Event:

Gina Deininger:
I am an artist whose work has been exhibited and sold internationally. For the last 20 years I have been deeply interested in the creative process. I began recording my observations, conversations and reflections of the creative process both in myself and in others for the last 15 years. With this substantial amount of data, I started my PhD in 2010 to develop a more systematic investigation into the creative process.

My research is based on three main factors; an analysis of my 15-year self study as a practising artist, an analysis of contemporary creativity and mind theories and quantifiably testing key propositions that arise from these analyses.

In analysing my own insights as a practising artist, this concept of a deeper and wider source of creativity started to surface. From my subjective experience as an artist, I came to the insight that there may be three key potential areas of inquiry. These are; state of being, interaction with the environment and a dynamic temporal and spatial movement in the creative process. Bohm introduced similar concepts in a dynamic unified theory of creativity in 1996 but this theory had not been subject to any empirical testing at that time.

Through the studies that I have conducted for this PhD, both qualitatively and quantitatively, there appears to be support for the proposition that ‘state of being’, interaction with the environment and a dynamic temporal and spatial movement play an important role in the creative process. The initial studies looking at ‘state of being’ and interaction with the environment showed that these two factors, particularly in the area of play are important for creativity.

The theory of movement in the spatial and temporal planes with the important element of ‘state of being’ extends the initial theory put forward by Bohm and Peat.[1] What may be of particular interest to you is that this study is looking at movement within the context of ‘state of being’, which was suggested as being a core aspect of the dynamic, unified theory of creativity. Empirical evidence from Heart Rate Variability coherence studies in this research series has also begun to support the idea of a core dynamic aspect of creativity that may be visible in physiological signatures as well as evident in personal experience

[1] Bohm, D and Peat, D. (1987). Science, Order and Creativity. New York: Bantam Books. Bohm, D. (1980). Wholeness and the Implicate Order, London: Routledge