review of the methodology of the Bauhaus (Germany’s famous art school of the Weimar Republic era) in light of more recent scientific research on creativity and especially in light of the work of László Moholy-Nagy, the author examines the emphasis the school placed on play and positive emotions and concludes that it evinced a highly sophisticated understanding of creative cognition half a century ahead of science. He thus questions the modernist and rationalistic paradigms into which the Bauhaus has been enshrined and discusses its true relationship to the idea of play.
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Papers by Phillip Prager
arts combine to create rich, complex, and engaging moving-image based artworks with wide appeal. It examines how dramatist and interactive media artist Maureen Thomas and 3D media artist and conservator Marianne Selsjord deploy creative digital technologies to transpose, transform, and transcend pre-page arts and crafts for the digital era, making fresh work for new audiences. Researcher in digital aesthetics, creative cognition, and play behaviour Dr. Phillip Prager examines how such work is conducive to creative insight and worthwhile play, discussing its remediation of some of the aspirations and approaches of 20th-century avant-garde artists, revealing these as a potent source of conceptual riches for the digital media creators of today and tomorrow.
Kingdom, she lectures widely in Europe, North and South America, and Asia. Boden is known best for two widely translated books, The Creative Mind: Myths and Mechanisms, where she draws on computational ideas to explore human intuition, and the two-volume history of cognitive science, Mind as Machine: A History
of Cognitive Science, in which she investigates in a computational frame the range and latitude of consciousness itself. In this interview, Boden reflects on her diverse interests with special reference to the relationship of combinatory play to creativity
and invention in science and technology, art and architecture, mathematics, philosophy, and literature.
Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven modeled a headpiece fashioned of sardine cans. To most art historians, Dada remains a culturally contingent expression of World War I trauma, nihilism, and political disillusionment and an aggressive attack on the moral bankruptcy of Western culture.
The author suggests that this negative interpretation originates from art history’s methodological blindness to the importance of play, not only to creative and artistic endeavors, but to human identity itself. Dada is characterized by an effervescent love of improvisation, curiosity, novelty and an unselfconscious exploration of the phenomenal world; it emphatically professed to be “anti-art” and “a state-of-mind.” When considered from the perspective of play research and positive psychology, Dada emerges as an early and visionary milestone in understanding play as a fundamental expression of humanity almost a century before academia would take adult play seriously.
https://www.minervaberkeley.org/cf2012
arts combine to create rich, complex, and engaging moving-image based artworks with wide appeal. It examines how dramatist and interactive media artist Maureen Thomas and 3D media artist and conservator Marianne Selsjord deploy creative digital technologies to transpose, transform, and transcend pre-page arts and crafts for the digital era, making fresh work for new audiences. Researcher in digital aesthetics, creative cognition, and play behaviour Dr. Phillip Prager examines how such work is conducive to creative insight and worthwhile play, discussing its remediation of some of the aspirations and approaches of 20th-century avant-garde artists, revealing these as a potent source of conceptual riches for the digital media creators of today and tomorrow.
Kingdom, she lectures widely in Europe, North and South America, and Asia. Boden is known best for two widely translated books, The Creative Mind: Myths and Mechanisms, where she draws on computational ideas to explore human intuition, and the two-volume history of cognitive science, Mind as Machine: A History
of Cognitive Science, in which she investigates in a computational frame the range and latitude of consciousness itself. In this interview, Boden reflects on her diverse interests with special reference to the relationship of combinatory play to creativity
and invention in science and technology, art and architecture, mathematics, philosophy, and literature.
Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven modeled a headpiece fashioned of sardine cans. To most art historians, Dada remains a culturally contingent expression of World War I trauma, nihilism, and political disillusionment and an aggressive attack on the moral bankruptcy of Western culture.
The author suggests that this negative interpretation originates from art history’s methodological blindness to the importance of play, not only to creative and artistic endeavors, but to human identity itself. Dada is characterized by an effervescent love of improvisation, curiosity, novelty and an unselfconscious exploration of the phenomenal world; it emphatically professed to be “anti-art” and “a state-of-mind.” When considered from the perspective of play research and positive psychology, Dada emerges as an early and visionary milestone in understanding play as a fundamental expression of humanity almost a century before academia would take adult play seriously.